guitars I built...

[Scorch]

couple guitars I built, thought you musicians would like a peak.

Partscaster: completed in may 2010





Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein: completed in March 2010





Kramer Focus 6000: this one was a rebuild. Refinished in stain and clearcoated, upgraded the pickups to Dimarzios

[Whirlingdervish]

very nice!

I like the eyebolt look on the frankenstein rig

 

[haunted]

mmm maple. First one looks like a modified lonestar american strat and the 2nd would be very interesting to play

[Scorch]

mmm maple. First one looks like a modified lonestar american strat and the 2nd would be very interesting to play

not sure where the body came from, there was no company markings on it, I did find out however it's made of alder.  The neck is a Mitey Mite neck I got off ebay,  these necks need a lot of fretwork, and the nut was changed to a Tusq nut for better tone and tuning stability. Pickups.. humbucker is a Dimarzio Tone Zone, the singles are GFS Neovins. Fully shielded with copper foil inside the cavity area, Wilkinson "Easy Lock" tuners.  This guitar sounds a LOT meaner than it looks.


The Frankenstein is a beast, it sustains like a les paul, harmonics can be pulled off on any fret. Ash body, custom ordered neck, Original floyd rose bridge fom the 80's, Duncan JB humbucker and a GFS Neovin single coil. The volume pot is a push/pull type that lets me switch between the two pickups. took 3 months from start to finish. Painting and relicing this thing took up most of the time.

Kramer Focus 6000  is my main axe. Dimarzio Tone Zone humbucker and two fender noiseless singles. it was baby blue in color when I got it, stripped it all down and stained, clear coated. I still have more mods I want to do to this (brass sutain block for the floyd and some hotter single coils)

[ReCycled]

Looks like Caidoz is a solid Fender guy. I'm Gibson myself. I was in a luthier shop in Dartmouth and they had a lot of blank Telecaster, Strat, and Paul bodies in unfinished wood. Not sure what wood but didn't look like mahogony. Be interesting if you could find a block of vintage wood (say 50s) and make a body from that. Nothing like tone from old wood.

 But nice work dude!

[|iR|Focalor]

I'm not so sure that the age of the wood makes any difference in tone. I'm half deaf in my left ear anyway, so I dunno if I'm a terrific judge of tone, but I've never been able to tell much of a difference in older and newer guitars other than overall quality of the components. For example, of course a 60's Gibson Les Paul is going to sound better than a brand new off-brand knock off made of alder with cheap poorly wound pickups. Supposedly the wood dries out more as it ages and makes the tone crisper or something, but that makes no sense to me seeing as how people who have lots of money and collect vintage guitars typically have them in a humidor room. And lemme tell ya, storing guitars in temperature controlled rooms is a must, especially acoustics. The sound of my acoustic has been demolished from being kept in the house during a blizzard when the power went out for a week straight, not to mention playing it outside in the blazing sun on the back porch. I can tell a big difference in the sound of it from when I play it inside in the AC and when I take outside in the heat. After 5 or 10 minutes, it sounds like total shit. It helped it along by keeping strings off it for several months too, the neck has obviously warped slightly and now it buzzes on some of the middle strings around the 2nd to 4th frets. You can clearly see the cracks in the clear coat all around the heel of the neck where it joins the body. Yeah, neck is coming unglued I guess. It doesn't fall off when I sling it around by the headstock like an axe, so I guess she's okay. Not worth fixing it though, it's old Hohner Western Series HW400N made in Korea. Not a "bad" guitar for a cheap acoustic, and considering how most cheap acoustics are made, it's actually pretty nice. Most aren't even made with all wood from what I've seen, they use crappy flimsy sounding veneers and even fucking plastic. This things got a spruce top, mahogany back, sides, and neck, rosewood fretboard, mahogany (I think) glued on bridge. Definitely not bad for a cheap acoustic. Always has sounded a bit thin though, not much bottom end to speak of.

Anyway.

I like the looks of the body on the Kramer save the clear coating. I've decided my next electric is going to be some kinda unpainted natural wood without clear coating. Sure, it makes it all shiny and purty, but I think it hinders the woods tonal characteristics too. I loathe double locking trem systems too. For one, I never use it and it just gets in the way. Two, it takes longer to tune correctly. Three, it deadens the strings faster after the nut and nut locks get worn from a couple years of changing strings. I leave the nut locks OFF my Ibanez JS100 because it instantly deadens the strings and causes buzzing on the higher open strings. It's a motherbitch to keep in perfect tune that way too. I've played it death and treated it like a dog since I got in 96, so it just plain old sounds like crap now no matter what you do. Got a gash in the 12th or 13th fret under the 2nd string from where my ex dropped a ceramic tile table top on it and broke it across the neck. Stupid whore.

[Scorch]

I like the looks of the body on the Kramer save the clear coating. I've decided my next electric is going to be some kinda unpainted natural wood without clear coating. Sure, it makes it all shiny and purty, but I think it hinders the woods tonal characteristics too. I loathe double locking trem systems too. For one, I never use it and it just gets in the way. Two, it takes longer to tune correctly. Three, it deadens the strings faster after the nut and nut locks get worn from a couple years of changing strings. I leave the nut locks OFF my Ibanez JS100 because it instantly deadens the strings and causes buzzing on the higher open strings. It's a motherbitch to keep in perfect tune that way too. I've played it death and treated it like a dog since I got in 96, so it just plain old sounds like crap now no matter what you do. Got a gash in the 12th or 13th fret under the 2nd string from where my ex dropped a ceramic tile table top on it and broke it across the neck. Stupid whore.

When I clearcoated the kramer, I only sprayed 3 very thin coats, the guitar resonates very well and you can still slightly feel the grain when you rub your fingers over it, which is the effect I wanted, just enough to protect the stain finish.

I find there are two kinds of people when it comes to floyds, those who love em and those who don't. A LOT of the "licenced" type floyds are crap. Sure, they'll stay in tune when the guitar is new, at least for a little while...., but that's where it stops after someone has used one a lot. The pivot edges wear out and cause a lot of nightmares. It's the whole reason I keep insisting on the "Original" made in GERMANY Floyd, they are tough as nails. The only Ibanez bridges that hold up to a german floyd are the original EDGE trems that you find on the higher end stuff. those bridges are awesome. Another one that deserves a lot of praise are the ones made by GOTOH. That Kramer I own is now 22 years old, it was built in 88, it was played to death by whoever owned it before me and in the last 3 years of me owning it, it still stays in tune with heavy trem use.  It's my main axe to use cuz it never let me down... ever.

Focalor, with your Ibanez JS100 buzzing like that it definitely needs a new nut. They aren't that expensive, is it top mounted or attached with screws from the back?  www.prorockgear.com has good ones made by schaller.

A lot of people get put off from them because of the extra maintenance required to keep them performing the way a floyd should. I'm a tinkerer, always will be, and don't mind the extra time to properly set one up. And they are dirt easy to tune up with the method I do it.

[|iR|Focalor]

I really don't think it's worth the money to replace anything on it other than maybe strings at this point. I just need to get a new guitar. Next one I'll get will probably be something cheap, simple, bolt-on neck, and no tremolo. More than likely an Ibanez RG321.

[Arm0r]

very VERY nice 

[WHO?]

among the things I do to keep the cash flowing is a bit of timber cutting, living in mountain area there's a shitload of nice timbers traditionally being used for anything from fencing to firewood & flooring, met a bloke a while ago an adventurous luthier & gave him some crows ash => http://www.timber.net.au/?option=com_species&name=Crows%20Ash&Itemid=425 he made a couple of solid bodied jobbies that hold sound like nothing, also veneered a bit to do some violin work with pretty good results excepting the weight is up there .. but yeah some good work there mate WD