djhollowman

Hey, welcome to the forums Juze! Try the calculator here: http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator Hope this answers your question. DJ

...oooohhh....looook at allll the preeeetttty colooouuurrrssssss.................... DJ

Bloody hell! 2 replies before I got mine typed! DJ

Although shimming up the bridge may well work, it doesn't tackle the heart of the problem(s). Without knowing your skills and experience levels, I'll politely suggest it would be a better idea to go through the normal setup checks and procedures first: The neck action that you love is possibly too low, if you're experiencing fretbuzz. Would it be correct to assume that you can't get the string action low enough for your taste without fretbuzz? Make sure your truss rod is adjusted properly obviously. Check that the neck is straight by looking down it from the tuners end. Check for loose or high frets. Check that the neck is bolted on tightly. Check the height and shape of the nut, and the depth of the nut slots. Are all the strings equally bad, or is one string noticably worse? A fret dress would almost certainly help. This involves levelling the tops of the frets, then reshaping the flattened fret tops back to their original shape, finishing with repolishing the frets. Not an amazingly complicated job to do yourself, but it's kinda daunting for the first-timer! Just some thoughts! DJ

I really feel that this poll is an unfair (or inaccurate) comparison. I can't vote in this, because a) I have both types of bridge, I like both types of bridge, and c) it depends what type of stuff I'm playing!! Horses for courses etc. Each type has benefits and drawbacks in equal measure I reckon. Here's just some: TOMs: no "vi-bra-to" (see? I did read all the posts first!!), easier to intonate, doesn't move with picking hand, doesn't kill guitar sound if a string breaks, better sustain (allegedly) Floyds: huge range of effects possible, tricky to set up and intonate accurately but very rewarding if successful! Surely there's room in the world for both?? DJ

Ooh ooh, can I have a go?? Here's one I got to rewire: OK OK, so it doesn't look that bad.....BUT notice how the humbucker had been "disconnected", leaving almost no wire to hook up? Notice how it's dead anyway, it has no earth! The single coil pickup had its wires chopped off right there on the pickup, leaving no choice but to solder them back in to the ends of the coils. The volume pot wouldn't turn at all - maybe it had been totally roasted by a soldering iron? I gave the boy an old humbucker I was gonna toss out, put in a new vol pot, replaced every piece of wire, and it's fine now. The owner is delighted with it, he can't believe how much quieter the humbucker is! (He knows I replaced it.) It made me smile anyway. DJ

Maverick Guitars have stopped production for now, I remember reading that in a guitar mag months ago. I also love the look (and idea) of the recessed roller-type controls, but have wondered about the amount of travel necessary to turn the volume off completely in a hurry, for instance. You don't want to have to take your finger off the control to finish turning it right around - if you see what I mean?? I like the idea of an LED-equipped switch for this one. You have the added bonus of already having power in the guitar since you're using EMGs! Cool. Stompbox killswitch could be more intuitive though....guess it's personal preference. DJ

I put mine about 2-3mm further back on my Capricorn R7t, and it intonates perfectly. DJ

I say go for it! Turd polishing is fun! It's all good learning experience, and develops skills which you can later use when you're handling "better" instruments - better to screw up a turd eh? But I also agree with Tim37's comment above. These are all things that come with experience I guess, and you have to start somewhere! DJ

Yup, kinda unusual finish.....as my wife said "It's very you" I took that as a compliment, even if it wasn't necessarily intended as one!! The neck is nice to play, and that's just polish residue on the fingerboard in the photos. Or do you mean the nut? I have no plans to change anything about the neck for now. Thanks. Yeah, that's what the guy who sprayed it for me said too, but I think I honestly prefer the extra depth in the cracks. When you see it in person it adds to the effect, maybe the camera doesn't really capture that. The spray guy wanted to keep going with the sanding and coating until he got it totally flat cos that's what he's used to doing. I told him I quite liked it with the 3D surface. Also, he worked on it for nothing, so I didn't want to take advantage of his generosity!

What a great idea! Nicely executed too! You should pitch these to guitar stores in your area. DJ

Wez, did you see the short "feature" on this guy on The One Show on BBC1 the other night? Is Simon a member here? DJ

i'm sorry dude i promise i'll wont reply your comments anymore no no no, you're fine! T'was only a joke, your comments are very welcome! DJ

Ah dammit Rex, ya spoiled my continuity! Oh well....

....I LOVE IT!!! It's almost a crackle finish! So I had him clearcoat over it! (Ooops, stuck a 3rd photo in there!) So, that's as she stands at the moment then. How long before she gets another makeover is anyone's guess! It may be some time, as I must get on with Project Chibanez now. DJ

The reason it remained in white primer was because I always wanted it in a swirled finish. But I couldn't get a result I was happy with. Then, I thought "I wonder how easy it would be to make monkey grip??", so: I made one. (It's actually really easy) Then I needed to get the guitar primed again. So I took it to my local garage, and he primed it. But when I went to see it, he said "Errrr, there's been a reaction......" Oh. That's not right. But......

Of course, converting a non-locking nut style neck into one which has a locking nut presents it's own problems. Here's what I did with this one: And I couldn't resist setting it all up to test it: That's a DiMarzio Evo II in the bridge BTW (big Vai fan!) Everyone thought it looked really good in white primer, myself included, and it stayed like that for months: until the bug bit again........

Ta-dah! Rout completed: Next was to get her tidied up with filler where necessary, and get the primer done: Looks better already, eh? DJ

Hi all! Here's some photos of another project I've had going for some time. (I'll try to stick to the 2 pics per post rule) This particular guitar has become my test mule for every time I think of something daft to try, poor wee beastie. It started life as a humble Washburn WR150, like this: (Yes, I know it looks like an RG.....most of my stuff does!) So, anyway, I wanted to retrofit a Floyd bridge. This necessitated inserting a block to accomodate the new trem rout shape: This was cut out using the large CNC milling machine at work.

Thanks! The above photo makes it look a lot worse than it actually is...I would like to point out! The body edge will be nicely parallel to the pickguard edge when finished! (Although I may slightly modify the shape of the pickguard horn too! ) DJ

Bump! I've made a little progress with this one lately. I decided that the lower horn just didn't look JEM-y enough, so..... That's getting better! DJ

Looking good man! I love it (loud)! Funnily enough, I've just recently seen another one of these at a gig I was at by Dressed To Kill, the UK's best KISS tribute act! I'm sure I saw the Feline Guitars logo on the back of this one: I'll have to ask Gary...er, I mean Gene about it! DJ Should look great with blood dripping down it.....

Sweet. See yer in the pub then! clink I'm right up off the north coast: Orkney, to be exact. Oh, and last time someone said "promise I won't steal it" to me, the "it" in question went walkies, all by itself, funny that. DJ

C.C.DeVille...chortle! With that "Devil's tuning fork" design, at least if someone starts heckling your blond bouffant Matt, you can pin 'em by the neck with the end of yer axe!!! 'Tis a lovely shade of green! I'm wondering if you guys all get Blackadder where you are? "Could I be that I hold in my mortal hands a lump of purest......green??" (Lord Percy) I'd like to see the looks of peoples faces when you walk out on stage with that bad boy, then see them change when you TEAR THEM A NEW ONE! Sweet. Seriously, nice work Matt. DJ

Thank you for your kind words guys! Just wanna point out that it's just metal polish gunge beside the frets in this photo (not remnants of superglue or anything!), just hadn't been wiped clean yet! Yeah, she's coming up well! Just working on fixing that broken retainer screw hole now, might have her strung up this weekend yet! I epoxied the bridge post bush for now - we'll see if it holds firm. If it doesn't, well there are other more elaborate options open to me! I think there's something to sort out with the bridge too. I still really wanna get a sustainer pickup in this one, just to try it! DJ