GuitarMaestro

Thanks for your help....Chandler seems to have what I need....

Yes....buy from Vwall....I bought from him too and his prices and service were excellent.... Additionally you could walk in a local musicstore that carries Ibanez guitars and they will be able to order one for you. That's what I did with a Lo Pro 7 in cosmo black and my local store got it even cheaper then all online sellers....

Hmm....I would not build a baritone neck. Children of Bodom play many of their songs in that tuning and they play common 25, 5" scale guitars and have an outstanding guitar sound live and epsecially on their latest CD. I myself use that tuning with 25, 5" guitars too and it works perfectly with a little thicker strings. A baritone scale surely has it's advantages in better bass response, but I preffer the standard scale, because it does not slow you down in the lowest frets and still sounds excellent with the right strings and amp settings....

How right!!!! Forget about these amps. For a similar price you will get a used 5150 head + cab ir another used half stack which can make you happy for your whole live instead of buying one of these 3 amps which I bet you will hate in about 1 year if you are a somewhat serious player.

I can offer some advice here. I have a very nice set of quilted Bubinga veneer here. It does look quite similar than the Makore on ebay. It's a very similar tree as well I guess. Concerning the stain technique. The stain black sand back is no problem. But adding another color is not easy. The problem is that the wood itself is a dark brown and not half as white as maple. That lets most colors look quite dirty and ugly. I tried blue at the time and it looked like a brown mess with a shade of blue. I guess if you want to use this wood you'll have to use a color that's close to it's natural color like red or brown. The wood has simply too predominant color in order to drastically change it's color....

A monkey grip would completely ruin the design....what a tasteless idea....

Anger or Joy are no bad comanions for writing playing for me. What really makes a good playing session impossible is if I am tired and have no energy left. Then I begin to hate the sound, the ideas, everything....

If your curly maple is no hard maple don't use it at all if you like bright sounding guitars. For my 7-string I used curly soft maple for the neck with two 8mm Bubinga stripes and I still think it is what makes the guitar darker & softer sounding than I would like best....

No matter which box has which sound etc. In my opinion you HAVE to buy a slant cab if you only want to build a half stack. Otherwise you'll have a very hard time hearing yourself in rehearsals or live. Only solution is to put the straight cab on a chair or table....

It was Sandi1070 on ebay.com Thanks! I will definatley post my progress....

Wow....that is definately a VERY cool shape! Congrats!!!!

This guitar is VERY beautiful!!!! Only two things I dislike: 1. You did not build it from scratch 2. I hate angled humbuckers in a Strat But it is still one of the prettiest Strats I ever saw. That graphic rox! Who did it?

The 5150 with a Peavey 412MS cab. Since I bought it my search for tone is over. I am just 100% happy. I have the famous Marshall 6101LM Anniversary 3 channel amp here and in our rehearsal room I play over a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head with a VHT box as well as over the Marshall JMP1 tube preamp some times. As you see the 5150 has real famous and high-priced competition here, but I still like it's sound way better. In fact I did not even switch on the Marshalls in nearly a year.

@javacody: Okay....I reread your posts and the were written quite different than I had them in mind. You always added that you know it may be wrong, etc. So....my fault! Peace!

Sorry if my post sounded agressive. I am thankful for every help and your post made me think about the weight issue again. But as you see it's not as terrible. Concerning the price: You're right here. In comparison to standard neck material it IS expensive. But why build guitars I could buy in the next music store anyway?

Will do....good suggestion!

Looks good so far. One question: What did you do to the body? What caused that strange outline consisting of half circles? And why did you saw that way?

You're definately right here. I NEVER saw an Ibanez guitar that has no maple neck. Often they even have a Bubinga Center piece to firther increase stability. There may be some obscure Ibanez Hollow-Body with a neck made from something else, but a Wizard neck has to be made from maple or stronger material. Everything else is quite a risk in my opinion and I would not try it. Ordering a piece of maple from the USA or Canada can't be that expensive?

Hmm....I cannot agree with both of you here. Rock Maple has a specific weight of 755 kg/cu.m Ebony has a specific weight of 960 - 1120 kg/cu.m A common Strat neck made from maple has a weight of approx 1, 5 KG. That means that the same neck would be 2, 25KG if made from Ebony in the WORST case and without taking the hardware and fingerboard into account. Additonally the guitar will have a bolt on neck which means not much neck wood. Who cares if a guitar weights 0, 75 KG more or less? I bet my Spalted Strat with this neck is still way lighter than a standard Les Paul. Concerning the cost: Macassar Ebony is way cheaper than most highly figured woods. I will get the neck blank for 80$. I payed 140$ for the 5A flame maple neck blank I used for my 7-String. Now it's your turn....

Interesting....and I was right And yes I will finish the oil with Birchwood Casey Gunstock Oil/Wax....

There IS a reason that Marshall is played by many Pro's and is still the amp company with the best reputation. There is no denying that and I still have a Marshall here in case I need that Marshall sound. It's just that their quality is not on par with their prices/reputation anymore and that I prefer the warm American tone of Peavey & Mesa.

Which should not lead you to wrong conclusions or fanatism. My main guitar is a Fender Strat. Do I have to assume and spread negative things about Ibanez or DiMarzio because of that???? The guitar has a quilted maple top. It definately is soft maple. I am not sure about quilt, but I know that hard maple is much less likely to develop flame figure than soft maple. A big wood supplier who provides Peavey and many other companies with their neck wood told me so. I guess the same holds true for quilt too. Anyway.....the quilted soft maple top I used for the guitar in question was still way harder than the Korina. I guess it must be the neck.

No worries here....I am in Germany and I order most of my guitar stuff from USA & Canada and NEVER got a damaged package so far. As long as the seller puts the neck in a proper package you won't have any trouble additionally you will only pay about 30-40$ shipping for a neck.....

The difference is neglegible in your buying process. True you definately hear the difference and it can make a difference if you change a bad set of tubes to a nice matched quad like Gorecki said. And it is true as well that EL34 break up earilier. BUT in the process of deciding on an amp you can forget about it. I would say the basic sound of the amp makes about 98% of it's tone and a change of tubes only changes these last 2 percent. Additionally you can mod any 6L6 amp to use EL34's. A 5150 always sounds like a 5150 and a change of tubes can only be heard by a long time 5150 player who REALLY knows it's sound in every detail. So forget about tubes and buy the amp that sounds the way you like it. Concerning the JCM2000: You gotta play one to decide. I have owned several tube marshalls and played the JCM2000 alot and I simply am sick of the Marshall sound. I don't like that bristish harsh and brittle distortion anymore. I became a fan of Peaveys fat and smooth sounding distortion. Additionally I can tell you that Marshall's quality is very bad nowadays. I had a 6101 which has drop outs and sounds strange despite several tube changes and repairs. Then a friend of me bought a new JCM2000....the screws inside were not even tightened correctly or held in place with a little glue or something and after weeks of use the first screw fell into the printboard and only through luck it did not damage anything. Some months later the effect loop ceased to work at all. Then I know someone with a another 6101 where the whole midi switching system died as the amp was quite new. I cannot speak for all Marshalls but I cann tell you that Marshalls quality doesn't live up to it's reputation anymore at least for me and the musicians I know of.... Good luck deciding and definately don't listen to peoples opinions too much and just check out all the amps you are interested in. One VERY important note though: Always check which Box you are playing through. My 5150 for example sounds very Marshall-like and harsh if played through a Marshall Box instead of the Peavey 5150 box. I would always try to play the amp in question through the matching box.

Because it's close to impossible to get a reflective shiny clear coat without flaws if you don't lay it down in a water cabinet....and yours looks quite good, but it could be that you have to meet it in person to see these tiny flaws you talk about....