GregP

+1 -- the cherry I used was WAY harder than the mahogany piece used on the same project. Greg

He already said he can modify the body to accomodate the neck, so the absolute compatibility of the neck wasn't an issue. My response also included that caveat. He also said that a lefty strat neck is pretty easy to find. Greg

The only thing making a Strat neck or a Tele neck able to fit either of those 2 categories is the headstock, really. ;-) I mean, there are probably certain "standards" in radius, etc., that might make something a "2007 American Strat Neck" or whatnot, but there have been so many varieties of each. You can get strat or tele necks that are fat, thinnish (though never Wizard-thin that I'm aware of), with different radiuses, different fret sizes, etc. They're both 25.5" scale... If you have the capacity to make sure your body will accomodate the strat neck, I don't see any reason on earth not to just get one. Greg

My personal opinion? Neither. I'd let it kind of "hang loose" in the cavity. It won't really be hanging much or very loose because of all the wires attached to it, but I wouldn't connect it to any particular solid surface. All "typical" grounds --> solder to washer back of ONE pot --> solder to washer (assuming the pot touches the shielding) washer --> output jack If you attach the washer to the cavity, there's a risk (although slim) that you could create a ground loop. The idea of star grounding is to isolate the grounds completely and ENSURE that there's only one place for them to go-- to the output jack's ground. So, once the washer's all soldered up, wrap it in electric (insulating) tape or whatnot. Just let it hang out in the cavity. Greg

You could ground all your wires to it. It's the same continuous "surface" as the back of your pots, if the pots are touching the shielding. A better way is to use a "star" ground... all of your grounds go to a metal washer (including a wire from the back of one pot, which will ground the entire shielded cavity, if the pot is touching the shielding as it should), and then 1 wire is sent to your output jack's ground lug. Make sure that none of those wires are bare and wrap the washer up in electric tape, too, and you'll have a ground-loop-free zone. Braided wires that only shield pickup cables are an exception, and can be soldered to the cavity's shielding material. Greg

Libraries in Canada log circulation of each and every book and a royalty is generated. It never amounts to much (I've worked alongside an author as a book editor, and personally saw the royalty cheque), but nor is the author completely screwed. THIS, however, completely screws Melvyn. Like many others here, BYOEG was one of the first books I got. I actually bought the Koch eBook, as well, and while it is a fine book I prefer (as another member has already stated) flipping through actual pages of an actual book. I also haven't come across the book, and I'm not likely to. But I'll keep it in the back of my mind. Greg

Sweet! Ain't it great when you fix your own stuff up?

Lux good to me.

Right pots, wrong lugs is my guess.

Absolutely. Any time you have a boost, though, it's going to be active electronics, meaning a battery. There are actually quite a few aftermarket products that will do what you want to accomplish, including the famous Afterburner by EMG. The afterburner works with passive pickups as well, if I remember correctly. Guitarfetish.com carries a few things that fit the bill-- just avoid the amp-emulator/"distortion" units. 1dB of boost isn't nearly enough to give yourself the "cut through the mix" boost you need, though, so the 20dB and 25dB units some of these places sell isn't completely out of line. Artec makes some stuff, too: http://artecsound.com/active%20circuit.html I'm not sure if any of them are pure level-boosters, though.

Yay! Looks great. I love your fretboard style with the alternating woods.

I think it's a GREAT idea... and someone out there is bound to benefit, as well as you. ;-) But just because I'm that kind of guy, I have to say-- what equipment are you lacking that would stop you from making a neck? You seem to have a router... beyond that, all you really need is a rasp or surform and some sandpaper... no?

Stevie Ray Vaughan, amongst others, has used a "cascading amp" setup before. My understanding is that it's a terrible idea, no matter what famous person did it. I don't pretend to understand amps and loads and so forth, but if you mismatch inputs and outputs, and do not sufficiently load the amps at various stages, amongst other concerns (all stemming from the fact that amps aren't designed to run into one another), you can wreak havoc on one or both of your amps. Someone more knowledgable should pipe in, but I'll start the ball rolling by saying that unless you know what you're doing, it's a bad idea. Someone who knows more can take that and agree or disagree with it. Greg

For Fender or large factory guitars, that makes a lot of sense. For a custom build, adding one when you're using a separate fingerboard would be a matter of aesthetics.

Not much is known about them since they're brand-new. If you do a forum search, there was a recent thread about them, and if I remember correctly, the creator joined in for the conversation. If my memory is NOT correct, it was at least someone knowledgable. I think they look great. Greg

AWESOME! Off-topic, how do you like the Alumitones?

The only reason a skunk stripe would appear on a neck with a separate fretboard is for the looks. Some people just like the look of the stripe.

I've tried it with my P90's and didn't get any significant benefit. In theory, it SHOULD help, but I didn't notice a tangible improvement. Thinking of switching to P100s or similar. Maybe Lace Alumitone 90's, though they look wonky compared to the nice plain black of my current pickups. Greg

Words cannot express how cool I think your headstock (the one in the "finished" picture example) is! As for the various colours of wood... meh. I think it looks fine.

No backbow is ever recommended. Quite the opposite. If you have backbow, you're in a world of hurt. The bowing and general tension don't change the scale length. The scale length is the scale length, and the frets are in place according to some pretty specific math. No amount of change to the strings will change this, and any changes to the curve of the neck should be fixed-- but even if not fixed, the "arc" of travel would be such that scale length isn't really impacted in any practical way. In pure theory, you're correct.. but the change is so infantessimal that for practical purposes it's not worth calculating. You will never need the bridge to be closer to the nut than than scale length for any string. Compensation is to compensate for strings getting pulled sharp as they're fretted. The compensation is for the saddle to therefore have a slightly "longer" length than pure linear mathematics would tell you.. the longer length produces a slightly flatter note from the fret to the bridge, which compensates for the string having been pulled sharp. As it happens, the low E string is the most likely to get pulled sharp by more cents... so by angling the TOM back a little bit, you're giving yourself enough wiggle room. It's unlikely that a low E string will EVER need to be at the exact scale length, so it's very safe to start with the bridge angled back a bit. But it IS possible that the high E will be able to be fretted with only a wee touch of compensation necessary. Greg

Fantastic!

It's the right move. You really don't want to completely ruin your beautiful new guitar. Settling for an explorer body instead of a V for the sake of getting the features you REALLY want is the smart decision IMO. Now, if it were an OLDer "V" and you didn't mind the possibility of accidentally doing some "less than pro" work to it, by all means, I'd support that choice. But in a new fairly expensive factory instrument? Nah. Greg

EMG orients their pickups so that the logo reads correctly. I'm pretty sure they generally use blades in their passives instead of polepieces. It won't matter a whole lot which way it's oriented, if that's the case. It's not really generally true that one coil is significantly hotter than the other. There are slight differences because they use different types of magnets, etc., sure, but not enough that you'd want to spin that pickup around in order to get hotter performance out of it. Besides that, the closer to the bridge you get, the LESS signal is generated, so even if the 2 coils had significant differences, you'd still want the "hotter" one closer to the neck... in theory... it's really not important, though. I think you're over-thinking things. In any event, if you're not splitting the coils, the individual coil outputs aren't going to matter a whole lot. Unless my brain is totally out to lunch on me, a typical full humbucker has both coils wired in series. Greg

If it's a scratch build, you could recess EQ sliders into the control cavity, if you make your own from wood or other workable material. The reason for "recessing" them would be so that you don't accidentally put them out of whack when you're playing, but you could still adjust them easily enough with your pick or whatever. Not to elegant "on the fly" like that, but it could be done, if you primarily want to "set it and forget it" or make changes between songs.

I dunno, dude. I'm all about versatility, but to me "distortion" on-board is the wrong application for on-board fx. I think that EQ, filters, and Compression are the ones to consider.