funkle

That's a very sharp photo of the shrub behind your guitar Seriously, it looks great. Is that an arched or a flat top? I can't quite tell from the photos. Also, I was wondering what kind of solid blocking it has inside. Full length, or just solid under the bridge like (I believe) the PRS hollow. -Sven

Another way is to upload the pics to the web server space that is included with most ISP accounts. I have 10MB that I use for hosting pictures and my site. You may have to ask your provider for the login info. You'll need FTP software to upload, but it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. -Sven

I figure some of you RG might be interrested in this. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=33043 Only $35. I figure someone might want to carve a monkey grip into it

I think the outfits that sell pre-sized body blanks are making a pretty hefty profit, even the discounted ones. I bought an alder blank for $45 and brought it over the the wood shop I'm using, and the owner of the wood shop said it was about $8 worth of wood. There are several places in town that sell tonewood by the boardfoot. You'll need nome more advanced tools, like a planer and a joiner to prepare the wood, but you can save a lot of money over time this way. -Sven

So you don't have to buy a case?

Wow, that's like the real deal. Complete with Japanese and everything.

If you use a countersunk floyd or fender style, it will be even lower - so you may need to lower the neck even more. I think angling the neck may be to your advantage, because if you look at the section, the area where the bridge sits is higher that the area around the neck (unlike a typical flat top) so you really need the neck angle to account for the arched top, even if your bridge sits a little lower than a typical tunomatic. -Sven

Hah! they're not so "secure" now that you posted them here A couple questions/thoughts: Are you going to carve the top and back like a 335 or make it flat? No reason not to use single coils if you like them. Single coils are often used with chambered guitars, like the Tele thinline. Here's a thought: to me, 335s are very bulky. Since you're doing the single coil thing, you could downsize the body and streamline it some, like a CS336 or an Ibanez AM series guitar. I'm a little biased (this is my site) In the drawing, it looks like there is no neck angle, and as a result, the fretboard sits very high above the body (The 335 copies I've had all have an angled back neck). In fact, it looks like you might have bridge height problems if you build it as shown - the string height measures 0.88" at the bridge, while the tunomatics on my guitars are 5/8 to 3/4. If you built the neck piece with an angle and dropped it down at the joint, it would look better, setup better, and you'd have better alignment and contour at the heel. I would look carefully at the geometry, and massage it so that it works to your advantage. -Sven

I just found this site, I-Beam custom cases that claims that they will make a case, based on your template in 10 working days, for $200 delivered. The site looks a little fly-by-night, but they have a nice portfolio. Anybody heard of them? -Sven

Yeah, that place is run by nazis!

For the new guitar, it may be cheeper to get it from asia, because the exchange rates may be to your advantage. -Sven

Stew Mac specializes in foreign delivery. Oz should not be a problem. I didn't even know "Musicians Enemy" sold parts. -Sven

Just as a color reference: Grand Cayman: http://www.speakeasy.org/~sven/blue/cayman.jpg http://www.speakeasy.org/~sven/blue/cayman2.jpg Cozumel: http://www.speakeasy.org/~sven/blue/czm.jpg Bonaire: http://www.speakeasy.org/~sven/blue/bonaire.jpg Bahamas: http://www.speakeasy.org/~sven/blue/bahama.jpg

This all reminds me of the book Blue Guitar. Collector Scott Chinery commissioned a 22 of the finest archtop builders builders. The only rules were it had to be an 18 inch acoustic archtop, and it had to be blue. Several hundred thousand dollars later, he had the ultimate collection of blue archtops. Maybe we should make a book or a calendar after they're all done? -Sven

Yeah! I have a lemon zester that looks just like it

Here's an (ultra rare) Ibanez AS400 neck through 335 style guitar. You can see how they handled the heel. Nice looking guitar. The photos are from a thread at Ibanez Collectors World. Just do a keyword search on AS400.

Rockler sells these I wonder how they would work for contouring a body? -Sven

every square inch of the body should be covered in toggle switches. -Sven

There are lots of reviews at http://www.harmony-central.com/ and sound samples at http://www.seymourduncan.com/ and http://www.chapinguitars.com/ A lot of people swear by them. I think their defining characteristic is that they're very sensitive to dynamics. They have a lot of "spank" and attack. They will amplify any slop in your playing. -Sven

I have stacked single coils in my Ibanez 540R (Like a JS) and it has stacked PUs in the neck and middle position. I think they sound great. It all depends on what you want. For a real vintage or boutique Strat or Tele sound, better to go with traditional PUs (Modern single coils will actually cancel hum in the "in-between" positions if they are reverse wound). But for a modern single coil tone, the stacks are very good. I can actually get a petty convincing strat/tele sound out of my guitar, even though the B/M position uses half of the humbucker. -Sven

Don't forget the most important step: once you tally up all your costs, take that number and double it

You forgot coil splitters for the humbucker, and series/parallel switches. You could always use tapped pickups too, that would provide more switching options. To top things off, you could add a tone choke, and a vari-tone rotary switch. -sven

The guitar Steve Morse played in the '80s comes to mind. How many PUs did that guitar have? At least 4 if not 5 including the synth PU. -Sven

I've always bought my PU screws from stewmac.com. The thread size seems to be pretty standardized. -Sven

And a whammy bar?