ToddW

Sounds like the wilkinson roller nut fender used before going to the smaller LSR. I have that on my Strat Plus, which was made in 88 I think. It's at a friends house so I'm not sure. The LSR is actually only a touch bigger than a stock nut, and comes with a small adapter to let you fit it into the wilkinson roller nut cut out. If it is just the smaller LSR roller nut, look at earvana's site, I think they have a drop in replacement. If it's the bigger wilkinson roller nut, you need to make something like that piece that comes with the LSR. As to sustain, neither I, nor anybody who has ever played my strat, thought it sustained less than a standard strat (or at least nobody ever said they did), but that might be due to the Lace sensors and the fact that it's fairly heavy for an alder body. Todd

OK, you made me look. And I agree his site is a riot and that many of his claims are a bit silly. But it looks like he does nice clean work, and his prices aren't THAT extreme for a handmade instrument. So if you want a simple, lightweight, handmade guitar . . . his seem like a viable option. That said, did you notice that he's only built 136 guitars, but racked up over 20 glowing reviews on HarmonyCentral. OK, there was one review by a guy who said it was a really nice guitar, but returned it. And there was one guy that mentioned buying the guitar on ebay for $850. But if you do the math, almost 20% of Zachary guitar owners write long reviews on HarmonyCentral that rate everything as wonderful. Even the "features" of the guitars, clearly designed to be simple, get rated as 8, 9, or 10. It obviously makes you wonder, but . . . who cares? Caveat Emptor, right?

Beautiful work Cliff. Can you do inlays in boards that are already radius'd?

The treble "bleed" is just the cap when they are parallel. The resistor is changing the slope of the volume pot's curve to make it less abrupt at the extremes. Easier than finding custom log pots! With the resistor in line with the cap, you're changing how much treble can bypass the pot's resistance at any point other than full volume. But I don't consider it a treble bleed, because it's doing the opposite. It's preventing the pots resistance from filtering/stopping some of the higher frequencies, and instead shunting them right to the amp. Todd

So RestorationAD, where are you located that Raleigh Craigslist is local to you? -Todd

I'll look for Kosmoski's book on amazon. Just got "How to paint your car" by parks and Jacobs at barnes and noble this weekend. Seems to have a lot of the basics including safety. If Kosmoski favors HOK, then the same can be said about these guys and PPG since there are pics of PPG stuff everywhere. But they seem unbiased about what you should use. . . pick a brand and learn it . . . TCP global has some of those videos. Found the list searching for Kustom Shop Videos. Will probably check out YouTube also LOL. Thanks, Todd PS) Just got my new compressor yesterday, and a refrigerated dryer for $40 last week

Hey Jim, Syxxstring wasn't being beligerent. Must be local language use. His saying "But my art doesn't suck either" was just a nice way of saying, "I'm pretty good, but I think those guys are better." It wasn't an implication you were saying his work sucked, so . . . um . . . you were actually the first one to get ornery on this thread. Must be because you're from Orkney. Anyway, having spent a couple of hours playing with my airbrush yesterday, I sort of agree with both of you. I think you can learn the basics from some internet tutorials and practice, (although I prefer to have a book next to me). But those CD's are a bargain if you want to learn the more advanced stuff and can't affort the time or money for a class. So, are there any CD's on using an HVLP gun and spraying Uros? Practicing with that stuff will be pricey! Thanks, Todd

Delayed reply Paul, crazy week/weekend! I have that board, all the parts and the chassis just sitting around right now, but I also have everything except the OT for a larger 40W design I drew up for a friend. Once the three guitars I'm working on now are done, I'll get at least one of those done. I am so slow on guitars. Amps are easier! Todd

But, you can put it at the heal. It's just that access becomes an issue.

Here's the easiest way to build the firefly. But you can't mod it that way. I have the board, but haven't build it up yet. Todd http://web.mac.com/calhoun/PCB/Firefly_PCB.html

If it's the Gotoh ones, I was told metal up, paper tape down. That's how I epoxied mine in. Todd

There are a lot of attenuators out there, and the hotplate is a decent one. You can also look into power scaling, which would go inside your amp. Google London Power and you can read about power scaling. But making a big amp sound the same at low volumes as it does loud isn't easy, and it isn't cheap. You can go to AX84.com and look at the schematics for the firefly. It's an easy build. Or just watch for a used practice amp, which is your best option for quiet. I have 1/2 watt and 3 watt all tube amps behind me right now. Even the 1/2 watt one is plenty loud for home jamming. Best, Todd

actually, I didn't like that look either. but http://www.woodturningart.com/pagefour.htm or http://www.woodturningart.com/pageseven.htm are interesting and don't look like oak to me. One of these days I want to try and bleach a piece, then dye it some super bright color to see what effect I get. Todd

I think it'd look good, but google some images of bleached wenge too. You may like it since is shows the grain more. http://www.1stdibs.com/vintagelighting/fur...l.php?id=166320 Todd

Hey, if I thought of it too, it was very obvious. Gibson must have thought of it too, but been too lazy to impliment it. Todd

At Cornell, at least among the students, Sagan seemed to have the reputation of being very full of himself. I don't know if it was true. I do remember a silly story about a fraternity getting mad for no reason because they assumed it was true. Sagan's house overlooked the gorge, across from the fraternity. My freshman or sophomore year they invited him to dinner, and just got a call from his assistant, who had no idea the invitation was from his neighbor or even a Cornell fraternity, saying something like he wasn't available that week, but if they wanted to book him to speak she would try to arrange it. The fraternity assumed Sagan was just living up to his reputation and would only have dinner with them if they paid him, so they painted a banner saying basically F . . . U, and then put on their roof so it faced his home. Turns out Sagan wasn't in Ithaca that semester. As to being lucky to meet Asimov, I agree! It's funny though, I was just a kid, and while I'd read the Foundation books and a few others, I hadn't realized yet how exceptional he was. Maybe that's why he took the time to chat with me. Unlike the adults, I wasn't in awe of him. I just thought he was a cool guy who wrote entertaining stories and had a goofy beard. Well, OK, that's still how I think of him

Ahh, you're saying is should have been culled because it doesn't make the cut?

Hey, it's a Pepperidge Farm, Cheddar Corfish. I like it so far. Flipping it looks like it may be more ergonomoc, and it solves the wrist torquing problem I'll have putting the tuners in the cut out, if you're going that route. You move fast!

Hi Wez, Was I the first to suggest that? If so, the name is all yours. When I thought of it, I googled Vus, but couldn't find out if it had some cool meaning to go with War. WaraVos didn't sound good, but would have meant "War to you" I think. I did notice you left some headstock room, I'm thinking 0 fret and standard tuners at the base using a cheap $15 Wilkinson roller bridge. May go with 1/2" maple top, 1" purple heart, and 1/4" maple back. That way when I router off the top where the tuners need to be sticking up to get the correct down angle and router the back to get it to the right thickness, the footstock(?) will be PH. It also means the "blade" will have a different color edge after I bevel it and makes doing the control routes and cavities easy. Going with stock/cheap tuners, it's gonna be an uncomfortable wrist bend to tune, but I'm not seeing any Steinberger's on ebay, and given a few of us are probably looking right now, I won't bid without making sure I don't bid one of you guys up. Not sure I see an easy way around that. Maybe it'll never go out of tune because it'll be too ugly to play.

Call up autozone, there's one is essex junction IIRC. That's assuming you're near Burlington. Or try Napa. I know Autozone sells them for under $5 and they're as accurate as the StewMac set at 1/5th the price. Best, Todd

London Power if you're looking for a super versatile studio amp! But Kevin's stuff is in a different league than those others, and cost . . . well: http://www.londonpower.com/products/studio.htm

Umm...in the COMIC book industry?...Oh,so he is right up there with Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov then... Hmmm, let's see... Carl Sagan was an astronomer... Isaac Asimov wrote sci-fi and science textbooks... Nope. They're not up to his level as an author yet. Dismiss Alan Moore all you like because of his chosen medium, but until you've read his work, you're not qualified to criticize him. I hate arguments about who's smarter, or who's a better author. I was lucky enough to hear Asimov speak and then get to meet and speak with him about writing. That was ages and ages ago, but he was a pretty bright guy. I remember I liked him, but thought the beard was silly. You either have a lot of ego to think you look good in mutton chops, or you have really bad taste. Sagan was at Cornell when I went there. Also a bright guy, but couldn't say if he was actually brilliant or just provocative. Moore is a wing nut who writes entertaining comic books/graphic novels. I like the Japanese style better, and Moore's beard was/is worse than Asimov's was! Tell me he doesn't look like Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies in his public photos.

Wez, that's a pretty amazing improvement, but stop showing unless everyone gives up on building one. I don't want to get acused of copying when I carve it into an ax. I sort of started already, but all I did was route the truss rod into the neck, and lay out the Purple heart and Maple, so no harm done if the actual build off tanks. Hope it doesn't, it'd inspire me to build on a schedule.

WarVus ? (Is still looks like a fantasy battle axe to me.)

Wow, this is one UGLY guitar we're working off. Should make this a lot of fun! My opinion, Wez should be able to build this however he likes at what ever cost he feels is in his best interest to maximize is ROI. I'll be happy to see what someone at his level can do with such a silly design.