darren wilson

There have been rumours that Neal Schon has a signature Les Paul coming from Gibson with a Floyd and a scooped away neck heel.

I totally agree with you! You have to respect the wood and pay tribute to the tree by makind something beatiful from its remains. That tree gave its life so we could make music. The least we can do is treat it with love and respect.

Where do you get all that beautiful wood?!

I think it may be more to do with Glen's method for photographing guitars. He seems convinced that lying the guitar flat on its back facing a flat overcast sky is the best way. This approach may work fine for capturing detailed shots of solid paint or regular woodgrain, but flat light will flatten out any figuring. You need directional light to bring out the depth in the grain.

I really like that guitar... i'm curious as to how the pickup is mounted. Maybe it's a DiMarzio with Parker-style mounting screws. I think that's one of the most unique headstocks i've seen, and doesn't bother me all that much. I'd just make some minor modifications so it gets straight string pull. It also looks like there's some kind of odd joint at the headstock... i'd like to see some more detailed pics.

I wonder why they don't just go the extra step and put a layer of chrome on top of the nickel.

I wonder why they don't just go the extra step and put a layer of chrome on top of the nickel.

Rear-routing for your control cavity isn't really much more work, but you have to be more careful with your pickup cavity routing, because you can't cover it with a piece of plastic. The whole point behind mounting all the electronics on the pickguard is so guitars can be mass-assembled more quickly. You'd have people (or machines) soldering all the electronics onto pickguards in one area, necks and bodies being done elsewhere. Bolt on a neck, slap on the hardware, slap on a pickguard pre-loaded with electronics, hook up three wires, and you're done. If you want a guitar without a pickguard, just plan it out that way and go for it.

Wrong Korea.

You could go hardtail. I gradually stopped using the trem a number of years ago and i don't miss it one bit. Hardtails are much less work than ANY trem system.

1+2) I don't have any experience with neck-thrus, but i've seen them go both ways, with parallel-sided "paddle" planks down the middle of the body, or extended out to follow the neck taper. Parallel looks better to me. The width of the "paddle" would depend on how wide your neck blank is. Again, i've also seen guitars (e.g. Carvin) where the neck-thru is only as wide as the neck, or barely wider. 3) No rear route needed. There's a small route on the surface for clearance of the cam and springs, but no backplate is needed. 4) Kahler has never had a 7-string trem, to my knowledge. But in this day and age of CNC machining, you never know... they may be able to tweak the designs and do a one-off or small run of 7-string Kahlers. For a price. 5) Lots of 7-string necks don't have graphite reinforcement. You could also strengthen the neck by doing a 3-piece (or more) laminate. Graphite rods are just extra insurance, should the wood react strangely over time. 6) That's really your call. If you aren't currently playing 7-strings, you might want to try it out long-term before committing the time and resources for such a project if you don't know if you'll really use it in the end. Your choices for hardware and pickups for a 7-string are a little more limited, but everything is generally still available. It's too bad Maniac Music discontinued their 7-string Sustainiac model.

Some stuff from Ikea is a good buy. But i've learned from experience that a lot of Ikea furniture isn't built to last they use cheap particle board and even cheaper hardware to put it together. It doesn't save you much money when you have to keep replacing furniture every few years as it wears out or falls apart.

One of the big Korean factories, either Cort or Samick, was bought by the Korean government and now operates as "World". They manufacture guitars for Ibanez, Yamaha, Jackson, etc. There's no doubt that the ESP/LTD models, some Schecters and the Jackson "USA" models are made in the same factory... i don't know if this is the World facility or not. The "USA" Kramers are made in Korea. The only American parts on them are likely the pickups, which are made by Gibson (the current owner of the Kramer and Steinberger brands). I'd love to see a 6/12 Steinberger doubleneck again. The 12-string Steinberger bridge was brilliant. And Ikea, like just about any other company that deals with manufactured goods, outsources their production to wherever product can be made cheapest to their specifications. A lot of times the companies making product for Ikea don't even make furniture as their primary business. It's a really interesting business model. But Ikea really is in the business of selling a lifestyle and a brand. Their products are secondary, at best.

Damn. Beautiful work, Lex! I absolutely looove walnut. Beautiful figuring on that bass, and a very pleasing and unique body shape.

I'm not sure what you're asking here. On a 27" scale neck, you should be able to use regular guitar strings. I use GHS Boomers .011 to .050 with a .070 low B on my 7 string, and there's plenty of string left over at the head to fit on a 27" scale instrument. Higher tension is kinda the whole point of going with longer scale. If you want easier bends, go with lighter gauge strings, or stick with standard scale lengths.

There's also a third-party Windows app called SnagIt, which does a great job of taking various kinds of screen shots. Very useful. Here are a few i made a while ago:

http://www.sustainiac.com I didn't provide the link before, because i figured it was obvious.

Looks really cool! I would go with a Sustainiac Stealth or Stealth Plus, because you'll have choice of bridge pickups. Wiring might be a little trickier, but the instructions that come with the kit are excellent. Not for the faint hearted, but still manageable if you know what you're doing with soldering. The circuit board is also smaller, so you won't have to rout out half of the back of the body, so that part of the installation will actually be easier. If you know exactly which pickups and switching you're going to use, Allan Hoover at Sustainiac will also provide you with a custom wiring diagram that will show you exactly what needs to get wired where. He'll also advise you if you're proposing a pickup or switching combination that won't give you good results. This is a huge advantage, versus trying to reverse-engineer the Fernandes unit if you want to change the bridge pickup. All magnetic sustainers will automatically bypass the pickup selector and switch to the bridge pickup when the transducer is active in sustainer mode. The middle pickup is not an issue, because it won't be in use when the sustainer is on. A humbucker in the middle is actually a great sound. One of my guitars has a JB in the middle with series/split/parallel switching, and it's super-versatile. It's a very open sound (especially in parallel mode), a little more mellow and with more depth than at the bridge. Put a hotter, more obnoxious-sounding bridge pickup in there, and you'll have a lot of tonal options.

Organical http://www.organical.net

That's a gorgeous piece of wood, wes... can't wait to see it finished! How are you going to handle the void on the upper bout? I've often thought about using a piece of burl walnut or something similar, but the voids in heavily figured woods are always an issue.

Yeah, i thought about doing that, too, but would like to use exotic woods. I was specifically meaning the routs for the bridge. I don't think i've ever seen a Steinberger with the bridge removed.

That's so cool. I've thought about getting one of the cheaper MusicYo Steinbergers and making an Ibanez Radius/JS-style body for it. Are the routs tricky to do?

I don't really care much for them, but i understand why it's become so important for them in the last few years. It's the pickup manufacturers' way of making sure their "name brand" gets recognized, especially when their products are being used as OEM parts on factory guitars. I'd rather they just branded the underside of the baseplates (and included some kind of stamp or sticker indicating the model number).

On production instruments, ESP and Ibanez are very close... it becomes a matter of personal preference. They're both very good. One big difference, though, is that ESP has a true custom shop that anyone can order from. You can get *exactly* the guitar you want from ESP (for a price) whereas Ibanez will only make custom guitars for endorsed artists.

The Jackson PC1 has a quilted maple top and a flame maple neck (and fretboard!) and i think it looks pretty cool. It works surprisingly well.