finishing up

[tedmich]

I am finally finishing my endless project, an 8 string guitar.

I needed to resign myself to not getting the neck the way I envisioned, with a nut and 12th fret under-board pickups to allow me to amplify the three notes I hear when I play. I figure I can always add it later since the neck is bolt on, once I figure out how to wind a 3/16" thick 8 pole humbucker...

The neck back still needs some contouring and I think I may add a feature I have been thinking about for a while: a neck back channel that gives my thumb some place to be when I'm in classical hand position. It will be a very smooth transition sort of like a figure B profile but with a smooth radius. Gotta be sure I don't cut through to the truss rod but the neck is plenty thick, cricket bat thick now that the LMII 5 string bass Madagascar ebony board is glued down. Once contoured and finished I'll rig up the 1 ton HF arbor press with a caul to press in the 33 SS Jescar frets.

The peghead will not stay that way, those are Ipe spars running up from the Ipe nut pad I inlaid, incredibly hard stuff (Janka 3700!) that should transfer vibrations well, but I'm going to encase the peghead in very thin ebony or nice glossy Dragonplate CF (or both) before I install the 8 black locking tuners

I plan to go with dual 9v batteries for the EMG 808 to try and get some headroom, but may end up winding my own big passive if the 808 sounds too Zakk like...

Anyone know a good place to get an 8 string graphtech nut cut? I can pay $ plus 4 black locking tuners...

[The Dude]

Looks nice! I'm curious though. With the added weight of the wide neck and the scooped out portion of the lower body, isn't it a bit top heavy?

[tedmich]

wing wood is pretty and spalted and curly BUT it is quite light...8 string Kahler is plenty heavy but we'll see once its buttoned up. I am not above adding a brass slug to balance it, kind of like the so called- butt plug that guitarist Rob Cavestany had in his Jackson signature guitar.

[rjb]

...once I figure out how to wind a 3/16" thick 8 pole humbucker...

Have you checked out this thread?
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t37623/3

[tedmich]

Thanks rjb, that may be a good place to start!

[tedmich]

got the neck profiled and grooved up

(was trying to show grain NOT go overly Freudian...)
the neck is so wide it makes perfect sense to have the groove to allow me to apply more strength on the strings; Im not going to be palming this neck!
It was difficult to take the huge carbide carving ball to the nice smooth D shape.

Bosch die grinder may have shot bearing; it was screaming at 22k rpm, so I ended up using a 3k rpm corded drill, also in router for more control. These carbide burs leave a highly grooved rough finish and can burn hard maple at high rpm.

I finally found a use for that Dremel profile sander I got years back!

[tedmich]

I pressed the 33 (ugh!) SS Jescar frets

you can see the maple / ipe caul that I used on the close frets, I inlayed a couple N45 magnets into it so it would stick to HF 1 ton arbor press


I guess its too late to patent neck groove, since I spilled the "prior art"...

[tedmich]

ground down some end nippers and polished them up

I didn't get them ground totally flush, so I needed to grind fret ends a bit more (pay now or pay later...) With great effort I could cut two ends at once, which is useful as the frets past 30 are VERY close.
Now to finish up fret ends, beveling etc