Recent content by river

    It isn't hard to swap bridges, and sometimes experimentation is the way to go since it can be hard to predict what you will prefer - hence the zinc block sometimes being preferred. Yeah you might need a whole new bridge- a manufacturer in Turkey called Hantug makes titanium blocks to sell on...

If I may make a suggestion, having two swamp ash bodies weighing in at 3.0 lbs. Titanium trem blocks are incredible on these. The heavy steel blocks seem to become a large proportion of the mass of the body, and you can really hear the steel come through. But the titanium trem block allows it...

All the strats I love have a tremendous amount of 'bounce' and springyness to them. I try to get this with my builds, and have come close, but not to the extent of the really great ones. So far the variables I've nailed down that improve 'springyness' are: trem (of course) floating lighter...

That is the most beautiful black korina I have ever seen- looks like a $5k+ guitar. How's the weight?

Nice work, has a lot of personality. How does it all sound? Notice any particular differences with the roasted maple?

Do you know if these can be had (haha) in the US?

What I like to have is HSH then superimpose p90 routs at the bridge and neck. All the custom shops will do this. That way I still psychologically am avoiding the universal rout and keeping those tabs of wood in case they help stiffness or stability. I don't see myself using anything other than a...

It's a fascinating topic. Here's some more material if you are interested: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/22-vs-24-fret-harmonic-node-myth.607131/ http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponse/ http://www.frudua.com/pickups_placement.htm...

I say go for it and build your dream guitar. Put all the right ingredients in place, the pickup position doesn't seem like it would be the factor that makes or breaks it- and you can always tinker with the pickup height as well. A good example of a worst case scenario would be something like...

    I just wanted to relate a very positive experience with these tuners, which are a worthy upgrade. I've always stuck to vintage style tuners- either Gotoh or Tonepros, because they are light, beautiful, smooth-functioning, and seem to help maintain a more resonant vintage tone.     The...

I personally play the same songs I go back to over and over so I can compare to what I've heard many times before. My M.O. goes something like this: 1) Some Metallica rhythm to test out low end and 'chug' (Master of Puppets, just about any other song) 2) Clean Led Zep (Tangerine, Ramble on...

It's on a new unfinished body.     As far as the WHY, well, partscasters are all about experimentation, aren't they? Sometimes new ideas turn out well, many times they don't. Maybe with clear on it it will look particularly cool, maybe it will look like any black guitar, maybe it's going to be...

    I know that shellac is a great sealer and works with nitro, but this is when the shellac is one or two coats thick, mostly in the grain. I had the idea to make a black pigmented shellac using activated charcoal, the stuff used as an antidote for poisoning and for detox. After testing, it...

So something I've been wondering about- perhaps someone could explain this to me. Say you are building an LP style guitar with a mahogany body and neck. If you had a blank large enough, would you build both from the same piece of wood for consistency and a good pairing, or would it make more...

The body is one-piece, not chambered. I think it lost some weight in my dry environment. There will definitely be a finish on the korina neck! I've heard a few builders say a mahogany neck on a swamp ash body has killer tone, so am very curious to see what happens! I went with white korina and...