GregP

Seems like the Ibanez one might have some distortion circuitry going on? A level boost is a level boost, but if you're using them both in the same amp and getting different results, there must be something 'more' to the Ibanez one. Either distortion or at least EQ.

Not a fingerboard, but for a neck I'm pretty sure people have used it just fine. Don't Myka and Thorn, for example, use black limba for necks? Also, aren't black and white limba the same except for grain accentuation? The Warmoth site (just one site, though, after all) has no problem with white limba necks.

Off the top of my head, I don't know enough about woods to answer all your questions with authority, so just take these as a starting point because I'm the only one online right now [edit: or not! cross-posted with prs man, but I'll leave my post intact] ... more knowledgable people should be along soon. ;-) Here are a few things to consider: - is your "local" poplar properly dried? You can't just use any given wood for an instrument and have it be stable. There are some tolerances for moisture content that should be met. If your dealer is selling it specifically for the building of instruments, and they're a reputable dealer, it should be fine. - a 2-piece body is just as strong as a one-piece. One-piece bodies are fairly rare, actually. If the 2 pieces are jointed and glued properly, the joint will be stronger than the wood. - maple and poplar-- I don't actually know if they glue well together because I've never heard of anyone using this combination! It would be interesting to find out. I've always assumed that ANY woods can be joined together, but I can't say with expert authority that such is the case. - poplar is softer than mahogany, but mahogany can be pretty porous and "spongey", too, so a hard piece of poplar can at least approach the relative density of a soft piece of mahogany. Honestly, it's a very interesting question to me, though... I've never heard of anyone using poplar in place of mahogany because despite my last above point, they're very different woods with very different applications. I can't recall poplar being used for much except inexpensive non-topped guitars. You'd be the first person on Project Guitar that I'm aware of who ever matched a maple top to a poplar body. I may not know much about wood, and I AM curious to find out what experts would say, but the informal evidence suggests that it's probably not a great idea or more people would do it. It doesn't mean "necessarily" that it's a bad idea, but I think it was a good idea to solicit opinions. Greg

Rick Neilsen is eccentric, as well as rich enough to just have people custom-create weird guitars for him on a whim. Indeed, the "impracticality" of any given scheme is part of what fires up his imagination and makes him laugh to his own private joke. If you want to do it for a hoot, by all means, give'er! It's not a very desirable wiring scheme, though, for anything other than a gimmick. It's better to plan things from the top down than the bottom up. So rather than thinking, "more pickups with complete volume controls = ultimate flexibility" (design being translated as purpose), you need to think "What can I do to get ultimate flexibility?" Of course, that's assuming that flexibility is your goal. And if flexibility IS your goal, there are many better ways to achieve it. 5 single coils with individual volumes is a kludge. But a funny one, so if that's your intention then go for it. !

The term "makes sense" is entirely subjective. To me, a one-piece guitar makes no sense-- from a building perspective, there are problems introduced along with the problems alleviated (so on the whole, no net gain)... and from a tone perspective there's just no actual justification. Tone "voodoo" doesn't qualify as evidence. Might be able to get some 'bragging rights', though. A one-piece of the right wood has the potential to be awfully slick.

That's the typical thing, yes. Ensure continuity with a multimeter, but if they're already continuous via the shielding, they don't need to have the wires. Ultimately, this entire collection of continuous surface (the shielding plus the pots) DOES have to make it to ground, though, and a wire from ONE of the pot casings will do the trick. If you're going to be desoldering and redoing the whole thing, I would also recommend star-grounding. All your grounds (the 1 wire from a pot casing, your pickup grounds, the grounds from potentiometer lugs) all end up soldered to one spot (most people just use a metal washer). This includes unbending the vol lug away from the pot casing and putting a wire in place instead. One wire goes from the washer (the "star") to ground lug of output jack. The "star" is taped up so that it doesn't touch any metal components or bare wires inside the cavity. It's the guaranteed way to not have ground loops. But honestly... if your guitar is already hum-free and it's working properly, I'm not really sure I'd bother. It's more fun to play the guitar than to rewire it.

Pickguards are pretty cheap. Filling, refinishing, and rear-routing doesn't sound all that rewarding a project. YMMV. What Squier guitars are rear-routed? I just had a look-see over at their website and came up short.

I decline the honour. All that's needed is for people to read this thread and decide for themselves whether they use $10 worth of information and entertainment in this site for a year or more. I sure do! Greg

Hear-say information... someone more knowledgable could clarify: black ice are just a pair of shottky diodes. They clip in a way that's somewhat analogous to (single-stage? I'm not technical...) tube clipping. But not really. The waveforms are more square, so more like transistor or "fuzz" clipping... or at least, a reasonable hand-drawn facscimile. I wouldn't personally bother with the mod. Plenty of inexpensive projects out there that just require room for a 9V battery but will do something useful for your guitar.

Yeah. I'm dead broke, but if I can afford $5 for a movie every other week, I can afford $10 for one of my primary forms of entertainment and information. Regarding pics-- no pic posted at Project Guitar costs any bandwidth. Even the ones you can "see" are visible through code trickery, but the images themselves come from whatever site they're hosted on. So it's got nothing to do with pics. It's just a simple matter that PG has some fans (lurkers, too, God bless'em!) who like to check in several times a day. That's me. It'd be cool to talk to Brian, though-- I'm definitely overdue for a donation, PERIOD. But I'm sure that even Brian wouldn't want a fundraising initiative that's theoretically to buy more bandwidth, if he himself has no intention of increasing the monthly GB throughput. But if he's willing to up the bandwidth, it'd give even more incentive for renewed or first-time donations.

Heh. When I'm soldering, I always have to beg my gf to help. Hemostats and clamps only go "so" far.

Sniper beat me by $0.50. I gotta learn that the only way to win an eBay auction is to use software.

Wow! That looked like quite an undertaking. It looks like you're still including the ground wires from pot casing to pot casing-- am I just blind? The conductive tape should be able to do that job, so you're setting up the potential for ground loops if you duplicate the ground path. But if it's all wired up and you're not hearing any obnoxious hum, probably best to leave well enough alone! Don't fix something that ain't broke, and all that stuff. Hats off to you for this wiring job. I feel co-frustration at soldering fiddly wiring, though perhaps you didn't find yourself frustrated at all. All those lugs, all those wires... I've done it, and I'll do it again... but it really starts to do a number on my hand-eye coordination and my concentration.

Every time someone uses "sustain" as a selling point for a product (cue TonePros bridges... etc....) I just about want to bash my own skull in, for the reasons Prostheta gives above. I can't even remember the last time I held a note longer than the length of my LEAST "sustaining" guitar. If you have music that requires that many sustaining notes, Prostheta's 'compression and feedback' will do just fine... and add Ebow to the mix if the sustaining effect is for orchestration of a song.... I'm inclined to believe everything I've read here from pros and amateurs alike, about multi-piece guitars, mixing and matching woods, glue joints, neck laminations, etc... and I don't see any benefit to a one-piece guitar.

Wow. I'm tempted to get one just to put it into storage for later. For $32, what the heck is wrong with them? Gotta be something...

I PERSONALLY like the 4X2 style way better for this particular guitar. If you have an elegant way of converting to the 4X2, that gets my vote. But if it'll be too messy then just stick with the strat shape. Only an opinion of course.

Yup. If you Google or forum search, there's a lot out there about fanned frets. Novak (Novax?) has a particular system of fanning that he has patented, though you can't patent fanning in general. You select your 2 'outside string' scale lenths, decide which fret will be the perpendicular one as a reference point, (it'll affect the degree to which frets are fanned in the open vs. high frets), and connect the dots from there. Greg

I guess the advice "don't do it!" doesn't count?

No. The low E (in this case, low B I guess!) and high E are different scale lengths-- consequently, each and every string is a different scale length; though, the above poster is after the 2 outside scale lengths as a frame of reference for the fanned frets. Lookin' good so far! I don't have the guts to even dream about an acoustic build yet...

some steel wool should make a pickguard less-than-shiny in a hurry. Dunno about staining'em, tho.

I sent a message via eBay asking about Shipping to Canada plus one other question. I'll re-post here in case they've gotten lost in the shuffle: - How much to ship to Canada for, say, a 5-string soapbar bass pickup? - I wasn't sure how the offshore Bartolini "active" pickups were supplied with power-- I only saw 2 conductors in the photos. Are there instructions or suchlike?

IRS, Almost anything I could say would indeed be classed as "preference," though I suspect that some people might share my preferences. For example, the cutaway horns seem too long in general, and since they "enclose" the neck so tightly, the eye sees the entire body carrying into the 12th fret, even though the actual join is much further back. In contrast, superstrat-type necks don't have the same amount of mass, and therefore don't feel like they're carrying the whole body forward... and that's the other half of the equation is the sheer "mass" of the cutaway horns. They're bulkier than I like. The next thing that seems problematic for me is that the bottom "horn" seems like it would get in the way. I'm quite sure my hand and forearm would fit in there to play, but I feel like I'd have to adjust the way my arm naturally wants to navigate the neck, in order to "force" myself into the upper registers properly. If you have a different playing style, this might be a complete non-issue, but just by looking at it I strongly suspect for my individual preferences, it would feel claustrophobic playing up there. The waist is a little too long, IMO. If you cut out a good 2-3 inches from in-between the pickups, and squish it all back together, you'll get a body shape that makes me more confident in the design. Out of curiousity, I just mocked it up in Paint Shop, and the overall effect was so dramatic (to me, just my own opinion!) that even the above-describe cutaway issues were minimized. It somehow gave the guitar (IMO) a better sense of balance. Thing is, I'm just some guy. I'm less than an amateur-- I'm just a guitar enthusiast. The pros might have a different perspective, and many people will prefer THIS exact guitar to the one I visualize in my head. ;-) Don't take any of the above personally. I think you did a kick-butt job and you should be rather happy with the outcome. Greg

Speaking only to the "paint job" side of things, it's important to distinguish between identifiable design and general design. You can't copyright polka-dots or bulls-eyes because they're just generic designs. The EVH 'stripes' are pretty distinctive, so he MIGHT be able to copyright that. I honestly don't know how that part of it works. Designs can be patented but not generally copyrighted. Distinguishable visual characteristics (headstock shape) can be Trademarked but not patented (unless the headstock adds particular unique functionality as well... I'm only talking shape). It's all very confusing to me. I always think of copyrights as pertaining to works such as music, literature, and movies, in addition to specific unique paintings that are protected against random reproduction. To add to the confusion, each country is different. No wonder there are lawyers who specialize in all these specific branches. Greg

There are a few "problems" (using the term very very loosely because there are no rules) with the body from my perspective, but overall this is shaping up to be an impressive 2nd build! Or re-1st build if you want to look at it that way. Greg

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I've always done the "tune UP to pitch" thing as a matter of course.