GregP

Yes. Low-watt is 1/2 to 5 watts, tops. The only one I've heard killer things about is the Zvex Nano. Perhaps it could be a rare time that you use a pedal for some of the distortion to get you into metal territory? Or even a gain boost to drive the amp even harder? The craziest one I ever heard that still sounded metal was an Epiphone Valve Jr. with a Metal Zone in front of it. I'm usually quite prepared to "dis" the Metal Zone as a bit of a crap pedal, but this guy made that combo sound awesome. Now, the Epiphone amp is NOT considered a great amp. But it IS considered a great amp for the money. Greg

What specific advice? This whole forum us chock-full of advice, plus the tutorials at projectguitar.com -- not to mention other resources in print and on the net! The best usage of a forum is to search and read, and then when you get stuck, ask specific questions. Best of luck! I like your design.

Yay, puppies!

Great stuff!

Traditional noisy single-coils, then. Oh well, at least I tried. (3 different emoticons on one line!)

The TremKing just isn't going to look right on the guitar I was hoping to use it for. In fact, I wasn't planning to have a trem at all, but the Skyway has the same sort of compact elegance that the Hipshot hardtail has, so I was considering it. Now I'm either back to hardtail (not even Hipshot... just one of those rectangular Mighty Mite things) or Kahler. I know, the Kahler is even wonkier-looking than the TremKing in some ways, but it's a design that resonates with me a bit more. TremKing would be my first choice on a tele-style guitar, though.

I can't handle single-coil noise anymore. Some people don't mind it and others can tolerate it in the name of "tone," but I will never buy a standard single-coil ever again. If I were making the decision, I would start by eliminating the vintage and "true" single-coils.

A good question. Maybe to ease the fears of people who worry that the guitar "won't work" if the battery runs out? To convince people that they can have "modern high gain hi-fi active sound" and "vintage passive sound" all in one? Marketing is a funny thing. To me, your idea is a better one. Mini trim pots inside the cavity, even better-- shape your "alternate EQ" with the control cover off, and then when you want to switch to it, press the button. Hey... wonder if there are enough 3rd party components out there to design something like this. Greg

LOL! You're right! Sorry, Eddie.

WOW! If it's even more gradual in real life, it's bound to be killer, because it looks great in those pics.

I knew there was some clear, but something went wrong. I don't know if you didn't sand back enough, or if there aren't enough coats of black, or if there's not enough buildup of clear. I don't know enough about finishing to really tell you HOW to make it nice and glossy, but I can tell from a few of the different pics that something's not quite right. Greg

Why stop there? You've done so much work that you should've researched and applied a nice glossy black! With the current finish, it just looks.. unfinished (in a different sense of the word). Something looks crooked on it... the bridge or a rout or a humbucker... I can't put my finger on it. Great to see that you finished'er up, though! Good on ya! For the headstock logo, why not design your own that looks very similar to the Jackson one, and apply it? Taing a cue from Jehle's Fender-ish one he used? Greg

Yes, or at least as far as I know-- particularly when Dime picked one up.

I think you missed his point. Dime DID buy a crappy off-brand guitar. He DID buy an off-brand pickup (dunno about crappy, though...), and he DID plug it all into an amp that wasn't considered one of the archetypes of tone. But he was Dime, so he effing ruled. I think that was crafty's point. He was saying that NOT everybody can just be Dime.

In a piano there are strings. In a rhodes, there are tines. That's all.

AHA! A man after my own heart. I adore headless guitars.

Unrelated to the engineering discussion you raise, but inspired by your post-- "Treated" pianos and Rhodes have been popular with keyboardists for years. Basically, a bunch of crap is thrown into the string/tine area, which messes crap up. Haven't heard of anyone doing a "treated" guitar, but I don't see why you couldn't.

If it's fixed bridge, the ABM parts are the most popular and most-recommended ones. So you should be fine. Be warned that ABM can be a bit slow at times. I has taken several months for my order to be completed. I'm afraid my natural ability with linguistics isn't helping me to understand what "senza palette" might mean.

I love Steinbergers. If you need a tremelo, your options are more limited. If you can do "fixed/hardtail" bridge, you have more options. Apparently this one is "OK": click here for eBay auction (apologies in advance to future readers for whom the link will not work forever. It's been a long time since I saw a true Steinberger bridge on eBay. Robert Irizzary had to buy a "Spirit by Steinberger" guitar and swipe parts from it. Here's a post on Robert's site talking about possible resources for parts: http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/2006...for-guitar.html Greg

Man, you're one smiley guy when working on guitars, as it should be! Thanks for sharing those pics.

Holy crap that's awesome.

Yeah, MIM assembly-line guitars can certainly depreciate. Even a brand new Made-in-USA Fender Strat, used, will sell for less than it cost new. They don't start gaining value the minute you walk out the door with them, because they're not one-of-a-kind or collectible. Thousands and thousands of them (Even Made-in-USA) roll off the factory line monthly. It would be pretty tough to convince anybody that anything but a true collectible (50's, 60's... some people are starting to value 70's including the 3-bolt versions) has gained value from the date of its original purchase. A MIM jobbie even less likely (near to impossible) to do anything BUT depreciate. The only way these things gain value is when they're sought-after for some reason, naturally. Let's say for some reason, researchers identified that a... I dunno... 1992 USA P-bass had a slight variation in its manufacturing compared to other years. Then players for whatever reason started recognizing an improved tone or playability. And perhaps it came in a colour only available in 92/93 or something... (I'm just talking in cloudland here). It would start gaining a reputation and would therefore start becoming collectible and would therefore begin to appreciate. My Guild acoustic is MAYBE becoming a bit collectible because they got purchased by Fender and the manufacturing process changed from when I got my guitar. This bass ain't that. Now, I don't mean to contradict you and make you feel bad or anything, but even $500-600 isn't too much money for someone to spend on their first instrument. I think people should save their money for an extra month and get something with a bit of quality to it, as their first, whenever possible. If the extra $150-200 represents a LOT more than a month, then eventually you're just going to have to purchase within your resources, which is what this kid seems to have done. Point being, spending money on a first instrument isn't necessarily a bad thing-- It inspires you to play when you're not fighting with the gear. I might have become a skateboarder if I had realized as a kid that my "Consumer's Distributing" skateboard would never allow me to do ollies or roll along properly (it was heavy and the bearings were no good!). Years later, I tried out a "real" skateboard and went, "OH! It wasn't just me!" Of course, now I'm an old fart. Greg

In my defense, I never said a simple modeler in front of an amp is where the revolution could be. I said that you CAN theoretically combine modeling with a tube preamp and that it had great potential that some people (ahem) weren't recognizing. This (still disappointing) endeavour hasn't PROVEN to be bad-sounding yet, either. But where I went wrong was in giving Line6 too much credit. I really did think that if they're already teaming up with Bogner, that they'd do something more interesting than this... so, there's still a bit of egg on my face, but only a little. And I admitted to being wrong, which freakin' HURTS me, man! Line 6 has been overdue for some true innovation. Sux that they just keep rereleasing the same technology. Pocket Pod, nifty as it is, is just a Pod2.0, for crying out loud! Not even a PodXT!

Yep, it just seems like boring modeler in front of amp. That's disappointing. I'd have to hear it, but in my mind I think there are better ways you could integrate modelling with tubes. Problem is, it would cost a lot of research money; they'd have to prototype any ideas coming out of the think-tank, not just rush into making it. And it seems that after all the huge research that went into the Pod2 and PodXT, they're not in any rush to be revolutionary again.