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Boo-tiful Tom,I like that dark amber finish an awful lot. I think we may have similar tastes in guitars(p90's,wood grain,etc.)

as a luthier this is the sort of thing i love to see, og designs and executed perfectly!
is that figured mohog, or a maple veneer on the headstock? and this is the only time i have ever thought, "wow, that would look nice as a 3x3 style as well"

robert(original) wrote:as a luthier this is the sort of thing i love to see, og designs and executed perfectly!
is that figured mohog, or a maple veneer on the headstock? and this is the only time i have ever thought, "wow, that would look nice as a 3x3 style as well"

Thanks!! If I could build them more efficiently I'd go into business. But it was wayy hands-on (hand-tools, no CNC for the body shape, etc).

It's a mahog veneer that (by a happy accident) happened to be figured. It's a two-piece neck, so the veneer is there for looks.

i do everything by hand, and as long as everything is setup to just do one style of guitar i can knock one out in a month easy, granted that means 8-10 hours a day 6 days a week. i was able to build a carved 335 copy in 2 months, but that was a small bit of hell in the workshop.
-cnc is the devil!

Whatever happened to the video demo that was promised?
And why isn't Rob(OG) here more often, talking about guitar builds?

double

That was then!

And while it looked prettier then, it sounds a whole lot better now!

This has always been a "second guitar" to me...now it's my #1.

The problems were:
-PICKUPS: Even after fixing the phase issue (my friend who wired it goofed), the pickups didn't play well together. And the Firebird-copy neck pickup sounded like balls. Not enough body, not enough gain, undefined, and a really grindy midrange under distortion. The TV Jones Powertron...I don't like bright bridge pickups. This was bright, a little nasally, too defined, and on the edge of being thin. (Didn't sound as good as its price demands it should.)
-BRIDGE: The Baby Grand looks awesome. It felt a little uncomfortable with its bolts, and tune-o-matic styles are usually really comfy. Plus, its design puts a ton of pull on its mounting studs, so it leaned forward a little. It was installed straight, and given the design, I think it might lean on any guitar that wasn't made of aluminum. And for this guitar, I had to set the bridge within a 1/16 of its lowest setting. So it leaned juuuuust so it was about to dig into the guitar body. With how low it was, with that lean, it had me wondering if the guitar really needed a neck angle to pull it off. I don't think it technically does, but given the situation, I thought it'd benefit.



So I pulled the pickups. The neck pickup tone had me wondering if all neck pickups were going to sound crappy in this, so I didn't want to spend much. I went with a GFS Fat Mini. Shockingly, it had 25% more output and 20% more bass and BODY than the pickup that was in there (that cost twice as much). And it splits to single coil much better than the original neck pickup (which was so low-output it sounded turdy). I have a feeling I could get a slightly more refined pickup, but screw refined, really. It's warm, full, hot, and good-nasty.

I pulled the bridge, plugged the holes, and screwed a hardtail down. The harmonics seem to have doubled, it has thicker, more solid lows, the guitar resonates much more. The neck humbucker got sweeter. Now it feels like I'm actually taking advantage of the tone of the guitar and the fact that it's semi-hollow.

The neck pickup is always on--the big toggle switches between neck humbucker, and neck split.
Then I thought of something to do with the empty bridge space. LIPSTICK! The output is much lower than the neck pickup, so it's wired on an on/off toggle...flipping it on adds treble and definition to the neck pickup, juuuust enough! Then, with the neck humbucker split, it's closer to matched and sounds great! Stratty with some great pop!

So now it looks quirky and a bit ugly...but it sounds amazing! It's crazy to have this guitar for years, and with a few key changes, it becomes my #1 guitar.

DAYUM TOM. That's sweet as hell. Really digging it dude. I'd love to hear it!

Awesome, Dalton.

really really nice Tom!

F'n rad man. Love that thing.

Dude, that is a sexy as fuck guitar! The original bridge looked really cool but sound/playability are more important (and those fendery bridges are pretty cool anyway), and that lipstick! I love weirdly jammed in looking pickups. You and your dad make a mean guitar.

monkeydancer wrote:You and your dad make a mean guitar.

TWSS

Me likey that body shape Tom.

Thanks guys! Can't believe I finally perfected this thing!

Holy Schnikes wrote:Me likey that body shape Tom.

THANKS!
I've got a sketchbook full of shapes, but this was the winner. It was originally going to have a pickguard (you can kind of make it out in the sketch)...I loved the shape, but I couldn't cover the rosewood. (I almost did a phenolic top and painted the thing white! In which case I would've had no problem covering it.)

HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW SHIT that's beyond gorgeous.