Xanthus

Thanks a lot, Sambo and Greg. I've never examined the wirings of my other guitars very closely (probably should, haha), so I had no clue what effect bending the tabs back would have on the circuit. Yeah, I'll be using some copper shielding, going to cover the cavity, back of the cover, and most likely the pickup cavities too. Is there such a thing as extra precautions? heh. So unshielded wire it is, then. The cavity is very small, yeah, I wanted to leave as much wood as possible, because surprisingly the guitar is pretty light as is. I'll just remember to do a better route job next time, and make the template the way I want to do it Thanks again, men!

Yeah, wiring is still a way's away, but I decided to throw all my questions out now. Moving back in to Emmanuel tomorrow, so the threads will have time to run down the boards before I'm back online. Click for pic I've heard a whole lot of cool things about star grounding, and decided to MSPaint up a schematic right quick. My concerns lie mainly with the ground wires running from the volume and tone pot. Usually, the volume tab is soldered back onto the shell, and a wire is run to the tone. From there, the wire runs down to the ground on the jack. Were I to run a wire from the volume pot to the washer (without bending the tab back in on itself) and a wire from the tone pot to the washer, would I achieve the same effect? I realize that in my limited wiring experience, I could very well have misred the original diagrams entirely. The tone pot looks a little odd, being connected only by the capacitor. Just looking for a kind soul to tell me whether or not this diagram would work or not. Also, as an aside: Should I get regular bare wire, or shielded wire for this job?

Well, a big benefit of getting the passives was because i know a guy $60 a piece, which was 20 cheaper than normal, and 40 cheaper than the actives. I've played plenty a guitar with 81's, as well as guitars (Jacksons, mainly) with H4's. I like the EMG's in general, and I was on the verge of getting Duncans until my guy said that he'd cut me a deal. And as far as endorsers go, I've heard what Alexi Laiho can do with a single H4, and that's good enough for me Still, I'm with you in the fist-shaking. Stupid Metallica, stupid Priest...

Cool, thanks for the enlightenment, and hooray for ESP Explorers! That's the guitar I'm putting the pickups in, or my slightly modified version thereof. Pics here if you're interested. Good to know about the 60's, too. I kinda wish EMG made a passive version of the 60's now, haha. The active systems are a wee bit out of my price range

Ah, actually, you're right I suppose I totally overlooked that part, hahaha Then the matter is settled, I'll let you guys know what I came up with. Re: Araz - The only thing I know about the 60's is they're the choice for Hetfield. His newest model, the Truckster, has the 60 in the neck, but I was always under the impression that he played them in the bridge. I was born and bred on Metallica, so I have an inkling that I'll like them, I just haven't been to a place with a guitar that had one.

Too bad you don't live near me (MA), the place I got my wood from has a good selection of maple that comes pretty thin. What I'd do is take your cad and throw it into photoshop as a jpg. I'd take the picture of your leopardwood and lay it over the pickguard area, try and use a transparent color to stain it the way you want, and do the same thing for the ash. Basically, draw the guitar out in PShop as much as you can, and get the colors as close as you can get them, hardware and everything. It'll give you a fuller picture than a piece of wood at the lumberyard can. The flamed maple looks really nice, though

So I know that the final wiring an hookup is a while away, what with my guitar not even painted yet. But I stumbled upon something on the EMG website that made me scratch my head. I was going to place my H4-A in the bridge position with the H4 in the neck. However, I just realized (a wee bit dense am I?) that: H4 = Passive 81 H4-A = passive 85 And everyone loves the 85's in the neck, not all too often the bridge. I mean, I know it all boils down to a matter of personal taste, but I was just wondering what configuration people liked the most out of their 81-85 combo. So it's really more of a poll, really, haha. I've only played on guitars with dual 81's, so I can't evaluate the 85. So which combo do people like better?

Yeah, I was thinking quilt, because right now you have 4 different points of focus on the guitar body: the ash, the quilt, the hardware, and the metal plate. If you went the same route (dunno what your level of skill is with cutting), you could make a nice cover with a piece of quilt. Then you'd have the ash, the hardware, which will be all the same color, and the quilt. I think it'd look quite sharp. Of course, it's all up to you, heh.

*Applauds* You're one tough mother, Matt. But we knew that already.

Holy sweet mother of... *rambles on senselessly* I just got tattoo'd on the back of my skull. Damn. That has to hurt like nobody's business! I'd ask what posessed you, but I suppose when you're living life isolated by darkness, you gotta do something to occupy yourself Take your time with the pics, as interesting as I know they're going to be, you just put some serious strainium on your cranium.

Yeah, I'd sand the body the way you normally would, then thickness the pickguard down afterwards, so you can fit it in and see how much you need it taken down. That's the way I did my control cover, which is basically just a miniature pickguard, in function. Oh, and have you decided on what color the hardware is going to be? I think that if you stain the pick-wood-guard a nice deep amber, gold screws holding it on would look ultra pimp! I've also decided that you should rename the guitar to "The Texan 1 and 1/2 cutaway" I can't keep saying how much I like that body shape, as much as I'm biased against everything Fender, heh. I really don't think you need to change a thing on the body design, it's really grown on me. OH! How do you think a wooden knob/switch cover would look? Sorry if I keep throwing out random bursts of nothing at ya

I'm making a neck-through Explorer with no neck angle and a recessed TOM. If it's any help, check out my photo page for an idea of what it'd look like, and what you'd need to go through to get there. http://public.fotki.com/xanthus/build_1/ I personally like the way the TOM sits when it's recessed into the body. I'm all for low-pro in general, though, haha. The object with the greatest height off of my body surface will be the knobs, with a tremendous 3/4" http://www.carvin.com/features/guitars/ /\ The Carvin TOM featured on that page is recessed, as well. If you're going to recess the bridge, though, you're going to have to use ferrules and string it through the back of the body, because the tailpiece would be way too high. Another drawback, depending on what type of TOM you use, is that you can't adjust the bridge without taking the strings off, or at least giving them some serious slack. If you do decide to go with a recessed bridge, I'd suggest going with the Carvin neckthrough, if you have the money. They raise the fretboard 1/8" off the body to begin with, so you don't need to route as far, if you're going down that path (purely my speculation as to the reasons behind Carvin's manufacturing ideas, haha, but it helps)

You makin' fun o' my Explorer?

Just a few minutes in PShop. Hope it sparks something, I'm thinking it doesn't look too bad. Still, I tried to get an idea or two going about what to do with the body. I was trying to work in something to sharpen up the butt of the body. Well, did something with the headstock, at least. it's not supposed to curve in then out on the top, it's my skill at photoshop, haha. Supposed to be a nice smooth convex curve, but it ain't mine Enjoy!

Thanks, I'm glad someone likes it I'm really thinking of naming the finished product "Imperfect," because I don't think anything went according to plan. But then again, it's my first build, and methinks that I can straighten some of them out and have it look more acceptable (to me, that is). Well, where to begin... I never drew a 100% finished full-scale template of the body, I just kinda drew the pieces on the wood, combining my various printouts and sketches. I measured out and traced the body wings on the mahogany, but never took into account that the neck-through piece had a square butt... therefore my back curve was drastically off. The tuner holes were measured correctly, but holes 3 and 4 are a wee bit off-center. I don't think it'll show up that bad once I'm done, seeing as the headstock top is going to be black, as well as the tuners. The tuners are a tad too short for the headstock, so I need to bring the headstock thickness down 1/16". The sides of the headstock aren't 100% square, but that's an easy fix. The control cavity is a total mess. I wanted to keep it as small as possible, for maximum wood volume, so we drilled the holes for the jack and knobs, completely forgetting about the 3-way switch. Then, with the way the cavity turned out, I didn't want to have a sloppy cover plate, so I kept the plate square and routed a shelf. We did the TOM channel freehand, with only one guide edge, so it could be a little smaller, not to mention a little straighter. We'll see what some sandpaper can do. Both of the pickup cavities are a mess, the neck because the router got caught on an unseen nail, and the bridge because i did a sloppy chisel job. Tearout on both knob holes is fixed, as is the ferrule tearouts. Thank god the top ferrules are straight, because the back ones are a little less-than. The switch route is a bit off-center, not lined up with the screws all that great, but it works. I know nobody read that little rant As the guitar stands now (waiting on pictures so I can scan them), all of the bevels have been cut: two on the sharkfin, front and back, one on the top of the lower horn, and one on the bottom of the lower horn. I faded the bevel into the neck heel, which I brought down with a drum sander on a hand drill. I really need an orbital... All the patches are filled in with putty, and the whole guitar is sanded to 220. Inter-pickup and pickup-control cavity channels are done. Ferrule grounding channel is done. Strap holes are drilled. I'd like to sink the straploks in like Rob did on his "My Vee" thread, but whatever. What needs to be done: Thickness the headstock, and drill the stabilization holes for the Sperzels. Square off the sides of the headstock better. Make a truss rod cover. Think of how to do a design on the headstock. I'm thinking of just doing a design on the truss rod cover, as opposed to a logo on the headstock. I hear it's pretty difficult to do. Drill holes for pickup covers. Drill holes for control cavity cover. Purchase wires and electronic accessories. Paint (grain-filler, primer, black, HOK red, clear). *phew* So yeah, it's nowhere near done, but just gotta keep on keepin' on. One last thing. Take a look at this picture here: http://public.fotki.com/xanthus/build_1/100_5299.html Does the lower horn as a whole look a lot bigger than that of a regular ESP? Maybe it's a camera trick, or a measuring mistake, but the body looks too much on the "low" side. Nothing I can fix now, haha, just curious about what someone else's eye sees. ::EDIT:: Yeah, RGGR, funny story about that control cavity. Read /\ up there. And just for clarification, I didn't route that cavity. And yes, an ad-hoc template was used. I smoothed it out a few weeks ago, and it doesn't look horrendous. Not to mention it'll be covered first with paint, and then with shiny gold conductive tape

Both sound fantastic to me ::EDIT:: You could write him back, and tell him that you're Ed Roman and that the interchangable scale guitar is your patented design, and force him to remove it from his auctions.

Cool, thanks

Mmm, yeah, the diagrams are helpful. I looked at them a lot before I purchased, but I was just going on what Sperzel said on their website Silly me! So Doug, you said that a 1/2" thickness is stable enough? That's the only thing I'm worried about, seeing as my 5/8" Carvin guitar has developed a crack at the first tuner peg. I'd much rather thickness the headstock, than wrap my brain around a way to countersink the holes. Thanks for the suggestions.

+1. I'm liking that idea, and really loving that wood! Lookin' sharp, man.

Yeah, I really like your take on the tele too. And the flush wood pickguard idea. Really all in all, looks like it'll be a fun project. But you asked for some pocket change, and here's my $.02 I'd ditch the piezo idea, only because how much do you think you're going to use it? It's a decent amount of work and money to put into something you might not get full use out of. Also, do they make strat trems with piezo's? I'm not a trem guy, so what do i know If you're going to go with a quilt maple pickguard, might I suggest a quilt maple neck, for continuity's sake? If you stain them both the same shade, I think it'd look nice. Or, if you said you can get flame pretty cheap, why not a flame pickguard? I've always been partial to flame over quilt, myself. Almost done You said you'd have to mod your design a bit to incorporate 24 frets. Are you really going to use the 23rd and 24th all that often? I love 24 fret necks, not because I play that high (you'd laugh your ass off watching me try to solo, period), but because I like the look of having two complete octaves. And of course, the neck pickup sounds different the farther away from the nut it is. having a 22 or 24 fretter will change how your neck pup sounds. And this is just a personal preference, but I'd either soften up the headstock design a bit, or sharpen up the body design. I like your sharper tele look, as well as the 4x2 headstock. A Music Man-style headstock would look pretty sharp, I think. You could keep with your original theme and sharpen up the points a wee bit, too. Ok, done rambling. Hope I gave you some ideas to mull over, and good luck on the project!

Thanks a lot The painting SHOULD turn out well. I'm looking at the HOK candy red, because it'll give the red a bit more oomph, ya know? But I also want to try and get the red a pretty dark shade, like Kevin Bond's Flying V http://www.jacksonguitars.com/products/sea...rtno=2900500599 My options are use a white primer and layer on the red until it gets to an acceptable shade, or use a black primer and only spray a few coats of red. Either should work. In theory. Then again, my painting experience and knowledge are next to nil

http://public.fotki.com/xanthus/build_1/ /\ For all interested, the harrowing tale of my first foray into guitar building, dutifully recorded by my sister's $100 digital camera. More pics to come. I used REAL film for some shots. God knows why. Now I have to scan them. Sigh. Most everything can be explained by reading the descriptions below the pictures. Questions, comments, suggestions, criticism, dessert recipies, leave one here, and I'll get back to ya. Oh yeah, the all-knowing CHART O' STATS! Carvin 24-fret maple 6-er neckthrough, ebony, un-dotted fretboard ($240) Mahogany wings from Boulter Plywood (.com), just a few minutes drive from boston ($54, 15"x22") TOM Bridge from Carvin, black string-through, black ferrules Sperzel 6-in-line's, black Volume, Tone, 3-way blade switch, all black EMG HZ-H4/H4A (If they're good enough for Alexi [and they save me $80]) Straplocks, black Paint scheme: Black with HOK candy apple red bevels and neck back (Going to try to get the red as dark as possible, would it be better to use a black primer, as opposed to a white?) Enjoy

SEXY BASSES! SEXY BASSES!! *dies* Oh man, I haven't seen two more attractive basses in a long while. Good luck on both of 'em!

Sweet body, Matt! Knocks the teeth out of any Kelly I've seen! I agree with both of you, I think that a reverse hockey stick would look nice. What would you think about reversing the curve on the rear of the body to use as the headstock curve? With a little modification, it would become the hockey stick from hell that you talked about, or even a less dramatic curve, like the Ken Lawrence headstock. In either case, hooray hockey! and stuff.

Mmm, a refund may very well be in order, though I haven't been down to the cellar to check; just got back from Maine. I'll go down tomorrow and see if countersinking the nut and washer even 1/8" can't be done. On another note, anyone tried the Planet Waves locking tuners? How are they, aside from the obvious fact of having taller posts