GregP

A bit of an update, and some questions. First the brief update: - Found an EZ-Bender on eBay, and it arrived. Cool little unit! It was exactly as I expected it to be-- not entirely super-rugged, but with a very positive and "machined" feel to it. - Got a pickup and some roller saddles (which will become a nut, I believe!) courtesy of Frank - Grabbed a tone pot from Dirt Cheap parts - I will re-use a pre-slotted fingerboard and headplate that I was saving for later, but it didn't suit my plans anyhow (that's aside from the fact that I don't seem to be getting around to it). The headplate will either become a headplate (still haven't decided) or it will just be used for mounting the electronics - I have some fretwire that's also going unused. So, even though a lap steel doesn't need a truly accurate, pre-slotted, radiused fingerboard OR frets, that's what I'm going to use. At the end of the day, the fretwire seemed the more simple option between that and tracking down veneer or using other jiggery-pokery. I'm used to the "shine" of frets as locators, so it'll be familiar territory anyhow. - I have extra MOP, so I may make some sort of inlay in the fretboard. Some of you may remember that my last inlay attempt didn't go so well, but this time I'm not planning for instant success and I'm willing to screw it up a bit. - Picked up some wood from a local supplier. I went in expecting to buy ash, alder, or basswood, PERIOD. Given the selection they had on-hand (lots of basswood, but the wrong thickness and I didn't want to pay for thicknessing and wasting all that wood) I went with mahogany. The piece I have is probably thick enough, but I always imagined having a slightly thicker one, so I added a 3/4" thick piece of cherry for the top. Pretty fancy for a "plank" if you ask me. -------- Now, the questions: Bridge As I mentioned, I can only find TOMs with a radius. Option 1: take the actual saddles out of a TOM, and replace them with a SINGLE piece of Tusq, shaped with a dremel tool so that it'd have "tabs" fitting into the slots where the saddles normally go. The Tusq would be filed flat, and then slots added. I'm Option 2: buy one of these (not available when this thread was started): Roller Bridge from Guitar Fetish and then re-work it a bit. I haven't decided if the best direction would be to a- mill down the "steps" on the baseplate that create the radius, or b- "build up" the 4 lower steps to match the top 2, thus flattening out the radius. Option 3: use an acoustic-type bridge, raised enough so that it could angle down to the stop tailpiece. Tusq (or Graph-Tec?) would be used to relieve friction as the EZ-Bender did its work. Nut It comes down to either using Tusq or the roller saddles. I like the roller saddles idea, but I just haven't decided how to mount them. One idea is to craft small 'holes' for them to drop into, in a piece of dense hardwood (like my cherry). But then it probably wouldn't be wise to also take advantage of the screw-holes, since they'd be going parallel to the grain and would want to split it. Another idea was to find a small aluminum or steel L-shaped "beam" and then screw the saddles into this. Yet another was to make a "saddle sandwich" in which the saddles would be essentiall wedged between 2 pieces of wood and then screwed in. When I try to visualize this, though, it looks inelegant in my mind's eye. Any other suggestions? Tailpiece Should be simple, right? Just use an LP stop tailpiece, which is what the EZ-Bender is designed for! Well, I bought one at the local guitar shop and ran into a problem. The EZ bender mounts onto the tailpiece with screws that go into the hole that the string would normally pass through. The screws are hollow allen-screws kind of like the ones to adjust the height of standard Strat saddles. The trouble is that the tailpiece holes are a bit "recessed" so that the ball end of the string gets hidden, for a clean look. The tailpiece I picked up has very "deep" recesses, so the allen screw can't clamp on properly. So, I need either: a - a tailpiece with a shorter "recess". Are they actually different from company to company, or am I screwed because it's a "standard"? b - longer hollow allen screws. Are these things available from hardware stores, or at least from some sort of specialty vendors? Headstock I'm worried that if I don't angle my headstock, there won't be enough of a break over the nut to keep everything nice and tightly in-place. I was considering angling the headstock with a scarf joint, but if I can avoid it, I'd rather not. Using string trees defeats the purpose of the project because I need to reduce friction at all spots so that the EZ-Bender will work smoothly. I can fairly easily make a heastock that's lower so that it'll work like a Strat, but I'm worried that the angle from the tuning posts will make awkward string overlap at the "wrap" part of the post. A locking nut would take care of this, but I can't afford the danged things. Basically, my options are: 1. scarf joint 2. normal plane (like in the BuildYourGuitar.com lapsteel plans) and hope for the right break over the nut 3. lower plane and either get lucky with the wraps at the post, or shell out for locking tuners ---- It should be said that I don't even know how much use I'll get out of this thing, and I might suck at it, but I also don't want to do a half-assed job. I hope to do the final work and assembly in the coming week, so any suggestions or comments on my options (as I see them!) would be greatly appreciated!

I got a nice 25W Weller with just one setting: "on". Added to that a standalone "coil"-type stand/sponge (you don't wanna use one of those goofy little metal things that you "lie" your iron on!). Iron: $20 CDN Stand: $10 CDN Total cost: $30 CDN. I saw a decent enough soldering station for $90 CDN, and it seemed like a good deal, but then I thought about it: cheap, but 3 X more expensive than what I really needed! I've done a decent amount of soldering with it, and it's holding up great. Greg

On paper, braided is more "efficient". However, in addition to the fact that solid will still work and it's not likely you'd notice the difference anyhow: The wires on the inside of your guitar are all short little jobbies. With that short a distance to travel, the electrons aren't going to be inconvenienced by travelling through a solid core rather than a braided one. They wouldn't MAKE solid core wire if it didn't work. Greg

I never got used to a middle pickup. When I had a strat-style guitar, I did exactly as mentioned above, and put the danged thing right down flush with the pickguard. Also as mentioned, you can still use it, though! I actually found that the guitar became MORE versatile. Now I use a tele-style or a dual P-90 guitar. No middle pickup. Greg

You may have inadvertently set up a ground loop, though that should produce unwanted noise regardless of position, or so I thought. Greg

No, ground all the electronics and hardware, including the bridge, to a central spot. Solder them all to a washer or a coin or O-tab (what the heck are those called again?) or something like that. Then go from this central spot to the ground lug of the output jack. Greg

I agree. It'll be much cheaper to just buy one if it's the end product you're looking for. If you want to build one for the experience of it, I suggest buying a practice amp (to use in the meantime) and THEN tackling the build. Greg

I'm "interested", but I have to admit that I don't have a suitable guitar that I'd drop one into right now, so I wouldn't want to say that it's a commitment, and when you're planning logistics for a first batch of product, it'd be handy (though not necessary) to have something more firm than that. Have I mentioned lately that I love this thread? Greg

Is it a 2-conductor origin? It's not a traditional pickup. I think it uses 6 individual piezo elements and suchlike. Then it goes to an onboard processor. From there, the signal is sent... it's very very easily imaginable that the onboard electronics will produce a suitable signal for balanced connection. Greg

The JG ones don't really look like a Fender tele anyhow, which is how they can successfully pull off the carve. The upper bout and horn are more like a Yamaha Pacifica (tele-style like the 302S) and the lower bout is more like a Les Paul in that it's all round-like. Greg

Those JG guitars look great. For the '59 style Bluesmaster, I could do without the pickguard, but it still looks pretty sweet. Greg

Very interesting reading, Don! Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your patent. I'm looking forward to seeing if it develops into a commercially-available product. Greg

Holy heck! It's "too much" for my actual 'practical' tastes, but it's still highly impressive and extremely well-done! Thanks for sharing. Greg

Cheers for the continued responses, I was mucking about a bit last night in my sequencer, and meeting with relative success using Pete's "sort of Lydian" configuration: Chords C (and Suspended variations), D (with suspensions), and Em. Then C Lydian played over top, which has most of the same notes in common with what I'm already familiar with. The big differences were the B and the F# (as mentioned). Strangely, though, I always found it a bit awkward to try resolving anything on the C. It seemed out of place to my ears still, and I almost never started or ended any phrases on the C. I'll post my results sometime within the next few days, and then maybe people will have a few more pointers for me. I have virtually no 'shred' technique, so I'm not worried about tips for technical prowess, just to see if I'm getting the hang of it or not. Greg

Thanks for the awesome reply, Pete, and thanks to everyone else, too. The real key for me isn't understanding the modes, but as Pete correctly identified, relating them to the underlying chords. I knew already that a Mode is just a major scale starting and resolving on a different note than its original (ie. when treated as the Major scale) root; however, that never helped me to figure out what chords to put underneath! That post makes a lot of sense, and I'll have to sit around with it (and a guitar) for a little while to start getting a feel for it all. Thanks a lot, though, that's one of the clearest explanations I've seen in a while. Enough theory to help me out (some who try don't put ENOUGH theory, which can be a problem with my way of learning) but not so much that it's overwhelming. Great! PS, Top Gun theme was Steve Stevens, no? Greg

It's mainly to get a feel for the scales and chords he uses. I like that it's not 'minor pentatonic' like what I usually do, and yet it's something I can relate to. At the end of the day, it's not the shreddiness I care about at all, although I certainly respect it. Even if I can play some of his parts at 1/2 or 1/4 speed, I'm cool with that because I'm still getting what I need to get out of it. There are ways around some of the techniques. Just adapting them. For example, if he dive-bombs 4 whole tones, you just glissando down to it or do a string-mute "chick" in the space that the dive would occupy and then pick up the target note. Or, I'll just skip the parts that have heavy FX. ---- Now, Satriani is another one. I actually saw him in concert for the "Flying in a Blue Dream" tour, so if he's got some fairly easy ones, I wouldn't mind getting into him either. I actually find that he's even MORE versatile with his choices of modes/scales, in fact, but that's part of the problem-- with the songs I know by Vai, he sticks to the same 2 or 3 modes... with Satch, it really depends on individual songs and I don't know which of them overlap with the scales that Vai chooses. I'm open to recommendations, though. Greg

Hey all, I've always liked Steve Vai, but it's been many a year since I've really sat down and listened to him, and I've NEVER tried to play any of his songs or emulate his style. But lately I've been feeling the urge to learn a bit about his style. Specifically, I'm curious about which modes he favours, and more importantly-- which chords he fits "under" those modes to complete the sound. I figure, learning a song, or at least parts of a song, might be a better way to accomplish it rather than just reading a bunch of stuff-- I'm a hands-on "kinesthetic" learner for the most part, and I'll need to do some playing in order for it to register and 'click'. Any song recommendations? My skill level with guitar is not as good as it should be for the amount of time I've been playing, but I'm comfortable on the instrument and not afraid of a challenge. I'll have to improvise ways around the whammy trickery (not having a whammy-equipped guitar), so songs that focus less on special effects and more on melodies would be cool. I also don't need to be able to play the song front-to-back, as long as there's a particular passage or two that aren't insanely difficult that I could get my feet wet with. Any pointers? The only album of his I own is Passion and Warfare (and the 2 DLR albums), but I'm willing to cough up some money for a CD if it's a good listener all-around, as well. Cheers, Greg

I thought Spirit was their line of cheap Steinbergers...

Surely for the price of 2 mini-pedals you can get a cheapass multi-effects pedal? Multi-FX aren't always the best for distortions and reverbs, but at least by comparison to the mini-pedals the compressor and EQ are prolly up to the task, or no? If you're looking cheap, the Dano ones do look pretty nifty. Less nifty but also cheap are the new Behringer offerings, worth at least considering. Greg

If it's for home recording rather than gigging, there's the Line6 TonePort, which has 16 of the PODxt's amp models (upgradeable to as many as 76), along with 5 of the Bass POD's models. All for less than $200, which is the best value for money you can possibly find as a home recording hobbyist. Plus, it has vocal preamp models! All in a low-latency ASIO device! If you look into the TonePort line, I highly recommend the extra $ for the UX2, but if you truly know that you never ever ever will need the Phantom Power or S/PDIF connector, I guess the UX1 still looks aight.

Probably nobody wanted to reinvent the wheel. All the information you need is found at Guitarnuts.com. On the left menu there's a "Wiring and Shielding" option. The disclaimer/info page pops up in the main view, and on the left there are further menu options now displayed. Greg

Awesome work, Hyunsu! Cool that the 2 of you got to meet. I like how Maiden's language is changing and adapting. Greg

I've watched a few more. Thanks again! Hey, do you mind if I share the kooky stick thing one on another forum? Using a service like YouSendIt or PutFile, of course, so that your own bandwidth isn't pigged. Nice installation video, btw! 8 minutes! Whoo-hah! Interesting stuff going on at the Warrior booth! Greg

Kev, Thanks for posting that up! Any particular favourites other than (of course! Gotta watch this one!) Tremol-No? (I can't watch'em all) Had to chuckle at Graph-Tech party. Greg

I can't remember if I posted to this thread, but I DID end up with the GDI21 SansAmp ripoff thingy. It actually sounds REALLY good! But, not so good that I resisted getting a Line 6 TonePort UX2, which is what I've been tinkering around with the most. The GDI21's "tweed" sound isn't quite right. The Marshall sound is great, though. Add a cabinet simulator or realistic reverb impulse in your sequencer, and you're golden. It's still in heavy use right now, though, even without using it for the amp models. It's a DI box, which has served me well as I can now use it to go into the TonePort's mic input as well, from a splitter box. 2 inputs for one guitar = double-amp setup, like many guitarists who have their favourite clean and their favourite dirty amp set up. Greg