GregP

Awesome work!

Can't help with any pointers about anything-- just wanted to quickly say that you did some great work on the tummy contour and the electronics cavity! Top notch!

Well, it still needs to pivot on something. I'm sure it could be done-- trems are not THAT complicated pieces of equipment; however, the design needs some refinement. Also, though you indicate string-through holes on the bottom, the front view shows that the tacked-on piece is far too narrow. Greg

Totally sounds like a microphonic pickup.

Good stuff! The thing is, once you've got the technique down cold, you can get them whenever you want and they just become a part of your skillset, to be called upon if desired. I can't say that I get the exact harmonic I want ALL the time, but as I'm playing, if my hands and head are saying, "pinch'er" I can let one scream at least. Also cool is that the better your technique gets, the less gain you need, so you can do cool little squealers with medium or no distortion, like on a lot of SRV tracks. Greg

It's very reasonable. I haven't looked around for a finisher yet (finishing from wood, not even stripping first) and I'm expecting to pay $200 just for solid black, if I hire the work out. And that's if I can find someone willing to do it for a bit "less" than what they normally would. Ie. the $200 would be a bargain. Greg

Other goodies to be found on the site: http://www.yajimastringworks.com/bridge012.asp

The shredding on the website DOES turn out to be pretty impressive. Once he has more musicality (when playing fast, but also in deciding when to serve the song), he'll be something to look out for. Greg

I'll be sure to check out the website, but without the influence of knowing his personality (I AM often influenced by such things, even though I know I shouldn't be), I have to say that I absolutely hate his solo on "Open Your Eyes", the first (and only?) hit single from Alter Bridge. The song itself is actually quite good... or at least, "good" being subjective, I quite like it. But I wince each and every time it gets to that horrible horrible solo. Still, I'll check the website out. I hope he DOES eventually become the guitarist he could be, but according to the evidence I've seen, he's not there yet. Greg

I like the devil tail, too. Anything TOO 'death'-ish (skulls, etc) would just make it look like you're taking yourself seriously. The devil's tail is a cheeky little thing to smile about. More of a "cool" factor than a "man, that's evil" factor, which in my opinion is a GOOD thing. If the refinish includes clear, $50 is way too cheap. Even without clear, it seems pretty low. Greg

I don't have enough guitars for that. I keep going back to ALL of mine. All 4 of them. I guess if I had to pick one overall, I'd pick my Guild D25. If it's between my two electrics, I'd have to pick my Pacifica 302S (a tele-style Pacifica, not a strat-style) over my Godin LG, though I love the LG and its P90 pickups. Greg

Well, by the overall mass of the wood being reduced, I guess the theory is that it'll be more apt to resonate. On the other hand, some people maintain that the more mass your body has, the better the sustain will be. I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in-between and will depend on the wood and the type of chambering done. One thing I'd watch out for is the assumption that it will have more of an acoustic tone, which is simply not true. Magnetic pickups operate based on the string's vibration over the pickup. While the chambering will certainly alter the tone of the guitar, this will be due to changes in mass and resonance, not due to the coincidence that your guitar will likely become more acoustically audible, too. Personally, I feel that at the end of the day, your choice of pickups, strings, and nut/bridge (plus the general combination of woods regardless of chambering) will affect your tone more than the chambering itself. Lightness is a good thing, though, no? Reason enough for me! Be aware, however, that while I tend to make my responses based on what I've learned, and also on common sense, I'm not an experienced luthier like some of the folks around here. Then again, all trades and arts (including luthiery) can be full of information both good and bad regardless of experience level. Greg

SRV - Life By The Drop Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive.

Imagine where the physical halfway point is in between the note you're fretting and the bridge. There's a nice big fat harmonic node there that'll make getting a pinch harmonic nice and easy. There are other spots, too, but mostly you just have to have rock-solid technique, high gain distortion, and the confidence to just go for one. If your technique is good enough and gain high enough, you'll pretty much always get some sort of pinched harmonic. Once you're good at visualizing 'on the fly' where that halfway point is, try moving the spot where you're "pinching" either closer to the neck or closer to the bridge, to find other tasty "nodes". The higher up you go on the frets, the less distance you'll have to move your picking hand in order to find a good spot, so just muck around a bit and you'll find a few. After a while, your muscle memory (or whatever you want to call it) will have you moving almost instinctively to the right spot. Greg

Any trem-equipped guitar benefits from straight string pull. Some people feel it's useful even on non-trem guitars. On my non-trem guitar, I was of two minds. I prefer straight string pull, but I wouldn't totally compromise headstock design just to get it. Lots of other manufacturers are doing straight string-pull on 3X3. Paul Reed Smith was one of the first advocates of it from the 'new school' of builders, but now Shecter and many others are following suit. Greg

Yes. Hand tools will get you there. No doubt they use CNC or some other form of automated shaping on theirs, so it's not like they have a special technique with an unorthodox combination of bits and angles or anything. I'm sure there's a jig you could rig up, but it seems like an unecessary step and expediture because you'd likely need access to specific things in order to pull the jig off. Greg

Doesn't sound like the deal of the century. With that much cosmetic damage, it'd be helpful to REALLY inspect the rest of its workings, too... how are the frets leveled, is the neck warped, etc. Also, I don't know about Epiphone, but it seems to me that a solid painted guitar in general would have a better chance of having unimpressive-looking wood under the paint. Doesn't mean the tone wont' still be fine, but I wouldn't count on there being good-looking wood underneath for a translucent finish. That price is mediocre, as long as the action is really good and the guitar itself still has good build quality. Not a total rip, but not the best deal ever. Greg

It would probably take sophisticated signal modeling like on the Variax to pull it off. I wonder if a piezo'd signal would be a better candidate to perform tonal butchery on than a magnetic pickup? Greg

My Godin guitar came with a Dunlop button, though I didn't know it at the time. I thought to myself, ***? What's with this crappy button? My strap keeps coming off! When I realized what it WAS, I changed my other guitar to the Dunlop (which gave me the part that attaches to the strap) and haven't really looked back. A lot of people here seem to not like them, but I'm getting along with them just fine. Greg

I like the design of the 'messed up' one. It reminds me a lot of the Phil Collen signature guitar, in a good way. Welcome to PG!

Not a bad idea. <ponders and considers>

Holy moly! That's not a football jack, that's a football FIELD jack in that picture!! <laff> I wouldn't want a big-ass one like that, either, unless it was made from wood, like Godin's. Greg

It must just be perspective, because I find the jacks in the first picture look cheaper than a football style jack. No offence intended, as it's probably your own build; however, "cheap" isn't quite the word I would use. Greg

It's been tried before. There used to be the Rockit network (I believe that's what it was called). Bandwidth isn't even a problem so much as network latency, which is a problem that isn't likely to be solved any time soon. Even a MIDI jam is impossible in realtime right now. Those TV commercials they had out a while ago were a big fat lie. Greg

Perry - I agree about the accuracy thing -- I personally believe guitars' tunings should be mildly tempered, too, though. Although, the newer Petersen tuners DO have tempered guitar settings, too. Mostly, I was just being droll. Greg