orion91

that a warmoth body?

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Member of the Morley PWB Owners Club.

westo

You've got to be fucking kidding me

I just made this kind of guitar (it's a strat with interior effects) back in september.

My fucking god... I can't believe this.

Whatever. All I can say is....

PATENT PENDING!!!


Thumbs up man, your's is better than mine. I made the cover for mine clear. May I ask you where you got this idea?

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RJV

Thanks. As seeing it played is possibly as interesting as hearing its sounds we thought we would try and making a short video - nothing too flash - just something for fun to put up on Youtube. When it’s done we'll post the link here in UG.

How much did he pay for this? Not something we had to agonise over. It was a gift.

Regards, RJV

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Custom Guitar Photos and Specs
Demo Video 1 on YouTube
Demo Video 2 on YouTube - Stockholm Syndrome
Improvised Live Solo on YouTube

RJV

Yes, it started off as one (as described at the specs at the link below), but its hardly stock given the amount of routing necessary (see two photos before pickguard and electronics were fitted).

Regards, RJV

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Custom Guitar Photos and Specs
Demo Video 1 on YouTube
Demo Video 2 on YouTube - Stockholm Syndrome
Improvised Live Solo on YouTube

RJV

Plenty of great guitars out there with on-board effects (and a few of them are on this forum and on Project Guitar forum). Amongst others, for the past 5 or 6 years Muse’s Matt Bellamy has made a living with his several Manson guitars sporting a variety of on-board effects. The Line 6 range all have on-board effects of sorts.

Matt’s guitars provided some inspiration, but the main influence was a desire to bring some pedal controls within easy reach when playing ….. and the rest was a product of experimentation and our own creativity. I’m not aware that there’s another one just like it anywhere (what are the chances?).

Variations on the theme maybe, but then almost every guitar fits that description.

Regards, RJV

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Custom Guitar Photos and Specs
Demo Video 1 on YouTube
Demo Video 2 on YouTube - Stockholm Syndrome
Improvised Live Solo on YouTube

perpetualmotion

I hope the guy know he has a freaking awesome friend lol.

westo

...oh.



lol well mine all started out as a science fair project. I asked Frenchy in August and he said he'd never heard of it. Well there goes my patent idea

thanks man

EDIT: I got honorable mention for the science fair on it... sucks... I spent 3 months and $200 on it- not that bad. But I still use it- really nice.

What's your source of power on it? I use a 18V cable into the wall (alternative is batteries)

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mustangrobert13

wow.... its chrome.... amazing. truly amazing. you should consider a career in this..... amazing...

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80th best UGer

buzz

Thats amazing man...REALLY amazing!!

I cant believe this but I just made this thread and then I saw youre thread!!

Obviosly I dont have such lofty expectations for my build but ill try my best!!

Please check out my thread and help me out with some of my questions if you can.

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<*ELECTRO*>

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RJV

There are two 9 volt batteries (in parallel, so still 9 volts overall) installed in the back of the guitar (see photo). This should last 20 hours or more of continuous use on stage or on the run, so no problem there.

But for studio use I also fitted a 9 volt input jack next to the guitar output jack (see photo) so you can use a wall wart in the studio. This jack is auto switched, so as soon as you plug a power lead in the batteries disconnect.

I thought about installing a stereo guitar output jack instead of the mono I fitted and using one wire and shield as the guitar signal out and the other wire and (common) shield as 9 volts input. I think this would work and any potential induced noise could be managed out, but there were a few hurdles to overcome when actually inserting the lead - I didn't want to risk sending 9 volts into the pickups or back to the amp, or dead shorting across the wall wort. With some thought all this could be overcome (Line 6 have done it with the Variax), but in my case it just didn't seem worth the trouble and risk .....especially since I feel that the batteries will give 20 hours or so.

Regards, RJV

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Custom Guitar Photos and Specs
Demo Video 1 on YouTube
Demo Video 2 on YouTube - Stockholm Syndrome
Improvised Live Solo on YouTube

lespaulmarshall

That is insane

The guitar looks great man, congrats on it

Im loving the electronics side to, great work!

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kirstyjam

wow sooooooooo cool

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t heff

i really dont like the whole mat belamy thing, but you did a good job

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RJV

I like the way Matt has challenged and stretched the conventional technology of a guitar. For my part, in building this guitar, it's been huge fun working out how to configure all the effects and squeeze them into a guitar so that it :

- fits
- works
- isn't heavy
- is still accessable for repairs and mods
- plays well, and
- looks pretty good

.... when often you have to compromise one or more for the others.

With so much to choose from in "conventional guitars" (both generic models and "customs") I figured if I was going to spend several hundred hours and several thousand dollars building something from scratch it may as well be unconventional.

Regards, RJV

__________________
Custom Guitar Photos and Specs
Demo Video 1 on YouTube
Demo Video 2 on YouTube - Stockholm Syndrome
Improvised Live Solo on YouTube

binjajer

Well, looked ad this again and..
I hope that constructive critique is appreciated:

It's gonna scratch like a bitch, I would contemplate some more preservation for the chrome
I would make the lower horn normal (well, a question of taste, I hate those "organic" cutaway horns), a normal lenght pointy horn would look killer.
The trem routing looks like it could use some steel inside. Or perhaps some more attention.
How about hiding some switches inside push-pull pots? (The guitar looks veeery cluttered)

And another taste thing: you will, as metallica sung "burn your face upon the chrome" when while onstage the lights will be pointed at your guitar. Looks cool, but good luck soloing if you cant see shit. Plus, instead of painting it metallic silver, I'd try black.

That is why people rarely use those funky gibson new century guitars onstage.

Trust me.

Awesome job, nevertheless.

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Proud owner of a 1987 Kramer Baretta I w/ spider Guitart.

dauntz

HALLO HALLO HALLO!!! haha i joined up to this thing just so i could see pics of it. it is SO HOT OMG i want one. can you make me one??? and put like a MASSIVE picture of alex on the back? i'd love that. thanks! how much did it cost to make by the way?
you rock robbo.
d to the auntz.xxx

dauntz

ARGH how can people NOT like matt bellamy??? it's so weird, in this country i am in where he is from, hardly anyone knows about him. i am now known as the musical one, not because i have any spectacular musical talent (because i don't) but because all i talk about is music, bands, guitars, and songs. huh.
i think you should call the next one the Harpie. look it up, they're cool.

RJV

Test post - why can't I post?

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Custom Guitar Photos and Specs
Demo Video 1 on YouTube
Demo Video 2 on YouTube - Stockholm Syndrome
Improvised Live Solo on YouTube

RJV

Re post from Binjaja

Thanks. Yes, the critique is very much appreciated – always looking for even better ideas for next time !!

It’s worth highlighting that since the owner wanted a distinctly mechanical look to the guitar this was the key driver in choosing a predominantly chrome finish. This also meant he was comfortable with (indeed preferred) having extra controls on the front. Also, once it’s decided which effects are to go on-board this dictates how many controls need to be placed somewhere. If you have played with the Fuzz Probe, Pitch Shifter and GK-3 you would know that some controls just have to be easily accessible and on the guitar front (to achieve what we set out to achieve – otherwise I may as well have built a conventional guitar and the effects could stay on the floor).

You mention “more preservation for the chrome”. Not sure what you really mean here. If you mean some sort of clear coating then I have yet to come across any sort of coating that would be as resilient as chrome plated steel. Put another way, I think that a guitar with a plastic or ABS pickguard, a “clear coated” chrome steel pickguard or no pickguard (painted timber only) will scratch more easily than uncoated chromed steel. Time will tell, but after three weeks of heavy use there is not a scratch to be seen.

Guitar colour, horn shape, and cutaway shape can be simply a matter of taste, but its not irrelevant that the lower cutaway on this guitar (together with the contoured neck heel) make it easier for this owner to get to the 22nd fret than on any of his other guitars (Gibson, Ibanez, Strat, Line 6).

Point noted about the trem cavity. The bottom of the routing (parallel to the guitar face) is actually covered with a chromed steel plate (you can just see it in the second photo, although the photo doesn’t do it justice). The sides of the routing are not covered (visible in fourth photo) but this is not that obvious to the eye – just seems to be very obvious in the photo. One enhancement could be to get a piece of steel folded into a kind of box shape, polished and then chromed as a sort of press fit into the trem cavity.

We explored options for reducing the number of switches on the front. Unfortunately, push-pull pots are not the answer for purely technical reasons.

- the kill switch is a spring loaded momentary switch so that it rests in the normally open position (output not killed) – for obvious reasons.

- the pickup mix (guitar/mix/GK3) must be a three position switch
- the Pitch Shifter switch functions both as an on/off pulse and a momentary effect switch, so must be spring loaded with a centre resting position

- the two MIDI patch switches (patch up and patch down) must be momentary switches, so could be a single spring loaded switch but it would be too slow to move through patches. Two separate momentary push switches are much quicker. The ones I fitted (below the trem) are very small and unobtrusive (about the same size as a pickguard screw.

So the only two candidate switches for push-pull pots would be the Fuzz on and the RF Antenna on. I discounted both and opted for a single toggle switch for each for the following reasons :

- if either of these were to be push-pull pots then the only really logical choice would be to combine them with the only Zvex Fuzz control knobs on the front of the guitar – the Comp or the Stab knobs – as whilst its possible it doesn’t make much sense combining/confusing these with the Pitch Shifter controls, or with the guitar tone or GK-3 volume knobs. But the Zvex Fuzz sound is highly sensitive to the Comp and Stab settings and we felt that if these controls doubled as push-pull switches for something else then the act of pushing or pulling them could be a source of frustration as we would likely also change the Fuzz sound setting (only slightly, but enough to be annoying).

- a push-pull pot is actually a very bulky unit (as compared to a standard pot and a separate microswitch) and not easily fitted into this guitar. A push pull switch extends about 28mm behind its mounting and as you would see from the photo of the open control cavity there is simply no room for a couple of these.

So, whilst on first inspection there are appear many ways to do this, you should see that when you get into it there are many issues of detail to consider. Having spent a lot of time planning this and actually experimenting with mockup layouts this layout works well for this owner.

Thanks again.

Regards, RJV

__________________
Custom Guitar Photos and Specs
Demo Video 1 on YouTube
Demo Video 2 on YouTube - Stockholm Syndrome
Improvised Live Solo on YouTube