GuitarMaestro

Hi! I want to build a peghead which is very similar to the B.C.Rich widow peghead. I did some tests with maple yesterday and found out that the spikes of the widow peghead break very easily if built from 10mm thick maple. Does someone have B.C.Eich to check how the pghead is constructed to make it stable enough? How would you go about building the Widow peghead? I fear that I even might break the spikes during sawing them out with a bandsaw. I am also interested in how to build the body's spikes. Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

@Scott: Okay, but how can I check if a certain piece of maple is hard or softmaple or perhaps something in between?

@Scott: What sets eastern and western maple apart? I have a nice flame maple neck blank as well, but I dont know if is eastern or western maple.

Thanks for your answers....I even have a complete drawing for the peghead, but it seems you can only post pictures on this forum if you have website where you can upload them.

Hi! I'll build a special peghead for my next guitar. It will have a shape which is close to the B.C. Rich Virgin headstock. It features some long and small spikes. I thought about building it from the neck material which is flamed maple and in a thickness of about 10 mm. Then I would add a 3mm quilted maple veneer to the top and the bottom of the peghead. Do you think this will bes table enough or do I have to use a harder wood for the core? Or should I add carbon fibre pads under the veneers? How does B.C. Rich make their difficult peghead shapes? Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

I dont want to offend you, but I think your idea with the stainless steel fingerboard is not good for a number of reasons: 1. The notes will not sound frettet as Setch wrote 2. Why build a fretless guitar with the goal to make it sound like if it had frets? 3. The fingerboard will be very heavy 4. The neck will surely make trouble over time....metal and wood are simply too different materials 5. You will have a very hard time radiusing the fingerboard 6. I think it will be nearly impossible to set the action on this guitar in a way which eliminates buzzing 7. I dont think stainless steel will sound good at all. There are many people complaining about the sound of stainless steel frets and you are going to build a whole fingerboard from it? 8. Fretless Basses and guitars are built for their smooth, warm and singing sound. You will certainly eliminate this qualities with a metal fingerboard. Please dont waste a nice 5A quilted maple top for such a project. If you really are convinced that this is a good idea, then try it with cheap parts first. Greets, MK!

Sorry for not reading your whole post! I just saw "stainless steel frets" and got angry, because I tried to buy them for quite some time now....

Everyone keeps talking about these damned Stainless Steel Frets, but where can I actually buy them?

You can always try mimf. There are alot of very expirienced and famous builders on this forums. People from Alembic, Griffin Guitars, etc.. The problem is that the forum software is not very good and the mods are very strict and often mindless. They are very unfriendly to beginners and delete answers written by people who did not build a complete instrument yet. You are not allowed to post prices and links. You are even not allowed to post a picture you did not actually shoot yourself. You are not even allowed to post a Fender picture or something like that as a reference if it is not your Fender and the picture was taken by you. Additionally most builders there are very conservative and do not know much about shred type guitars with floyds, etc.. HTH, Marcel Knapp!

The Schaller Low Pro Tremolo does not need to be installed "recessed" in order to use it without a neck angle. It is flat enough as it is. Therefore it needs different routes. But if noone has this Tremolo or a guitar with this Tremolo I'll have to work out the correct dimensions myself.

Thanks for your answer. I did already check the post you mentioned, but there are no dimensions for the LOW PRO Tremolo. Only for the usual Schaller Tremolo.

Hi! I bought a Schaller Low Profile Tremolo for my next guitar. So far I only worked with Ibanez Tremolos and the are sold with a manaual which contains drawings for routing templates. The Schaller Unit came without any manual and Schaller told me they cannot give me measurements for the body routes, as they usually sell to Guitar Companies which dont need manuals. It would be great if someone who has this Tremolo can tell me how he routed the needed cavities or if it is a production guitar it would be great if you could measure the cavity for me. Thanks in advance, Marcel Knapp!

I have B.C. Rich guitar made from Agathis! It only costed about $250, so it is not the highest quality guitar. I think its quite good though. Surely Agathis is not the best tonewood but it surely is not terrible.