ElRay

OK. I see how that's working now. Without making the machining more difficult (adding a woodruff key, long slot in the top, etc.), the only thing that comes to mind is to use a larger hole in lieu of the set-screw hole and insert a UHMWPE, Derlin, etc. rod, with the end cut to ride in that groove. But, I don't know how much torque/sheer force you'll see, so I don't know if that will work. Ray

If you can do without the trem, and you're just looking for a replacement bridge/tunners, there's: http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/2008...idge-bondy.html

Absolute beauty. I'm converging on the same idea (my last sketch looked a lot like your CAD drawing). I love the individual saddle/bridge/tuners, but I'm trying to head in the direction of "something" that will handle piezo-based saddles. I'm also looking at going with a multi-scaled, aka compound-scaled, aka splayed-fret, aka Fanned-Fret neck instead of a "twisted" neck. If you don't mind me asking: o What playing position are the bottom curves "tweaked" for: Classical Position or typical neck parallel to the ground? o With your individual saddle/bridge/tuners, how did you avoid twisting in the strings? Ray

Wow, I've found mine to be highly accurate. The lack of "standard" T-slots is only an issue if you want to buy all of your jigs. If you're into making your jigs, it's fairly easy to make the work with the sliding table and/or the slots on the rails and fences. If you do have a fair number of existing jigs that fit standard T-slots, it's easy to make an inset table (or two) with T-slots. You may want to check-out: BT3Central for some help/tips for working with this saw. Ray

I'm entering the (hopefully) final planning phase of an ergonomic 28-5/8" to 25-1/2" multi-scaled 7-string. Currently, the plan is to tune it Ab1 to Ab3 in Major 3rds. That's eight semi-tones below the low E of a standard tuned 6-string, but still two semi-tones above that magical F# that so many people talk about with long scale 7-strings. I'd like to get as close to "clear piano-like tones" as possible. I have more than enough "Santos Mahogany" to make the guitar. This stuff is much deeper red (almost like an old Gibson SG or a glass of Merlot), harder and denser than typical guitar mahogany. It seems harder and denser than all of the maple I have around the house. Anybody with experience how this would work as a tonewood? The downside of all the wood I have is that none of it is thick enough for your typical "start with a big block and hollow it out" style of building. What if I did something like this: or this: {not the stripes, just the quasi-barrel-like (coopered) construction} and then shaped the sides like this: ? I'm going for a body style that's somewhere between an Ovation Breadwinner: , the Forshage Hollow-bodies: and this Rick Canton mock-up: . It will be a headless, but the neck will be rotated a bit more towards the 12 O'Clock position, so the guitar sets correctly in the Classical position while sitting, w/o one leg on a footrest. The other design considerations that affect tone are: The guitar will almost certainly be neck-through, very likely would be hard maple/santos mahogany laminate, an ebony fingerboard and stainless steel frets. I'm also thinking about doing something similar to the "I-Beam" construction that Carvin does with their Holdsworth H2 Hollow-bodies (It's a neck-through, but the portion in the body is thinned so that the top and back of the guitar do not touch the neck. I'd do this only if needed to "help" the tone). I'm open to feedback on any of these ideas. If this construction method would work, keeping the bass tight, without sacrificing the mids or highs, then the final questions are: How deep should the overall body thickness be? How thick should the side walls be? Ditto for the top and bottom caps. I like the look of an F-hole, and what it does for tone, when it helps, but would that introduce other problems in this design? I should add, that if this idea is a no-go, or too risky of an experiment, then I'll just go with my original plan of a swamp ash body and in the (highly likely) case I get a piece with an ugly grain pattern, I'll cap it with the Santos Mahogany. Ray

Without knowing the specifics of the EMG internals, it sounds like a saturation issue. Between the values of 0 to 25k, you get a reasonably "linear" response. Once you pass 25k, the volume is pegged. So, on a 500k pot, you're looking at 1/20 of a rotation before you cross the 25k threshold. Add to that, the fact that perceived volume is logarithmic, hence volume pots are typically logarithmic, but the EMG circuit might need a linear pot. Switching from linear to log would make the threshold issue even worse. Depends. Without going too deep into the difference between current sources and voltage sources, this is true if you have a voltage source across the pot, and you're pulling your signal from the wiper. There are plenty of other ways to wire a pot. Ray

The only way I was able to get a quote was from a "US Distributor" -- really a manufacturer that uses their parts and would be willing to tack-on an item or two to their usual order. IIRC, it was BassLabs that was able to get a quote for me. Ray

Drop in over at: SevenString.Org. Stand a good chance of finding somebody in the know over there. Ray

Another neither. I use FretFind2D. It handles arbitrary arbitrary number of strings, scale lengths, multi-scale guitars, non-even-tempered scales, microtonal scales, etc. It can dump-out PDF files, SWF files, and a few other formats. Sorry, don't have the URL here, but you can Google it. Ray