Update on my Koa strat

[crash]

Just thought I would put some updated pics here.  I just got the neck yesterday: Wenge/Ebony, gold frets (they look awesome!) Schaller locking tuners.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.  My Sony camera doesn't want to work anymore  :sad1:

Still have the back taped off as I have not soldered in the caps yet.  I am going to test differnt values and different types.

I love the brown streaks in the ebony.  There are other little "imperfections" in the ebony that I think gives it character.  The ebony I have seen in the past on other guitars almost looks fake because it is all solid black.  Maybe they dye it? :dontknow:
You can also see the black dot inlays I got.  You really can't see them from more than a few feet away, but I can still see them when playing...just what I was going for

Pictures don't do wenge any justice.  It is such a beautiful wood.

I'll get come better pics when it is all together

 

[Nando Vallart]

Awesome!

 

[nexrex]

my guess would be that ebony is just a generic name for a few different types of plant species with this dark type of tone. I own 2 ebony fingerboards. One is Jet Black, the other is is what Warmoth calls Macassar Ebony. This fingerboard is a chocolate brown colour with lighter shades and stripes.

 

[nexrex]

Beautiful guitar man. Is the body solid Koa? If its just a laminate top, then what is the core wood?

 

[Disco Scottie]

Lookin' good!  :headbang:

 

[Jusatele]

Love the gray tips on the toes

 

[crash]

Solid Koa  :glasses9:

Just waiting on some Graph Tech string tees.

I'll be testing out the following tone caps: Orange drop, Silver Mica, Tropical fish, Mallory, between 2200 pF and 10,000 pF.  Based on what I've heard so far, somewhere around 6000 pF seems to still have usable tone when the knob is turned to zero.

I'm not certain that my ears will even be able to tell the difference between the different types of caps.  If not, then I'll already have caps for future builds.

 

[Disco Scottie]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

 

[DangerousR6]

Very cool, that just looks awesome....I love it.... :icon_thumright:

 

[swarfrat]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

I thought about that - been wondering if I'll get lost with no inlays, or if black inlays in ebony might still give me the effect I want.

 

[crash]

I just thought white inlays would stick out like a sore thumb on this guitar.  I can still see the black inlays.  Anyway,  there are still the white dots on the side.

 

[Jusatele]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

I thought about that - been wondering if I'll get lost with no inlays, or if black inlays in ebony might still give me the effect I want.

It takes about a week to adapt However I do suggest at least a 12th fret marker

 

[Disco Scottie]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

I thought about that - been wondering if I'll get lost with no inlays, or if black inlays in ebony might still give me the effect I want.

It takes about a week to adapt However I do suggest at least a 12th fret marker

I've tried guitars without fret markers. No good for me. I'm way too dependent on them. I could play it that way for a month, and you'd hear a month's worth of lousy playing. But the camo idea is pretty neat... have to remember that one.

 

[Jusatele]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

I thought about that - been wondering if I'll get lost with no inlays, or if black inlays in ebony might still give me the effect I want.

It takes about a week to adapt However I do suggest at least a 12th fret marker

I've tried guitars without fret markers. No good for me. I'm way too dependent on them. I could play it that way for a month, and you'd hear a month's worth of lousy playing. But the camo idea is pretty neat... have to remember that one.

ever play around a campfire? or in a dark area? Ear training, it takes about 1/2  second to realize you need to slide here or there and then just call it a passing tone. Plus you always can have side markers put in. There are few things I feel the average guitarist is hampered by, and they are in ways he is taught. One is he is taught to be dependent on sight, not sound, music is sound, if you really want to be fluent, you have to break the sight thing. Playing in a dark room will do that. Second we are taught these box shapes so every beginning through intermediate guitarist practices their scales from the 6 string to the 1st string going 2 octaves and 2 tones, when in fact the correct way to practice an octave is from tonic to tonic so you know the sound forward and backward. And you should be able to play that scale from every tonic on the fret boar limited only by the number of frets. Plus you learn by playing them up individual strings. I would say that 3/4 of the guys here could not say off the top of their heads what the intervals in a Minor pentonic, major pentonic, and Natural minor were without having to look them up, and they could play them but have not learned to recognize them by hearing them. If you learned the minor pentonic in one key, from every A on the fretboard, you would be able to quickly transfer that to all keys, plus you would know the intervals in the scale, plus you could play it all over the neck and not in just boxed positions. Learning the scale in boxed positions and the extensions of that box limit you to those boxes. learning the scale, just the scale from every, say A, gives you the knowledge to play it anywhere and when you get to the end of it you are just stating over somewhere else. Plus you know you are playing a minor third, perfect, perfect, minor third, perfect (12 half steps) so you know where to start if you start a phrase on the D. However so much time is dedicated to Monkey SEE monkey do when teaching guitars that Musician hear is not taught, and music is not a visual thing, it is a audible thing so site has little to do with it once a technique is learned.

Sorry for the rant. I put blindfolds on kids when teaching them open chords and they learn them 3 times as fast.

 

[Danuda]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

I thought about that - been wondering if I'll get lost with no inlays, or if black inlays in ebony might still give me the effect I want.

It takes about a week to adapt However I do suggest at least a 12th fret marker

I've tried guitars without fret markers. No good for me. I'm way too dependent on them. I could play it that way for a month, and you'd hear a month's worth of lousy playing. But the camo idea is pretty neat... have to remember that one.

ever play around a campfire? or in a dark area? Ear training, it takes about 1/2  second to realize you need to slide here or there and then just call it a passing tone. Plus you always can have side markers put in. There are few things I feel the average guitarist is hampered by, and they are in ways he is taught. One is he is taught to be dependent on sight, not sound, music is sound, if you really want to be fluent, you have to break the sight thing. Playing in a dark room will do that. Second we are taught these box shapes so every beginning through intermediate guitarist practices their scales from the 6 string to the 1st string going 2 octaves and 2 tones, when in fact the correct way to practice an octave is from tonic to tonic so you know the sound forward and backward. And you should be able to play that scale from every tonic on the fret boar limited only by the number of frets. Plus you learn by playing them up individual strings. I would say that 3/4 of the guys here could not say off the top of their heads what the intervals in a Minor pentonic, major pentonic, and Natural minor were without having to look them up, and they could play them but have not learned to recognize them by hearing them. If you learned the minor pentonic in one key, from every A on the fretboard, you would be able to quickly transfer that to all keys, plus you would know the intervals in the scale, plus you could play it all over the neck and not in just boxed positions. Learning the scale in boxed positions and the extensions of that box limit you to those boxes. learning the scale, just the scale from every, say A, gives you the knowledge to play it anywhere and when you get to the end of it you are just stating over somewhere else. Plus you know you are playing a minor third, perfect, perfect, minor third, perfect (12 half steps) so you know where to start if you start a phrase on the D. However so much time is dedicated to Monkey SEE monkey do when teaching guitars that Musician hear is not taught, and music is not a visual thing, it is a audible thing so site has little to do with it once a technique is learned.

Sorry for the rant. I put blindfolds on kids when teaching them open chords and they learn them 3 times as fast.

It is funny that you just ranted about this.  I was/am someone who learned just as you describe.  Nothing but shapes and boxes.  I have recently been forcing myself to learn the theory behind it all and break out of my old habits.  Learning every note on the fretboard and being able to play a scale off of it from anywhere is actually what I am currently working on.

 

[DangerousR6]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

I thought about that - been wondering if I'll get lost with no inlays, or if black inlays in ebony might still give me the effect I want.

It takes about a week to adapt However I do suggest at least a 12th fret marker

After playing for 30 yrs, I thought I'd have trouble without the fret markers. But I have no problem at all adjusting, didn't take more than 30 seconds and I'm good. Probably will never get fret markers again...Unless it's maybe a custom inlay... :headbang1:

 

[pabloman]

I used to have a teacher that would put a blindfold on me. He's not a teacher anymore.

 

[Disco Scottie]

So what you're saying is, I need to use The Force, right?

 

[Jusatele]

I just noticed your "camouflage" fret inlays. That's a cool idea.

I thought about that - been wondering if I'll get lost with no inlays, or if black inlays in ebony might still give me the effect I want.

It takes about a week to adapt However I do suggest at least a 12th fret marker

I've tried guitars without fret markers. No good for me. I'm way too dependent on them. I could play it that way for a month, and you'd hear a month's worth of lousy playing. But the camo idea is pretty neat... have to remember that one.

ever play around a campfire? or in a dark area? Ear training, it takes about 1/2  second to realize you need to slide here or there and then just call it a passing tone. Plus you always can have side markers put in. There are few things I feel the average guitarist is hampered by, and they are in ways he is taught. One is he is taught to be dependent on sight, not sound, music is sound, if you really want to be fluent, you have to break the sight thing. Playing in a dark room will do that. Second we are taught these box shapes so every beginning through intermediate guitarist practices their scales from the 6 string to the 1st string going 2 octaves and 2 tones, when in fact the correct way to practice an octave is from tonic to tonic so you know the sound forward and backward. And you should be able to play that scale from every tonic on the fret boar limited only by the number of frets. Plus you learn by playing them up individual strings. I would say that 3/4 of the guys here could not say off the top of their heads what the intervals in a Minor pentonic, major pentonic, and Natural minor were without having to look them up, and they could play them but have not learned to recognize them by hearing them. If you learned the minor pentonic in one key, from every A on the fretboard, you would be able to quickly transfer that to all keys, plus you would know the intervals in the scale, plus you could play it all over the neck and not in just boxed positions. Learning the scale in boxed positions and the extensions of that box limit you to those boxes. learning the scale, just the scale from every, say A, gives you the knowledge to play it anywhere and when you get to the end of it you are just stating over somewhere else. Plus you know you are playing a minor third, perfect, perfect, minor third, perfect (12 half steps) so you know where to start if you start a phrase on the D. However so much time is dedicated to Monkey SEE monkey do when teaching guitars that Musician hear is not taught, and music is not a visual thing, it is a audible thing so site has little to do with it once a technique is learned.

Sorry for the rant. I put blindfolds on kids when teaching them open chords and they learn them 3 times as fast.

It is funny that you just ranted about this.  I was/am someone who learned just as you describe.  Nothing but shapes and boxes.  I have recently been forcing myself to learn the theory behind it all and break out of my old habits.  Learning every note on the fretboard and being able to play a scale off of it from anywhere is actually what I am currently working on.

and I would put money on it that you are progressing in leaps and bounds as once you get out of those cages you no longer are confined by anything.

 

[Jusatele]

So what you're saying is, I need to use The Force, right?

if you want to call it that, yes, what I am saying is use the ears, not the eyes, music after all is noise, not pictures