Prostheta

I believe that it means the speakers are driven by independent amps - the low end load dealt with by a meaty amp which is more suited to that power, and a seperate amp for the mid to high frequencies. It's like moving the crossover section in a speaker cabinet before the amp and having two amps power the two seperate bandwidth channels. In theory. I may be wrong, but bi-amping could equally mean a number of other things such as an A/B switch to route your signal between two totally different amps and speakers.

To quote a favourite comedian of mine: "Here's your sign".

Your headplate was despatched today Al....can't wait to see how it looks....if it doesn't suit then I have some Koa which might work....

It looks very borderline as to whether you'll need a string tree or not. You may be able to get away with it if you use a slightly longer-than-normal nut, but you risk the strings binding in the slots so this isn't satisfactory. If the fingerboard hadn't been attached, you could have either added a zero fret (brings the guiding nut position back a bit, changing the string break angles) or reveneered the headstock (if you had more spalt) after dowelling and redrilling the tuner positions. Personally (and this is in no way a recommendation) I like the straight string pull of your 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th strings, and some kind of tree to break the angles of the 3rd and 4th out halfway down the headstock would look cool. In my head anyway. It would probably be impractical really. Realistically, the 1st and 6th should have been 1/4-1/3" closer to the nut, and the 2nd and 5th slightly closer also, or something along those lines. I really hope that you get this hurdle overcome because this looks like a very very nice build otherwise!

I bought mine from the Bass Centre in the UK, again for a very reasonable price. They're much better quality bridges than virtually anything else available for at same price. I think your wenge may be tacky because of it's natural oils/resins, yes. Also, it has monster pores which have probably taken a lot of your oil up and made it slower to harden off? I still can't get over how awesome that maple is on your top. How come it's so pale without so many of the usual darker grain lines? Anything to do with how the maple has been seasoned?

I have a template which has a straight run for a 30mm router bushing. Pop whatever bit in there you want and the bushing lines up with the cut. Three nips and you're done.

Add another $9500 on top of that and you get free mojo, apparently. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ESP...itar?sku=512961 *cough* For that price you could buy all the tools including spray equipment and dust extraction. It's not as though it's a Ouija, or requires tooling they haven't already got set up.

Wow. That's got to be "first post of the year"! Are you going to take us through any of your other creations? Great work sir.

Hah! Totally. Thunderbirds have a much worse rep for headstock-meets-ground adventures! Hey - did I just hear you accuse Gibson of thinking something through there? Heretic!

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/...esses-mortisers This is my pillar drill. I could actually do with something a little more powerful for hogging wood with Forstner bits, but it's great for the money. Pop some copper tube into the chuck and slowly drill into whatever you want to make into a dot. Pearl and abalone is difficult as it shatters when it gets hot, so cooling it down with a water spritzer helps. Acrylic works very nicely. I learnt this to great effect from David Myka, so I take no credit in this. <edit: if anyone wants to buy me THIS then I would be most grateful. thx>

Hehe! Tempting fate there mate. To be honest, i've never had a neck dive on me because i'm too busy playing, plus if you're sat down you have a left leg as insurance! :-D

I suppose a light tuner set might offset the balance somewhat. What are you intending on using?

What Mesca said basically. I would recommend reading Melvyn Hiscock's book for sure (it was my springboard) but moreover - use the resources you have here on other people's build threads. Check out small pro luthiers sites as a lot of them have in-process pictures which demonstrate the design and build process brilliantly. We do wish you the best, and all we want to do is get you set on the right path so you make better design/build decisions. Once you're heading in the right direction, everything snowballs!

Tie the back straplock to your foot with a bit of string? :-D I get this problem with Explorers all the time.

It's got to be said, but I agree. Perhaps you should take the waste, put some copper pipe in a pillar drill and make bloodwood inlay dots ;-)

Thanks John - it's not that big a woodyard, but the prices are good so i'm more than happy to say no to rubbish, but middling to good stuff should be in there someplace.

Excellent. Those are what are known in the trade as "moments". If you've got a few more of those laying around John, I could do with some of those too! My wife and I are off to the woodyard to buy a load of alder and sapele tomorrow, so a few "moments" finding straight-grained quartered sapele would go down a storm!

Don't get put off by us all reworking the ideas you have in your head D.O.B - just assimilate this information into your plan and go about it the right way, but don't expect you'll get it right the first time. Nobody does unless they have years of built up woodworking or engineering knowledge. CNC is just another tool amongst many, not a solution as you'd think it would be.

Was this is coy giggle, and internal knowing smile or an all-out evil laugh? Laughing evilly around planers is dangerous John.

Here's what I have Al. Apologies for the artificial lighting messing up the image. There are two of each cap <edit: bookmatched> but only one in zebrano. The lineup is: Ziricote - 10cm x 19cm Macassar - 9.9cm x 20.3cm Zebrano - 10cm x 19cm Koa - 9.8cm x 17.5cm Bloodwood - 9.8cm x 19cm

A headstock cap would be a great getout if you feel it runs too far down the headstock as Xanthus suggests. What are the dimensions of the headstock? I have some 1/8" ziricote, bloodwood, koa and zebrano headcaps if you run into problems.

Ummmm, you would be so much better making a couple of s*itter instruments out of cheaper wood or scrap so you get the mechanics correct before jumping in the deep end. You'll not get the results you're thinking of in your head, plus you'll not learn a damn thing doing it this way around. By the way, the whole learning to make an instrument process is EXPENSIVE. Much moreso than buying an expensive instrument in the first place. If you really want to make an instrument with "the options" then learn to make a functional instrument without "the options" and learn from there. Not trying to dissuade you, but you're going about the objective the wrong way around. Like a boxer learning - you don't pick your first fist as a n00b with a commando or a champ. (Crocop!!!)

Looks like it's going to be a one-piece angled headstock - the tilt (if there's enough drop in there) should end the recess halfway through the headstock? I gotta say, it looks a bit touch and go with that depth Al. Hope you've got that one under control.

Things that are more either powerful than me, are sharper than me or have more teeth than me deserve respect and at least three times as much thought put into planning the work, and thought during the work. I made an accidental sandthrough on some nice but thin pink fingerwood through misusing a belt sander when I was a kid. I have two nice circles on my fingerprints of my right hand now to remind me of that (cough). A little thought prior to pressing that wood down (which shot under the fence) with my fingers wouldn't have gone amiss.

My factual humour never fails to amuse either, obviously :-D Lighter fluid seems to do the trick but it doesn't go very far because of it's volatility.