Here is a progress report on builds #5 (Chris Letchford) and #6. First of all, here is an experimental truss-rod arrangement. On #3, there is a 15 mm diameter carbon fiber tube with a custom single truss-rod. This works like a dream and reduced weight from the neck. #3 is also completely free of dead spots, which I attribute to the use of carbon fiber. Here, I am enclosing a double-expanding truss rod inside the carbon fiber tube. I weighed the neck after having routed a normal 6 mm channel and then after enlarging the channel to accommodate the tube. The removed weight was almost to the gram the same as the weight of the carbon fiber tube, which means that this solution is weight neutral, but I expect it to have the same sonic properties as on #3. On Chris’ guitar, I am not taking any chances. He will have a quite thin ‘C’ shaped neck profile, so I am not including any sound channels in it. His rosewood fingerboard is also incredibly light-weight. In this picture, you can see the access to the truss-rod adjustment. I have made sure to leave sufficient material below the fretboard to support fastening my string locks directly into the wood. #6...
Learn MoreMark Davis, from outside Melbourne, Australia, had a busy last winter building a very interesting and innovative carbon fiber guitar. He recently purchased a second EGS bridge, so I am looking forward to seeing what is in store. Mark is active at the Aussie Guitar Gear Heads forum and has a thread documenting this whole build there. This guitar has a core of Australian pine-like wood King Billy and is fully carbon fiber. It has several fairly unique features, such as pickups mounted out of view from behind (to give an un-interrupted CF top) and glued on frets (again to not ruin the fibers of the CF weave). Mark writes: The total weight of this guitar is 1.3kg or 2.875lbs. Pickups are Adeson Icendiary in the bridge and a Fenton Weill in the mid position. Switching is single / single and split h/b in series , and bridge h/b. Frets are hardened SS and glued on. Nut is home made to suit purpose as are the knobs. I new exactly what I was aiming for from the beginning with the hidden P/U’s this was due to the fact that I wanted uninterrupted fibers running all the way to the bridge This creates the problem of getting the strings close to the body so...
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