GuitarMaestro

Sorry....I forgot that Stewmac does sell them. They have a very limited choice of woods though.

Thats definately not true. Did you ever build a neck-through? It is definately more difficult than a bolt-on. I am not the only one with that opinion. In the book "Build Your Guitar" the author confirms that theory. If you have a jointer and a planer, then it is not much more difficult than a bolt-on, but without these tools it is very difficult to plane the wings and the necks 100% perpendicular and even. Another thing which makes the neck-through much more difficult is the fact that you cannot allow to mess something up. If you mess up the neck, then you have to throw away the whole thing. With a bolt-on you can build the neck and the body seperately and if you mess one up you can simple start over with the part in question and do not have to build a new guitar. Additionaly the handling of the neck-through during building, finishing and fretting is much more difficult, because you always have to deal with the whole guitar. Just my opinion though....feel free to flame me....

Bad luck Dave. I tried to find compound radiused fingerboards for weeks some time ago....I searched the whole web, asked on mimf and contacted many companies like Warmoth, USACG, Rampartguitars, etc. without success. I think there is no company selling them. After much thinking and calculating I decided to build cylindrical fingerboards, because a compound radius fingerboard which is not 100% correct cnc-machined is worse than a good cylindrical board. If you succeed in finding a supplier for them please let me know.

Thats not entirely true. I might be correct that you can hear the differences more exactly in the clean channel, but especially with high distortion the "liveliness" of the guitar is very important. A good body wood makes the difference between a sterile sounding and a lively distortion sound. And the overtones, harmonics and pinch harmonics can be heard far better in the distortion channel. A guitar with bad body wood which does not produce good harmonics sounds dull in hi gain mode. It's a matter of attitude. The people who do not play with distortion much tend to think that distortion=distortion anyway. In my opinion there are far more amps with good sounding clean channels than amps with really great hi-gain channels ala Triaxis and 5150.

why cheaper?

I think the do it that way in order to cut production costs. If you route all bodies the same it is cheaper than routing for every PU configuration the sell. I dont know if they sell a H/S/H guitar though. But the definately sell a S/S/H guitar. Doing H/S/H would kill the nature of a Strat though. The nice single-coil neck PU is what makes a Strat sound special in my opinion. Difficult question. I have a cheap Martinez Playwood Strat which I picked up for about $120 brand new. The plywood definately does not sound as bad as one would tend to think. I bought the guitar without knowing that it is plywood and I thought it sounds ok for the price. I cannot really judge the sound of the plywood, because the PU's are very cheap too, so I cannot isolate the sound of the plywood. It's my feeling though that the plywood sounds a little lifeless and bland but not terrible. I think if you add good PU's and a cheap but ok neck, then you'll end up with a quite usable guitar. It will not sound great, but it will definately not sound terrible. If you can get a cheap neck and cheap but good PU's then I would go for it. If not then I think its not worth it to pay much money for hardware to end up with a plywood guitar. There are alot cheap and good non-plywood guitars out there. HTH, Marcel Knapp!

Its a matter of taste I think. A flame maple neck and a nice figured top(i.e. quilted maple) is my favorite combination. The Wolfgangs are built this way too and I think they look really great. If the guitar is for you then do it as you like.

Thanks for clearing that up!

Wes is right. I did refer to the joining of the wings to the neck. I agree with Wes that it can be done without a jointer and with sanding blocks. Getting a really good and perpendicular joint that way is not easy in my opinion though. I think it is easier to do a bolt-on if you dont have a jointer. But if you are good with the sanding blocks this might not apply.

If you dont have the neccessary tools for making a neck-through guitar like a jointer and thickness planer then the bolt-on guitar will be much easier to build. If you have all neccessary tools than both should be the same in difficulty.

Dont trust other people's opinions. Buy the guitar YOU like more. Only because I would rather buy the Ibanez does not mean that it is the better guitar for you. Let your ears and fingers decide....

This is really thing I want to have clarified one time. I was always convinced that Floyd Rose invented the Tremolo and sells licenses to make the unit to different companies like Schaller, Ibanez, etc. But there are always people talking about original Floyds. Does Floyd Rose have a own company? I often see the Schaller Tremolos reffered to as original Floyds.

There are only two possibilties: 1. They change the radius along the length of the neck 2. They change the height of the middle accordingly I think 1. is not likely. because then they woul advertise it as a compound radius. Does anyone know?

@Drak: I do not deny that the mimf is a great ressource. Although they know much more about more conventional guitars than modern guitars. There were many very helpful people there. I do not diss the participants of the mimf. I am really fed up with their moderators and the way they treat less expirienced people. I tried everything to sort things out at mimf. I critizised their moderating style in the most polite manner possible and emailed the moderators, etc.. I even donated. Without success. If you want to know why I am so angry and why I think that bad about the mimf, then you should have followed some threads there. Unfortunately they are no longer visible and do nut turn up via a search, so I cannot give you links to them....

Thanks Jammy. Unfortunately I do not have enough dimensions yet in order to calculate the height. If the radius is fixed along the length and the sides are 5mm high along the whole length of the neck, then the height in the middle cannot be constant. I guess Ibanez did it the easy way however and simply maked the fingerboard with a constant height in the middle and a constant radius. This results in the sides of the fingerboard to change height about 1-2 mm along the length of the neck, which is nearly invisible. Can you confirm that?

Great....thanks! No I only need the fingerboard thickness and then I can start....

Hi! Here in Germany the Ibanez Tremolo are ridiculous expensive if you order them via a local music shop. They cost arround $350. I usually buy Schaller Trems because of that, but I like the feel of the Ibanez Trem more then that of the Schaller Units. Does anyone know a store where I can get Ibanez Tremolos cheaper? Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

@Jammy: Can you please measure how thick the fingerboard is at it's thickest point?

Dont know....but I want MY Universe to have one. Whats the best way to route them? AANJ and a Macassar Rosewood Fingerboard. How thick is the fingerboard on the Universe?

Thank you very much for the links guys!

Where can I buy an affordable 7-string Floyd Rose Tremolo of good quality? Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

I recommend to buy your neck at USACG. This company is run bei Tommy who was a Warmoth employee for a long time. I think concerning the quality both companies should be the same, but the service and kind attitude Tommy has is outstanding and therefore I would buy from USACG.

Did you read my post? As I said it is only a 2d topview of a Telecaster....

I always recommend GalleryHardwoods. They have a huge variation of woods and cheap prices. They stock alot of things not listed on their webpage. Simply send them a mail and I bet that they have what you are looking for.

Four things: 1. Autocad will run fine on your machine....I used it on much slower machines already. Especially for simple drawings like guitars, etc. which are not that big your system is fast enough. 2. You can open Cad files with many shareware and freeware programs, you dont need to install AutoCad 3. I hate Telecasters....they are inferiour to the Strat in every way in my opinion. Why do you think Leo Fender designed the Strat as an improved version of the Telecaster? No seriously I always wonder what reason speak for preferring a Tele over a Strat. 4. I looked at the file for you. It is only a 2d topview of a Telecaster. There are no dimensions for the depth of the cavities etc., it is very nicely drawn however. HTH, Marcel Knapp!