28 posts
I guess I've been burning through guitar projects. Here's the next one, I'm about to put on the neck.
- Body is one-piece walnut (weighs a LOT) finished by me with alcohol-cut shellac for a little color, and 15-20 coats of waterbase lacquer
- Neck is one-piece pau ferro, unfinished
- Pickguard, pickup covers, and trem cover are a custom set from myrtle burl veneer, made by Roger at artisan guitar repair (http://www.woodpickguards.biz/)
- Pickups are GFS 1960's repro overwound
- Trem is a wilkinson 5+1
- Planet waves tuners -- we've tried a bunch, and I like Sperzels for the pure beauty aspect, but the Sperzel installation is fiddly, requiring a pilot hole to hold a pin in place under the tuner. And the Planet Waves tuners cut the string automatically when you tune up. Also, they are about the same price. Planet Waves needs a 13/32" hole, which is the only real difficulty--we used the drill press and a lot of manually moving the headstock around to get these drilled.
Here's the back. My only wish, that the guy who carved the body had stuck the edge with the light sapwood on the top of the guitar... it's such a cool contrast.
another beauty! Man, you are knocking them out. Nice stuff! Hope some of this makes it to Bowling Green next year!
And the next one! This one is not finished yet. Warmoth flame maple over swamp ash, HSS route. it's got a sealer coat but is going to get either some dye to amber it a little, or some shellac, then a clear coat. Which means, waiting for spring, which means it's at least 5 months away. But, uncharacteristically, I've got all the parts for this one already!
Holy crap those natural woods look great! :o
The only criticism I can offer is to wonder why you're settling for bolt-on necks??? Neck-thru's are just so solid and sustain for days (or at least 75 seconds ;) ).
If it ain't broke don't fix it... Leo knew what he was doing IMO. Also, I like the idea that if the neck goes bad, or I find a newer, sweeter one, I can just pop off the old one and stick on a new one! With all the guitars we've built, we've realized that the neck is far and away the most critical piece. And we've burned through some cheaper necks learning that, at this point we almost exclusively use Warmoths.
I have to throw out a pitch for this guy's necks. xxxoticwoods on ebay. This is the first one we've strung up (I have one more in the wings), and it's the first neck that, right from the get-go, was better than any and all of our Warmoths. With the woods this guy uses, and the prices they go for, his stuff is a downright steal. A one piece Pau Ferro neck for $160 shipped... it's $250 for a two-piece Pau Ferro at Warmoth, they don't make a one-piece. And this thing plays! We drilled and attached the neck and strung it up an hour before our weekly jam, and it had fantastic action from the get go and played like a champ all night.
I'm totally sold on this wood... no finish necessary, and it immediately feels warm and comfortable.
Here's a better pic, strung up, and not taken with my iPhone...
what radius, and what frets are you getting on them?
INCREDIBLE!!!
That Flame Maple guitar is killing me!!!!!!!!!
How thick are his necks (@1st & @12th fret)? And what backshape r they? Oh yeah, and what width at nut?
Can you custom order widths, thickness etc. and stuff with him?
If his necks are not thin, I might give him a try...
Another place that does great work with excellent necks is SoulMate Guitars. This is where I got my necks from. Probably more expensive than the dealer you've found, but they did really, really nice work. I've also used Bryan England for the custom inlay work.
http://www.soulmateguitars.com/
Here's are two.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220696097618&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_1779wt_1139
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220697263523#ht_1752wt_1139
It's what I'd call (and he calls) a medium C. .84" at the 1st. .89 at the 12th. It's definitely more comfortable and more hand-shaped than the Warmoth standard thin. I really can't say enough about this neck, I hit it with some fine finishing paper and wiped it down, glued in the nut, filed out the slots, and it was good to go. I'm still shocked that I got it for $160.
Wow, Craig. His stuff looks nice. $235 is way too steep to me for the entry level neck, plus $40 for headstock shaping...
I know some people can get a discount from him. The xxx necks look great as well (checked 'em out on eBay), I just have never liked all the tuners on one side. I hate it when I let asthetics get in the way of usability... I prefer all my guitars to be symetrical damn it! LOL! :)
Radius: 10"
Nut: 1-11/16"
Frets: 6105 (he offers some others too, I think)
He also will shape the headstock according to a custom profile you provide or standard strat or tele...
great choices on all aspects. Must be as nice as it looks!
Those are exactly the specs for my custom necks (except I chose a 25" scale). :)
http://halen.com/evh/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=printview&t=693125&start=15
desertbluesman — Nov 23, 2010http://halen.com/evh/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=printview&t=693125&start=15
Uh oh... Hope you get what you paid for Charger!
Saw this part in there:
4Monkeys.. Frankenstraat... xxxoticwoods
They're all the same guy unfortunately. ::)
I read a bunch on him before I bought my first neck. My opinion is that a couple of people had bad experiences and were very loud about them. I also found a lot of good reviews of his stuff. Since I have two necks in hand, nothing but great experiences with my auctions, and the one neck I've strung up is the best neck I have ever purchased, bar none, I'd buy from him again. Ymmv.
Really cool stuff charger!
FWIW, I just bought one of his necks (a killer looking, supposedly 200year old 3A birdseye Maple neck).
I have many good experiences with USA Custom Guitars and a few less with Warmoth so I'm anxious to see how he holds up compared to them. It will be hard to beat USACG since they (usually) deliver a flawless product.
I gotta say, the wood is more beautiful than anything I have ever seen and a similar piece with those specs is dead easy double the price from Warmoth or USACG.
Anyway, if he delivers there'll be lots of more business coming his way, but we'll see.
Those reviews are a bit freaky - but hey, charger is impressed so that's good enough for me to try it out.
Those birdseye necks he has are ridiculously gorgeous. I'm sure you'll like it. I like the Warmoth side adjust for the truss rod, but other than that the two xxxotic necks I have are perfect. Everyone is still reeling over the pau ferro one whenever they play it. The other one I have is flame maple, but not on a guitar yet... have to buy some tele hardware first.
Don't need another guitar neck yet, I just bought a Korina strat body, but won't know what neck it needs until I finish it. I'll be looking to buy another one as soon as I know.
Btw, charger, what bridge is that on the Flame Strat?
Is that a Gotoh 2-point trem or a guitarfetish one?
At the time of the photo, it was a gfs that we originally purchased for another guitar and never used. It now has a Wilkinson WVP, basically their take on an American Standard 2-point... not that much more expensive but I really like Wilkinson edges and I was unimpressed with the edges on the GFS.
http://www.guitar-parts-depot.com/guitar/wilkinson-tremolos-all-models-list.html
Yeah, FWIW that GFS bridge sounds like shit as well. Very mushy and almost no definition.
Those Wilkinson bridges are cool!
Personally, I love the Gotoh bridges that John Suhr uses. Those are of the highest quality and sound stellar.
They're in a totally different price league though.
I must have the steel block WVP too... it's a few ounces at least heavier than the GFS.
To me, if the trem is floating on two studs, it's got to have nice, sharp, defined edges. The Wilkinsons do, I would have gone with the classic Wilkinson design, VS100, like I have on my blue strat--I love that bridge both in feel and looks... just can't spend that kind of money... I like the curves n the Wilkinson. If you like a vintage bridge, we've used the Wilkinson 5+1 on several guitars, great bridge--basically a Fender standard with more screw spacing choices, a better block, and a push-in arm. And lots of people like the Gotoh/Wilkinson VSVG--it looks different but I've heard it's killer. Haven't tried one. Haven't tried the 510s that Suhr uses either, but they look solid.
Yeah, I had that 5+1 design Wilkinson vintage bridge and it was really good - both in sound and in feel.
Plus it stayed in tune a little better than the vintage Fender trem.
I really like that one! I know a lot of guys swear by the VSVG design - funny enough I have tried almost every
bridge available out there but never got around to try that VSVG as somehow I cannot get used to the looks.
The thing with these bridges is: they have to function but have to sound good too. A lot of them sound really mushy.
But the truth is you don't have to spend a fortune (like on a Hipshot trem, or Callaham - which I both tried as well in the past) to get a good working and sounding trem. I really can recommend those Wilkinson trems.
Those Gotoh 510s are just a piece of art though, with those big solid steel blocks and everything.
