News And Updates

It’s long overdue as some customers have unfortunately found out, but I finally got my new tremolo spring blocks today.

I’m very pleased. It’s kind of sad how hardware can be this rewarding…

After the incredibly successful first EGS build (pictured below), I have now started the next few builds.

I want to explore different material options to see how they influence the final product, so I will build two more identical hollow bodies: one with a wenge top and swamp ash back and one with a maple top and mahogany back. These will have a neck pocket for a bolt on neck that will allow me to swap necks between them: the wenge neck I have already, the Moses Graphite neck written about before and a new maple neck with traditional shape. Lastly, I plan to build a 7-string maple neck-through guitar with mahogany sides and (maybe, haven’t decided yet) a maple top. I will keep the electronics similar as well, sticking with Lace Alumitones. I will use the P-90 type pickup for the 7-string since it is a bit wider than a regular pickup.

When they are complete and I have gathered the information I need, I plan to sell all but one in whatever combinations work out the best.

I have slotted and fretted the Moses Graphite neck over the weekend.

Slotting the fingerboard was a pleasant experience. The material is easy to cut and there is no worry for chipping out, which is very nice.

The frets still require dressing and polishing, but it was easy enough to do the fretting - no different from a regular neck. What was different, however, was that when filing off fret ends, planing them (which I do with a whetstone) and crowning them, there is no concern over dust or metal entering the wood. Again, very nice.

My one concern is that I had to remove one fret and re-mount it. This turned out to be somewhat tricky because the tangs had already shaped the slot. I had to re-cut the replacement fret once to make it shift slightly sideways in position and move the tangs to a “fresh” place. I would hate to have this be a future re-fret problem. Having said that, I do believe that there are documented ways of doing it the right way to avoid these problems. If nothing else, Moses offer a re-fretting service.

Next step is to cut the fingerboard to make room for the string locks and to dress and polish the frets. Then it’s ready for mounting.

I have made a few sets of bridges in alternate colors - for marketing purposes but also for the future EGS demo builds.

Incidentally, I am unexpectedly sold out of bridges as of today 20 January. I would expect the next batch to be ready in about 6 weeks. This is a great opportunity to order custom colors since I can fit them into production at a much lower cost. Contact me if you are interested in placing a pre-order.

I have a couple of exciting projects in the pipeline. Both of them were a little delayed by my going to California for a few weeks over Christmas and New Years (the results of which can be seen in the previous posts), but I am eager to get going.

Graph Tech Ghost Piezo Saddles

Just before leaving for my holiday, I received samples of various Graph Tech Ghost saddles for integration into my tuners. This is the most common customer request, along with a 7-string tremolo and finishing the bass bridge, so getting this done will be fantastic. I’ve got to say that the support from Graph Tech has been absolutely amazing. Even as the tiny supplier I am, I got full attention immediately, and OEM Account Manager Tarina Dunwoodie has been great support. So stay tuned on developments on this.

Moses Graphite Neck

Upon arriving in California, I had a custom made Moses Graphite neck waiting for me. It has the same dimensions as the neck for my EGS guitar, and has been left un-slotted. I will slot this myself with the same mixed scale that I have already, to allow a simple swap back and forth to compare sound qualities on the guitars. I hope to be able to offer this as an option on my guitars in the future, assuming that it sounds good. Once again, awesome customer service. Steve Mosher at Moses Graphite has also been great to deal with, and the quality and appearance of the neck is fantastic. I can’t wait to get this project underway.

I was fortunate enough to be in the neighborhood of Watson Guitars, who I have mentioned before the week that passed and Alex and Tere made some room for me and my family in the middle of the final crunch of NAMM preparations.

We had a wonderful lunch, and a nice drive up and down the mountain although we didn’t have much luck with the weather. Idyllwild is situated in the most amazing surroundings, but due to fog, we didn’t see much farther than our noses reached. I did get to see the customer build that Alex is finishing:

Above it, you can see the second EGS tremolo build for Alex - a fitting operation for a customer.

In the above picture, you can almost see how stunning the inlay and finishing work is. In addition, there are so many nice touches on Watson Guitars’ instruments that you have to see to believe. For example, custom pickup covers cut from the top to match the grain, ditto control covers on the back, inlays, and so on. Watson Guitars are, like I said, exhibiting at NAMM so make sure to pay them a visit. The guitar pictured featuring the EGS Tremolo will be there, so it’s a great opportunity to try one out.  Alex and Tere also told me about some of their plans for 2010 which are very exciting, but I will let you follow that story on their home page or in person at NAMM, obviously.

One more thing that you need to see in real life is pictured above - a semi-hollow 7-string bass. It will feature both a magnetic and piezo pickups and looks absolutely stunning already! Alex’s fingertips proved the amount of work that has been put into it and it had to be ready for applying finish the night I left… (I hope you got it done in time, Alex!)

Lastly, above is a picture of one of Watson’s CNC machines - very nice!

It is no secret that I am a fan of Lace Alumitones, that are featured on both of my current demo guitars. This made it a real treat when I recently enjoyed the hospitality of Don Lace, President of Lace Music, in their facilities in Huntington Beach, California.

I got to meet several members of staff, including Jeff Lace, who is in charge of the R&D. R&D at Lace seems to be in an excellent shape, which the development Alumitones, and the Helix neck profile prove. I had the opportunity to play both the original 20 degree twist neck and the more recent 10.8 degree twist and it was a revelation.

The 20 degree twist can be seen above. I always thought it would be ergonomic and I have prototyped it, but not played an actual instrument. The risk that I envisioned was that strings would fret out very easily when being bent “downwards”, i.e. towards the floor”, during normal play, but this issue was not at all as apparent as I thought it would be. Sure, it can happen, but for most styles of playing it will be fine. The more recent 10.8 degree twist is a closer compromise that will fit any playing style while still offering excellent ergonomics. I can’t wait to implement this in a EGS guitar and perhaps combine with fanned frets as well.

Overall, the Lace demo room was full of interesting builds and prototypes, including custom finishes for Alumitones that hold plenty of promise for color coordinating with my bridges.

Above, you can see the miniscule bobbin for an Alumitone. I look forward to exploring these possibilities in the future.

I am happy to be able to present another customer project, this time from Toni Stosic from Zagreb, Croatia. Toni saw David Thorn playing a Klein guitar in a Hendrix tribute on TV more than 12 years ago and has been dreaming about one since. The body is ash with a maple/ebony neck. Pickups are hand-made by a friend of his. (Feel free to post back here with more details about the pickups, Toni!) Toni reports that it sounds great and holds tuning perfectly. The trem stopper was installed as a personal preference and adds to the tone. Congratulations Toni!

In preparation for the new batch of tremolos that should be available next week, I have looked around in the darker corners of my shop and found some old prototype parts that I have assembled into a DIY tremolo that is now for sale.

Some important notes:

• It is the old style tuner that does not have recessed saddles. This means that the string rests considerably higher in relation to the point of rotation (i.e. the knife). If you are into physics, you will understand that this means that you need more and tighter springs to counteract the pull of the strings than you would a normal tremolo. Count on at least 4 springs.
• It has the stainless steel knife edge that is not as durable as the hardened version that is on production tremolos. (I do have spare knives if it wears out, which is a good feature of this design.)
• It does not come with a tremolo arm, posts, or springs. Buy one of these, a set of these and four of these and one of these to complete the set. The approximate cost of these parts is $35.
• It does not include any string locks. I suggest you use a Floyd-Rose type string lock like this or find an alternate solution.
• It does include a tremolo spring block although this is not pictured.
• Finally, you will have to file the hole in the base plate slightly to mount the tremolo arm.
• The price is 180 EUR (normal price is 280 EUR).

So with these caveats, I do ask of the buyer to consider all of the above carefully before going ahead. I will obviously offer all kinds of support and help that I can, but this is a hodge-podge of prototype parts.

If you haven’t visited the Project Guitar Forum before, you should. It’s an endless resource of inspiration, discussion and assistance. It is frequented by all sorts of luthiers, from beginners to pros and from all over the globe. I joined when I was in the planning stages of the EGS guitar and have received countless tips and cheers during the process.

This week, the efforts were crowned by winning “Guitar of the Month for December” with the EGS prototype! Considering the competition, it was very humbling and fun experience to take part. The past week, it was nail-biting to watch the voting stats and wondering if they would stay in my favor.

Thanks to everyone that voted!