avengers63

Dave Myka did a guitar (look for it on his site - I don't remember any details other than that) which was along these lines. IIRC, he made a thick bodied semi-acoustic that had a solid neck-through core. The twist was that the top was about 1/4" or so above the solid core. Specific bracing was needed to pull this off, but his site has tons of progress pics, so you'd be able to see what he did. I'd imagine it had plenty of acoustic sweetness with a piezo bridge and the awsome semi-acoustic electric tones. He's pretty helpful with advice & feedback if you find it and ask him about it.

For my eyes, in a lot of cases, too much of the same thing can be either overwhelming or boring. Something is needed to break it up visually. EG: A 5A quilted top LP is georgous, but put in that small p/g, and it breaks it up just enough so that the top isn't SO powerful. It's a delicate balancing act. I feel the exact opposite reason is why a p/g is sometimes necessary on an UNfigured wood, like this guitar has. Yes the wood is very pretty. It's just not interesting like a figured wood is. In this case, the p/g actually adds to the visual interest instead of reigning it in as it would on the 5A top. Another delicate balancing act. Take the same principle and apply it to a solid-color paint job. Sure, they can look OK without a p/g. Add one in, however, and it all seems to come to life somehow. Like you said, sometimes it just completes the look. In this instance, the big p/g just plain works. What isn't hurting anything is the fact that there are very familiar, successfully time-tested design elements at work here. The body has aspects of a tele, strat, and jazzmaster/mustang in it. The headstock it remiscent of both strat & tele. The p/g pulls from the 2-HB tele deluxe and a j-bass knob layout. In all honestly, this design & layout is like a brand new worn out pair of pants. It's familiar & comfortable, like we've had it around for a while, but not worn out and used up. The more I look at it, the more I dig the whole thing.

Thanks!

Avenger Prototype I put 5 coats of shellac on the body and 3 on the cavity cover & rings. Now they sit and dry for about a week. The tuner holes were too small for the Wilkinsons I bought, so they needed to be drilled out. Two of them ended up about 1mm off, but considering I was trying to center the bit into an existing hole rather than make a straight line on a blank slate, I'm not upset. The test fit of the tuners has a nice snug fit. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0110.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0111.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0112.jpg I also cut out the inlay on my pretty new scroll saw. On this pic, the inlay is just sitting on the headstock. I made it from a sapele cutoff. Once I get this inlaid, I'll say down some shellac on the neck. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0113.jpg Bloodwood & Longhi LPjr The body was finish sanded and cleaned up last night, and the 1st coat of sanding sealer went on the top. Tonight, the back gets the first coat. It's sooooo much easier to use than grainfiller. The control cavity cover got it too. The flash picked up what looks like a mass of yellow dust on the face, but it's not really there.

I'm really digging the touched you put on the headstock. For this guitar, I think I'd rather have seen a matte finish instead of glossy. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I just think a more "organic" look would have been better. Other than that, I really like the whole thing, especially the huge pickguard.

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I have had almost 18 of those...lightweight... Yea... bit me. I've only been here a year.

Dunlop Tortex .73mm or standard medium-guage. Thinner ones break WAY too easy, thicker screws with the strings. And this is my 1000th post.

One more reason to love oddly figured bookmatched woods. I really like the carve, too. I've been wanting to do something similar.

I'm going to be routing my first trem cavity pretty soon - a Floyd Rose - and I need some info & advice. This will be on a 1 3/4" thick body. First, what pitfalls do I need to watch out for? Second, what is the depth of the top recess? Third, what is the depth of the back spring recess? Later, I'll be a Wilkinson trem as well, so any measurements for that system would be greatly appreciated.

Agreed. Think about it; when you go up the board, you slide along it. You don't slap it from below. Only one poster has the guitar in hand to verivy if the cutaway is big enough. The rest of us have no reason to contradict him because we can't give an honest testimony. Let's be fair then... From our standpoint, it doesn't look like it'd be big enough. I'll even say that it probably doesn't look like it'd work because every cutaway we've ever seen or played has been a LOT bigger. Now let's leave the cutaway alone as to whether it works or not. We don't know... period. Please note as well that my original comments on the cutaway were based on looks alone, not functionality.

I dig the idea, and I really dig the headstock, bit I'm not feeling the execution. The whole thing has one heckuva lot of potential, but it's not quite there yet. Don't take this as anything bad - just constructive criticism. Either change the shape of the cutaway to make it bigger or eliminate it completely and move the neck up. The f-holes need to be either painted black or not there at all. This is just begging to be chambered or a semi-acoustic. That would help the f-hole thing as well. There's nothing wrong whatsoever with a white paint job! That being said, between real violins & Paul McCartney's violin bass, people are used to seeing a violin with a natural or sunburst finish, so a solid color will always take some getting used to. The white & gold look very classy, however. I always like trapeze tailpieces. From the pic, it looks like wood. It doesn't fit the flow very well. Perhaps a gold one would be better. Again, not tearing it apart, but trying to point where I feel it could be better.

Best pun I've seen in a loooooong time. Smellmo: Keep us posted with lots of progress pics. And don't get discouraged if you don't get a lot of feedback - it's really common to have lots of page hits but no comments.

Bloodwood & Longhi LPjr Patched!!!! http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...0LPjr/wip14.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...0LPjr/wip16.jpg The plug cutters came in Friday, so Saturday looked to be busy. I did a number of practice cuts on scrap & cutoff pieces to make sure I had it down before touching the real thing. After making a couple of plugs that were acceptable, I moved over to the body. The first step was to drill a hole EXACTLY the same size as the plug. Normally, this wouldn't have been an issue. Then MY luck jumps into the mix. The area around the hole was extremely thin on one side. So thin that it couldn't withstand the vibrations from the speed-bore bit. It broke off making a bigger, jagged hole. Bollocks! Enough of this - it's time to freehand it. I have some fine needle files, so I used them to smooth out the hole as best as I could. I took some 1/8" - 1/4" scrap, taped it to the outside of the body, then traced the hole onto the scrap from inside the control cavity. I bandsawed the piece as close as I was comfortable doing with such a small piece, using pliars to hold it. I then used the smallest drum sander I have and got as close to the line as I could. From there, it was a tedius process of a lot of test fitting and hand shaping it with 80-grit sandpaper. When it was fitting into the hole, but still a snug fit, I glued it into place. Sunday night, I leveled it down with a lot of sanding, starting with 40-grit and going up to 150. It's still noticable, but it's fixed. Also, I made a control cavity from bloodwood. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...0LPjr/wip17.jpg Now, I'm FINALLY ready to go to the next step for the body - finish sanding & seal-coat. The neck gets some serious work after that. Avenger Prototype The pups are set: Dimarzip Megadrive in the bridge & Dimarzio Air Norton in the neck. I made some pup rings from maple last night. Here's a front & back pic of the 3rd coat of shellack. You can see the cavity cover & rings above the body. The bass side of the body is NOT that light. The flash just washed it out. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0108.jpg Sale Bodies Two PRS bodies. Just some basic shaping at this point. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...01/101_2152.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...01/101_2156.jpg On the left is some nice ribbon sapele with a limba/sapele/limba center. I only did the center lam because I needed the extra width. It's a nice decorative touch as well. On the right is a real PIA. 4" yellowheart core with a 1/8" yellowheart pinstripe in the wings. The wings are topped with purpleheart and backed in sapele. EIGHT glue joints!!!! It took a week just to glue the dang thing together. I made a purpleheart control cavity cover for it. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...01/101_2162.jpg The sapele body is going to get a traditional carved top and belly cut. Maybe a trebel horn access bevel, maybe not, The purple/yellow will get a forearm contour, belly cut, and the access bevel on the trebel horn. I'm wanting the cuts to go through the different layers for some artistic reveals. Other Planing I ordered 40BF of 8/4 ash last week. It came in this morning. I got it for $4.17/BF. Not bad. I figure to be able to get 8-10 bodies from it. With the stuff I have in right now and the stuff I have coming in, I'll be able to have some really good progression in my abilities. Decprative caps, carved tops, chambered bodies, f-holes, binding... I'm excited. I ordered a 4x8 sheet of Aqua Boomerang formica. THIS is going to get interesting really fast. It's going to be laminated onto some bodies ala Danelectro. I really need a Tele pattern. I won a pair of DeArmond "moustache" pups. I'm excited about that too. I'm thinking about either an Avenger or 335 body, heavily chambered, burled redwood cap, cream binding, gold hardware, trapeze tailpiece..... who knows. I have a couple od others to deal with before I can tackle anything like that.

Nice. The fretwork looks playable now.

I remember those vividly. The shop I hung out in and took lessons at sold them. My first was a Memphis. I think the Applause would have been a better deal. Anyway, I encourage anyone to take a long hard look at Peavy or Yamaha for their first setup. For the money, I genuinely think they have a lot of bang for the buck. Like someone else mentioned, you can scour the pawnshops for a great deal too.

Thanks.

For the LP & PRS, would that be at the top of the carve's arch?

I checked the Fender, PRS, and Gibson websites and spec sheets, but none of them had the info. What are the "standard" body thickness for these guitars: PRS Les Paul SG Strat Tele

Dude... that's just SICK!!!!! I love it. Leave the black knobs. It'd look off having black hardware and white knobs. Do you plan on shielding that control cavity?

Thanks. Yea... this PRS is really clean & straight-forward. It's hard to go wrong with this wood combo. I'm getting a LOT better at shaping the body, too. For the fix, I have a set of plug cutters on the way. The hole is 3/4" wide. I'm going to make a plug that's 3/4", and drill the hole out to match. Then it's just a matter of re-shaping. I hope I can match the grain well enough, and that there isn't too much of a dark circle when it's all done. This is gonna have me ticked for a while. Whenever I'll see it in the future, I'm sure all I'll see is the patch.

The microplane things for the drill press work like a dream. The prep is just like if you were routing it - cut VERY close to the line. After that, the final shaping with the microplanes is like going through butter. AND... there's virtually no way you can blow out the curves. For smoothness - it's just as smooth as with the router. You'll need to finish sand it, but it's pretty smooth to the touch. I'd say it's just a hare rougher than what somes out of the thickness planer - which is pretty smooth itself. Seriously... you woulnd't be disappointed.

Mahogany & Maple PRS http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...le/frontdry.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...ple/backwet.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...ple/backdry.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...maple/sides.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...ntrolcavity.jpg Limba & Afr. Mahogany LPjr http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...ba/frontdry.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...mba/backwet.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...mba/backdry.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...limba/sides.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...ntrolcavity.jpg Avenger Prototype No pics. I picked up the neck pup yesterday: DiMarzip Air Norton. I started finishing the body. With shellack. You may all browbeat me about why shellack isn't appropriate for a guitar because it isn't durable enough. I'm NOT concerned with that. I don't beat up my gutars, so it's not an issue for me.

I figured there was a reason, but now I know what it is. As always, thanks guys!

Except for that Pat Boone album of metal covers.