avengers63

What are the standard dimensions for a neck blank and a fretboard blank, both for electric guitars? Also, when looking for woods for a neck blank, is quartersawn or flatsawn better, or is it a matter of opinion?

The tips of the horns may need to be blunted somewhat, but other than that, I don't see anything that would prevent the shape from looking great rounded off.

Oh, I LOVE the smell of bloodwood when it's being worked. It makes up for what it does to the tools. I just did some desk clocks with some bocote. It smelled pretty nice too. The zebra I have wasn't as rank as everyone else says it is. Maybe I just got lucky. It was pretty prone to chip-out, which made planing an adventure. I was working with a bunch of woods for the desk clocks, so I can't remember which one, either butternut or basswood... DANG! Straight-up dirty underwear. It's just gawd-offal.

For this one, I suggest you do in a different direction somewhat. You have a real hard-on for bevels and hard edges. It's what you like, and that's cool. You do it very well. But.... I really think this wood lends itself very well to rounded contouring. A light carve or some severely rounded edges would really bring out the grain. Think along the lines of what Ibanez does on one of their lines. Slope the body towards the edges while leaving a thick core and make the horns almost completely round. This would bring out all kinds of fun grain patterns. Factor in a forearm contour and a belly cut and that zebrano will really come to life. If it made this ash come to life like this, imagine what it'd do the the zebra.

If you don't take off significant ammounts of wood, you'll end up with a 15-20 pound guitar. We all know that just ain't happening. Whichever way you go, you're going to have to plane it down some. If you use a top, you can leave it thicker and sacrifice a router bit chambering it. If you make it a super-thin (my personal choice), you're probably going to have to sharpen the planer blades.

Black plactic rings. Everything on it is black. The pups even have black covers - no exposed pole pieces or screws.

Or you can make one for me. Since neither going to happen.... I guess I'll rout it off tonight. I think the black looks better than the white will, but I don't like the looks of them combined. I think I'll try clipping off part of it first and see if I can rig up a multi-layer effect. Anyone else want to chime in before I do something to it this weekend? I'll be getting to it by Sunday afternoon so that I can do the carve on Monday. Any and all input suggesting how not to dork this up is always appreciated.

Given those two choices, I would go with emphasize. That being said, the thought of the looks of black walnut matched up with the redwood, ebony, and gold hardware would look absolutely stunning. Maybe a nice wavy clairo. It would blend with the sapele neck nicely as well. What are the tonal characteristics of walnut?

My initial thought was to use sapele for the neck. I was wondering about maple. Going with that thought, the aesthetics would pull me towards a nice piece of quilted maple, but I don't want the figuring to compete with the burl. Visually, plain maple could probably be stained/dyed really close to the sapele. There will be a lot of ebony used as well. Specifically, a cap for the headstock, the fretboard, a pickguard, and various accents. I'm a touch concerned about having too many woods on the same piece. Is bubinga warm or bright? The chambering would go a long way to counteract the weight, so I wouldn't be afraid to use it on what will be a thick guitar (over 2").

Poowood. I'm thinking these pups deserve a bit more than that. My goal is to have a REALLY high end axe. My initial thought was to use sapele. But... after doing that sound comparison last week for whatshisname, the sapele ended up peeling off a lot of the highs. I'm concerned about getting these (allegedly) bright pups muddied up. Mahogany would do that too.

Dibs on the binding laminator. So.... why are you selling all your stuff?

I have some DeArmond moustache pups that I'll be using next year. I need to match a body wood for them. From what I've read, these pups are bright and jangly, and I' dlike to emphasize that without getting thin and tinny. The body will be heavily chambered and will have a burled redwood cap. I'd really appreciate any & all suggestions for a wood to match both visually and sonically.

If you do a super-thin, it's GOTTA have gold hardware. The gold with the deep red would be really classy.

I was finally able to get back to it tonight, and once again I prove myself to be a bonehead. I did the binding tonight. It went a LOT easier than I was anticipating. I was even able to use the heat gun to soften it up to go around the tight corners. With the all-black hardware, I went with black binding to keep the theme going. It's actually a VERY nice contrast outline between the leopardwood and the ash. Then I put the neck in place it to see how everything looked. Houston, we have a problem. THE DANG NECK IS BOUND IN WHITE!!!!!!!! :D My first thought was to try and peel the black binding off. With the superglue holding everything in place, that clearly wasn't an option. The second thought was to use the explorer headstock. No... it's a longer scale than the LP neck, so the bridge pup would be a little out of place. So here's the question: Can I rout it off? If so, I could even leave just a little bit of the black there and give it an extra layer of pinstriping inside the white.

If you're gonna mate it up with another wood, I wouldn't use something dark like walnut. I just don't see enough contrast. I made this LPjr from bloodwood & longhi. The red & yellow were a very nice contrast. What you'll need to watch out for if you go with a lighter wood is the sanding dust. As you can see from this pic, the red dust really gets into the grain of the other wood.

Maybe this would give you a better idea of what I'm looking for. So..... anyone want to get rid of their bigger scraps?

It was brushed on. I laid it down fairly thin after the initial coat. It was virtually self-leveling, so when it was time to buff it out, I only had to spend about 10 minutes with some 320 before I could buff it with some steel wool. I ended up with a very light, natural feeling, matte finish.

Neither the body nor the parts are on the market anymore. Thanks!!!!

SHELLAC!!!!! Seriously. One good soaking coat to seal it up. Buff it out with steel wool. Give it another coat and buff it out as well. It'll offer a LOT more protection than oil, and will seal the wood a lot better. You can even get the shellac with an amber tint for that "fender neck" look. IIRC - tru-oil is a poly/oil blend, so I just can't classify it as an oil finish. Don't believe me about shellac as a finish? Here ya go. The wood has a very light, natural feel to it, despite having 6 coats on it.

So... I don't really like ANYTHING about the way the Tulip felt when I;m playing it. It's neck-heavy, but doesn't divebomb like a bass when you let go. It falls about paralell with the floor, which still means I'm fighting it the whole time I'm playing it. It's placement on my body is OK, but it didn't take but a couple of minutes to get re-adjusted to playing with such a small body. I need to do some re-thinking on the body - make it bigger somehow. Sound-wise... it didn't have much in the way of highs. That may have been the pickup, the mahogany, or both. The end result is that it isn't that bright. The Avenger wasn't very bright either. Both have similar tonal woods and high output pups. They sounded different, but it wasn't by much. The Avenger was brighter, but not as bright as I'm used to. Based on what I heard, I don't think the size of the body has all that much to do with the tone of the guitar. It DOES effect the playability greatly. FWIW: I plugged in the Carvin kit and tested it with the Avenger. The kit is alder with Bartolinis. It was MUCH brighter. Tonally, I like it a lot better than the Avenger. I'm curious how much of that is the pickups and how much of it is the wood.

Like Wes, I gave my opinion, just like you asked for. I have experience with graphite necks, and I still own my Steinberger, so my opinion was formed over 10 years of hands-on. You're free to reject the opinion all you want. But like Wes said, don't come here asking for opinioins then start arguing with us when it's not what you wanted to hear. The fact is that since the initial response, you've been argumentative and belittling. You get what you give, and you've been giving off a lot of attitude right from the get-go. If you want to get along here, or on any forum for that matter, you'll need to learn to be a LOT less aggressive. And for the record, I wasn't trying to defend Wes. I was trying to give you a little advice. Don't take it - I could care less - but your holier-than-thou attitude isn't going to get you very far.

Not quite yet. You're actually hinting that something will be worked on, that it's guitar related, and that you haven't done it before. TMI dude.

You wouldn't be putting me out at all. Like I said, I haven't given them a good workout yet anyway. Besides, it's an excuse to go play for an hour. The quad-rail is the basic wiring. It's two series HBs wired together in series in the space of a standard HB. And MAN does it have some power behind it! I'd LOVE to play with some of those Teuffel guitars. I've had the "advanced engineering" guitar for a long time, so that's not it. I want to hear how they sound in person and how comfortable they are to play.

NOTE: The Tulip is made from mahogany. From the end of the neck pocket (17th fret) to the end of the body is about 11". The bottom is 7 1/2" wide, and that's just about where the bridge is. I'm not sure about exact weight, but it's less than a brand new spindle of 50 blank disks, and noticeably less than my daughter's mini-strat. Honestly, I haven't really given it a workout yet. All I've done so far is mess around with the clean channel (no FX) to make sure everything worked right. It's a bit late right now... Tomorrow when I get home, I can plug it in and judge it side by side with a couple of guitars - your choice. I'd rather compare apples to apples, so let's limit it to guitars that have a HB in the bridge. That narrows it down to the alder strat-like body with Bartolini's or the sapele Avenger with a DiMarzio mega-drive. Whichever you think would most closely resemble the Kramer quad-rail that the Tulip has. If you really want, I can compare all three.