Latest Project Velocity (sort of)

[BrotherJack]

So, my latest project is underway.  It's a Warmoth Velocity (but only sort of).    I've always thought the velocity looked awfully ergonomic, but that upper horn (if you can call it that) always made me go 'meh'.  It just looks... I dunno, unmanly to me.  But other than that little quirk, I've always though 'yeah, like it!'.  So, one day with a copy of photoshop I did some monkeying around, and viola, came up with the idea below.  After me and my current axe won $500 in a talent contest (yes, really), I figured it was a perfect time to give it a shot, and as soon as Warmoth could crank them out, a nice roasted maple neck and mahogany velocity body were on the way to me, and now here we are with a velocity body that will need some body work, and a CBS headstocked roasted maple neck w/ floyd locknut, sans inlays, that I'm going to turn into either a mini 4x2 in the neighborhood of the little mini 3x3 EVH's (except 4x2, obviously), or maybe a more angular shaped 6 on a side sort of in the neighbourhood of some older Carvin's I've seen with a hint of Shur thrown in for good measure.  Dunno, not thinking too hard about that part yet, but the CBS look has got to go; popeye's nose belongs on popeye, not my guitar.   

As they arrived (with parts laid out on them to get some idea of what I'm looking at).  Yeah, that upper horn, just lacks manliness somehow to my eyes, must fix, must fix..

A bit of body work later, and man, isn't this one hell of a lot more masculine?  My eyes think so, and mine are the only ones that matter, so we are definitely on the right track!

As she sits after tonights work, the Kahler routed, drilled, and bolted down (was surprisingly hard to get lined up perfect - I am technically off by maybe 1 mm to the south of the neck centerline, but Kahler's have left/right adjustment, and I am within the range of adjustable motion, so it's all good.    If I wasn't a dumbass and had actually read the Warmoth pages more carefully, Warmoth would have routed it for me in the 1st place, but I wasn't that smart, so I paid for it by having to rout my own.   

Also, while I was at it, I punched the rear pickup hole all the way through.  I change pickups a lot, and I thought it would be nice to be able to swap at least the rear pickup without having to loosen the strings (and the neck pickup isn't that hard to get out with only a slght loosening of strings anyway).

Now, just need to stain it, TruOil it, and finish assembly of the hardware, and the body part is done.  While I am waiting on the tru oil to cure, I'll get back around to thinking through what I want to do with that headstock.  If you have an opinion on the subject, I'd be happy to entertain it (so long as it's not 'leave the CBS'). 

And here we are. 

:guitarplayer2:

 

[dmraco]

I like what you did.  The horn is looking great.

With the Kahler you can always fill the holes with a plug and drill again.  They cavity should be ok.  Trust me it will bother you if you don't.

One suggestion...loose the strat style jack and go with a side mount

 

[BrotherJack]

Thanks for the feedback.    I have been thinking about it, and haven't figured out yet.  I may decide to redrill the Kahler, or I may not.  It's inside the range of left/right saddle adjustment, so other than perhaps slightly limiting the max width I could go (and it can still comfortably go 2 1/16th, which is my preferred spacing anyway), the impact of being off the wee teensy bit I'm off is none for all practical  purposes, and it's not visible either - unless you were staring real hard at the bridge and noticed the low E is adjusted full to the top side, but the high E has a 1/16 or so left it could still go south, or if you wanted to do a extra-wide spacing of some kind (which I don't, and this is going to be my personal axe, not for resale)...  But yeah, the 'nobody will know but me / but damn it, I know!' argument has already started in my head.    We will see how it plays out.

I think I agree, aesthetically about the side jack vs the strat jack; it would look better side-jacked.    But on the other hand, I prefer the strat jack for practical reasons (far less likely/easy to bang the cable/jack around), and since I am a knobless wonder for controls (that blade switch rout will be the only control on the guitar), I am thinking that visually it won't be any worse to have the strat jack than it would have been to have 2 or 3 knobs on there, so I'm likely to let practicality win out on this one.    But all my guitar building efforts are (sometimes wildly) fluid works in progress until they get done enough that I stop working on them, so we'll see.

:rock-on:

 

[BrotherJack]

Side note, my original suspicions about a velocity being incredibly ergonomic were right on the money.  This feels like my new favorite guitar when I hang it around my neck.  arty07:

 

[stultzies9]

I have to agree on the ergonomics. The upper fret access on my Velocity is absolutely ridiculous, and it hangs on a strap perfectly for me. Also, I love what you did to the upper bout there, man! Great work, and a killer looking guitar. 

 

[Cagey]

I agree - that's sharp!

 

[BigSteve22]

Really nice job on hat upper horn. I always felt the same way about the Velocity, but your mod is spot on to fix it up. Curve looks pretty perfect from here, use a large Forstner bit?

 

[BrotherJack]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Actually, to get the shape, I just used a sanding drum attachment in my drill press with some 120-ish grit paper and some patience.  I had thought about cutting it out instead, but I wanted to go really slow and easy, and the sand it out approach worked great and let me stop and check often to consider before I went any farther.  Took me about 20 minutes at the press to get the shape cut so it made me happy, and then I switched to hand-sanding to round the edges and and work my way up to 220 grit, which took another 20 or 30 mins till I was really happy with it.    Was slower than cutting, but I felt a lot safer in terms of me not putzing it up by going slow like that.

Here's a pic of it more like I am seeing the final; all chrome and wood.  I am going to stain the wood something nice and dark, right now still tossing up between something that's kind of black-ish in hue vs more walnut/brownish (but either one, somewhat dark).      I love dark wood and chrome together, it just makes me feel happy when I look at it. 

 

[dmraco]

kahler looks nice and centered to me. 

 

[BrotherJack]

kahler looks nice and centered to me.

That's because, as I said, it's within the range of lateral adjustment available on the Kahler, but oh so just barely.  The top saddle is full to the top, and the bottom saddle sets the high E at 2.05 center-to-center.  If it was adjusted to a 2 3/16ths or similar wider spacing, you'd see it in the high E being noticably closer to the edge of the fretboard than the low E.  For me, I play with mine set around 2.05 anyway, so it's not really that big a deal... other than I know it's off by about .08 inches from being dead-on-center. 

 

[DangerousR6]

Interesting concept.... :headbang1:

 

[BrotherJack]

Just for grins - a really rough mock-up of what I'm kind of thinking for the headstock.  Opinions?
 

 

[BrotherJack]

Update:  no pics for this one though.

The Kahler got doweled and re-drilled.  It being off was going to be under my skin for as long as I owned the guitar, which at this point I am planning on for the rest of my life.  Of course, now I know it's been doweled and re-drilled and have to live with that, LOL, but having the strings exactly where I want them instead of 1/322nd or so away from where I want them; I can live with the re-drill for that.

Got the front and sides of the body and the part of the neck my hand touches sanded (polished?) to 12,000 grit (yes, 12k grit).    Seems a crying shame to stain and TruOil the body after that, it feels so insanely nice in the hands, but... I don't want it to deteriorate with sweat (or fight grain raising under my forearm from the moisture), and I like my wood dark and moody, so leaving it bare is not an option.  Though I am only going to TruOil it enough to provide sweat protection, and not a whisker more.

Still waffling on the headstock design.    Visually I like straight clean lines, but practically speaking, I need some real estate to clip both my capo and my tuner to, and if i straighten out the bottom line, I have space for only one of those two things, so I'm pondering ways to make it still pleasing to my eye, and still practical (and still a mini/small 4 x 2).    We will see how that mental gymnastics plays out. 

Pics with stain should follow in a few days.

Cheers!

 

[spaceranger]

Looks nice! Neat to see such a simple mod make such a difference. Have you had a chance to play that Kahler bridge before or will this guitar be the first one? I was looking at it because I have a Guild S-300 with brass roller saddles like that , and I like it. Strings never pop out and it doesn't give me any trouble. I was thinking Hipshot Solos instead, but if Warmoth will route for that Kahler then that might be an incentive.

 

[dmraco]

Kahlers have a softer feel over a Floyd.  There is constant debate over sustain.  I cannot notice a difference and have a brass roller and steel kahler.  I also used heavier springs which eliminated strings going out of tune when you bend another that is common with kahler.

Plus they look cool too

 

[BrotherJack]

I played a Charvel model 6, with a kahler or, for many many years. I have tried several other bridges since then, and don't like any of them as well. That's how this guitar comes to be getting another kahler on it. Its may just be because I played one for so long, but I swear these things just feel right under your hands.

 

[spaceranger]

Right on, they got bad press back in the day and I've never touched one since (always been a fixed bridge humbucker guy anyway), but they do look well-made, massy, and yes, very cool. I like the Babicz bridge designs too, but can't stand the blatant logo on those things. I'd rather get a Scartozi bridge anyway.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

They're a cam-operated widget so they work great when they're new, but there's a lotta pressure on the cam face so it tends to wear. It'll still work, but it becomes increasingly unreliable in its ability to return to neutral. It's easy enough to slow the wear down by keeping the thing clean and well-lubricated with something like lithium assembly lube, but of course hardly anybody does that.

 

[BrotherJack]

I actually pull the bar off of mine and lock them into a fixed bridge.  Keeps it from wearing,  and leaves me the option to unlock if I ever get the notion.

 

[dmraco]

They're a cam-operated widget so they work great when they're new, but there's a lotta pressure on the cam face so it tends to wear. It'll still work, but it becomes increasingly unreliable in its ability to return to neutral. It's easy enough to slow the wear down by keeping the thing clean and well-lubricated with something like lithium assembly lube, but of course hardly anybody does that.

I have a charvel model 4 for the the 80s....PERFECT!