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If the current guitar is unplayable, like if the frets are falling off, or it has an awful, sustain-killing neck joint or something, then sure, toss it. Otherwise, the pickups should make a noticeable difference; I've heard those Epis come with pretty crappy electronics. Sure, the wood makes a...

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the fuse? Isn't that just a direct connection?

I don't think I'd paint a grillcloth; seems like it'd be too easy to clog it up and destroy the high end of the sound. Even with the fabric paint on the tolex I think I'd worry about it wearing off in odd places and looking crappy after even a short amount of gigging abuse. Might be worth the...

It's the angle. It's actually a fairly small guitar; the scale length is just under 24". The whole thing weighs about 6 pounds, and I think that's mostly in the hardware and the steel bar. This cedar is extremely light. It was made from 1x8 stock, so the widest part is around 15" at the tail.

Finally, a clip of my favorite two sounds from this thing so far. http://dan.aleph0.com/new-guitar-sample.mp3 The clean is both pickups most of the way up, slightly favoring the bridge. The fuzz track is mostly neck. Tones are all the way up. Both through my old solid-state peavey onto a...

Man, those do look cool. I've just never heard of a procedure to restore faded cloth to its original luster (the clothing industry would go nuts over that, right?). I'd ask somebody like a dry cleaner just to see if such a process exists. I think you're going to have to make another...

Thanks, guys. Let me see if I have this straight. The difference between the two setups, with both volumes at zero, is that in the standard paul wiring, the jack should be connected to ground with no resistance, and in the jazz bass setup, the connection is there, but through the full...

This may or may not be the same problem that a guy had on this forum a week or so ago, but I checked that thread and didn't see where he resolved it. I have my guitar wired for independent volume controls, that is, on each volume pot, the jack is wired to the leftmost lug and the pickup is...

Wow, that's some light touch. I'm a bit of a neck crusher myself. Even so, though, the fretboard wood is going to vibrate along with the neck. I can't imagine it wouldn't impact the sound, if only a little. I have one guitar with a maple fretboard. I like the brightness, but I hate that it...

Thanks. I started to put a matching headstock on this thing, but I was a little worried I'd screw the tuners up somehow. The black's tasteful enough.

Thanks (I think). So far I'm loving the Dream 180s. Huge variety of sounds out of these things, many of which I didn't have on my other guitars. I love the clean sounds in particular. My original plan was in fact to make a Bigsby-type tailpiece for this one, but it's a little ways out of my...

Thanks all for the kind words. I'll see if I can get a recording of it this weekend. When I started this project, I didn't see many guitars made entirely of wood this soft, and I was a little worried it would just fold up like a lawn chair -- that's why the 5/16" bolt through the middle. It...

Just wired up my frankenstein homemade guitar this afternoon. I basically wanted to see if I could make a functional instrument, and I've been happily surprised with the result. It's far from perfect, and many, many mistakes were made, but the next one will be better for it. This thing has...

Between Allparts and Guitarfetish, you ought to be able to find a block that works. The one at Guitarfetish looks different than yours, but it's meant to be a replacement. It's built heavier in an effort to make it sound better. The other thing you might do is contact AXL to and find out...

I was thinking the same thing. Or just random names so as to generate buzz and speculation about what they actually do. Like Tone Embiggenator or Audience Mezmerization Unit. Or just label the knobs with words like Righteousness or Suckage, depending on which ones you normally keep all the way...

No big deal either way, man. If you're not comfortable messing with it, there's certainly no shame it taking it to somebody who is. I just paid somebody to fix my computer for that reason. When I'm trying to figure out a wiring scheme, I typically don't solder anything until I've verified...

To the best of my knowledge, the way the switch works is to connect the middle terminal on each side to either the top or the bottom pole, depending on how the switch is turned. Turn the switch up, and run a little jumper wire between the top two poles on each side (in your numbering, I believe...

Keep on checking craigslist, pawnshops, and sales. I routinely see those entry-level ibanez basses for less than 200 bucks, and occasionally less than 100. I've heard decent things about those as far as playability, too. I've been recording bass either direct or through a guitar amp for...

Fair enough. I guess the overspray is always a worry. The only other thing I can think of would be maybe something like this technique that I've heard of people using for headstock decals. Still may be a bit on the crappy end of the spectrum, though. Good luck.

Does nobody use masking tape anymore? Mask off everything, then use a razor blade to cut out the shapes you want painted. Spray and peel the tape off. Brush on a couple thin coats of clear over the top to keep the paint from peeling.