DividedByJames

Thanks Brian, I'll look into both.

I've got this Might Mite bass neck that is drilled for BML tuners (11/16" hole). My old neck somehow was drilled for Gotoh style (9/16" hole). Anyone ever patch up a 11/16" hole and then redrill it for a 9/16"? Are there pros and cons to this? I've been on ebay for the past few weeks trying to find a cheap set of Schaller tuners but I've been unsuccessful. I know there are really crap cheap ones, but I refuse to get those. Anyone know where I can find a Fender or Schaller set of tuners for a Jazz or P-bass for under $40? I'm itching to get my bass back online, but the tuners are holding it up.

That flame tele is sweet! What do you charge for work like that?

Heres a few: Ibanez RG7620 RG 7620 7 String Guitar Schecter A7 - a very interesting shape Jackson, BC Rich and Ibanez are your best bets for a 7 string with a floyd tremolo--I'd search ebay for those guitars (they should have their own section ...go here. Look on the right side and search in the categories.

I'm not sure if this belongs in the auction section or here, but I thought this would save some of you some time making inlays... Birds (ala PRS), clouds, bats, and rose/vine

Yup...that's what I got. I got my Mesa half stack with rockstron fx for live, and my pod and my mixer and headphone amp for jamming with my buddies (the drummer has a whisper room) and for playing while sitting in front of the computer. I originally bought the Line 6 POD to do multitrack recording, plus it was the only one available at the time. If I had to do it over again, I think I'd get the V-amp pro because it's less than the cost of the POD and most of the other modeling pedals. Hmmm...makes me think about trying to sell it on ebay... I dunno about the other ones, but I hear the Boss pedal (the gold GT6) is pretty cool too and it has the whammy effect in it.

Are you gonna put a regular acoustic bridge on it, or a hardtail with piezo saddles? I looked into it a bit and I think the most cost effective saddles ones if you are doing standard strat/tele/tuneomatic hardware are the Graphtech Ghost pickups. You can even call up the shop and talk to Lee. He was super nice about answering my questions. Stew Mac sells them here. LR Baggs does something similar but I think they are more expensive and less diverse. Looks cool, although I must admit I was expecting the f-hole to be on the top side so that it wouldn't hinder controls, but that's only because it's the norm...I definately want to see the finshed product.

I heard Jimmy page had a crap load of wood removed from one of his Les Pauls so that the automated tuning system could work. More info here. Picture Here. I think it looked like those keyless entry buttons on a car, and it would do all of his kooky tunings with one push of the button. When pushed all these springs and pulleys and whatnot moved and pulled and tightened the strings to pitch. "Honestly" (ala Austin Powers) that's just being lazy and ruining a good guitar. Plus with all the money he makes and the free gear he gets from Gibson, he could have an arsenal of guitars ready for him off stage. Plus they run like $3000. Uh...no. I'll take the CC Deville route and have 30 guitars on stage. Anyway. I played one of those Hipshot b-bender things, and you basically have to dig it into your hip to make it work. It's not very comfy. Poke yourself with a pencil in your hip, and that's basically what it's like. No padding or rubber on the end, just plain steel. This one is better, although you can't really jump up and down that much. They came stock on the Fender B-Bender models. It's not cheap, but your guitar could look less cluttered. I'm surprised now you can buy the kits. I heard he originally didn't want anyone else installing them except himself. More weird products on his page -acoustic B-Bender!. I installed the D-tuners on my guitars I use the Sperzel D-thing now, but I've used the Hipshot D-tuner models for guitar and bass. Theyre fun to play in dropped D then in E back and forth. The trilogy is kind wierd too. It's not very tremolo like, but I supposed if you moved it around while playing an open string, it could be effective. And then there was this tremolo that was split down the middle and worked independant of the other three strings. But that was the early nineties when bad hair was dying out.

ah yes..the 85...I forgot about that one. I just have been running across Metallica bits here and there and I always seen them refer to the 81 being the "metal" EMG. I had an EMG89 in this custom Star shaped guitar and it was beefy. But I learned my lesson about active electronics and batteries after I left my cord plugged in overnight for a few days. That's all I meant...make sure you unplug after every use But I agree, once I learned that, I haven't had to replace the batteries at all (well until I sold it). My jazz bazz (that's getting the abalone inlays) has EMG pickups and I haven't changed batteries in like a year. Of course I only play it once in a while. As for hotrodding...I see EMG like newer cars and passive pickups like classic cars in the sense of what you can do under the hood. It's like if you aren't a qualified technician, you're better off taking what's stock. But some people like to have 'vette engines in their AMC Gremlin... ...uh...likewise some people like to do in/out phase, coil tapping, PRS wiring, etc. and that's a little more difficult to figure out with EMGs. If it wasn't for that I think I'd play them all the time.

Hey that site was pretty helpful. Thanks! I figured it was that simple, but I was too chicken to dive in without properly knowing. Now I just need to find a proper sized brad point bit. Hmm...stick ons...yeah I tried that once a long time ago with glow in the dark pieces on the side dots, and it just got that glue-funk all over the place. Plus I'm in sunny San Diego, and I could just see that adhesive heating up and sliding all over the place and making a snailtrail across my fingerboard. Thanks guys...you rock.

I forgot to add that I'm more of a visual learner, so pics or drawing would be great.

I read the tutorial section on inlays, but I'm still a little squeemish and ignorant about taking drill bits to my guitar necks--they just looks so peaceful in their unaltered state. Anyway I have two maple necks (p-bass and a birdseye Tele) made by Mighty Mite but they have those lame black dot inlays and I want them to have abalone dots. Sounds like a simple exchange of plastic and shell, but there's a tickling in my brain that says "James you are gonna f--- this nice neck up"! Can one of you more talented inlayers post a thread on how to do it with a limited budget and with only a dremmel tool (can it be done?)? Keep in mind I only have basic tools--no fret pullers here, only wire cutters and wrenches. Can I get around doing a dot inlay without removing frets? Maybe a list of "necessary tools" to perform the task (see also budget). Any precaution in working with abalone (ie. easy to crack,etc.)? Also I would be buying premade dots from either Stew Mac or on Ebay and I'd probably only do the face dots but I'd like to know how to do the sides as well. Thanks in advance!

My 2 cents... I had a hardtail Ibanez S-series that was made of mahagony and it had a Duncan JB in it. I really liked the sound, but I sold the guitar and decided to put the pickup in a Jackson JJ which was either basswood, alder or poplar. After I put it in the pickup sounded terrible and almost microphonic, so I took it out and vowed to never put it in another guitar that wasn't made of mahogany. Point being is that the type of wood that the body is made of contributes to the tone, in addition to scale length and being bolt on, set neck or neck thru, and how much sustainable wood there is (ie. hardtails vs tremolos & swimming pool pickup channels vs. direct mount pickups). My personal choice is Duncans and I'd recommend in the humbucking position the JB or the Invader, which is very good on a dropped tuned Les Paul. I use the Classic Stack single coils on my Strat because they are clean and noiseless and look like Strat pickups--although the Quarter Pounder I hear is good for matching up volume levels of the pickups. I also like Duncans because they have 5 wires and you can do lots of coil tapping, phase stuff, etc. with your own soldering gun. If you are after heavy metal/rock, the EMG's are pretty good for just that too. But if you are getting a set of EMG's (H-S-S) I'd make the humbucker an EMG89 which is an 81 that can coil tap to a single coil sound. This way it'll give you more switching possibilities. If I remember correctly EMGs run off batteries, so if you are the type to leave your cord plugged in overnight, you'd better invest in some 9-volts. Also I think EMGs have that plug and play system, so that you dont have to solder anything. Good for the average joe, but bad for guys who like to coil tap and hotrod their electronics.

I have a 4mic/2stereo mixer of theirs and based on the quality of it, I bought their midi foot/expression pedal and their 4channel headphone amp. I think Berhinger products (the ones not dealing with tone) are excellent and worth the cost. Now I haven't tried the V-amp, but I own a Line 6 POD. All I can say, is that no matter how much money they invest into amp modeling, it will not sound the same as a cranked amp. I've yet to find a settings for great jazz sounds or heavy distortion that doesn't sound like death metal or EVH. There is an in-between spot, and I found it on my Mesa. There's just something about a set of speakers pushing air, and your own ears. I replicated the same settings on the POD as my Mesa, and it just doesn't sound the same. But I do enjoy the "tweed" and "insane" settings for pretending like I'm playing blues or death metal. So I guess my point is this. Other people (and myself) like Berhinger's non-tone related products, which means their products are quality (except speakers apparently). Modeling amps are cool, but don't sound the same as the real thing. SO...why spend more on the same type of thing, especially if they are all modeling the same amps (ie. Mesa, Marshall, Fender, etc.).

I inadvertantly bought a really bad incomplete mahogany Tele off EBay recently. Basically the body looks as if it came straight off the band saw (with semi jagged edges), the pickup channels have no holes for the wires to run, and the edges aren't radiused. I have since commited it my ever expanding project items. ...and the guy said it was ready to be laquered... Anyway point being it that it looks nice, but needs a lot of work, so I was thinking of ideas to spruce it up. One of the ideas came from partially my recently sold Jackson Scott Ian JJ pinstripe model and the pink(?) pinstripe tele in the new fender catalog. My idea was to make pinstripes but inlay them into the body. I've always liked the look of curly maple and mahogany, and I thought that would be a slick combo. Has anyone ever inlayed one piece of wood with another? Do I have to worry about warping or shrinkage , eh...you know what I mean. Are there any downsides to doing it this way? Should I use thin laminate material or thicker wood? Or should I go with a veneer and laminate it to my existing body? What do you think?

I just want to say thank you to everyone who posts on this board. I've been reading the posts for quite some time and only recently decided to put my 2 cents on the forum board. This forum has been very helpful to me and as an aspiring luthier, it makes all the "difficult" jobs sound so much more in my reach. Also I've been to other boards and people just attack the crap out of each other and digress from the topic. This forum is so much better since it just provides useful info and knowledge from people actually doing the same thing. Plus we also get to see really cool customs. I'll be posting some requests soon. Hello everyone. -- James (in San Diego, CA, USA)