GuitarMaestro

Yes.....the Korina I used was quite light and not very dense. But I am convinced that if anything besides my percetion causes the loss of highs it's the neck....

Wow....that is a noble guitar!!!!

Thanks for the info!

Yes....thats the reason for the two Bubinga laminates. The neck is stiffer than a standard Fender Strat neck. And was very stable so far and did not move at all. So I think either it isn't as bad as people tell or the Bubinga stripes are strong enough to prevent these problems.... I already had that idea too....but I like the tone of the guitar more and more....dunno if I want to change it....it's git character and that is always a good thing....but maybe I'll just do it for the experiment.... LOL....I would have a hard time letting somone else play on that guitar....

The quality will be ugly, but for getting the outline of the body and the location of pu's and knobs it's accurate enough. I have to admit that I never do it that way myself. What I do is that I load the picture in a CAD software (Autocad in my case) and draw the shape over it and make a nce CAD drawing of the guitar in question....

Good one....

Do a thorough search of the forum. I remember that there was a guy some month ago who looked for these plans and somebody finally posted them. Maybe you can find the old thread. I myself would build it according to a good photo than a dubious plan though....Get a good photo of the front an print it to correct scale and go from there....

I always do the shaping of my bodies and tops with a drum sander and not with router bits, so this should make it a little easier. I still will use your seal/sand technique! Thanks for that idea....

Ok....thanks for the info....and for quoting me as the inspiration Where did you finish the guitar? Do you have a water cabinet?

Ok....got it after taking a second look.... This makes your inlay even cooler! I like it alot!

That looks very good. What paint did you use for the clear coat?

Could be. But it is definately light than the Alder bodies I have here. It was quite the light and not very dense wood. But I had another idea. I never thought about the neck. Maybe it is the culprit? I built it from curly soft maple with bubinga stripes. Soft maple is supposed to give a warmer tone if used for necks. Maybe I'll build another neck to check that out.... Hehe....true words!!!! Yes exactly. I mixed it up. EVH played the ToneZone in some of his guitars, but the Custom Custom was the PU he designed.... I will play that one next time I come in a music shop. NOTE: All my critique against Korina or the sound of that axe should not be taken too serious. With my original statement I just wanted to say that I'll use Alder next time. The guitar as it is sounds fantastic and is a joy every day. It's just that if I could change a minor detail I would give it a tad more biting highs. Thats the reason I wrote I am back to Alder, because this may give me these highs....

Thanks guys! I'll try and see....

Ok....now I undertsand what you meant. But I still don't think DiMarzio voices the pups for basswood guitars. After all Ibanez guitars are only a very small chunk of their business. Most Ibanez Models have Ibanez pickups and only some are equipped with DiMarzio PU's. Additionally DiMarzio sells some hundreds of different pickups. Only a few of them were designed for Ibanez guitars at all. Maybe these are voiced for basswood bodies, but for the majority of their catalogue this does not hold true. DiMarzio sells everything from dull to sharp sounding Pu's in order to be able to match demand of all player types and build pu's usable for all guitar types. They are simply one of the biggest PU companies trying to supply as much different pu's as possible for all applications. So your theory is quite pulled out of air in my opinion....The ToneZone PU for example is designed to closeley resemble the DiMarzio Custom Custom which is a PU designed for Van Halen's Alder Strats....

Interesting....what do you mean by focused? Did you play such a guitar? Good point....I will have to use a heavy body material then and place the pins accordingly....

Very nice work Jeremy! One question: Why did you leave such big gaps between inlay and frets? I think it would look even better with smaller gaps....

Interesting....depends on the guitar though. In my case I will use the spalt only as a top. I planned to glue it to the body and then do the shaping, so the risk of accidentally removing big pieces should be quite low. Or do I still have to do the seal/sand/seal/sand procedure?

Get this Fretboard shape calculator and check it yourself....

Hehe....I never heard a ebony fretboard alone....I only played necks with ebony fretboards so far. But I do not know what an all ebony neck will sound like.... Brighter or darker than maple? Concerning that jazz guy: I like fusion & jazz very much, but I never heard about that guy. Are you sure he is german? The name definateley is finnish or swedish and not german....

Did you first soak the board in glue and then start to route/shape it? As far as I know the common way to do it is to soak the spalt when all shaping is done....

Hi! I am currently planning a guitar arround a nice piece of spalted maple. In terms of look a striped neck made from macassar ebony(with nice stripes) would be very cool. I know Ed Roman uses that stuff for necks and PRS sold a series with ebony necks. Can anyone tell me how it sounds as a neck wood? I guess it's even denser and harder then rock maple, so I suspect it will sound even brighter? Right? Thanks, MK!

For the music you want to play (Lynch/Vai/Satriani) and metal in general you have to do yourself the favor and buy a good tube amp. Granted there are also tube amps that sound worse then good solid state amps. But if you want real warm but still defined and powerfull sounding distortion then buy a tube head. For your style I recommend to check out the Peavey 5150, Triple XXX and that new Satriani Signature amp. I have been through so many amps, mainly marshall and since the day I bought my 5150 half stack I never ever thought about my tone again. It simply gives me everything I need and is a joy to play everytime I plug in. Additionally I do alot of studio/recording work and the sound engineers and mixing/mastering guys are always impressed by my guitar sound on records. Although check out Soldano and Engl amps.

No really true. Korina is supposed to sound a little brighter than mahagony. Additionally I added the 5mm Maple Top in order to give the guitar even more highs. Why it still sounds rather dark is beyond me. Did not try it....I did not even know that it has Dimarzio Pups.... True....but it also depends on the music you play. I play everything from Jazz to Death Metal and have studied amost styles at the German version of GIT, so my style is very diverse. For Jazzy/Bluesy sounds the guitar is perfect. It's for churning out death-metal riffs on the low B string when I miss a little more bite....Nothing that couldn't be compensated with the EQ of the Amp though. Don't get me wrong: the guitar is the most fantastic sounding instrument I ever played. But it's simply not as versatile as an Alder body guitar.... Yeah....lol.....but this attitude is better for the builder than the player....

Hi! If someone knows where to buy red pearl pickguard blanks that are NOT multilayered/colored please let me know. Thanks in advance, MK!

I love that board too....I bought it from ebay. If you are interested I might be able to find out from which seller I bought it....