mikevirok

Great job so far!!! Only comment I can make is that the picture of the burst has a pair of scissors (aka: pointy-sharp guitar finish killers with handles) laying dangerously close to your great work of art. Be careful!!!! Can't wait to see images of the finished Les Paul.

Ok everyone... what would be a general angle to pitch the neck of a set-in or glued-in guitar neck? I know each build is slightly different from the last, but I need to devise a formula of some sort to make my near future productions easier to complete... This is not a question about headstocks, but the entire neck (like a Les Paul...). I am using a Hipshot Fulcrum-style vibrato on my semi-hollow right now and it's not pitched much; it was eyeballed and not measured completely..

"...designed with his father, Harold May, and built with wood from a 19th century fireplace. His comments on this instrument, from Queen In Their Own Words (ed. Mick St. Michael, Omnibus Press, 1992, p. 62) are: 'I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin's Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm's made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob at the end's off a knitting needle and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.' " I was thinking of picking up some oak when I get back to my hometown in New Jersey and building a neck-through version of my personal design. It would be quite hard and heavy I assume, since oak is generally known for it's durability and longevity. I could be wrong though. I know that OLP has used either Oak or Elm on one of their bass guitar models a few years back, but I cannot be certain. Go for it though, and post many pics!!!

It's coming along! Everything is routed (as far as pickups and trem'), and the fretboard was glued on last night along with the veneer earlier in the day for the headstock. Today I'll be finishing up the woodworking with the control layouts, tuning-peg holes, deepening the trem cavity (springs are rubbing right now, needs to be deeper) & radius the fretboard. Then I can finally install some hardware, frets, bone nut, etc., and put her in the spray-shack for finishing. I might have it up and running by next Wednesday!!!

Here in Atlanta, 2 of my fellow luthier students and I are all working on projects with bloodwood fretboards. I'm sanding the radius in by hand today using the radius bars in the shop at which I am being taught. So far, the bloodwood does exhibit very hard attributes (as well as being extremely heavy - so one of the students here discovered while making a solid bloodwood V !!!), but it should not be a problem to radius. Just take your time. One thing I learned about bloodwood is that it tends to clog machinery as well as quickly dull tips of routers. Be sure to replace your sandpaper along the way to make sure that it's not all clogged with bloodwood dust. I used canary wood for the neck of one of my projects and paired it with a bloodwod fretboard and both woods clogged the oscillating sander's spool as well as the edge-sander. The fingerboard looks nice though!

Exactly. These guitars I am building are for me this time around. I am building them to how I would like them to function, not for someone else. If someone requested the Planet Waves tuners for a build of mine, I would not question them or persuade them otherwise. I would have to agree that this was a fun (although heated at times) debate on the locking tuners. Again, I think the Planet Waves company has presented many products over the past few years that have been great for musicians looking for compact, all-in-one designs. It varys from player to player, builder to builder, tech to tech. No two people will find exactly the same level of appreciation in their gear, no matter what component it may be. Hell, this same debate could be made over any aspect of a guitar. Bottom line: I'm glad we shed some light on this subject. Cheers as well WezV. miK'e

That original quote regarding to "short cuts" came from the mouth of my instructor, Tim. Those were merely words that I was repeating. I agree with him since he was not referring to the locking mechanisms being the "short cut" at all, but the string cutter being so. Yes, the locking tuners can be labeled a "short cut" as you would like to see it, but stability is stability. There's something about having to tune in between each and every song that is not quite satisfying while playing live. In my past band, I use/used a PRS Swamp Ash Special. I palm-manipulate the bridge on that so much that without the locking tuners & nicely stretched strings I would be re-tuning each and every song. In some situations that is fine, but when the songs need to flow 3 at a time back-to-back or when dealing with unruly club owners who want something always happening on stage and no technical "tune-ups", the locking tuners increase my guitar's ability to remain in tune better while playing live than a guitar without them. Saying that the locking tuners on my guitar is a short cut to not tuning all of the time is like saying that the locking nut on a Floyd Rose system is the same. Anyhow, I am not trying to slam Planet Waves; I wouldn't have initially bought 3 sets of the tuners for use on my projects if I wasn't intrigued to begin with. I am just taking some advice from my instructor who has yet to steer me wrong to this day. That's not saying that anyone's advice here on this forum would be any less credible, besides I did post this thread in order to find others' opinions.

Actually, I am after the locking tuners to help keep my floating Hipshot bridges a little more stable in case of heavy vibrato action. The Grovers will do just fine for what I want/need in a tuner for my builds.

What makes you say this? I really like the planet waves stuff! i have had problems with the grover auto locking tuners not gripping the high e string very well Well, along with learning how to build guitars I am also learning how to repair them. I was given a guitar on "set-up day" and it was a pain to set it each time with the auto-trim tuners cutting the string length so short. Also, my instructor and I had a long conversation about fads and gadgets. He's been involved with all of this guitar repair and building for many years now and said something that has begun to stick in my head; "All of these new 'inventions' are all just short-cuts. The more little things you add onto something that should be simple and functional, the more there is to fail later down the lines. Put good stuff on it, and you won't have to worry as much later.".

Yeah, I picked up a couple of sets of the Grover locking (18:1) tuners. I'm building 4 guitars at the moment, and I want each one with similar tuners to keep the continuity flowing. The issue I may run into is with the 3 guitars that have "scooped" head-stocks; I don't want to run into the need to use string trees or string retainers if the over-all height of the farther tuning posts on either side are too high and don't allow the string to rest securely over the nut. I think I may have a solution if this is the case, but I'm hoping that the Grovers are going to work out fine for what I need them for. The 13º headstock will not be a problem and I plan on using them on that model no matter what. It's just with those damned Fender-styled scooped 3x3 head-stocks... I guess I should look into scarf-jointing my head stocks from now on.

Ok guys, here's my issue: I'm building 4 guitars each with their own significances. I want to find the most efficient tuners that would work for my instruments. Here are the different configurations: Hipshot Trem (floating) with a 13º headstock (3x3 tuner design) Hipshot Trem (floating) with a scooped Fender-styled headstock (3x3 tuner design) I was thinking of using the Planet Waves Auto-Trim tuners, but I have since realized that these are more of a hindrance than help. So, I was looking into the Grover locking-style tuners (18:1). What else would you all recommend? mik'e

Oh yeah, it's going to be finished natural. The top is Canary Wood that was about 20 years old pulled from a crate that came from a shipment from Mexico back in the 80s. It was an amazing find at the wood shop down here in Atalanta. Wait until you see the other canary wood top I'm working on...

Yes, I didn't realize that I had not mentioned the types of wood used on the guitar yet. The top is 2 piece Canary Wood, the back is 2 piece Spanish Cedar. The neck is a 3 piece Mahogany with a 13º pitch headstock, and a Black & White Ebony (!!!) fretboard. I'll be adding more to this post soon; I just need to sort through all of the pictures first and let you all in on the build. I am also building 3 other electrics at the same time (each has the same body style, only solid bodies): CMCg-I Body: 2 piece Spanish Cedar back, 2 piece Canary Wood top (semi-hollow) Neck: 3-piece Mahogany (deep set), Black & White Ebony fret-board Hardware: Planet Waves™ Auto-Trim locking tuners, Hipshot™ Fulcrum tremolo Pickups: PRS McCarty (neck & bridge), Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails (middle) Controls: master volume, master tone with push/pull coil tap for the bridge and activation of the middle pickup (ala Swamp Ash Special), 3-way toggle switch Extras: Wenge knobs. CMCg-II Body: ? back, 5 piece Canary Wood/Birds-Eye Maple/Blood Wood top (lightly carved) Neck: 1 piece Canary Wood with Blood Wood fret-board (bolt on) Hardware: Planet Waves Auto-Trim locking tuners, Hipshot fixed bridge. Pickups: Gibson P-90s (neck & bridge) Controls: master tone, master volume, 3 way toggle switch. Extras: Blood-Wood knobs CMCg-III Body: (5 piece) Mahogany/Wenge/Ash (solid, lightly carved) Neck: 1 piece Bubinga, Wenge fret board (bolt on) Hardware: Planet Waves Auto-Trim tuners, Hipshot Fulcrum tremolo. Pickups: Gibson Dirty Fingers (bridge & neck) Controls: master tone, master volume, 5 way PRS-style rotary switch Extras: Wenge knobs. CMCg-IV Body: 2 piece Alder (solid, lightly carved) Neck: 1 piece Birds-Eye Maple with Coco-Bolo fret-board. Hardware: Planet Waves Auto-Trim tuners, Hipshot fixed bridge Pickups: Gibson P90 (bridge) Controls: master volume, master tone. Extras: Purple Heart knobs,

It's coming along....

Here we go; I'm having an issue posting images from PhotoBucket recently, so I've moved things into my blog and made a daily journal of it all. Enjoy! http://mikevirokguitars.blogspot.com/

I like the design Hooglebug! I am a fan of nice, even body style.

Nice build! I had thought in the past about experimenting with on-board effects and such (mostly ill-fated in application on my end, yet it was all in theory), but it's a nice build so congrats! It gives me that whole "Rammstien" guitar-vibe with all of the chrome and I think for all of the technology in there a metallic finish and theme is only appropriate. By the way, this is the first Warmoth Z that I have seen completed and I think I like it.

Beautiful wood choices!

I'm leaning more towards the pointy-butt one too..

Thanks, jnewman. I wasn't about to let anything stand in my way of what I consider to be my first original design. While my sketches do share some similarities with that Yamaha guitar, I feel mine holds its own in its own ways. I will build it. And it will be mine. =)

The more I look at it, the creepier I feel... I am really starting to work myself up over this..... it's pretty damned close to what I sketched... and I never saw it before now.... f'ing Yamaha...

Me neither.... now I'm pretty P.O.'d........ still building it.....

Oh, don't get me wrong: I will build the design that is right for "me". I was merely curious as to what others thought of the two designs all together. Kind of double checking my creative process. It's the art-school "critique" tendency creeping out I guess.

Dylan, I did look into the Summit School about a year ago. After getting all of the information, that price was killing me. I'm 25 (well, 3 months shy of it) and I'm a full-time pharmacy technician and human resources manager for the same L.L.C. in my hometown of Trenton, NJ. I have worked there since I was 17, and for the 5 years that I went to college I toggled part-time and full-time statuses until I managed to inch my way up the totem poll. In the past year, my disgust for the inability to use my degree (BA in Fine Arts; I'm a painter/sculptor at heart) and my artistic talents had left me desiring more from a job. My girlfriend works in Maryland near the region that Paul Reed Smith Guitars is located, and I began thinking to myself that if I could put the time into becoming a luthier of sorts then I could have a better life for myself: use my degree, fuel my passion for guitars, and also be closer to where I want to be in life. My decision back in November of 2006 was settled: I was going to attend a 6 week (40 day, 300 hour) workshop in Georgia known as the Atlanta Guitar Workshop. This program only accepts 5 students maximum at a time and is quite extensive, at least from what I can tell from contacting the owner & head teacher. It was $5,200 for the 40 days, which was/is quite a lot of money. But I am looking to make this my career somehow, no longer at the pharmacy I have been at for the past 7 years that has yet to find a way to reward my dedication. So, considering your age of 16, I know how this seems like a great thing for you to do and (obviously) not knowing anything more about you other than from these posts I cannot say either way that going to the Summit School or not would be good or bad. We all live in different scenarios, all dealing with separate issues. My $5200 venture down south (yes, I am driving down too) is going to leave me 4 weeks pay-less from my current job, a full month out rent un-utilized, gas for my car, etc... and I will most likely be a bit broke when I return to my home in July. I don't even know if I am going to be able to get a particular job in this field when I come back from the course. It is scary, and I can't say what the outcome will be. The one thing I started to realize is that the knowledge and experience that I gain from this course will never be taken from me. Even if I am stuck at the pharmacy working there for another 7 years (although I hope not to be!!!), I will know how ot build and repair instruments and make a happy past-time and side job out of that. One of my plans is as an artist to approach the guitar as a functional work of art that should be just as worthy to hang on a NYC gallery wall as a pricey abstract expressionist painting is. So, if spending over $5k to learn what I have wanted to for a very long time and experience that escape to the world of guitar-art, then that's what I will do. Find the meaning and purpose for yourself and you will know if the price is right.

Ok, I updated the body design a bit and cleaned up the electronics and neck.... I think the asymmetrical design still has a nice feel to it, but this one is more symmetrical in the "butt" of the body... As far as woods, I am open to anything. If it goes the hollow-body design path, I'll have to do some more research on the right tone-woods. I was aiming for a nice flat response to that of swamp-ash or ash, but I would not discount an exotic wood ... I thought about a walnut body with a maple neck (think of the Rickenbacker Dakota series). Either body wood choice I go will most likely have a maple neck (flamed if possible). Electronics will be that of a swamp ash special from PRS (my favorite guitar in the arsenal today is the SAS, so I'm working off of that in combination with the vintage flare of a McCarty). The course that I am attending this summer will go over scaling designs and those technical aspects. Right now, Im just sketching around...