ATTN: Music Spags, and admirers of pretty things!

[Roaring Biscuit!]

You're in Foreign Lands, aren't you?


We might have to think about weights and measures, if yr gonna ship...

Aye, it had crossed my mind and its a fair point, but with anything that people want me to build I follow a general rule which is "materials+50-100% depending on how complicated the work is", which means you basically very much in control of the price, but I can look into how much shipping could cost if you're interested.  I have a few unique ideas kicking around me noggin atm that you may or may not want to discuss

x

edd

p.s.  danke schon brotep

[Roaring Biscuit!]

bumpity bump

'cause I would way prefer to do this than get a real job over summer

[LMNO]

Thoughts:

I would like a stringed instrument that has the following:

Semi-hollow

Six strings

The 1st and the 4th string from the top should have a hipshot to raise or lower the string at least a whole step (2 frets).

Floating bridge

tremolo bar

1 single coil pickup

1 humbucker pickup

1 D-Tar or similar pickup

wiring to isolate or blend individual pickups

2 output jacks




What do you think?  Too ambitious?

[Roaring Biscuit!]

Thoughts:

I would like a stringed instrument that has the following:

Semi-hollow

Six strings

The 1st and the 4th string from the top should have a hipshot to raise or lower the string at least a whole step (2 frets).

Floating bridge

tremolo bar

1 single coil pickup

1 humbucker pickup

1 D-Tar or similar pickup

wiring to isolate or blend individual pickups

2 output jacks




What do you think?  Too ambitious?

 way too ambitious, which I like... a lot.

Can you give me any more info on how a hipshot works?  And how to determine how far it will be able to tune up or down?

For the pickup wiring would you prefer 3 seperate volume controls plus master or a pickup selector?

Do you want both outputs to be the same?

Also, the area between the bridge and the neck will have to be solid wood for a floating bridge, so I guess you want the piezo behind the bridge in the hollow bit?  do you want a humbucker for the neck or bridge pickup?

Also, what neck do you want?  I don't really have the skill nor tools necessary to make a custom neck unfortunately

x

edit:  also, not exactly gonna be cheapby the looks of things...  cheaper than anywhere else, short of doing it yourself...  but not...  cheap

[LMNO]

 way too ambitious, which I like... a lot.

I was daydreaming.  I haven't even tried a lot of these out, I have no idea what it would end up sounding like.

Can you give me any more info on how a hipshot works?  And how to determine how far it will be able to tune up or down?

www.hipshot.com is probably the biggest maker.  It's a locking lever mechanism on the peg that allows you to toggle between two tunings.  I usually use Open D tuning, so the 4th fret one would be to change between major and minor keys.

For the pickup wiring would you prefer 3 seperate volume controls plus master or a pickup selector?

Both?     Probably the 3 separate ones, if not.

Do you want both outputs to be the same?

Yeah.  I don't really know why I want this, other then the off chance of having 2 separate amps with 2 sepearte effect racks. 

Also, the area between the bridge and the neck will have to be solid wood for a floating bridge, so I guess you want the piezo behind the bridge in the hollow bit?  do you want a humbucker for the neck or bridge pickup?

Yeah, The piezo in the hollow part (bonus if I can sing through them as well); the HB on the bridge, single coil on the neck.

Also, what neck do you want?  I don't really have the skill nor tools necessary to make a custom neck unfortunately

How about aluminum?

edit:  also, not exactly gonna be cheapby the looks of things...  cheaper than anywhere else, short of doing it yourself...  but not...  cheap

I figured.  This might not be feasible, at all.  But I figured I'd have to ask.

[Roaring Biscuit!]

Okay, I've been mulling this over for a while, and there's a few things that jump out as "totally ruining everything" kinda problems:

1.  semi-acoustic, I've not done it before, though I do have the knowledge/confidence in my skills to do it.  The main issue I'm having, is that in my head, it's an archtop, which will probably be a bit of a pain getting it to work with a floating bridge (though not too much of a pain, I think I have an idea )

2.  Floating bridge + hipshot = tuning nightmare?

3 volume (+master) and pickup selector shouldn't be a problem, might need to talk to my sound/electrical engineer friend about the dual output though.  Aluminium neck looks completely awesome.

But ok, it's doable, and most of that stuff is bells and whistles   Awesome bells and whistles, but bells and whistles nonetheless.

So...  have you thought about the body (style, sound etc.), or was this whole thing still very much a hypothetical in your head?   

[LMNO]

1) To be honest, I wanted it semi-hollow for the PZM pickup that I could yell into.  What do you think would happen if you put a PZM pickup between the single coil and the humbucker?

2) You could be right.  I'd be willing to sacrifice the whammy bar for the ability to play the thing behind the bridge.

3) dual output is completely gratuitous - I think you can buy a splitter pedal easily.


As far as the body, if it's solid then it doesn't really matter what shape it is, right?  I wonder if someone's done a study on ergonomic guitar shapes.

[LMNO]

You know, I should probably talk to an actual guitarist to find out how retarded this is.

[Doktor Howl]

You know, I should probably talk to an actual guitarist to find out how retarded this is.

I've just been having fun being totally lost ITT.

It's like a different language.  My boss must feel this way when Ed and I start talking about the details of a project.

[Mangrove]

1) To be honest, I wanted it semi-hollow for the PZM pickup that I could yell into.  What do you think would happen if you put a PZM pickup between the single coil and the humbucker?

2) You could be right.  I'd be willing to sacrifice the whammy bar for the ability to play the thing behind the bridge.

3) dual output is completely gratuitous - I think you can buy a splitter pedal easily.


As far as the body, if it's solid then it doesn't really matter what shape it is, right?  I wonder if someone's done a study on ergonomic guitar shapes.

Old fashioned Bigsby Tremolo?

[AFK]

You know, I should probably talk to an actual guitarist to find out how retarded this is.

Make sure it isn't Rick Nielsen or Steve Vai. 

[Roaring Biscuit!]

bigsby will still have the same problem :/  

possible alternatives:   http://www.tremol-no.com/faq.asp  or  http://www.freelok.com/main.htm

first one is ugly, second one is awkward.  the guitar gods are clearly not gonna make that combo easy huh?  see edit

1) To be honest, I wanted it semi-hollow for the PZM pickup that I could yell into.  What do you think would happen if you put a PZM pickup between the single coil and the humbucker?

Very little if it wasn't semi-acoustic.  On a semi-acoustic be able to merge the two signals (from pickup and piezo), like some acoustic pickups are desiged to do (i.e.  have a normal pickup with a mic in the back to get the tone/resonance of the wood too).

As far as yelling into it, you can sing through most electro acoustics, so any piezo at least as good as the ones they put in terrible E-A guitars should do it.  Just make a slightly larger than average sound hole

3) dual output is completely gratuitous - I think you can buy a splitter pedal easily.

custom guitars - completely gratuitous.  

As far as body goes, mostly its a decision between semi-acoustic and solid, and then a choice on wood/tone (it does effect sound, even on electric), then shape, then pickups.  Also, whether you want it painted+varnish (no wood showing) vs laquered might inform wood choice as well.

x

edd

EDIT:  my bad, both tremol-no and freelok use basically the same system, where you have to twist a thingy at the back :/  tremol-no has the advantage of having a "dive only" mode, which allows tuning strings down, but only lets the floating bridge go forward (dive).

[LMNO]

Quick thought: can we throw an on-board graphic EQ into the mix?

[Roaring Biscuit!]

why the fuck not...   


gonna be heavy though, also, might have to be quite bulky to fit everything in...  depend where you want it positioned on the body i suppose?

x

[LMNO]

I was thinking a simple EQ like this would be sufficient.  It's not graphic, but what the hell.


So, where we stand:

You've said a solid body would work best for you, so let's go with that; that removes the PZM mic, which is fine.

1 single coil, 1 Humbucker; 2 volume knobs (plus 1 master) + pickup selector (SC - HB - Both).

Aluminum neck

EQ

2 output jacks

-and-
I need to find out if the floating bridge and a hipshot would work, whammy bar notwithstanding.

As far as the body goes, the one you made on page 1 of the thread looks really cool.