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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 5, 2020 16:36:11 GMT -5
I have this funky mahogany body that was sent to me a long time ago, made by wrnchbndr as a "here you go, see what you can do with it, I dare ya" sort of thing. I seem to recall he was inspired to carve this thing after seeing one of my weirdo guitar creations at a Jersey Jam. If I *did* influence you, Mark, please accept my apologies I've never gotten around to taking a shot at it, and I feel guilty for not moving forward on it. So here we go. I think it's going to be a headless beast. I'm leaning toward a single bridge humbucker and a volume control, with a Tune-o-Matic bridge and standard tuning machines mounted at the end of the body a la the B.C. Rich Bich. Here's a pic of the body next to a Strat for comparison. It has a decidedly Jetsons/Star Trek vibe about it. Gotta cobble together a neck for it...
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Post by Leftee on Feb 5, 2020 18:12:23 GMT -5
😎😎😎
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McCreed
Halfnote
Posts: 76
Formerly Known As: Mick Reid @ FDP
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Post by McCreed on Feb 5, 2020 18:13:43 GMT -5
I've already got a model name for it: "The Gun Butt"!!!
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Post by LM on Feb 5, 2020 21:37:12 GMT -5
"Whale Tail" or "Shark Fin"
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 5, 2020 22:22:19 GMT -5
Gun butt? Hilarious! I already have a fishy guitar I built in 2004. It looked like Shamu to me, but my hunnie thought it looked like a sting ray. I need to build another one of these...I still have the templates:
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Post by Riff Twang on Feb 5, 2020 23:15:14 GMT -5
Reminds me of a Star Trek Federation Communicator.
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gbfun
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Posts: 463
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Post by gbfun on Feb 6, 2020 0:55:38 GMT -5
McCreed : I agree completely. Add a shoulder cushion on the end. I hope he makes the neck out of a real shotgun barrel....or a scifi ray gun of some sort.
Maybe it will squirt water when done ?
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 6, 2020 10:03:09 GMT -5
"...or a sci-fi ray gun of some sort." gbfun, I've always wanted a Super Yob. It is a custom made one-off by UK builder John Birch, made to resemble a sci-fi ray gun pistol for Slade guitarist Dave Hill in the early 1970s. There have been several copies made by other builders over the years, but this silver one is the original: If you don't know who Dave Hill is, he's the guy that originated the 'Silver Spaceman Guitarist in Platform Boots' shtik, stolen by by Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley.
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Wrnchbndr
Wholenote
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Formerly Known As: WRNCHBNDR
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Post by Wrnchbndr on Feb 6, 2020 10:58:48 GMT -5
I'm laughin about the sci-fi weapons comments.
Absolutely true but an awful long time ago. Here is whats left of mine. It hangs on the wall. It didn't have any mojo. I was also hoping to find some sort of tail light I could mount at the butt-end. The strings insert at the end rather than the back -- I made a mess of that with holes that didn't actually align with the bass string balls I used as ferrules. Its volume, tone, varitone, and 5 position rotary switch but I've let the thing go to hell handing on the wall and stealing the knobs. [ live.staticflickr.com/65535/49496685738_a7de1acd49_c.jpg" src="http://" alt=" "][/url] 6Feb2020 039 by Mark Wybierala, on Flickr While I was shaping the body, my 14yo son asked me why I was making a guitar shaped like a reproductive organ. I totally lost commitment. The color had already been mixed. I might make another neck for it as I suspect a mahogany neck may bring it to life. [/div]
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Post by chronicinsomnia on Feb 6, 2020 11:39:23 GMT -5
Guitar the final frontier. This is the musical voyage of the guitarship Mahoganize. It's mission to make strange noise to seek out new scales to boldly rumble like a volcanic eruption on Mars.
Set your Phaser to stunned. Live long and prosper.
Looking forward to following the progress on this.
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Wrnchbndr
Wholenote
Posts: 353
Formerly Known As: WRNCHBNDR
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Post by Wrnchbndr on Feb 6, 2020 11:48:02 GMT -5
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 6, 2020 12:24:41 GMT -5
Oh MAAAAAAAAn I never saw pics of the one you built. I remember you telling me you made two bodies. That's giving me some ideers!!!
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Wrnchbndr
Wholenote
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Formerly Known As: WRNCHBNDR
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Post by Wrnchbndr on Feb 6, 2020 12:39:35 GMT -5
I just felt that you attached the neck to the wrong end on Shamu. Actually, I was blown away by the whole guitar and simply ripped off your idea. But only as honorable praise. I think the slab of Chinese maple of my neck is killing all of the mojo. My guitar has absolutely no soul. Its a bad guitar despite uber perfect frets and geometry. But on the plus side... It was my first use of Mohawk Musical Instrument Laquer -- totally the best. My first painted headstock. It helped me to dispose of some mahogany. It looks okay on the wall. I learned from some big mistakes.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 19, 2020 16:18:00 GMT -5
I had some time to work on this today. Being that it's going to be headless, I needed a way to anchor the string balls at the headstock. I decided to go with aluminum bar stock, 3/4" wide x 3/8" thick. I don't have a milling machine or a lathe, so everything is done using a drill press and hand tools. I ended up with a little anchor block that will attach to the end of the neck with two 1" screws. The strings will drop in, rather than have to be threaded through the holes. You can see where I goofed up and drilled the recess for the B string ball a teensy bit too high. Goofball alert! WOOT!
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DrKev
Wholenote
It's just a guitar, it's not rocket science.
Posts: 418
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Post by DrKev on Feb 20, 2020 6:37:54 GMT -5
That's gonna be cool! And great work on the string anchor! Rather than go Jetsons direction, I'd go the 50's tripod lozenge coffee table vibe. Color painted top, but masked about 1" in from the edges, maybe sonic blue or cream yellow, followed by satin or matt clear coat. Chrome everything including pickup cover and knobs, except for the tuner buttons, which should be pearloid. A matching mahogany neck with rosewood board would be cool.
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Wrnchbndr
Wholenote
Posts: 353
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Post by Wrnchbndr on Feb 20, 2020 12:22:18 GMT -5
You done good sir. Aluminium can be fun. Years ago I purchased a 6 X 6 X/Y table for my drill press and recently I acquired another drill press so I can dedicate it for that purpose. It would be so nice if you could find a Steinbrenerburger bridge -- Oh! Oh!! - MAKE ONE FROM ALUMINIUM! Actually it wouldn't be that hard to make a tunable tailpiece in the Steinbrenerburger thumbscrew bridge function and employ a tunematic for the bridge. But then, my project went south cuz I got too perky. I looked into this once and couldn't find appropriate 4-40 thumbscrews not wanting to need a screwdriver or other tool every time I needed to tune or trying to make my own knurled knobs using a jeweler's file. I have actually fabricated replacement tuner blocks out of brass for a Steinbrenerburger bass.
Don't listen to a word I've said.
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Wrnchbndr
Wholenote
Posts: 353
Formerly Known As: WRNCHBNDR
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Post by Wrnchbndr on Feb 20, 2020 12:24:49 GMT -5
...in a whisper... A set of discarded Gibson robot tuners with the knobs cut off - shhhhhhh.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 20, 2020 12:54:53 GMT -5
Oh maaaaaan that would be cool! Auto tuners! Hey, you can easily make your own knurl-head screws. Buy regular knurled thumb nuts fit the threads. In the end of each nut, drill a chamfer for the screw head to fit into. Add a drop of red Loctite to the threads just under the screw's head and then thread the knurled nut on. Permanent. If you decide to use a brass nut, go with CA instead of Loctite.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 20, 2020 20:17:55 GMT -5
Got the neck prep done on this today. It's an old Peavey neck in great shape; maple and rosewood with the wheel-type rod adjust at the heel, so it was perfect for this headless project. It originally had a Floyd locking nut on it. I had considered using it as is to lock the strings at the end of the neck, but that would be too easy. Removing the locker leaves a large flat surface and no place to install a nut. I sliced off the headstock and built up the top to create a slot for a standard nut. I didn't have any rosewood to match the fingerboard, so I used two pieces of walnut (stained dark) as a facing, and a nice chunk of cocobolo as an end cap. I decided to use a contrasting end cap more as a visual feature than something functional. I'll shape the string anchor block to match the outline of the cocobolo cap and screw it in place.
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gbfun
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Post by gbfun on Feb 21, 2020 0:41:09 GMT -5
Wow...nice !
Have you picked out the pickups yet ?
I'd guess a mahogany body would sorta be like a no maple top Gibson in tone.
Humbuckers with a little more high end to make up for missing maple high tones ?
Or something else ?
You sure have awesome woodworking skills !
These pics remind me again of your color changing bowls...which were spectacular.
Hmm. I suppose single coils would make up highs too.
P-90s might be interesting.
But because the body is small, maybe mini humbuckers ?
Lots of possibilities !
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gbfun
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Post by gbfun on Feb 21, 2020 0:47:35 GMT -5
Gee. I guess I never read the first post either...or my memory is shot !
You mentioned one bridge pickup already.
If I were building it, I'd want it to be a synth guitar myself....or the two mini hums.
Thankfully, I get to sit back with my drink and watch YOU build it.
A far better result is sure to happen I'm sure !
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gbfun
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Post by gbfun on Feb 21, 2020 0:53:46 GMT -5
Oh yeah, the Super Yob is spectacular but it's really gotta hurt when it's fired.
Yours should be a lot more comfortable...
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 21, 2020 7:30:55 GMT -5
I didn't make the body; that was generously given to me by wrnchbndr.
I'm going to make a small humbucker for the bridge position. It's a new coil/magnet design that's dead simple and nobody has thought of yet. On paper it sounds good (resistance/inductance/etc.), but making the prototype is still on the to-do list. Perhaps someone already has thought of this idea and tried it, and it sounded like poo.
There's no way to know until I spin one up because pickups are odd things; sometimes what should sound good doesn't, and what should sound bad actually sounds great. That's the real fun in this stuff. Ask any pickup maker how they arrived at their flagship designs and they'll all tell you it was a lot of trial and error before they achieved trial and success. Keeping lots of accurate notes helps because very small changes in a pickup's physical properties can make big changes in the way it sounds. I just want to get close; I'm not expecting perfection.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 21, 2020 7:38:01 GMT -5
I have a headless synth guitar, but I really never play the thing. It's an Ibanez that nobody remembers, because they flopped! This: I actually considered scavenging the parts off this to use on this current project, but I probably would've regretted it down the road.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 21, 2020 17:09:08 GMT -5
I got the neck fitted to the body to lay out the location for the bridge and the pickup. The process is pretty simple: attach the neck centered in the pocket, hold a straight edge along each side of the neck, and draw a line along the straight edge across the top of the body. I like to use tape on dark woods like mahogany because it's hard to see pencil lines. Once the two lines from the neck are on the body, it's easy to find and draw the center line, and then measure for scale length (bridge location). This is a 25.5" scale neck, so measuring from the nut, the high E saddle needs to be 25 1/2" and the low E saddle is 25 5/8". These two measurements are with each saddle in the middle of its travel in the tune-o-matic bridge; that provides the wiggle room necessary to get the intonation where it needs to be once everything is assembled. I stuck a nut blank in the slot to simplify this process. The bridge will be recessed about 1/4" to get the strings low enough across the body, so I'll rout that after I get the two bridge sleeve locations drilled. I still don't know how I'm going to do the tuners on the end of the body, but as this thing develops it will tell me. They're going to be the individual Steinberger straight-pull type. I never draw a diagram on paper because no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy anyway
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Post by Tinkerer on Feb 21, 2020 18:51:01 GMT -5
This is Looking very cool - I love the string retainer at the headstock that you came up with. I could not agree more with what you say about the "battle plan" process and look forward to seeing where you take this one!!
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gbfun
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Posts: 463
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Post by gbfun on Feb 22, 2020 2:25:39 GMT -5
Ooh...that dark neck against the brown wood looks attractive on your Space Guitar ! Man, I've never, ever seen that Ibanez synth guitar before. Maybe it's from the time Roland's first synth guitars came out : first gen stuff. I guess the GR1 etc I fiddle with is the 2nd generation. I'd hazard a guess that the Ibanez works a lot better without a broken string... And I'm a little disgruntled today. My battery amp menagerie lacks a Cube and there's one for sale 20 miles away. I'll have to wait for one to get closer. Then I'll get downwind of it, and pounce. Maybe. Ok. You blew my mind when you said you'd just build your own pickup. I've called my therapist, but I got no answer. I'm still reeling from seeing that my favorite pickups don't have windings. They look like they were made in a sweat shop deep inside China, and all they are is six screws with a bar magnet on either side ! Which of course, I can't get anymore. Ack. And now you say you're going to whip out your pickup off the cuff using some alien design ! Okidoke Artichoke. While you're at it, I had another "vision". A future guitar with the equivalent of 8 to 10 pickups on it...all selectable individually or in combination. It would probably involve a half intelligent AI or a lot of programming to do this...but someday it's possible I bet ! So when you make one pickup, make it 10 !(kidding) You know, of course, there seems to be an extraordinary capability of scientific equipment to digitally sense changes in mass and magnetic strength. Why can't we apply THAT technology to guitars ? It might only take a circuit board ! But what about that pickup that has a single coil, P-90, and humbucker in it ? That way you could have three pickups in one space.(get the ring controls for sure) Or the new fangled Aluma...something or others ? If your PeegooBucker fails of course. We'll just have to see what Peegoo Labs comes up with next. Kinda like a reality show !
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 22, 2020 6:33:49 GMT -5
This just may be the guitar for you; this is Mr. Horsepower:
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Wrnchbndr
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Formerly Known As: WRNCHBNDR
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Post by Wrnchbndr on Feb 22, 2020 13:24:11 GMT -5
It'll be a sure thing with a steinbrennerburger tailpiece. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. Looking at your guitar... Damn. I've never gone that far out on a limb without a parachute. I suspect that you actually do have a plan. I've done a couple headless basses and have tried to wrap my head around a better solution with twisted ideas and even trying to sell my soul to Satan for a new and genius solution with no success. You've got a very nice canoe paddle there.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 22, 2020 17:43:47 GMT -5
I'm not going with the tailpiece...I'll use the straight-pull tuners, like the ones that Gibson issued on some models of their Firebird guitar. These tuners have been around for about 15 years or so. I had a set on a Tele for a year or two, and I liked them as far as quality and operation go, but they are heavy chunks of steel and brass and made the guitar head-heavy. These:
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