darren wilson

I've heard really good things about Swamp Ash for getting great clarity and 'openness' in the lower registers.

As far as i know, search engine spiders don't have the intelligence to register as members on Internet discussion boards. But maybe the new Invision board software is smart enough to recognize when the spider is indexing content, so it identifies it as a "member". Dunno what the orange link means.

I was loosely basing it on a Seymour Duncan MM replacement, but nothing really specific. Those BassLab instruments are really... interesting. Most of the designs are aesthetically kind of "off" to my eye in terms of their overall visual balance, but there are some interesting shapes and contours. I really wanted my bass to look like it had a skin stretched over muscle, tendons and bone. I'd love to do a bass with the Lightwave system. I wouldn't even bother making the bass hollow, since the Lightwave apparently already sounds very acoustic and open like an upright bass.

The body also isn't rounded enough... it almost looks "beveled" where the curves meet the flatter parts in the middle. It looks like its scale is a little longer, too. I would have also set the neck a bit deeper into the body. Having it sticking way out and with the 8-inline headstock, it'll never fit in a standard case. Having to carry a guitar around in a bass case sucks.

Oh, believe me... i know i do! Thanks for the input. The contours will probably get some refinement and tweaking once i start carving the real thing and i get a sense of the ergonomics on it. I'd definitely consider putting a piezo on the solidbody one... i'd just like to find a piezo mono-rail bridge.

Very cool! (And very ambitious building an 8 as your first build!) If this is your first guitar, what have you been building in class? Dulcimers and such?

It looks about as thick as the roundover on the top, so yeah, i'd agree that it's at least 1/8" to 1/4" thick, which is too thick to be veneer.

Also, you don't see too many fanned-fret instruments that have a spread of more than 2.5" or 3". Any more of a spread than that, and it negatively impacts the playability, as the frets become too angled at the low and high ends of the fretboard.

I think a 3+3 headstock looks better than the 6-inline on that model, but why not design something that's uniquely yours instead of just mimicking another design?

No.

If you're looking at learning serious classical technique and theory, you could always look into the Royal Conservatory.

If you're going to do something automotive-inspired for the soundhole(s), at least do something a little more tasteful than the Z3's 'gills'. My vote is for a mesh-backed blunted oval with a metal bar or two across the outside of it, like the new M5 or the Aston Marton Vantage

Mmm... i love the look of those Rivera TBRs! I tried a used S120 in a store a couple of years ago, and really couldn't get a tone i liked out of it. But my tastes have changed a bit in the last year, so i might give one a whirl if i see one around these parts. (I've started moving away from the melt-your-face-off Mesa tone to a less-distorted kinda Matchless tone for a lot of my rhythm work. Digital models do have some benefits for those of us whose tastes change with the weather! )

I saw that a couple of weeks ago, and while it's intriguing, i don't see how spreading the string tension out over the whole lower bout is any more beneficial than anchoring the strings in a heel block or floating tailpiece of some kind.

I'm not even sure where the inspiration for this came from. Normally, i'm a guitar guy, but for some reason i got thinking about basses a few weeks ago. I think my brain just got started doing sort of a mutation of a Conklin body style with hints of an Ibanez Ergodyne EDA and some Ergo Instruments in there somewhere, along with a few of my own twists. I didn't do my usual hand sketches on this one at all. I went straight into Illustrator and started creating a scale drawing, and after a couple of revisions, this is what came out: I envisioned this as a neck-thru bass, with stringers of wenge and purpleheart (or maybe wenge and bubinga) and body wings of walnut. I'm also exploring the idea of using some alternative/composite (but still natural) materials. Its shape will be very three-dimensional, blending crisp edges with flowing, organic forms. Today i came up with a fretless acoustic variant, inspired by bassman's burl fretless hybrid. This one i think would be built as a bolt-on, with a hollowed-out mahogany back and either spruce or some exotic top, with nothing but a piezo. I have no idea when i'll be able to build these, as i don't have access to a workshop right now. But they're here in my brain for now, and will probably get refined a few more times before i get to the point where they start becoming reality. Comments and critiques are welcome!

Probably because it all gets snapped up with those ridiculous Buy It Now prices. Who needs to bid when you can buy it immediately for a great price?

My life has been forever changed by winning the last Tremol-No contest. I've lost 20 lbs, i've grown hair back (where i want it) and i'm more popular than ever with females of all species! All thanks to Tremol-No! What's under the cover? YOUR MOM! No wait... she's under MY covers!

Some people just can't keep a secret!

Wouldn't Randy Rhoads have just used his Les Paul (or dual volume/tone Jackson V) and its standard 3-way selector with one of the pickups turned all the way down? Or did he have a special kill switch on his guitars? Tom Morello's kill switch is a Les Paul style 3-way toggle that's wired up so the signal is ON on both sides of the switch, but OFF in the middle. That's how he gets those cool fluttery gate effects. He can just flick it back and forth really quickly and get super-fast stutters happening.

I'm not liking it too much, but that's just me. I would have rather seen the flames start on the edge of the guitar. The black-bursted edges detract from the realism. Hopefully the clearcoat will add some depth to the flames. It's a fine balance, i guess with doing a show guitar. On the one hand, you really want to show the extent of your skills, but on the other hand, you want the guitar to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. I would have done it without the skull, personally, but again, that's just me.

Any true "Dime" tribute guitar should be a set-neck Dean ML. If it's got a bolt-on neck, it's just not right.

Yeah... and that's why the other two neckplates they have are of SRV and Kurt Cobain.

There seems to be a growing trend toward ported closed-back cabinets these days as well. My Genz Benz G-Flex 212 is ported and it allows more of that bass "punch" to come through the front of the cab. It sounds huge.

In patch mode, the CTL button is programmable, (as is the expression pedal) and you can have it set to activate, de-activate or change a ton of parameters at once, either in toggle mode or as a momentary switch (the effect only stays active while you're standing on the pedal). The CTL pedal is also used for the tap tempo when you've got delay or tremolo effects that have their time base set to tap input. Yes, the GT-6 can be operated in manual mode. http://www.bossgtcentral.com/pics/gt6frontbig.jpg Press the "Manual" button and the four pedals operate as Preamp, Overdrive/Distortion, Delay and Chorus. I would assume you can assign the CTL pedal to turn another effect on and off, or use it for tap delay tempo. But i never, ever use it in manual mode because in my opinion, the GT-6 is far more powerful in patch mode. By the way, there's a GT-8 apparently being announced at NAMM this month that adds some new stuff to the GT-6 like amp control and dual amp model capability, and it also re-arranges some of the effects. They've moved the compressor out of the FX-1 group and made it a standalone effect, as it should have been from the beginning. Wait a few weeks and the GT-6 will probably drop in price, and/or you may be able to find some cheap ones ones on eBay as people upgrade. Or if you want the features of the GT-8, that'll be an option, too.

I'm sure it will change the tone if you lengthen the scale length. If you have a body but want a different neck on it, Warmoth does make a 24" scale neck, as well as Jagstang bodies.