GuitarMaestro

Thanks for the answers! Do you think it would be enough to put a 12mm wide piece of Wenge in the center of the neck?

Okay....I asked the shop I got the neck blank from and they told me that it is Western Bigleaf Maple, which they say is not as hard as Eastern maple but still very tough. The piece I have is quatersawn. Do you think I should go with carbon fibre rods or with a Wenge center piece or use the blank as it is? Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

Thanks for your answers guys. Several things: 1. The maple I have is curly flame maple. It has NO birdseyes and is NOT quilted, but I dont know if it is Eastern or Western maple. It was sold to me as hard maple however. Is there any way to tell what kind of maple it is? 2. I dont understand your panic concerning the carbon fibre rods....I have several of them here and to me they seem very rigid and stable and it would not be easy to rip single fibres from them. And as long as you sometimes smoke, there is no reason to not sometimes inhalate some carbon fibres.... Greets, Marcel Knapp!

Thanks for your replies. After thinking a little about the subject, I realized that all B.C. Rich Guitars have spikes where the grain runs along the spike and not perpendicular to it, which increases stability dramatically. The shape I want to build would have one spike where the grain runs perpendicular to the spike. The guitar will have a quilted maple top though, which should increase the stability. Do you think thats enough or do I have to reinforce the wood somehow? Greets, MK!

This guitar is a masterpiece. Its surely a matter of taste but you cannot deny that it is very hard to build such a guitar.....

Hi! I have a very nice curly maple one-piece neck-through guitar neck blank, which was very hard to find and very expensive. I did this because I wanted to build a neck without any laminations(except for the fingerboard which will be Rosewood). In the last days I was getting more and more doubts if the wood will be stable/stiff enough without inserting a Wenge or Bubinga center piece. Is there any way to tell if this is needed or not? Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

Hi! Can you please enlighten me what tricks and woods B.C.Rich uses in order to make their extreme shapes like the Beast stable enough? It looks as if the spikes of the body would usually break during bandsawing the shape alone. Are they somehow reinforced? I ask because I want to build a guitar with an extreme shape as well, and I wonder what is needed in order to make those spikes stable enough. Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

Hmm....I have to admit that I dont understand you. There is no famous blues-player I know who plays a 7-string. If you are aiming for a typical blues sound why do you want to use a 7-string at all? Playing blues on a 7-string will not sound traditional anway....

Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio released some of there most famous PU's as 7-string versions as well. One of my favorite 6-string PU's the DiMarzio ToneZone was released for 7-strings as well.

No problem....I did not understand your statement as correcting or something like that anyway....but it is great that you clear that up!!!! This friendly attitude is what sets this great forum apart from the mimf.

If you really want to get picky here than I would have to add that this "room" is for adjusting the action to one's liking AND to accomodate different string gauges. Yep....they bought Jackson some time ago, but the guitars are still build differently.

@Brian: Are you sure that the 6-string Jem and the 7-string Jem have the same body but with different neck/pu/bridge routings? As my next project will be a 7-string Jem Universe clone, that is important for me to know.

Yes....but the more precise you place the bridge the better.... I think tonally they differ mainly because of the Pickups. While Strats have conventional low-output singelcoils, the Jacksons usually have humbuckers, at least in the bridge position. Therefore the Jacksons are better suited for rock/metal where you play with alot of distortion. The Strat delivers better twangy funk and clean sounds and a in my opinion unmatched singing solo lead tone a la Iron Maiden and Yngwie Malmsteen if you use the neck Pickup and alot of distortion and a little delay. Both are great guitars though. I would not prefer one over the other. And you can always install a bridge humbucker in the Strat in order to make it better suited for modern distorted sounds. Simply choose the guitar you like more, they are both great. And avoid the cheap squier strats and the really cheap Jacksons. HTH, Marcel Knapp!

I would NOT recommend building your neck that way. I agree with Southpa that this is the best and most comfortable way of building a neck, but only if you have alot of expirience in shaping necks. As I started to make necks I found it the most difficult thing to shape the back of the neck and built several wich were ok but not great. If you do this in the end you have a very good chance of ruining all your work. I would route the trussrod channel while the piece is still square and then shape the back. Then you radius the fingerboard and install the frets and now you glue both pieces together. This way you can only screw up one part and not both at the same time. HTH, Marcel Knapp!

I can only advise you to try guitars which have these PU's. Buying PU's following someones advice is no good thing to do. A company like DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan makes no bad pickup. The difference between them is simply a matter of taste. I am sure you can find one guy who tells you that the Dimebucker lacks articulation and sounds way too bassy and another one who raves about the great dynamics and piercing highs of the PU. You can hear the sample sound files on the Seymour Duncan homepage and compare the PU's via their charts. This allows you to at least choose a PU with a lot of highs for example. If you want opinions anyway then look here. Good luck, MK!

I would definately use ferrules, they are very cheap and you'll probably regret not using them the day your nice guitar shows the first cracks. KrazyDerek ist completely right here, that the ferrules redirect the sideways force and therefore greatly decrease the risk of cracks. I dont really understand your problem though: If you have enough place for the screwheads why not for the ferrules? Usually they only have a some mm's bigger radius than the screwheads themselves.

When it comes to peghead shapes I think its influence on the guitar's sound can be neglected and it is much more important for a peghead to look good and match the appearance of the body. Do what you think looks good.

Damn....I was upset enough as these ugly engraved leather pickguards and tops were introduced in this forum and praised, but recommending to hide a exceptional figured wood like this piece of ash under that ugly wannabe-western piece of **** is a real sin in my eyes. Do you really prefer that ugly piece of leather to the stunning piece of Alder? P.s.: Dont take me to serious but I really dont like this engraved leather stuff.

Dave....Korina looks really great....I think its one of the most beautiful tonewoods. Look here for some nice pictures of korina guitars. The piece I got from Larry looks nearly identical to the Jaros guitar and the SG.

I just saw that you asked about sealing in your first post. I think its definately NOT neccessary. The piece I have could nearly be used without a finish at all.

Larry always sends you pictures before you buy if you want that....So no risk here....but I warn you....I'll kill you if you buy his last Korina blank....I need some Korina for my next project soon....

Brain ist right here....Use a contour guage....They are cheap and its very easy to get the profile of the neck on paper with them.

Thanks for the kind words dave. Unfortunately I dont have pictures from the curly maple necks, but I will post pictures of my "master" neck if I have it completed. So far I built one Fender neck from regular maple and one from curly maple and I did not realize a big difference between them in terms of shaping them.

Great that I have a chanche to help you out now dave....I have a very stunning korina body blank here, which looks greater than any wood I have seen before. It has a nice color with a dramatic conrasting black figure. I did not finish the guitar so far, but it has a very nice resonant sound if I knock on it and korina is one of the most famous tonewood for guitars anyway. You can buy it from Larry who is always very helpful and should have a big amount of black limba in stock. He custom mills the pieces to your requirements without charging a fee for it. HTH, Marcel Knapp!

Making the metal templates should take about 10 minutes for every template. You cut it out from thin(about 3mm) metal with a a metal scissor(dont know the correct word in eglish) and sand it to perfect shape. This method would also work with a cylindrical fingerboard and would give you the perfect results you are looking for. There are many well-known builders which do their fingerboards with radius blocks though. I think practice makes perfect here. You draw a center line on the fingerboard and always guide your radius block along that line. Change the orientation of the fingerboard several times during the sanding in order to avoid uneven results. Sand down until the center line begins to dissapear. And always check the flatness of the fingerboard with a straight edge during the process. I have to admit that I did not radius a fingerboard myself though. But the method I described above is used by most builders and is recommended in most good books about guitar building. If you are not happy with your results you can still buy the fingerboards pre-radius from lmi or stewmac. HTH, Marcel Knapp! P.s.: Are you German or did you learn it school?