Your creative suggestions welcome for "Raw Tele" replacement neck

[DustyCat]

The Earvana really does it's work on the first four frets of the neck, any higher and it is not that noticeable.  I was thinking the scalloped neck would be more for individual note playing rather than a chording monster.  The Earvana's effect is also not nearly as noticeable on single notes, i.e. solos.  If you like to play open chords, and Jazz chords (or those odd diminished and augmented things the metalheads love) in the lower register, it really makes the chords chime in tune.  It is quite odd to hear the difference, sounds like when you get the e and a string in tune and they sympathetically ring together.  If you are chunking barre chords, or shredding solos, it is not really much of a gain.  Again, I tend to play with open chords more, so it makes a difference to me.
Patrick

If J.S. Bach were alive today, hed' loosen up and rewrite the rules to counterpoint after hearing guitar harmonies of The Allman Brothers Band if not Metallica, Scorpions, RHCP (I thought I heard a Hall/Oats R&B song with said harmony etc.)

My point is that everything sound has become fair game in music, including technique, to anyone with such an interest.
I will concede that a scalloped board certainly has more potential for intonation discrepancies due to inconsistent finger pressure when holding chords with more voices.
But the scalloping...omg...is the scalloping more comfy!  :icon_thumright:

That's why I am venturing that the slightly fatter SRV back contour will be more comfortable for chords when fumbling through changes on rhythm. But really, I like to keep my options open because anything could happen at any time in the music.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Scalloping certainly does make the intonation issue a bit more noticeable, but I am sure it is a technique issue, and that is a matter of practice.  Scalloped necks have generally been reserved for the shredders in my experience.  This style of play does not get as much out of an Earvana nut.  All of that being said, if you do play jazz chords and open stuff in the area of the nut, it will make a difference.  Distortion will tend to mask it at times, but it can really point out when things are "out."  I put Earvana's on all of my guitars now a days.  You can find whatever version you want on eBay at quite a discount.  For me it is one of the little things that make my builds customs for me.
Patrick

 

[swarfrat]

Botique Spalt might be doable in fact.  Seal regions not etched. Paint with culture of trained wood eating bacteria and let em do their thing for a few days/weeks. Contrast grain fill. Never done it but it has occured to me that the  natural supply of large thick maple which has been eaten by fungus before sawing but only in thin flat layers without compromising yield or structural integrity or being rejected as dangerous at the sawmill (major kickback hazzard sawing rotten wood. My dad lost a few fingers that way) is likely limited.

 

[mgaut051]

If you want a similar brightness (Chirp) of maple with a patterned raw wood then Ebony or even Pau Ferro could work. Both are bright, and can be found with really nice patterns, and they are absolutely awesome raw!!
:guitarplayer2:

Here is a Pau Ferro neck I have:

And here is a Ebony neck I'm putting on my current build:

WANT2

 

[DustyCat]

UPDATE: Well, I received the neck yesterday and now is my chance to show off and parade it around to all my friends and family, hoping the latter will help me out with the installation fees once they see the night and day difference in quality. Canary board sooooooo smooth! wowzy!  :headbang:

Anyone interested in talking pickups?

Anyone familiar with the album "No More Tears" by Mr. Ozzy Osbourne?
I would like to cross pollinate the tone of Mr. Zakk Wylde's guitar (EMG 85/81-equipped LP) as heard on this album with something Raw, Wide Ranger, Semi-Hollow Tele.

Yeah I know the wood is different, one guitar is solid body, the other is semi-Hollow. Ones pickups are active, the others are currently passive, and Unpotted. I was just playing with the idea of a custom wind with a midrange enhancedment based on the Regal design from Lollar...just first thing that came to mind...

I think the unpottedness is the main thing getting to me right now with the Wide Rangers...sometimes they can sound flubby and yet crackly glass like they are breaking if I pick the strings with a much harder attack  ???

IDK, sometimes any guitar can sound like any other guitar or any pickup with any other pickup, but I noticed that there is not quite as much distortion on Wylde's guitar as I once thought yet he still gets great sustain and soaring quality from the top of his guitar's range.  :icon_scratch:

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I would talk to Ken (Troubled Treble) if he is available to see what can be done.  I have a set of Roadhouse humbuckers from him that are very much the huge sound.  I also have a guitar with WRHB's that are not the Fender offerings, but boutique ones.  The Fender ones (nowadays) are not all that close to old ones.  The old ones the pole pieces are magnetic, not like PAF humbuckers with a bar magnet on the back of them.  It gives them more jangle and chime that the compressed sound of the PAF.  The new WRHB's are made like PAF's, which is part of the reason they do not behave like the classics.  Not that they don't have a useable tone, it is just different.  Anyhow, Ken has a bunch of really cool designs, I'd ask what he would do to get that sound you want.  Also the pickups he makes are very nice, and quite affordable.
Patrick

PS, no I am not a paid sponsor, just a happy customer.

 

[DustyCat]

I wonder about this compression characteristic.

I proclaim no expertise but from my own experience there have been pickups that sounded better the harder I picked them (hot rails bridge and black backs bridge) and conducive to 'squeezing out more tone.'  :doh:

Reissue Wide Rangers sound great (if not a bit crispy fried chicken) inside a certain bubble of how hard the strings are picked/attacked but it seems like once this threshold has been exceeded, they fart out broken glass  ??? And the microphonic squealing is not what I would consider "usable feedback"  :icon_scratch:

 

[Cagey]

I wonder about this compression characteristic.
I proclaim no expertise but from my own experience there have been pickups that sounded better the harder I picked them (hot rails bridge and black backs bridge) and conducive to 'squeezing out more tone.'  :doh:

Some pickups, particularly humbuckers, are more sensitive than others so light picking produces roughly the same output as heavy picking, which results in a sort of "natural" compression. Usually, it's the parts like Seymour Duncan's "JB" 'buckers, or DiMarzio's "Super Distortion". There are others, of course, but those are the most widely known for it. Although the tonal characteristics may change somewhat depending on pick attack, the output doesn't change much. Then, you can also change how they respond by changing the output impedance by backing off the volume, but again, the output is fairly even.

Single coils and lower output humbuckers have a wider dynamic range to them. There, attack will change output. It's sometimes more desirable to have that reaction, especially if you play blues or jazz where you want your picking technique to show up in the output to give "feeling" to what you're doing. You get what some call a more "organic" response. SRV, Mark Knopfler, BB King, et al are good examples of players who use that behavior.

A compressed response works better for those in less control of their instrument, as it covers up inconsistencies in picking. That's why some overdrive/distortion/compression pedals are called "talent" pedals. They make you sound better than you are.

 

[DustyCat]

Single coils and lower output humbuckers have a wider dynamic range to them. There, attack will change output.

Since my scalloped neck addition to the family my Tele has seen less action (I picked it up again recently cause the scalloped Warmoth replacement neck came the other day! So I'm trying to soak it up again so I can tell the difference afterwards....can't wait.

I remember liking the Wide Range pickups for their frequency response. They seemed to have balance and clarity.
But I know when I picked up my Koa/BK LP to A/B them (I think I had 59/JB at the time) the WRHB's sounded extra crispy like KFC and the LP was like so much more laid back and smooth...relaxed even...

Next time I get a chance to crank it up, I will have to try out the WRHB's again with the volume/picking attack response in mind. Time will tell whether or not they fart out broken glass when pushed too hard  :laughing7: