GregP

Yup. It's an Epiphone EZ-Bender. Doesn't have to be just on a "B" string, and you can adjust it for either a perfect half or a perfect full stop. If you've got a good touch, you could set it for full and then just train your hand to stop at half, but that's not really the idea. The idea is to be able to have a "brainless" bend that you can rely on. If you wanted to train your hand up, you're better off mastering various positions and slants instead. On a guitar, if you set the bender for a full stop instead of half, you get a country-ish interval (dunno which) against the high E instead. The country-ish sound of either approach is familiar to people who have heard a particular country lead guitar sound (typically done on a Telecaster) that emulates pedal steel phrases. The idea with my build was to give me one or two "pedal steel" effects on the lap so that I can spoof pedal steel parts. In theory, the plan works and is successful as a design. However, mine's actually sitting there useless... I decided to learn C6 tuning instead of a more "accessible" open G or similar. The way the strings are set up in C6, the bender doesn't give me any immediately useful bends. Once I get bored, I'll be building a different 8-string lap steel, which will become my C6 instrument, leaving me free to put a more suitable country tuning on this one. The frets are not at ALL necessary. If you really wanted, you could take a Sharpie and draw your "frets." Like I say, I mainly did it because "hey, I wonder what seating frets feels like?" It had the side benefit of making it nice and visible and also gives the instrument an extra touch of class. Greg

If your device accepts 1/4" expression pedal, it's controlled by a TRS connection coming off a 100K pot. That's all. But it's done by creating a circuit and measuring the resistance through the potentiometer. You can't just "send" expression pedal information-- the effects unit will send some current of its own to the pedal and then measure the amount returned on the other lead. I don't see how you'd be able to do this successfully with just one pot. Your pedal would have to control 2 separate Pots. Now THAT is something that would be possible, but it'd take some design work. Greg

Yup, I agree. The shafts were pretty thin. I can do a measurement when I get home for you, and if my camera co-operates, I can take a picture from any angle you like. What kind of drill bit does one use to drive through a metal shaft? With the exception of my Forstners, I only have cheap drill bits that come in bargain packs at Walmart or Canadian Tire.

The shafts aren't significantly longer. They're entirely cylindrical, though, which IMO is one of the down-sides. You don't get that nice taper that forces your wraps up; however, I guess that's in keeping with the theme-- you shouldn't need that kind of wrapping. I haven't actually used them yet. The buttons were too large for the guitar I meant to put them on. However, I suspect that if you have the precision equipment to do the job, drilling your own second hole would work fine. It's not a job I could do with the tools I have access to, but if you DO have them, I can't see it being a problem. Obviously you'll want to do extra things like make sure the edges of the holes are smoov and all that, but I'm sure that's already occurred to you. Greg

If you're talking about the "EZ-Lock" tuners, I got a set of those. They're as good quality as most "off the shelf" mid-priced guitars. Which means, they're good. They're not big strong beefy grovers, but they're quite good. Greg

I'm in Canada, which is "technically" international. They sent me some stuff without any problems. Can't vouch for "halfway across the world"-style international, but there it is. Greg

That guitar is freakin' sweet. Man that thing looks killer. Q that may have already been answered: if the black Khaler is a POS, did you ultimately leave the chrome one installed? How did it look? Are you switching it over, or sticking with the black one? Exchanging the black one? If you've already answered this, I missed it. Greg

I put frets on mine just so that I could feel what it was like to hammer frets into slots... I haven't made a proper guitar neck before, and I knew I couldn't really "screw it up" on a lapsteel since the frets wouldn't actually be used for fretting. It makes for good visibility on a fretboard that would've otherwise been tricky to get contrast on (it's neither dark nor light). Fret access? Whatchootalkinbout? Greg

I can't get over the off-balance body design; however, the craftsmanship looks great. I've always wanted to try a fanned fret guitar, too.

The circular thingy is centered, but the spikes are at totally different angles from the centre. It's OK that they're assymetrical, but they should still be at the same angle away from centre. Somehow, even if you choose NOT to have them at the same angle, it seems like the top (left) one should have more of an angle than the bottom (right) one.

I'm as loose as a... er... piece of dangling overcooked spaghetti... er... or umm.... something else that seems really loose. I need to make an avatar of Grimace REALLY flipping you guys the bird.

Tooooooo long. Do a mockup with stiff cardboard and you'll see very quickly how freakin' huge it is.

As with many things in life, all a matter of definition. ;-) To some people, a "professional" is anybody who makes money at a certain task. On the other hand, other people ascribe other characteristics to a "professional," so it'll be different from person to person. And the word "luthier" also has subjectivity to its definition. You made a guitar, and a dang fine one from what I can see. But until you have a high level of ability in all the related skills, there's wiggle room for debate. I'd personally call you a "guitar builder" rather than a luthier, but that's just my individual subjective definition. I also personally see luthiers as people with ability to build acoustic stringed instruments as well, but again-- all subjective. Does that change anything? Not a thing. If you have a friend that's willing to pay you for your time and materials to build him a guitar, that strikes me as a pretty happy and satisfying moment, and any attached "labels" don't mean squat. Greg

Looks pretty cool. A Khaler must have some sort of "stabilizers", no? I've never used one, but the literature talks about how it returns to a neutral position that you can "feel". In any event, the Trem King and Khalers are the way forward.

I always leave my tone controls at full. Passive tone controls are teh useless. Dunno why they persist. Any tone controls in the future will be active or nothin'. Greg

I used a strat jack for my lap steel build-- and the way the jack plate is shaped, it just seemed obvious to me to drill instead of rout an oval cavity. I couldn't find a good side-shot of the jackplate online, but those who have used strat-style jackplates should know what I mean. Not saying that it "should" be one or another. Simply and ONLY saying that when I bought the strat jackplate, I instantly thought, "ah, you just have to drill!" Greg

Is the jack hole not typically drilled at an angle rather than routed?

I think almost any multimeter will have this, but the truly indispensible bit for me is audible continuity checker. Nothing says, "yup, that's continuous!" like a shrill annoying beep.

I can say that they're working as fast as humanly possible to get it out there. I think it's feasible that it could hit the shelves by the end of the month, but I can't guarantee it. I'm sure I could probably say more than that, but I don't want to even risk breaking my NDA... those guys have been really good to me and I'd like to continue testing. Greg

Nice-looking guitar!

None of my guitars have names.

Thanks Mikro-- he's not a guitar boffin, so when he says "lacquer" he probably means "plasticky guitar clearcoat". It's on a G&L guitar, if that means anything. Greg

I'm on the beta-test team, and I can say that it's got some really nice features added to it since T2. I'm really looking forward to the bundled software, too, though (which I do NOT get to beta-test for the most part) including the GPO T3 edition. I've never had decent orchestra samples (settling for some of the better soundfonts) so I'm quite looking forward to that one. RMIV is a kick-butt drum sampler, too, and DrumCore will fill in other drum needs nicely. In short: I've already been using it, but I'm STILL looking forward to its release. Greg

Apologies, apologies... I just wanted to get this out there quickly, so I haven't done a search. This came to me via a PM on a forum where I've talked about Project Guitar. The person questioning me overestimates my knowledge of guitars a bit, but I defer to you guys:

I love the look of the spruce tops. Even without the jazz extras (tailpiece, etc.) I think a singlecut Myka solidbody with a spruce top and Bartolinis would be killer. Still out of my intended price range, though. Prostheta and Maple: strangely enough, I have never yearned for another acoustic steel-string. I have my pre-Fender Guild D25, and though it was one of their "entry" models (no headstock/fingerboard binding, etc) I really love it. It embodies the kind of sound I like in an acoustic dreadnought. When I *have* had the temptation for another steel-string, it's been due to form factor-- I think "traditional" bodies would be more comfortable for noodling around with on the couch. Greg