Xanthus

Nice fretboard picture! But what's the deal with that nut? The fretboard at the nut end seems to be slanting in the opposite way it should be.....

I want. To build. A multiscale. So bad.... It's looking pretty nifty, Wez, and a choice top as well. Judging by the schematics, the runners in the neck will make excellent natural 'pinstripes!'

Spot on, thanks for the clarification WiG!

It's the sides of the neck itself; I haven't cut the neck pocket yet. Actually, I don't even have the body wood :-P I was thinking of getting some 1/16" maple veneer and gluing it to the sides. It would be really great to have my V back home to reference/compare with, because that's the neck I'm trying to copy. I only have the Explorer, and while that has a good neck, it's not perfect for me...

Quick, infrequent update/question, per usual. The Saran Wrap idea worked like a charm, Dave! Thanks again! In other news, I was doing some mocking-up and measuring and what-have-you, and realized that the width of the neck is a hair smaller than I want it to be. It's EXACTLY on the button with the measurements that I want it to be at, but the edges were hit with the router bit, and I'm afraid that sanding it up the grits when I come to do finishing is going to take it below what I want it to be at. I KNEW I should have hit it with the robosander instead, because I would have both a sanded edge and another few mms to play with to get it to final dimension. Stupid stupid stupid! Any ideas, anyone? Much appreciated!

I agree. I've never liked the metal top plate on the Rhoads, and I totally agree that the ferrules should follow the curve of the guitar's crotch. It's looking good so far!

Pssh, what do you guys know? My girlfriend Dave is adorable.

I got it Chris I agree, this build is epic win, and looks like a complete treasure to play. I would lose myself in the controls themselves, so maybe not for me to play just yet! On a side note, Dave, my girlfriend bought me the book Hand Made Hand Played, this past Christmas. I flipped the book over to the back cover, saw a picture of the Sungazer, and exclaimed, "I know that guy! I've talked to him online!" Definitely felt like the biggest geek that Christmas, lemme tell ya.

I thiiiiink 33" ?? I think I'll let Al field this one.

On your mockup, it looks like the body has binding on it. Are you planning on doing this, or just sanding down the finish and leaving the rounded edges? I sure hope the figure on the wood is up to snuff for a stain and oil finish.

Dave, you are insane. On a related note, to see this with better wood, binding, and stained/oiled, would be fantastic! This is a cool build just in the novelty aspect of it, but really, I'd rather have a wood keytar. Them things feel like they're going to break every time I pick one up. I can't tell you how long my roommate spent tracking down an AX-7 on Ebay, only to buy it and have it sit in his closet. It's still there to this day.

I miss Drak

Oooooh, this is so cool! I'm kind of iffy about painting the back of the neck, but what you've done with it is pretty killer. My only other comment is that I see nowhere remotely structurally sound for you to put strap buttons on that horn. Maybe this can be your "sit down" guitar?

It looks pretty good, I like the contrast. Might even look better with a black accent strip between the two.

You said you're going to sand down the finish on the fretboard? It's a rosewood-type wood, there shouldn't be any finish on it... I'm confused If that is the case, you should definitely keep sure you're as careful as possible around the frets, unless you're planning on refretting a chipped fret or two!

Looks like the low E string is very close to the edge of the fretboard, while the high E is far away. Is this a picture issue, or a bridge issue?

Ah, that's a very cool trick, Dave! Thanks a lot. I'm definitely doing that this weekend. Seems a lot safer/nonintrusive than pouring rubber cement down the shaft

Quick update, got the truss rod installed with a few dabs of silicone. I put 5 dots behind the rod: one under each end, and 3 others spaced out evenly. Let it sit for an hour or two, come back and it rattles when I go a'rapping on the neck. Would this be because the fretboard isn't on? I hope I don't have to do some surgery on the guitar if I get it up and running. Maybe it's because it isn't exerting any pressure against the strings, and this will go away. Should I take any precautionary measures to fix this now, or will it go away on its own? I've read of people thinning down rubber cement and pouring it into the channel as repair work... Also shaped the headstock up to 80grit. I traced the outline and more or less freehanded the whole thing, so it's a bit different in shape than the other two, but that's cool with me. The headstock is 11/16" thick. Thinking of keeping it thick and recessing the tuners from the front. Here is a picture from Hector's PRS, to get a sense of what I'm talking about. More sustain with a thicker headstock (how much difference will it make? who knows!), and a sharper break angle over the strings (how much difference.....etcetc. ). Not too worried about headstock dip, as my plans put the top horn between the 11th and 12th frets, a good balance point. I'm going to use the open-back tuners from Sperzel, much lighter than their others. Moving back to campus tomorrow, so I don't know how much progress there will be for the next month or so. I'm planning on gluing up the fretboard tomorrow, just to get another step in progress before I move back. Hopefully I'll get a reply about the truss rod before then. ::EDIT:: I was wondering if anyone had any opinion on the "back of the guitar angled jack" placement like Perry's Vine guitar? Almost like an Ibanez S series jack setup on the back of the guitar. I'm just a bit concerned about drilling a jack recess of 5/8" and then a jack hole, on the guitar side that only has 3/4" of thickness to do so. It's a bit hairy, tight tolerances and all. I wanted to do a JEM jack before I decided to put bevels around the edges.

Any pawn shops around you? You could have someone peek around there, but I don't know if such a pricy item could be sold at a shop.

I'm selling a few items on ebay now, Russ, and I'll keep an eye out for them. ::EDIT:: Just had a thought. If only the guitars were stolen, the thief must have been either a person of discriminating taste, or who knew you built guitars and knows the value of such instruments. I take it you didn't really keep your business a secret? I'm just trying to think if there was maybe anyone you knew who expressed interest in the value of the pieces. Maybe someone who has seen your shop before. Not trying to induce paranoia, just trying to help.

I would say the best way to avoid that is to not cut the whole thickness of the body at a time. I like that semi-hollow, though, makes me wish I hadn't changed my plans and gone ahead and made one.

Whichever way one slants the pickup, I doubt anyone will be able to reach any higher frets than what's there.

The "butt" of the guitar, you could say, yeah. Just looks a bit too wide to me. I think Sir Mixalot wrote a song about this very thing... Off to bed, more intelligent comments in the morning.

Disagree with neck pickup being straight. My eye sees all of these swooshing, flowing non-parallel lines, and then bam - there's a STRAIGHT pickup Might be just me, though. I feel the 'hips' could be taken in a bit as well. Is the parallel fret at 12 going to make playing open chords overly difficult? Is the placement of the tuners going to interfere with string pull through the nut? I'd like to hear a bit more about you hand-winding your pickups, too...

I did option one on my V build, and needed to veneer the headstock to get rid of the unSEAMly glue line. I did #2 method on my RG build, and it's looking snazzy! The only thing you have to remember is you need to cut a lot more off your neck blank to get #2 to work, because you'll lose some length where the fretboard sits on.