william

I think their target consumer is the studio guitarist. The guy who one day needs to add a country style backing track with a tele sound and a strat style solo, then the next rock riffing with a les paul through marshall sound. Its much more convienent and cost effective to do this with one guitar rather than mutiple. I'm not sure what the price is, but I'm sure its prohibitive for the average 16 year old to purchase. William

Not really helpful to those that live in britan, but I checked Amazon for the ISBN. Then with that information I used yahoo's yellow pages (phone directory) to locate the nearest bookstores. Then called around till I found a store that had it. I got lucky, and the nearest store had a copy in stock, so I had them hold it for me. So in all, I spent maybe 15 minutes looking and getting the book. For me 200 miles wouldn't be that far of a trip. Make a weekend out of it. Travel to london and maybe go to a theater or a museum. I'll start your search by giving you the ISBN 0953106907. The publisher's address is NBS Basingstoke Hampshire RG21 5YX United Kingdom You might try writing or calling the publisher, they might do a cash on delivery type purchase directly from their warehouse. William

Yea, your right about the bending thing. I recall a video in my physics class where the presenter put a laser through a larger cable and you could see the light bending in the cable. It was really kind of cool to see the light reflect off the inside edges of the cable. Fiber cable is solid, but the light reflects off the inside edges. The purpose of the video was to show that if you bend the cable too much, the light doesn't reflect off the inside of the cable. It seems to me, that if you used fiber, you'd have to have an individual cable for each inlay. Then cap the inlay's with a semi-opaqe cover. Kind of like those tiny christmas trees with the pastic things that changes color over time. William

Led's can burn out if not properly hooked up to a resistor to limit current. If you hook the LED right to a battery and just let is sit, it will burn, and release alot of smoke, and can possibly start a fire. I haven't heard of Led's burning out when wired properly but I have seen on some of the LED flashlights a lifespan listed , so maybe? I burnt an LED recently just to see what would happen, and it was intresting to see the plastic bubble out but I stopped it when the smoke started pouring out. The biggist problem I see with LED's is that they are not usually very short and might poke out on thin fingerboards. William

Thats cool, thanks for the site. There is a treasure trove of information on stewmac. So the graphite is just glued into a groove in the neck simlar to the truss rod? So I press the three pieces of wood together, then route the truss rod channel, and two additional channels next to it for the graphite. I was considering tung oil. Also I have considered the finish on my schecter. Its not one of the glossy finishes, but more like a dull walnut finish of some kind. I actually like it. I like the texture of that finish more than on a glossy one. William.

Please excuse the ignorence of this question, but why would not having a neck pickup cause the bridge pickup to carry more of the high frequencies? The thought of having more space for a design on the finish is desirable, although I don't believe the wood finish I plan to use will allow a decal to be applied. I don't want to add a second pickup, because I don't ever use the one on my current guitars. If I don't have to add something I won't use it eases construction and will save my cash. I like that. I will look into using graphite for support, is there anyplace that sells it and has information on its application? I have a Jackson Kelly that I replaced the bridge pickup with a Dimbuckler and the differnce was remarkable. So I will most likely use one of them. I have also heard that it is based from the Bill Lawrence design, so I might go with one from there to stick with the hand built theme. I was looking at the EMG 707 as a solution, but it still doesn't help with the bridge solution. I didn't explain the 8-string concept very well I think. My thought is if you take the lower four strings of a 12 string guitar, and strung the other four strings normal, then lengthed the neck to 27" or I guess 26" (the comment about a shorter neck is valid) scale, thats what I'm looking for. The more I think about it, I like the idea of haveing the lower two strings doubled two octaves higher. When I bar a power chord while riffing this will add another dimension. So the layout would be like this using standard dropped D as a refrence. |D1/D3|A1/A3| D | G | B | E | And a Fifth chord would be like this, | 1/1 | 1/1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | X | So that D1/D3 would be one pair with D3 two octaves higher. A1/A3 the second pair, with A3 two octaves higher. Then the rest would be tuned as normal. I'm not looking for anything like a seven string guitar, I rarely use the High E on my current guitars for anything but normal bar chords, so two additional strings would just be in the way and not be used. The first guitar is going to be exploratory and done for experience. The SG body design is a good one for a light guitar, a good sound, and it just looks cool. And as I get older, I find myself enjoying glossy finishes less, and enjoying the look of natrual wood. William

I'm looking at building two diffrent guitars. The first is a more traditional SG guitar with a strat style neck. I play dropped B tunings. I will be building the first one in a short while after a little more research. Mostly finding the tools such as a router and chisles and someplace to plane the wood. The second guitar is mostly in the planning stages. I sometimes play extended power chords in dropped B tunning where the notes of an open powerchord would be B,F#,B,F#,B low to high and the highest string, C# not played. I would like to add a little more dimension to the sound with an 8 string guitar with the lowest two strings doubled two octaves up. This would be an unusual arrangment so I'm not sure where to get the bridge hardware from. Any thoughts or comments on the two designs would be greatly appreaciated. 1st Guitar This guitar is going to be an SG-like, 25.5" Scale, 6 string guitar. Color: Dark natural wood type finish Body material: 2 pc. Ash (mahogany) Pickguard: no Pickup color: black Knobs: Volume Inlays: Dots on 7, 12, 17 frets Body binding: no Neck binding: no fretboard: Black Ebony (Not available locally) Fret Wire: Jim Dunlop 6100 (jumbo frets) No. of frets: 24, last four frets will be scalloped Neck wood: 3pc laminated: bubinga (wenge) sandwiched between 2 pc. of Am maple Neck scale: 25.5" scale Neck type: Similar to my Schecter's Neck joint: Neck through Body Hardware: Black Pickup config: H in bridge Pickups, Neck: none Pickups, middle: none Pickups, bridge: H Symore Duncan Dimbuckler ( G. Lynch Screaming Deamon) Pickup Switching: none (toggle Cut switch) Bridge/tremolo: Tunomatic (??) String through body Jack: Mono jack switchcraft brand Tuners: GOTOH, black Strap buttons and locks: Schaller strap locks Neck will be angled slightly back, headstock will be straight. Only one Knob, the volume knob and one switch, an On/Off toggle mute switch. The neck dimensions will be based of my schecter Omen 6 guitar. Upper neck frets will be scalloped to ease upper notes. Bubinga may be replaced with Wenge depending on price. No inlays on front of fret board, dot inlays on top edge. Ebony hasn't been found locally yet, so that may be either mail ordered, or subbed with rosewood. Electronics will be routed through rear. Tunomatic Bridge with string through body ends. Finish will be a Dark wood finish. --- This guitar is going to be an SG-like, XL - Scaled, 8-string guitar. Color: Dark natural wood type finish Body material: 2 pc. Mahogany Pickguard: no Pickup color: black Knobs: Volume, tone, cut switch Inlays: Dots on 7, 12, 17 frets Body binding: no Neck binding: no fretboard: Rosewood Fret Wire: Jim Dunlop 6100 (jumbo frets) No. of frets: 24 Neck wood: 3pc laminated: bubinga (wenge) sandwiched between 2 pc. of Am maple Neck scale: 27" scale Neck type: Not finalized Neck joint: Neck through Body Hardware: Black Pickup config: H in bridge Pickups, Neck: none Pickups, middle: none Pickups, bridge: H ??? Pickup Switching: none (toggle Cut switch) Bridge/tremolo: Tunomatic (??) String through body Jack: Mono jack switchcraft brand Tuners: GOTOH, black Strap buttons and locks: Schaller strap locks This guitar will be an 8-string guitar with the two lowest strings doubled two octaves up. Tuning will probley be B-F#-B-E-G#-C#, but may be lowered to Dropped A to ease tension on neck. Same neck as before, but with a 27" scale length. Neck will be straight neck through body design; headstock will be angled back. Unsure what pick-up will be used. As before bubinga may be replaced with Wenge. Hardware will be a big problem as far as a bridge is concerned. Strings will be a string through body design. Electronics will be simple as before with addition of tone knob. Lots of more research needs to be done to finalize design.