HOLY FECKIN FARK!

[oldangelmidnight]

This is the rough, crappy mockup I sent him to illustrate some of my thoughts:

And some notes:

[oldangelmidnight]

And some further communications:

Me:
I measured the pickups I'd like to match so here's the updated info:

Scale: 24”
Weight: 9lb or less
Hollow neck (no neck dive)
3 Single coil pickups above the bridge - Bridge under 7k, neck around 6.3k
1 pickup behind the bridge

9” radius
Aluminum nut cut for .011 size strings
Roller knobs for volume and tone on each pickup
Small toggle switch for on/off on each pickup
Master volume knob
Tune-O-Matic style bridge anchored to neck block
String-through tailpiece into neck block
Brushed fretboard with polished “block inlay” and “binding” look

Back of neck and headstock finished to match body
Brushed aluminum pickguard
Contoured body

JPG files to confirm appearance prior to machining

Jaguar neck dimensions, measured from center, top of fretboard.
Width at nut: 1 ⅝”
Width at 1st fret 1 21/32”
Width at 12th fret 2”
Depth at 1st fret 27/32”
Depth at 2nd fret 13/16”
Depth at 12th fret 15/16”
String width at nut: 1 ⅜”

Unanswered questions:
Bridge - Electrical or off the shelf

For further consideration:
Body shape, contour
Switch/knob placement
Color/finish
Neck contour
Fretboard edges - rounded?
Frets

Electrical:
Excellent.

That all looks great.

For the tune o matic type bridges, I generally go with Schaller. They make damn good bridges.

Also one catch, doing the reliefs on the body is possible, but they tend to add weight. doing carves like that on the outside of the guitar are easy, but you must do the same carve on the indise too which gets tricky. If we have to, is a slab style body ok with heavy radius on the edges? Weight is going to be an issue on all this.

Also the fretboard, Ill give it a shot, but doing polished blocks might or might not work. Ill try, but I cant promise and i dont want them to look like shit.

As for the color, see attached pic, this is purple anodize. What do you think?

I recommend medium jumbo to jumbo frets. Also the fretboard egdes are just as any other guitar, rounded to 30 degree smooth bevels.

Also, on the weight,at this point 9 just doesnt seem doable, It will just creep just pass it due to the extra electronics. Denisons guitar with 3 pickups weighed in at 8.95lbs and thats with out all the extra electronics and pickup.

Ill do my best to get what you want, but I have to reserve the right to go over that weight as I just dont think I can get it under 9, theres just too much stuff inside. A regular 2 pickup guitar, no sweat.

If the above is a deal killer, let me know and Ill send your deposit back.


Me:
The weight's not a deal-breaker. If it's a trade-off between weight and body contour, I suppose I'd rather have a little more weight and a comfortable shape. The front of the guitar is less important than the back.
When you say "slab style body with heavy radius on the edges" do you have a picture of what that looks like?

The polished blocks on the fretboard aren't necessary. If you don't think it'll look good, I'd rather have the black kind of blocks I've seen on your other guitars. I don't want a whole lot of shiny aluminum but a touch would be nice. What about, rather than trying to polish just a block shape, it's the whole space between the frets but only for the frets that would have markers?
And how about polishing the fretboard bevel to give a binding kind of look? I really have no idea how any of this works.

As I was measuring the neck dimensions on a couple of my guitars, I noticed that some had the same measurements but felt different. I think some of that comes down to the shape of the bevel. I'm sure your standard shape will be fine.

I think I like that purple anodize. Let me sleep on that. What are the pros/cons of anodizing vs other coatings?

[Ryan]

Wow, you've really got a complicated build in the works! I love the 3 pickups and the toggles to turn them off an on... I really dig that purple too with a nice shiny aluminum neck.. that's gonna look killer!

[Ryan]

bump for exciting news?

[Ilikewater]

I asked recently for an estimation. I got the response, "a ways out, I am working on the neck right now."

[magiclawnchair]

very cool stuff duders! youll flip when you get them!

[oldangelmidnight]

bump for exciting news?

Nothing exciting on my build yet. We've been talking more about the anodize.

Now, on to pickups:
Electrical:
My pickups can be wound however, so the impedance you wanted is totally fine. I would recommend sticking with my basic design as its suited to these guitars. Its a alnico 5 slugged pickup with a lot of clarity and full range. Sound ok?

Me:
I think I'd like one of the pickups to be a bit mellower and thicker sounding; kind of jazzy, maybe. What do you think about an Alnico II humbucker in the middle position? Have you tried something like that? Is that kind of sound even possible on an aluminum guitar?
I'd be glad to have your standard pickups in the neck and bridge positions.

[Toonster]

If you want behind the bridge pickup, I can recommend a little more string length than standard on the Fenders so you can get nice harmonics..

Explained here: http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=16452&start=15#p387481