Dave I

You're wrong :-)

That's a relief.

I love the feel of an oiled or shellaced mahogany neck, and I don't pore fill.

Limba's also fantastic to work with.

Excellent!

-Cheers

What does "warm" mean? Tone wise I can't see the neck wood making a huge difference, so are you guys talking about looks?

I mean it as bass-orientates in sound, as opposed to trebley, and smooth not shrill. Maybe the neck is not a huge deal, however I have read some people use a Maple neck (just one example) as a way of getting a sharper attack.

If that's the case, I'd laminate bubinga and maple, just because the bubinga alone might be a bit heavy. Shouldn't have to grain fill either.

Todd

That is actually my original plan. Just wondering if Bubinga w/ Maple stripes would be super bright, or if it would even matter.

-Cheers

I am a certified Mahogany fan-boy. It is warm, seems strong enough, well-rounded, nice acoustic properties, and just seems to be me. However, I would like to experiment with tung oil, or Waterlox, or whatever, for the neck finish, and Mahogany seems to be not the best for that. With that being said, what are the warmest neck woods that are still tung oil (and similar oil) friendly?

-Cheers

tung oil should work just fine on Mahogany, but it won't fill pores if that's what you're looking for.

Yeah, I am trying two things: 1) To find a wood that will be super slick with tung oil (or similar), and 2) Force myself to release my death-grip on Mahogany. Mahogany is my security blanket when it comes to tone wood. Not saying that is a bad thing, necessarily . . . However the impression I got is the open-pore nature of Mahogany made it, while functional, not the best choice for tung oiling. Feel free to correct/lambaste me if I am wrong.

-Cheers

I am a certified Mahogany fan-boy. It is warm, seems strong enough, well-rounded, nice acoustic properties, and just seems to be me. However, I would like to experiment with tung oil, or Waterlox, or whatever, for the neck finish, and Mahogany seems to be not the best for that. With that being said, what are the warmest neck woods that are still tung oil (and similar oil) friendly?

-Cheers

You might want to recheck your body thickness on the Explorer, I believe it is 1.5", the same as on a Flying V.

You can make the thickness anything you want. I made mine 1.9" thick

When I ordered the Mahogany for the body of my upcoming/eventual set-neck King V build, I got it from Marc at Gilmer (mainly because he was cool with me when I got some student-quality wood for my quasi-in-progress-semi-hollow). Anyway, I said I just wanted it thick so I could get pseudo-Les Paul relatively thick/round tones. He said that was a bad idea because the Explorer and Flying V shape (he was talking about the Gibson, but I would think any Flying V since they are all roughly the same) would lose bass frequencies if you made them too thick, something due to how the wood vibrates over the large surface area (of the face or wings, respectively) and too thick of a guitar body would mess that up somehow. I was kind of surprised and did not ask him if he had any further info on the optimal thickness or how he knew that. Has anybody heard of that, or know what if any optimal thickness there is for these designs?

-Cheers

Another weird thing: I've had to adjust the saddles quite high in order to make them work with the neck (7.25 radius). Looks a little weird to me. But the neck measures at the right height. And looking at the Fender Esquire I have here (same radius), the saddles on that stand pretty tall too.

Does that adversely affect comfort while playing? Also, would that just be an issue with small-radii guitar necks?

Last quibble: the trem handle attaches to a housing that uses a set screw to tighten the handle down. They give you an allen key that is cut especially short at the end, so apparently they think you should be able to get in there and tighten/loosen it. But I haven't been able to do that, it's just a pain in the butt. Instead, I tightened the set screw down pretty firmly, but I can still pull the handle out (in order to case the guitar).

That sounds a little annoying. Livable, though kind of a pain.

I can't really report yet on the rest, since the guitar isn't finished yet. Playability seems great though --a nice smooth movement, no jerks. Although if you like more resistance, you might have to find stronger springs. For me, it feels great. You can indeed bend strings with this, and overall the string tension feels really nice. As for staying in tune...can't say yet.

Thanks for the review!

I'm not sure what a detent (what detent?) has to do with flutter. But do you mean the Bigsby type flutter?

Presumably he means (at least I mean) what the guy in the clip below demonstrates at the 45 second mark where you hit the whammy bar and it causes the springs to vibrate back and forth giving it that warbly kind of quivering/fluttering sound. Best represented in the clip below:

I would just wonder that the stabilizer bar (or makes it return to a neutral position, with or without a detent) would stop it from fluttering much. It sounds like rjhalsey has not had that problem.

-Cheers

I have a Warmoth guitar which has the Pro-neck Compound Radius. I have a open string buzz on the high E and slightly on the open B string.

There are no high frets and the string is not hitting the 1st fret closest to the nut. It's driving me crazy. I'm starting to wonder if either the nut is slightly

off center or possibly the bridge. I've read that the Warmoth compound necks possibly needs shims under the high E and B. If anyone out there has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

I am far from an expert here, but could it be that you need to adjust the truss rod or raise the bridge so the action is a touch higher?

-Cheers

Presuming some of you have tried these out for a while . . .

1) How do you like them overall relative to a Floyd Rose style or a Kahler, or whatever?

2) Is there anything you can't do with a TremKing, either at all or as well, as with a Floyd (e.g. fluttering, extreme pull ups or nose dives, etc.)?

-Cheers

On guitars with sharp points, like pointy V's, or the Dean Razorbacks, Carvin V220, etc., how sharp can you make the points (totally sharp or slightly rounded), and how acute of an angle can you have on the wings/points? I made a template which looks pretty close to a KV sort of design, however the ends of the wings were a bit flimsy; I made an arc 3/4" high at its peak. Granted it was ~1/2" thick particle board, but I am wondering if I should be worried about using those dimensions on a body blank or if I should make a less extreme angle or maybe more the arc a bit so it allows for more remaining wood (e.g. start the arc from a point a fraction of an inch toward the center of the tips of the wings).

So in short:

1) Is there a fairly well agreed upon angle where the wood gets too flimsy to be structurally sound?

2) Is it wise to leave points totally sharp or should I sand it down a minor bit?

-Cheers

Would Bubinga be alright for a guitar neck? Either as a single-piece neck, or in some combination (e.g Maple w/ Bubinga laminate stripes, Bubinga with Maple laminate stripes, et al), or would it be too dark and lifeless? Is there any reason not to? I know it is a fairly common bass neck, but have not heard of it as a guitar neck for whatever reason. Are there any reasons not to?

Second, can you use a tung oil or similar sort of oil finish on it or should it have a normal clear coat finish?

-Cheers

Shorter-scale guitars don't automatically sound "muddy". You've been reading too many tone voodoo articles somewhere. ;-)

No doubt.

If you want to use a 24.75" scale, go for it. Plenty of high-gain players use Gibsons with passive pickups. You're thinking too hard.

Sounds like a plan. What should be my deciding factor between going with a Maple neck w/ Mahogany, Bubinge, or Walnut stripes and a Mahogany neck with Maple stripes? Cosmetics? Will any perceived difference in tone or attack be just more tone voodoo? Will neck strength be anything to consider, or does the truss rod make that a non-factor? Thanks.

-Cheers

Not to take the wind out of the theory you are trying to develop in your head, but it is worth taking in the big picture, before you convince yourself there is more there than what is really there. Leave that to the people who come up with the marketing angles to sell guitars.

By all means, go ahead. I do not come here to drum up support for my theories, just seeing if there is any merit to them or not. If not, I am totally fine with that.

-Cheers

One further question.

First off, I am going with Doug at SoulMate. Second, I am also thinking of going with a 24.75" scale Mahogany neck w/ Maple laminate stripes. If I go with a Mahogany body and the shorter scale, would I need to worry about that sounding muddy with a Mahogany neck w/ Maple laminates at moderate to fairly high levels of gain (thinking Alice in Chains or Pantera at the most distorted), or should I consider a going with either a Maple neck w/ laminates or a longer scale? Or does it really matter? I realize LPs and Gibson Flying V's are used in all sorts of music, but would be interested in hearing any dissenting opinions as most music in that vein does not seem to be made with that composition of guitar and when it does often active pickups are incorporated.

-Cheers

This is a great discussion. It really is too bad that the guitar doesn't make you sound a certain way.

I really got the impression that neck-throughs were generally more neutral sounding, which according to the theory I either heard or surmised (i.e. made up ) made it better for adding distortion to, which also seemed to gel with some of the traits I have heard touted with active pickups. Obviously there are exceptions, and a lot at that, but I did wonder why neck-thrus seem fairly exclusive to metal. Upper fret registry and tradition are obviously factors for the guitars used by certain musicians.

The one thing I can say is metal is about attitude and certain guitars put me in certain moods that make for killer jams. I used to tell my bass player that there is an electricity that starts at the amp and flows up through the cord into your guitar and eventually to the back of your skull that makes the whole thing become alive. Find that combo and burn.

My Mark IV Mesa and my favorite guitar (or which ever has new strings on it) is all I really need.

I agree. It is just that some guitars are a bit of a compromise, more so than others at least, for playing certain styles. Still, what you say rings of the truth.

-Cheers

i can feel a huge difference between 25.5 and 24.75. i hate longer scales. i am a small guy. i have wide hands, but really small. sometimes i can barley reach some chords on the 25.5 scale guitars.

Yeah, but at least you're ripped.

i just finished a bolt on 25.5" guitar 2 days ago, and after playing my 24.75" guitar, i hate the longer one. it feels like a bass to me. really long and hard to reach. but its just because im so small.

Does it feel uncomfortable to you all up and down the neck, or just on open chords and the first few frets?

I think Wes's suggestion of using a 24.75" scale but using thin width frets, or even Prosthera's idea of using jumbo frets on the first 12 frets and switching to narrower frets from 13 upwards, might be a good way to get the most bang for my buck out of the 24.75" scale. In particular, it lets me stick with the scale I am most familiar with, and I am really comfortable on my Heritage and Hamer (both 24.75" scale guitars).

Anyway, thanks for the replies.

-Cheers

You know, I'm all for asking questions....but there's a point where it starts becoming spam. Tart spam, if you will. If only because your list of questions just serves to push everyone else's questions and topics to the next page, where they'll be less likely to get attention.

My sincere apologies for that. I was not meaning to bog down the list. This is a new skill for me, and I tend to ask a lot of questions at first. I will take your below suggestion at that time.

Most of your questions can easily be answered by searching through the forum. I recognize that the search function blows, but you'll get there.

I actually use the search function a lot, believe it or not. I just did not know how to phrase this perhaps for searching.

Once you've actually started your project, you'll be able to start a thread for it in the progress section and ask all the questions you need. You can also start a thread in the vein of 'newbie needs help' (go ahead and search for that, there are probably dozens). You'll probably generate a lot of interest, and you can ask all your questions in there.

Will do. I will chill out with the questions until then.

Any good carpentry book or class will give you these answers. If you can't make a straight flat edge in the first place, then building a guitar is beyond your skillset. Time for some basics first. Instruments aren't a jump-right-in kind of project.

I can take that advice. I know how to make flat edges, however I DO worry about it with something as precise as an instrument, and with fragile figured wood. My teacher at my woodworking class had some suggestions, but not really very precise ones. I am probably overthinking this to some extent, but was unsure if using something like a table-bound skill saw or a band saw and a sanding board were going to be precise enough. I am used to making things like tables or cutting laminate floors with a Skill Saw, but slight mistakes there are pretty easily correctable. However, I will do some book reading and not ask so many basic questions.

At any rate, my apologies.

-Cheers

I feel like a tart asking this, but bear with me . . . What is the best way to cut straight lines on a guitar, especially (but not limited to) highly figured wood? I have built tables which were square with straight lines, but I could plane those and not worry about things like neck alignment and other instrument-considerations.

I guess I am moderately concerned since a curved surface seems to be more easily corrected than a total straight line. Is it best to rough-cut it with the bandsaw and then file/sand it down to your straight-drawn line (on the template) or template (on the guitar body a/o copies of the template)? Or can you use a table skill saw with the sliding board, maybe using a straight edge planed board as a guide? The sliding table saw seems like it would work, but would that be more likely to cause tearout? And once I have a perfectly straight template, do I just tape the template to the wood and then route around it and then sand? Also, any tips to make sure you sand it straight and not angle it one way or the other?

As always, if there is a thread about this, please let me know.

-Cheers

Out of curiosity, does anybody have the ESP DV8 (or LTD V-500) and Dean VMNT dimensions and know how they compare to the Jackson King? I know a few have made DV8 clones, but have not seen dimensions or plans. I also presume the VMNT is pretty close if not identical, which it just well may be.

Also, what difference does the reportedly larger body make on the DV8 or VMNT? Are they less neck-heavy, bassier, more/less comfortable, pretty much the same?

-Cheers

There was some mention of Carvin... I own well over a dozen Carvin guitars, and their necks are just great.

I considered the Carvin 25" neck option. Only two things leading me away from that:

1) I am leaning toward a 25.5" neck.

2) I like supporting smaller businesses. While Carvin qualifies, Doug at SoulMate is a smaller business and I like to help out the smaller guys. However, I would definitely use Carvin parts a/o buy a Carvin guitar in a heart beat. Their new semi-hollows look sweet, as do, well, most of them.

Thank you for the recommendation all of you Carvin folk. And everybody else.

-Cheers

Not looking for Tone Voodoo, however:

1) What is the basic sound difference going to be between a 22- and a 24-fret guitar (obviously on the neck pickup)?

2) Does anybody find they like or even prefer the tone of the neck pickup on a 24-fret guitar? I know Hiscock recommends against them because the 22-fret neck places the pickup right on a node or whatnot (where the base note repeat at the harmonic). However maybe people tend to find one or the other more appealing for one reason or another, or specific types of music.

-Cheers

I realize there will not be THAT much difference, but how much of a compromise, good or bad, in sound or comfort, is the 25" scale vs. the 24.75" & 25.5"? Any pro's or con's?

-Cheers

One final question/clarification . . . What measurements or tools would I use to calculate the curvature of the inside of the wings of the King V? And use that to make my own template for it tonight. It looks like they curve a bit like a bow. Is there any way to guess that, should I make my own radius within a certain range, or just leave it totally flat?

-Cheers

And with the maple cap, are you adding that on top of the 1-3/4" thick body, or using a thinner cap to make up the difference, with a thinner mahogany body? These all make a difference, as well. If you're using a cap, you have the opportunity to chamber out the mahog, if you're concerned about weight.

If I add a cap it would be on top of a 1.75" thick body. I am not concerned about the weight unless it is ridiculously heavy (>12 lbs.). I am comfortable with my ~10 lb. Heritage H-150 (basically a Les Paul); if it is around that weight, maybe with some LP-characteristics with the obvious differences due to scale and design, I would be pleased. Just looking for a bit of that LP sort of mass/thickness/low-end in the sound with some nice not-shrill sparkle in the top end.

-Cheers

Out of curiosity, would using Gibson LP specs as far as body thickness on a King V design (Mahogany or Limba body, either with or without the maple cap) be too heavy/massive, or pure overkill in any regard? And any thoughts on what the 25.5" scale would do with a King V built with those dimensions and material(s)? I am guessing it would not be any more extreme in weight, size, etc. than an Explorer.

-Cheers

The longer scale length really did a lot to brighten up the sound of the instrument, and a little more definition and snap to the lower registers. I think your choice of a longer scale length, coupled with some appropriate pickups should get you to the sound you're looking for, regardless of wood type.

Thanks for the input. That is what I was kind of hoping. I think a nice, understated-looking V could be nice with a nice finish in Mahogany.

It won't sound like a tele, but I don't think that's quite what you're going for anyway.

No. However, I am getting it coil-tapped for diversity. I am going with a V-shape for ease of upper-fret playability (the lower horn seems to bother me more than anything else when I play high on the guitar) and I find the geometric symmetry kind of nice. And I have never had one. But I am not doing it just so it screams high-distorted metal, at least not all the time.

Anyway, thank you a million.

-Cheers