Any Guitar Builders - Luthiers Out There?

a reply to: Serdgiam

I put an H3 (???, same name as a local band!!), in the neck position... wow! No wonder Yngvwie loves it! And Eric Johnson too. I ended up out of phase with the others (Hotrails), but loved the Jimi sounds!

I like the tonal spectrum where I get to eq. things instead of “stuck” with what the pup puts out.

I have both a rack system and amps (both Mesas) and like the pure tube sounds of each. So I lean towards a sound I can sculpt.

a reply to: mtnshredder

Cool beans! Haven’t heard of them! I like learning about new companies!

@Bob, forgot to say how beautiful that semi hollow tele is! What a PITA to bookmatch that! And a testament to your skills! I would not have the patience to do that!

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Good job on the build Bob!

More to come?

originally posted by: mtnshredder
a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Good job on the build Bob!

More to come?

Have a buddy who takes down trees. He said something about black maple and black walnut next week. The maple is ok I guess, the walnut though is supposed to be a fantastic tonewoid. The trees are big enough to extract multiple 20"x16"x2.5" billets, so one piece bodies. Also asked him to give me some large circular horizontal cuts that can be sliced into billets. Also, I will probably do the deck on my Ibanez rg in some of the Bubinga I have left over.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

You talking about the EMG's?

I've actually never tried their passive pickups. I get my "stock" from overlooked listings on eBay, and I have never seen EMGs, of any type, be overlooked

Same thing as the Zoom Ultra Fuzz pedal. Want one real bad, but am not willing to pay the price..

I do have some EMG single coils though, and probably unsurprisingly, have some guitars with their active pups. Always seemed a bit compressed to me, but otherwise dig them.

In my #1 strat, I've got that mystery single in the neck, an Eric Johnson bridge in the middle, and the vaunted Ybarra wound custom in the bridge. Took forever to find a single coil I liked in the bridge...

I'm a big, big fan of messing with the tone, but tend to do it through Reaper. I used to accomplish it through the rest of the chain, but once I finally found some VSTs I liked, and a monitor to "examine" the noise I'm making, I never looked back. I usually mic the cab though, rather than DI. The only amp sims I've found I like are NeuralDSP, and maybe something like the Kuassa plugins. That said, I rarely (ok, never) play with other people. I feel like that would impact what I look for in the tools.

My chain is pretty simple and unchanging (though, I constantly try out new pieces). Ceriatone Centura->Zoom Tri-Metal->Noise Gate->Ceriatone OTS20.

I feel the Ceriatone gear is near incomparable, though it does require pedals for high gain.



How do you all feel about the perennial "tone wood debate?"

Bob's been clear

Personally, I've never noticed that it makes much of a difference in comparison to pup selection, construction, etc.

Buut, with instruments like guitars, we hit an area of diminishing returns very quickly. The aspects that make those little differences can add up to something really special. Of course, the vast majority (if not all) of what is considered 'good,' or 'better' is completely subjective.

There's also the issue of common or low cost woods being sneered at.. I typically love how woods like basswood feel to play, but its usually considered a low cost choice to be avoided. It definitely isn't too pretty though, lending itself better to laminates and opaque finishes.

I gotta admit too.. since I went multi-scale.. I doubt I will be going back. The first hour or two were a bit odd, but that lovely string tension was quickly appreciated. Its just so nice!

Just gotta design a jig for cutting the nut Doing it freehand, like I'm used to doing, doesn't have perfect results. Wouldn't mind proportional string spacing either.

Shouldn't be too hard to print up a prototype jig. Just means I gotta actually fix the printer.

"I ended up out of phase with the others (Hotrails)..."

If you can't flip the leads on the H3, flip the black and green leads on both Hotrails pickups (leave the red & white linked). That will place all three pickups in phase with one another.

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

a reply to: Bigburgh

Very nice! Is that active EMG's on the Jackson? Btw, I have the PSR-730, my rendering workhorse along with an Akai Z8, great little toys! Picked up a PSR 530 as well for free, had a broken power input board, fixed it in 10 minutes. I will put up pics of my stable sometime ;-)

Cheers - Dave

Small addition to the wee beastie.... I bought a access plate and covered it in Bubinga. It isn't a perfect match but it's ok :-) I still have to route out the body so the plate sits flush, but it gives an idea of what it would look like.


Cheers - Dave

a reply to: Bigburgh

Finishing another, solidbody tele, flame maple face. I did this one in bubinga on the back as well and socked the headstock, used metallic garnet on the body edge. In the pic you can see some wanker burned in a name on the headstock. It was on the back as well, just sad, extremely distressed.


Cheers - Dave

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Beautiful work!!!

I feel like a wanker, just cutting out bodies from particle board, old pallet wood, discarded furniture , juniper, cottonwood, pinon, anything really, routing and installing hardware scrounged and salvaged from yard sale electrics and acoustics. I used to sell them after a gig where usually we were playing for tips and drinks. Some of them played and sounded pretty good, especially after running them thru 4 or 5 effects pedals and an old Bassman.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Beautiful work!!!

I feel like a wanker, just cutting out bodies from particle board, old pallet wood, discarded furniture , juniper, cottonwood, pinon, anything really, routing and installing hardware scrounged and salvaged from yard sale electrics and acoustics. I used to sell them after a gig where usually we were playing for tips and drinks. Some of them played and sounded pretty good, especially after running them thru 4 or 5 effects pedals and an old Bassman.

I've seen guitars made out of cardboard, coloured pencils and epoxy, plexiglass/acrylic and more. If you get the sound you want, pedals or not, it's a great job!

Cheers - Dave