avengers63

carousel This firebird was my choice all month long until the Kelvinator came up. I'm a big fan of the cleanliness of the whole thing. There's nothing "fancy" going on, but it just looks fantastic. scottyd As usual, this is yet another great looking bass. It just doesn't jump out at me. mattharris The whole concept is extremely cool and looks well executed. But... I'm not thinking the woods work well together - not enough contrast. zyonsdream I can't say anything bad about this one either. Very well executed. It all works well together. That zebrano has a lot of character. orgmorg Dude! I wish I had 1/10 of your creativity. Piecing these gutiars together from what ammounts to junk off of the scrap pile behind the barn is brilliant. You're just one of the many on this board whos work I love and makes me hate you out of sheer principle. Great stuff. argytar When you're building an ax, you can't go wrong with one of the tried and true classics that have stood up against the test of time. You also can't win GOTM with one. At minimum, it'd be an extremely uphill battle. That isn't to say the ax is sub-par in any way, just that it doesn't stand out in any way. pinefed THIS is how you win GOTM with a basic LP, or at least make a serious run at it. If you didn't say anything, it could be easily mistaken for a full-sized LP, which is the whole point. I think this is the first time there haven't been any entries I DIDN'T like. I'm a picky turd, so this is quite a surprise. Well done, gentlemen,

http://www.wildepickups.com/The_Wilde_Collection.php If you're going to get Bill Lawrence pups, get them from the man himself. His former business partner owns the rights to the name "Bill Lawrence" as it relates to pickup naming, so any new pups that are marketed/named as such may or may not be as good as the real thing. I have NO IDEA if they're made the same way as Bill still does it, but why risk it? Also, BL designed the SCM pups for Fender. I'm sure Fender follows the design exactly, so they'd sound just like BL's, but BL sells them cheaper than Fender does. Just in case you missed it, let me re-word it: BL sells the exact same SCM pups as Fender does because he invented them but sells them cheaper. I have BL pups in my tele. They are well worth the $100 shipped I paid for the pair. BL has a rep about being just a butth0le about tone, so you can pretty much trust that they will be extremely high wuality.

Biology. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're right-handed. Whichever hand is dominant, that arm/hand is measurable stronger than the other. The muscle mass may not look bigger, and in fact may not be in any easily noticable way, but the dominant hand and arm are stronger and more naturally developed.

Is that TV Yellow, or is the lighting and flash messing with the color? FWIW: I'm not digging the flamed maple with the light paint color. I'm not sure I'd like it with dark paint either, but with a light color, there's not enough contrast. But, you know, whatever floats your boat.

Hey... don't complain about having a job. Unemployment is on the rise, and you went without one for quite a while. It may not be what you want, but it's a dang-sight better than having nothing. Any chance of getting a pic of the side at an angle to see the transition and the veneer edge reveal??

cherokee6: I bought a template on eBay. Re-Paint & Tulip I got the 2nd cost of poly on the re-paint and the 1st on the Tulip. Tonight, I hope to make it 3 & 2. When I get to 4, I'll let them sit & cure for a couple of weeks. Maybe the Tulip will be ready in time to lose next months GOTM. Zebrawood Top LP Grainfilled and sealed. I'll do a 2nd coat of sealer sometime this week. I'll be working on Limba back plates this week as well. Redwood Burl I started with the Polycryl Saturday. The directions said to flood the piece with a 15% dilution until it couldn't take any more, then put it in a plastic bag overnight. I do all 4 pieces and bag them, not opening it until Sunday afternoon. I take them out to find two things: 1) they're still a little moist, and 2) there are some black mold dots appearing. #1 I expected. Being in a bag allows very little air flow, and that was the purpose. You're re-wetting the wood, so you want it to dry as slowly as possible. #2 is the kicker. I let the pieces sit out overnight. I'll be trying to sand it out tonight. If it doesn't happen, I don't know what to do. The only possible explanation I could have for it is that all 4 pieces were in the same bag lying against each other. That may have been too little air flow and allowed the mold to grow. If I can sand it out, I'll try the next application in separate bags. If not, I'll have to risk open air drying.

I'm enjoying watching the progress. I simply have nothing to add, be it positive or negative. Nothing is really jumping out at me as being oddball, unusual, or questionable, so I don't have anything to add. But since I'm here... How are the edges of the top looking with the veneer? An explorer would look fruit with binding, but there would still be the reveal line from the veneer. How did you address this?

Re-Paint & Tulip I HAVE to get off my lazy butt and get the poly on these things this weekend. No more excuses. Avenger Prototype If I have time this weekend, I'll put a belly-cut on the back and do up the control cavity. Maybe, if I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I'll even start filling the grain. Probably not. Zebrawood Top LP Parts started coming in. Nothing exciting. It's all sanded down, so I'll try and start the grainfill this weekend. Redwood Burl It's all sanded down. I can start with the Polycryl this weekend. It would seem that I'm not really going to have a "cutting" weekend, huh. Can't have all that dust flying around if you're doing the poly and whatnot. Pity... that's the fun stuff.

I can add to my wish list: 3 60's DeArmond pups a pair of TV Jones pups dust collection system spray booth setup about 200 BF of 8/4 sapele 10 more Irwin clamps, at least 24" good router bearing set (I'll actually get this pretty soon) scroll saw (might get this pretty soon, too)

Now that I've seen the video, that looks a LOT safer than the hammer. The only thing I might add is to put your hand/fingers around the bushing to hold the screwdriver in place as you screw it in. One slip and your finish is scratched or the top gouged.

I never thought about using a bolt that matches the size of the posts. Why is it that the simple solutions are what we never think of on our own.

(can't watch vids at work - no idea what the clip demonstrates) Wouldn't the hammer only scratch up the underside of the "T" on the post? That would be hidden by the tailpiece, so I don't see the issue. FWIW: I didn't see any damage to the posts I did this on. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen or that there isn't a better way. I would blindly trust Wez to know what he's talking about.

Too bad the red will eventually fade into brown. The green would still look good, but the black might make it too dark.

Yes sir. Pull it out like a nail. 1) Screw the post into the bushing. It doesn't have to be all the way, but it does need to be deeo enough to stay put when pulled on. 2) Use the claw end of a hammer to pull the whole thing out. Be sure to put a generous ammount of padding between the end of the hammer and the face of the body. That's all a kill switch is - an on/off switch.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...tic=kill_switch This should give you some direction on the kill switches. Yep. Pull the bushing closest to the control cavity and drill there. Someone else will need to answer WHY it's so important. It's one of those things I know and understand, but can't explain well. The finish look spretty textured. Didja get a load of dust nibs, or is it some wierdness with the flash/camera?

eBay

Good observation. I hadn't considered that yet. Good thing this is a sort of prototype. I'll lookinto it and see what needs to be tweaked... ...and if they don't fit with a ring, this becomes the solution. You're spot-on on both accounts. I need to practice the atchtop recurve more on some cheap pine blanks before I try it on a "real" body. As it is now, it is a giant roundover. You can't deny it - those giant roundovers are pretty confortable. Yea, the control holes are off center. I drilled the holes before making the recess with a forstner. In the future, I'll be making the recesses first and using the center hole from the forstner as a target for the other bit. Ah... the joys of the unmentored learning curve. I think I'll be keeping this one for me. Mainly it's because of the mmnor errors. I wouldn't be comfortable trying to sell this one. A friend of mine has a neck he doesn't want that he said I could have. I'll get some cheap hardware, maybe experiment with some inexpensive pups I've been looking at, and let my girls have it to learn on. I'm always wrestling with my 14 & 12 y/o step-daughters to keep my "good" guitars where I know they're supposed to be. Maybe if I give them this one, they'll leave mine alone. I don't complain too much - at least they're wanting to learn.

Another thought on the neck might be if someone here were willing to make a neck for me for $75 + shipping. Not that I'm going to hold my breath on that one.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...LP1/backwet.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...63/LP1/side.jpg I started ordering parts today. What I decided on is all-black hardware with the traditional wiring setup. I'll be getting a mahogany 3+3 neck with block inlays to match the mahogany layer. Tuners are Wilkinson E-Z lock. The bridge is the hipshot style hard-tail, string-through. The p/g & trc will be black pearl, which will match the black pearl insetrs in the knobs. I'm seriously considering some Artec pups that have black pearl toppers on the coils, just for a little extra bling. If anyone has a spare chunk of black pearl they don't need, I'd LOVE to get ahold of it for a switch ring. Otherwise, it ain't getting one. I'll be making the cavity covers from some limba I still have leftover. I'm thinking about rare earth magnets instead of screws. We'll see. This week, I'll be doing the final sanding and grainfilling the body.

That's fair. I can't disagree with that assessment.

You're allowed your opinions, and this sort of thing is exactly what I was asking for. Good or bad, what do you think. So, without any hard feelings (debate only), let's look at them side by side. The inspiration is clearly there. I confessed as much right off the top. There are several differences, though. Trebel Body Horn: 1) The radius of the inside of the trebel horn is greater than Dean's. 2) The tip of the horn is paralell with the widest point of the body. Dean's is further inside. 3) Combine 1&2 and the shape and angles of the horn are different. FWIW: The tip is also even with the top of the neck pocket. This makes the whole right side of it square. I was trying to match the Fibonacci ratio, which is 1.62:1, but a 13" wide body would be over 21" long, which is just too unwieldy. The ratio ended up about 1.3:1. Bass Body Shoulder: As the traditional guitar ratios are pleasing to the eye, I based the shoulder on the width of the LP. The widest point matched the width of a LP, however the tip of the arcs are in different locations. 1) It appears to me that the point of the shoulder is further out than Dean's, but I can't confirm this. The points of the arc may be at different horizontal lines, but from these pictures, it's dang hard to tell. 2) The angle of the top of Dean's shoulder is completely different. Theirs meets the body at the 19th fret. Mine will be in the area of the 15th. This is the main thing I wanted to change. The end result is a design that is extremely similar to Dean's, but clearly not the same body. Therefore, the accusation of taking credit for Dean's design is false. Just as Ibanez' RG is clearly modeled on the Strat (as are dozens of others), mine is modeled after the Cadillac, which was modeled after the LP & Explorer, the LP after the archtops, after acoustic drednaughts, after the classical body. At this point, one could look at any given body and point to an existing design as it's inspiration. It's whatever personal toughes you put on it that makes the difference.

Yea, they did a curvier version. WesV does a similar one too (can't remember the name - sorry!) i had to look up the paul stanley model.... mines much better!!! I'm sure they play better and have better Q/C, too.

Thanks for the input. I hope it keeps coming! Which is what I said in the first paragraph. That was the original inspiration, but I wasn't fond of their lines. The bass side of the body meets the neck too low on the FB. The whole top left side of their body looks squished to me. I had the top of the left side meet up in the same place as a LP. The angle of that edge is paralell with the inside of the trebel horn. The thought process in it was to take the top of an Explorer, the bottom of a LP, and balance them out. I wanted the sleek roundness of both models, but still have some angles to it. Yea, they did a curvier version. WesV does a similar one too (can't remember the name - sorry!) I don't know yet. I might try and sell it, I might not. Eventually, you WILL see one of these things get finished, but I can't say when. I don't know if I'll be comfortable selling this one because if ONE cosmetic glitch: the recesses for the knobs aren't 100% centered. I know what I did wrong, so it'll NEVER happen again, but it's still off just a hair on a couple. Maybe I can flatten out the whole thing...

Avenger http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0102.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0103.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...apele/a0104.jpg This is the body I came up with. I dubbed it the Avenger. It's a modified version of the Dean Cadillac, which of course is a combination of an LP & Explorer. This is the first body, so it's kind of a prototype. There will undoubtedly be slight tweaks here & there, but this is essentially it. This one is 2-piece sapele. The grain really explodes when it's moistened (see the last pic). I still have some work to do on the control recesses on the top. I'm considering a belly cut on this one, but I'm not sure yet. I see this as being very versatile. Depending on the contouring, it could go anywhere from "artsy" with exotic caps and high-end materials/hardware with loads of bling to a poplar body workhorse painted a solid color. I'd really love to hear any feedback you might have, positive or negative. Constructive would be best, but I'll take anything.

Zebrawood Top LP Ebay is being uninformative jerks. They canceled the listing with >12 hours left claiming it was "significantly misrepresented". I'm guessing a Gibson rep decided they didn't like ME selling it. The 7 other folks who used "Gibson style" etc. in their listings were just fine. Yea... I'm a little hacked by this one. But there's not a thing I can do about it. So I'm going to finish it up and sell it locally. I'll start a new thread when I get the parts in. Bubinga PRS This one is finally all done. There's just a tough of detail sanding to do and this will be posted for sale, probably on Monday or Tuesday. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...a%201/wip06.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...a%201/wip08.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...a%201/wip09.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...a%201/wip10.jpg Re-Paint & Tulip I've been really slow about finishing these up. They're all ready to get a finish, I've just been working on other things. Bloodwood LPjr WIP pics. The left half has been moistened with mineral spirits. http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...0LPjr/wip02.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...0LPjr/wip03.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...0LPjr/wip04.jpg The back needs to have a roundover put on and the neck pocket needs a little love. I'm extremely pleased with the rounding over carve I was able to get. It's very smooth. It fits the silky texture of the bloodwood perfectly. When I post this one for sale, I'm going to leave it without a control cavity. This will open it up for lefties to bid as well. I've had a couple of questions about "do you make left-handed bodies too", so I thought this would be an opportunity. I can rout the control cavity after the auction is over. I'll also make a neck HB rout available at the winner's request. Avenger I have another body style I'm working on. It's very similar to a Dean Cadillac, but with different angles. No pics to post just yet. I currently have the first body cut out and neck pocket/pup cavities routed, but no shaping done yet. I'll try and post some pics soon. The first one is sapele. On a pride/marketing note, Taylor makes a solid body from sapele. THe base model (only $1500) is ash, but the two models up the ranks are both chambered sapele, and priced at @ $2200 & $3000 or so each. Other planning I started sanding down the redwood burl this week. I ordered the Polycryl yesterday. When I get it sanded down to 150 or so, I'll apply the Polycryl and get that show on the road.