Prostheta

Definitely. New router bits, bandsawing as close as possible to the outline and Forstner bits as much as possible for sure! I'm a little concerned about planing tearout as I need to get a maple cap on there cleanly (with a black pinstripe between the back and the cap of course) and I will not accept the slightest imperfection on this one! I think i'll spend a good amount of time honing the irons and testing the plane setup on test wood...

Hmmm!! A perfect meld of father's company (headstock) and son's (body) design eh? :-D Hell yeah!!

Cool. Well we received the zebrano today - two blanks in fact - one for my beloved's LP and the other for either a bass or whatever. The blank was cut from one long piece as opposed to bookmatched, so it was split and brought in side to side, so the match starts from the back rear corner and deviates naturally outwards as it will. I think bookmatching a turbulent grain like zebrano is unnatural anyway so this works out nicely and economically. I'll be going for a three-cavity semi-hollow similar to Biliousfrog's singlecut. The only issue I can perceive is that I would very much like to pull off a grain-matched backplate....might have to come up with some crazy guided router template to cut through the back or something.... BACK FRONT (this will be covered by the maple cap anyway, so is academic)

That's it exactly. I suppose we can bang out all the physics we want, but sustain from an instrument is most probably going to make for a less characterful TONE which is what a seasoned player desires more. Acoustic instruments may be a different kettle of fish, but hey. As a system, an instrument is passive and all frequencies will be dampened as opposed to reinforced. Adding amps and a method of this amp inducing sound to the instrument introduces a loop to the system. Feedback, reinforcement, call it what you will. When it comes down to it, an instrument which sustains indefinitely or as best it can will by definition not dampen frequencies. That would mean the tone is flat. Characterless. Unless you have singing fingers, voiced picks or timbre-laden strings. Doubtful. I think what makes instruments sound INTERESTING is down to the selective dampening of wood (filtering and interference if you will) which is in effect going to reduce sustain. The whole topic has been done down to a tee by better people than us, and it was probably still a bucket of yap. So yeah, what Greg said! All due respect to the physics heads (which I dabble in when relevant) but I think it's the wrong avenue to pursue! Wrong question, whether there is an answer or not (in my opinion)! :-D

What's the progress, BF? I'm about to start work on a singlecut for my wife and I checked back on this thread as your chambering stuck in my mind as a very common sense compromise between large chambers and good solid construction.

Whilst we're off-topic Greg - it seems music might be turning back towards those single-finger two-minute sustained note solos again because everyone is talking about that damn sustain again! Music must be slowing down again. +1 on the tone. The thread waits anxiously at the red light....and they're off!!

Update through questions i've been PM'ed: - I don't have any pictures as i'm merely helping a third party out in starting to sell body blanks etc. although I have mentioned that photos are very important as luthiers mostly tend to want to see the way a figured or strong grained piece looks. - There will be more items for sale, primarily exotic body blanks and perhaps more exotic tops also

I have organised body blank and instrument top plate sale with a UK wood turning supplier, and have just bought an LP and RG sized pair of zebrano blanks for a song. There is a top plate left for sale, with more exotic body blanks up for sale in the very near future. Please PM me if you are interested. Zebrano Electric Guitar Bookmatched Top Plate 533mm x 381mm x 16mm/21" x 15" x 5/8" £33.60

Nice lacewood! Shame you don't ship to the UK. I have to point out (i'm pedantic, I know) that in your description you say that the piano and guitar are in there for ascetic reasons. I'm sure you mean aesthetic :-D Ascetic means they are there for spiritually cleansing reasons in that they help you refrain from worldly pleasures. No guitar helps you refrain from worldly pleasures! Pianos, maybe.

What Greg said, but i'd like to add two things: - decoupling (room within a room as per Greg) - mass Decoupling prevent structure-bourne noise being carried through joists, walls, etc. That's the floating floor idea. You can buy all kinds of rubber things to put under joists etc. which will prevent vibrations from the internal room structure being transferred to outer structures. Mass is simple. The thicker, denser and less resonant something is, the better it works at soundproofing. We're not talking egg cartons! They just help diffuse sound which is a different ball game (sound treatment as per Greg's post). If you have plasterboard walls, glue another layer on. Thickening plasterboard from 1/2" to 1" or even 2" helps a lot. This is why lead used to be used as soundproofing before the health issues. It's limp, heavy and dense. BTW - here's some trivia. Soundproofing converts sound energy into minute amounts of heat energy. Cool beans!

There's a lot of paid marketing hype surrounding high output pickups and not enough time and effort put into making nice-sounding ones, despite the premium price paid for "brand names" such as SD, DiMarzio etc. The Dimebucker doesn't have a very good voice and is inferior in terms of sound. To answer the original question - no, it's not worth the hype as it easily makes a great guitar sound crap. I agree on the Breed/Evolution pickup comments. Nice gear. Invaders are a little too tubby and loose sounding.

Sensible layout on the cavity and control layout also! Talking of the Ibanez S, i've been considering recessing black plastic tube into bodies and finishing it flush how Ibanez have on my S1670FM. It looks very swish. Are you setting the neck in, or going bolt on? I'm wondering how much wood will be left around the neck pocket in either case, as the pickup routs will eat up any extended tenons. I'm a bit spatially challenged this morning thanks to my cat waking me up all night, so looking at 2D photos isn't helping :-D Have you seen Bartbart's thinline LP-style instrument? http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...st&p=340967 I love that thing. Go get dusty and make instruments, RGman!

You can get right-angled toggles, which are for SGs am I right? I'm not too familiar with them however.

Are you feeding the switch from the neck pup cavity through the bridge cavity? That's going to be some scary drilling!

What type of jack are you using? I presume a barrel-type Switchcraft? It's gonna be tight but it's looking good!

Yeah, I believe Nitromors is what you're after. Anecdotal stories say "it was used to strip the paint off tanks". Whether it meant Challenger IIs or diesel ASTs is unknown :-D You can pick this gear up from B&Q and general hardware stores in the paint departments.

Auto grade is car paint....takes forever (if ever!) to dry from rattle cans....not as bad if shot from a gun....

Well, technically you can have strings level above a straight-as-a-die adjusted board. This changes when you fret notes however. Having a higher action at the higher end covers a lot of sins such as bad neck relief and bad (or no) fret levelling. It might be it was just set up that way as it's not "wrong"! Also, when you fret higher up on the board, the angle of the string from the fretted note is slighter over the next fret than it would be from the first position....buzz is more likely, plus "fretting out" when you bend notes. A better response than mine will follow, hopefully.

I'm very curious about that too....getting a deep glossy black is a hella difficult feat....

Sounds like a fair amount. I liken Tru-oil to how a clam makes a pearl, in that very thin layers upon layers of oil build up to create a fairly tough shell. The first coat being the base which permeates the medium on top of which all other layers sit. I sound like a freaking hippy. Someone shoot me.

How many coats of Tru-oil is that, Jon? The more the wood soaks up on the first coat, the better it seems. Especially mahogany, which has an unending appetite for the sticky stuff. Subsequent coats just level off the pores and build a better overall finish. I did the Thunderbird in Tru-oil, and despite me being about to refinish it in black, Tru-oil has been a good finish. As you say - not as protective as poly of course!

I'm very scared of your headstock collapsing!

They all look Canadian to me.

I presume you're talking about a set neck as opposed to bolt-on? I think that a narrower tenon, or the same width as the neck may be marginally more stable than a wider tenon. edit: It's a gut feeling on this one....I wouldn't consider it myself for structural neck/body join issues....I would only use a wider-than-the-neck join if it were a neck-through tenon, a la the Gibson Thunderbird....