Geo

That's horrible. The projects you've shared on here are amazing.

Thanks man. I knew all this... now I'm wondering why I asked.

Thanks. So I should probably start over (mentally). Get the bridge and pickups and then base everything off that, i.e. not copying the LP neck angle and bridge placement and centerline body carve, but arriving at whatever dimensions suit the hardware.

I'm envisioning a guitar with a TOM, with the same neck angle, bridge placement, etc. as a Les Paul, but as a semi-hollow with P90's. Since it's semi-hollow, I intend to use "dogear" P90's (the ones that could hang in a hole with no wood beneath them). So... is this incompatible with a TOM bridge? I.e., on a Les Paul the bridge pickup is considerably higher relative to the top than the neck pickup. I think this is a problem with using dogear P90's in this setup. Of course I'll have an exact plan before I cut any wood. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Uh... it's no trouble at all. Isn't tru oil several dollars for a few ounces? This is way, way cheaper.

Well, I may get scolded... but here's my finish recipe. It's 1 part turpentine, 1 part boiled linseed oil, and 1 part clear gloss miniwax. It's a built-up finish. The neck really feels incredible. I think this is a pretty non-standard finish. A guy on another forum shared the recipe with me. I would be suspicious, except that he's built quite a few guitars. I lost track of coats, but I know I didn't do 35. The guy recommended 1 coat a day for 7 days. I think I did more than that, but I didn't count. Glad you like the tone. I think it sounds fine without EQ, except for the distorted tone, which needs a low boost.

Yeah, you're right. But I don't have spray equipment and don't plan on buying it. Maybe this finish could be worked up to a gloss, I don't know. It isn't totally dead; in person you can see the light reflect off it. Here's a sound clip. http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=590945&T=9237 I didn't tweak any EQ--just the bass straight into the amps.

Thanks for the comments guys. Yeah, I knew from the start that the high frets would be rather pointless. But I really liked how it looked on paper. Since guitar is my main instrument, and this is mostly for "bass range" bass, I don't mind. However, the high range (esp. the G string) has a really interesting tone since the bass is hollow. It has a considerable amount of acoustic volume--more than I expected. (Oh yeah, it's done. ) I'll post a link to a soundfile after I record it etc. Warning... I don't have a bass amp. My options are an amp based on a Princeton Reverb, and a 5w Plexi. I played it in church today and the solid-state sound system made it sound pretty darn good. Pictures... (I'll take a few more when the natural lighting is better.) http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...finished003.jpg http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...finished002.jpg http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...finished001.jpg Thanks for looking. Any comments welcome... several flaws are visible in the pictures. But this project was a huge leap for me. It turned out way better than my first guitar.

Right... because the Gibson 3-way offers A on, A and B in parallel, and B on. You have on/off for A and on/off B, and when both are on the pickups are in parallel. So actually, your setup has one more option... both pickups off. That could be useful for a kill switch, except you would potentially have to flick two switches instead of one or just spinning the volume knob.

SISO (Strat in shape only) Awesome work dude! I can't quite tell... does this have a neck angle?

Since your SPST's only deal with hot leads, there's no ground connection. You could accomplish the same thing (choosing neck or bridge or both in parallel) with a single Gibson-style pickup selector switch. I would go this route to have as few controls as possible on the guitar.

Interesting... thanks for the input. CMA, your comment is encouraging. Hm, now I'm reading reviews for the Lollar P90's at Harmony Central. They really sound like what I'm looking for. This guitar (it's still just a concept right now) would be semi-hollow with an angled, maple set-neck. Possibly a bloodwood fingerboard cuz I love how it looks against maple.

Has anyone tried Fralin P90's? They're way expensive... I'm just wondering if the tone is worth all that. At a fraction of the price... has anyone tried GFS P90's? They're pretty cheap. I tried searching, but both "GFS" and "P90" are one character short of the 4-letter keyword minimum. Very helpful.

I'm not sure if the Strat-style neck pocket with one side exposed will work for a glue-in neck. If you're concerned about the thickness of the top, you can always route away the underside. This would be really easy with a flat top--just set the router to the correct depth (no gradual removal like with a carved top). To preserve your body thickness, leave the edges of the top and the part under the bridge at 1/4". I've seen a lot of guitar wood on eBay. Of course, buyer beware with that... LMI has tons of wood but they're kind of expensive. http://www.lmii.com/ Melvyn Hiscock's book will explain the neck angle thing. Whatever your final design, be SURE you draw it all out full-size, including a side view that shows the neck angle, bridge height, string line, etc.

You could try measuring the DC resistance of the suspected pickup(s). I would expect 7k-12k or something close... 0 ohms or infinite ohms would be a problem.

I imagine that angling the pickup would have little effect so far from the bridge.

If it's just one pickup, definitely put it at the bridge. I use a bridge pickup for everything unless I want a jazzy clean tone. Personally, I find that using a neck pickup for rhythm, the guitar just gets lost in the mix. Make sure you don't put it too close to the bridge. If you leave 1" between the end of the bridge and the edge of the pickup, you'll probably be fine.

I think ukeleles have nylon strings? I assume this will have steel strings, just cuz of the tuners. Very cool project!

That's what I was thinking. I could see using a flat sanding block and very carefully making a compound radius... but any radiused block is going to impart its radius to any part it touches, since a given portion of the stick will grind a certain portion of the fingerboard.

I don't think anyone has mentioned this (or I just missed it). The reason the headstock might affect tone/sustain is because the strings are always anchored to it, even when you fret a note. Imagine if the string became detached from the tuner while you were fretting. Your finger wouldn't hold it on. The tension runs the whole length of the string... so even when you play at the 20 fret, there's still X pounds tugging that tuner towards the bridge. The amount to which the headstock, neck, neck joint, body, and bridge resist that tug probly determines how much "sustain" we hear.

Woohoo, I made a lot of progress. My tuners have 1/2" bushings, so I had to drill 3/8" holes and then add enough 1/2" depth for the bushings. That was a nightmare with my hand-held power drill. The bloodwood headplate splintered and came away from the maple. A few fightin' words were uttered, but I was able to glue it back. Using a chisel to keep the depth even, I slowly drilled the half-inch holes. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress001.jpg Here's the pickup hole routed. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress006.jpg The body during staining. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress008.jpg http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress009.jpg After neck gluing, I put the parts together just to see what it will look like. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress010.jpg http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress011.jpg Now I'm applying the finish. Yuck, that blue masking tape ruins the aesthetic. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress012.jpg http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q119/Ge...progress013.jpg

Your amp is cathode biased. R30 and C32 (between the power tubes) automatically bias the power amp, so all you have to do is put in a new tube (no need to adjust anything). Don't worry about matching them. Mismatched tubes may make a more "musical" guitar amp. Because the amp is cathode-biased, I believe it's "class A" whether both power tubes are working or not. Since only one power tube was conducting, you were only hearing half of the amp's volume potential (probably less). Before you buy a new tube, though, check the heater wiring at the socket of the dark tube. The heaters should be pins 4 and 5. If the tube heaters aren't hot, the tube can't do anything.

Hey, that's cool that you actually built your Strat. You see a lot of "assembled" Strats where someone buys a body and buys a neck, etc. Of course there's nothing wrong with that... but building it all yourself is definitely cooler. The pickguard and bridge area reminds me of an SG. Definitely a cool twist on the Strat look.

Goes straight to the heart of the illegal immigration problem. Offensive, yes... but I chuckled.

Looks good. It's cool that you take classic body shapes and shake up the headstocks.