The royal consort

Well it must be said that you cant go too wrong with a Fender (clarify, one of the valve/tube based ones, the transistor ones are ok but not brilliant) on the less well known (and less expencive) side of things anything from the roland JC range is also a damned fine clean amp. the JC120 is legend and rightly so but is huge and very heavy.... they do the JC77 that has the perfect clean sound and is a 1x12" thats much more portable. the built in distortion is the nastiest sound I have ever heard so if you want distortion get a pedel..... I've also got some very nice results out of a Vox AC30... in order to help us out a bit what sort of budjet do have for this and how much volume do you need to be putting out

Ive been using spray cans but everyone round here recommends RUSTINS PLASTIC COATING.... I'm using it for my next one

I had a play around on a fretless classical guitar in a shop once.... Quite fun... Chords are possible... and slidable... with changes. But I was very glad of the fret line inlays. Had to play a fretless bass without them at one point... Bloody nightmare... I don't know how violinists do it...

If I remember correctly Steinburg get round this problem with some kind of attachable / movable leg rest....

Sounds like an idea... So where do I have to look

Obvious question... Are you looking at this as a bit of a living or as a hobby, If the former then you'd need a good collection of 'stock' designs and offer the custom work as an additional service. if the latter then what the hell why not, just dont order too much stock. On the is there enough interest side of things, BareKnuckle pickups are doing quite nicely and he's baced in the middle of Devon. Next question... Are you much of a salesman? If your looking to make a go of this then (sad but true (I know, I work in this field)) 9 times out of 10 the better salesman will win over the better product... So if your not one you'd better either learn or team up with someone who is. But W T F... Get a brand name and website together and get out to some shows and hawk like hell... And advertise. Best of luck!!!! Roy PS If 'Tone Monkey' can get you a review printed in a decent magazine then thats worth alot more than an advert.

Whoops someone already mentioned it....

The song is called 'oh Well' by Fleetwood Mac

Basswood is a type of Lime its cheep and easy to get hold of. Ive played a european Lime guitar and it looks, sounds and dents just the same....

Not wishing to come across too heavy handed but... NOT STAINING WOOD THAT FIGURED SHOULD BE A CRIME!!!!! Even if you want to stain it in a natural tone (there are some good walnut effect stains out there).

My advice.... Keep the quilt for another build just use the Poplar!!! that stuff is to stunning to be covered!!!!!

the easiest method I found is to do it your self. Its not difficult.... Decide on the shape you want (ibanez, PRS, Fender Gibson... Whatever) Go to the company website, go to the page of the guitar with the shape you want Print it. Check the scale length of the guitar (24.5",25",25.5",27" again whatever) on the specs listed on the website. you will use this as a scale mesurement for the picture. Draw a mid line down the center of the neck on the printed. Measure the distances of the prominant points of the guitar from the mid line that you have drawn. and from the bottom of the guitar. I also measured some of the most important angles on the curves (but I can be a bit **** at times and that bit could probably be skipped). Now the scale length is the distance from the nut of the guitar (the plasic/bone bit by the head of the neck) to the bridge/trem. its simple math from here to get the ratio of size on the paper to full size (if your no good at maths just grab someone who is!!!) Plot the points on the wood to be used (or the template if your going to to a realy good job) and join em up. Just make sure you use a good ruler and a decent set square!!!! this will allow you to have any guitar your heart desires rather than being limited to whats on the internet as cad files!!!!! PS get your mate to have a good charge through this site or Melvin Hiscocks book to avoid any misshaps. BEST OF LUCK Roy

Actually, yeah, most stadium-filling acts ARE using off-the-shelf pickups. Very few artists exist in that realm that really care enough about their tone to make sure that the proper magnet wire was used in a scatterwound pickup with aged Alnico 3 magnets. Eric Johnson cares, but Steve Vai doesn't. Neither are stadium-filling acts anymore, either. Even if there are real working musicians out there (studio slaves) who care, most aren't going to be **** enough to spend money on custom winds. They're going to spend the money on rent!! 140 GBP == $280 180 GBP == $360 That's a HUGE difference--and if you can honestly hear the difference, whatever blows your skirt up is good with me. I'm just not falling for it. Certainly the exchange rate may make it look terrable but I'm sure there a pickup winders in the US that will wind you a really good set without having to charge sterling.... and as a result not brake your bank.... and yes I can hear the difference... Just as I can hear the difference between decent wood and ply. We're going to have to agree to differ on this one...

Hello vade... as a quick and (relatively) easy answer you could try Setch's 'insti-carve' machine... http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=16098 I'm running one up at the moment.... Looks like a great idea...

Honestly, there's enough "boutique" pickup winders here in the US that charge insane prices for their plastic and wire, we certainly don't need another one coming in with grandiose terms like scatterwinding and magnet-seasoning. It's all BS once you add the drums, anyhow. Bill Lawrence, Larry DiMarzio, and Seymour Duncan are my kind of guys. Yeah, they're not the cheapest, but the quality is more consistent than the boutiques and the sound can't be matched for another $200. OK I think good pickups are worth it. When you go and see (insert favourite stadium filling act) do you really think their pickups come straight off the production line? I really doubt it you know. (with the exchange rate being what it is at the moment perhaps now isn't a good time to be importing things from the UK I'll have to concede that point) as for the 'doesn't make a difference' arguement... Would you build a guitar out of plywood and hand it on using the same line? Any way here in the UK its £140 for SDs or DiMarzio and £180 for BKs so it aint much more.

"Why on Earth does all this Bareknuckle shill keep coming up once every few months?" Cause if your baced in the UK they are only ~£20 more expensive than generic factory wound ones... When the Dollar stabalises at a more sensible value believe me they'll start to look much more attractive.

Not a bad choice its basically a single coil replacement. If you realy want sonthing that'll cover all ground try somthing from bare knuckle pickups. http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/ Check the forum listen to the samples... somthing like the Nailbomb set covers both distorted and clean brilliantly (Bit high output for me but...)

1, piano wire will work for magnetic pickups. 2, a magnetic pickup for an instament with a large number of strings have you concidered Piazo

Another solution is of course to use 2 batteries.... But at this rate your going to have carved so many holes into it its going to sound like a semi..... Hang on if my memory serves my well Faith No Mores first guitarist..... Jim somthing.... (oh well so much for my memory ) had 2 batterys in his Flying V due to the need for seperate amps on his pickups. (one SD livewire and one EMG 60)

Realy nice maybe a slight tweek to the ratios or the carve or shape or somthing on the bottom 'impailer' spike and I think it'll be right up there with that truly awe inspiring cross guitar you did. PS a little off topic but as a man with a true talent for orginal design I was wondering if you could give a little advice on asthetics.... any good books on ratio and angles... I can never get my designs to look quite 'right' if you know what I mean.

Erm just checked the wood toxicity post This stuff seems to be the woodworking equivilent of cyanide!!!!! Advice?

Cheers Apparently Iroko is part of the same family as Sapele (dont know if I spelt that right ) so its probably similar.... If only someone round here'd actually used it... Just sorting out getting it dilivered then its on to the New Build forum I guess Cheers for the help and encouragement

Sorry not yet as I cant get it till next month.....

Hiya Well I've been hacking up bits of plywood for practice for a little while now (a cheep way of finding out which bits are more difficult than the seem....) I have now been offered a 1.5" thick body sized peice of Iroko that a friend has lieing around. (Great real hard wood and my wife wont whinge about me waisting money (she's been pretty good so far) but the impending pillar drill will probably change all that) I'm currently making a plywood thinline/PRS thing and was thinking maybe hollow it out and make a better one. Anyone know what its like to work with... what its sonic properties are... is it better for single coils or humbuckers... will it make a good thinline?... How it stains... or anything about probably the only hardwood in the world that never seems to make its way into an electric guitar... I have a couple of bookmatched maple tops around and would like to know if this wood is good enough to use one on. Any ideas???