Digideus

I think it was Tokai who started using Figured oak for les paul tops a few years ago. As I remember, they looked awesome! Most of the comments about oak on here are that it makes good firewood. I think its a good iead to try one tho. Perhaps an Oak Impaler body but thinner than the others youve made? you could always use Oak wings on a mahogany thru neck and use some Maple or Swamp Ash to offset the woods. I think it would be an awesome look. Either way matt, whatever you do will be awesome. Pics please mate!

neil moser inspired by any chance? Looking kewl tho. All those designs are awesome!

how long is a piece of string? I know its an unhelpful answer, but a majority of people on here would agree that the amount of time varies depending on your budget, time to put into the project, your desired finished product, how much work you do as opposed to buying parts ready made, etc.... As a first build, you should maybe consider buying a ready made neck. Necks seem to be a difficult area to master and if you didnt know about neck angle, I doubt youll know enough to plunge in and make a whole neck with no problems. The advantage of ready made necks are also in the time it will take to build your guitar. You dont have to build it, shape it, install a truss rod, add the fingerboard, fret it, add inlays, etc.... you just bolt it on. maybe you do feel like having a go, and thats great. I wish you luck and would love to see the finished product, but bear in mind, if you ruin it, its the cost of the materials all over again and longer timescale to get your project back on track. still, go for it if you feel competitant!

What is it story with Ed Roman? I keep coming across his name and the countless horrible comments abut the man afterwards. Not that I want to slur his name, but obviously people have an opinion for a reason and I for one Would want to know why.

yeah thats cos the wood is purpleheart agreed and agreed. Matt knows how much I love his impaler design. err dude, lighten up. When I said scroll up and read about purpleheart i was of course refering to the fact that matt just put clear finish over the wood, and had you read the whole thread like most of us have, you would know this. Im not being horrible, in fact compared to some replies to posts on here, I am being extremely nice! Dont take it to heart. You got it wrong. end of story. We all get it wrong occasionally, it would be better to just say "Oh i see, thats why its pink" Id love to, although im sure he has no interest. Perhaps Eric Peterson would be better to discuss tone woods with!

The Steinberger tuners are my tuner of choice and I definately intend to use them. Im interested in what you mean by less of a headstock angle. are we talking dramatically different? If so, i see it using a smaller piece of wood (depth from fingerboard to the tip of the headstock)

Matt, DAMMIT MAN! YOU ROCK! Thats so sweet! \m/

hahaha, pinkish finish! hahahaha scroll up and read about PURPLEHEART Matt, people put down others achievements out of spiteful human nature, but screw them. the Impaler is awesome and I would love to have one in my collection. Youre achievement is a completely amazing to me and im building the Vengence guitar because of the impaler!!!! surely thats a sure sign that its awesome. Anyway, im off to see and interview the ORIGINAL LINE UP OF TESTAMENT TODAY! W00T! \m/

Jeez! A FREE ticket! thats one hell of a friend! Mind you, I got Devin Townsend coming over with Strapping Young Lad in June, and TESTAMENT with the original line up this Sunday! OH FULL OF GLEE AM I!!! Anyway, I love the Impaler dude, how does it play? Is it balenced?

Hey Matt, good to see you back! Yeah, shes coming on. I actually have a deal in place with my friend at Black machine guitars. hes gonna market the design and pay me commission on any he builds! Ill get some pics as soon as I have the money to get all the bits!

Thats what I thought

guys, A friend of mine took his guitar to ireland last year to do some session work. He says that it was fine when he left home, all packed in its hiscox case. When he got to where he was going however, the instrument has had intonation problems from F12 up He has scared himself cos some guitar tech told him that leaving it strung on a plane would have caused the neck to warp. Ive never heard of a problem like this before. Does a planes pressurised cabin cause any sort of adverse effects on an instrument with its strings still on? Its an Epiphone les paul by the way.

www.baileyguitars.co.uk Mark Bailey runs courses from his workshop in coventry i believe and they cost about £400 and up depending on the type of build you want to do. E-mail him for details as he is really cheap and quoted me aopproximately 1/3 of the price for a custom Gibson V than a few others did! if you want a full time course and you live near london, Merton Collage do a 2 year course on Instrument repair and construction. Other than thet, read books and do it yourself. Its not rocket science, but it is a learning process that will take over your life.

No-one has mentioned the presevation of wood species either. Most wood now comes from managed forests where for every tree that is cut down, new ones are planted to replenish the loss. I just thought it was prudent to remind everyone of this as I think its important for any wood industry to preserve the long term availability of materials we use on a daily basis and the thought of just tearing down a forest makes me a little uneasy.

I dont like neck shims. I wouldnt rely on a lump of duct tape,pick guard to provide the tone from my neck wood. My first thought would have been to recess the bridge to correct a angle-less neck pocket, but if someone has bought a custom tele from the a custom shop, that should have been taken care of. I agree with him on this count. Ifyou buy a custom guitar, as a customer you expect a certain level of aptitude from the company that builds it it set it up as well. Theres an important lesson there for anyone thinking about building guitars for others. be prepared to have your work criticised by customers who have high expectations, tho this is most probably a case of shoddy workmanship.

im planning to use them on my stuff because they can be mounted as normal and wont clutter the headstock with tuning pegs. I also think theres some possibilities that you could use them for headless guitars

I like the V design, but im a sucker for Vs anyway! Personally, I would have got a longer piece of wood and used the top edge of the v as the top of the wood. For one you waste less wood and make less cuts. Secondly, I have a thoery about gluing two bits of wood together where the bridge and pickups are going. is going. I woulds rather glue on a wing to a solid body than join two bits of wood in the centre just for my own piece of mind. I dont like the idea of having a join line dead centre where all the routing is going. Especially if I was doing a figured top as well, then I would want to stagger the join lines in the woods. Probably just placebo effect but to me it seems like a more stable way to do it. keep us posted

Guys, I just accuired a Jackson Performer and decided to swap out the jackson licenced floyd rose with a proper one I had sitting around doing nothing. The problem is that the body thickness is 1.5" as opposed to 2" so the metal block under the trem that attaches to the springs sticks out too far. I seem to remember someone asked about this before, but search doesnt bring up anything so I guess that thread has been archived somewhere. Im thinking all I need to do is swap out the block from the licenced one and hope that the screw placement is the same on both trems. if it isnt, Im not sure what to do. Cut the offending depth off and redrill it? opinions please

OOOO Spiky Black metal guitar!!! I think the general opinion of Oak is that its good for firewood. Seriously I would consider using Ash as its a harder wood than mahogany and youll need all the strength you can get for a body that has very little mass to it. Places to check for wood are ebay (most sellers will ship to sweden) or do some searching for cabinet makers, sawmills or timber suppliers in your homeland. Ive learned that finding a local wood supplier is a part of the process of building guitars. Incidently, Some of those Neil Moser guitars were worked on by Brian Hoffman of Deicide fame (well hes not in Deicide any more!)

Hyunsu-san, making guitars is your language! doumoarigatou! gokurousan! (i hope i translated them correctly!)

Ive been working on a design to reverse the guitars layout and have the tuners on the body end and something like that steinberger nut replacement to hold the ball end up where the nut is. That way, i dont have to make a neck wit a headstock and I can use standard tuners at the other end of the guitar while I can still use a standard Tuneomatic bridge. I think the idea is sound and Im surprised more people havent tried it. I can envision some problems (Body thickness where the tuners penetrate the body, angle of strings from bridge to tuners, etc...) but solving those problems is what makes this hobby fun! My advice, draw what you are thinking and blow it up full size. Youll soon know if youre on the right track by doing some homework and putting some work in the design stage BEFORE you even touch the wood. It will save loads of money in the long run.

This is the product of a few hours of trying to design a headless guitar. Apart from failing misarably, I did manage to get some of the ideas ive been looking at into this one. For a start, it has a larger than normal neck join. I like the idea of making as much neck wood touch the body as possible. I believe it will add to the tone of the insutrment in the long run. That whole idea may just be a placebo effect, but i wanted to try it. Also, this body started off with the angled bit behind where the bridge will go (the bottom bit of the sharks mouth). the idea was to mount tuners here and string the guitar backwards. It will use a speedloader type nut, pass over a TOM bridge and be tuned from this area. Unfortunately, my design went a little off and I ended up designing a fish. the fish tail headstock was an afterthought. I will be the first to admit that this ISNT a serious design, but it has some serious ideas. has anyone ever tried these things before?

Eddie, check this thread HERE for details on UK Timber Suppliers

check HERE as I asked the exact same question and i got some interesting replies

awesome work. Cant wait to see it dyed!