Baritone Neck is Here!! (was re: Touching up)

[swarfrat]

What about a baritone fatback roast maple  13 pin H-gate humbuckered strat makes you think "standard"? Maybe "Gold Digger" after all the money I've dumped into this guitar. Full ghost setup, only using the hexpander board. Wasted wenge/ebony neck. GK pickup that im not using the controller for.

I like where its going, lovely guitar. Its just been an ordeal getting there.

 

[zebra]

You just took awesome and made it more awesome.  How does that happened?!

 

[Jesse]

Looks excellent, congrats!  I've always thought that MIDI guitars are super cool.  I do my MIDI the lazy man way: draw the events into my DAW with my mouse :laughing7:

Only question I have is it looks like you have the saddles raised really high.  Is that to clear the GK pickup or just to try and sit the trem as low as possible?  You might consider shimming the neck differently to get a different string angle so you can bring the saddles down a bit.

 

[Great Ape]

WOW! That is shockingly beautiful!! :icon_thumright:

 

[bagman67]

What about a baritone fatback roast maple  13 pin H-gate humbuckered strat makes you think "standard"? Maybe "Gold Digger" after all the money I've dumped into this guitar. Full ghost setup, only using the hexpander board. Wasted wenge/ebony neck. GK pickup that im not using the controller for.

I like where its going, lovely guitar. Its just been an ordeal getting there.

Yeah, they're kinda all gold diggers when you analyze it, but that's depressing, so to hell with it.  I was thinking "gold standard," as in, that against which all else compares unfavorably, rather than a dodgy monetary policy, or anything suggesting ordinariness.

 

[swarfrat]

WOW! That is shockingly beautiful!! :icon_thumright:

THANKS. i might just print that out and frame it.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Well looky there!!!  Stunning looking, absolutely stunning.

Have ya plugged her into an AC30 or a Blackface, or perhaps a 410 Bassman yet?

 

[swarfrat]

Yes, i am trying to clear the GK pickup and keep the bridge within about 1 Fender medium 351  pick of flush.  I havent plugged it in yet.  I think I'm going to have to mount the GK from underneath the pickguard, its just too high on top.

 

[swarfrat]

So should the saddles be closer to flush? It seems like it shouldn't really matter. As long as they're not flush (and they all can't be, the only difference is a matter of degree.)

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Check it with the radius gauges. 
If memory serves correctly, this being a 10-16" compound radius neck, the radii by the time you reach the saddles should be between 18-20"-ish.
Cagey may correct me on this though.

 

[swarfrat]

I understand the radius thing. I was referring to the post above where someone pointed out that I have my bridge set low and saddles cranked to the sky. I purposefully didn't want more than about a half step pullup, and actually I'd be fine with +0.0000001, essentially flush, just not resting.  I've had crazier ideas born purely of OCD before, so  if there's good reason not to I can change. I just want to avoid slamming the door when I let go of the trem, and I really don't have much pull up range left in my tuning / gauge selection.  (It's a baritone length, but I'm trying to tune C# to D with a wound 3rd string.

 

[swarfrat]

My son goaded me into finishing up this guitar. It'd been laying around forever. Of course, he lost the tremolo arm and a knob while playing in the music room. And the hex pickup isn't wired up. And it needs a new pickguard since this one ended up with some experimentation and goobering due to laying around in project state. But I'm LOVING this beast. It took me a while to get used to a fatback again - my Zion strat has an ESP C-neck, which is fullish but nowhere near fatback. Those GFS Memphis really sound awesome through the 11Rack's AC-30 and JCM800 models.

 

[swarfrat]

Had five springs screwed all the way in and still couldn't get the bridge off the body, even though 12's at C# ain't all that heavy...  When I finally realized I was going the wrong way. SMH.  Two springs, floating level. Still can't find my bar.

 

[swarfrat]

Got my replacement parts. One more trip pending under the pickguard to fix some wiring, and another when I decide to do something about the hex pickup. Yay...this thing is blistering with the AC30tb bright gain cranked up to edgy. Wow I love this guitar.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

My son goaded me into finishing up this guitar. It'd been laying around forever. Of course, he lost the tremolo arm and a knob while playing in the music room. And the hex pickup isn't wired up. And it needs a new pickguard since this one ended up with some experimentation and goobering due to laying around in project state. But I'm LOVING this beast. It took me a while to get used to a fatback again - my Zion strat has an ESP C-neck, which is fullish but nowhere near fatback. Those GFS Memphis really sound awesome through the 11Rack's AC-30 and JCM800 models.

I'd love to hear some clips of the Memphis pickups.  I've considered them before.

 

[swarfrat]

Words probably won't help, I'll try to get something up this weekend. It's bright. It's obnoxious. Searing.  It's cool, but not really harsh or strident. But almost so. I don't have any experience with that pickup, but my gut feel is a fair analogy might be a passive alnico version of the EMG-81. It jangles better than any humbucker I've ever tried - and I'm not a big fan of clean (or almost clean) humbuckers.  It's definitely a great humbucker for die hard single coil guys.

And it loves AC-30's. 

 

[Glimmer]

Late to the game but allow me to repeat what others have said: that is a truly beautiful guitar! And the pups sound interesting as well. I look forward to hearing those sound files...

:rock-on: