[forzenfever]

It looks like my wood shop class is going to let me build a guitar so I decided to go with an 8 and I've got a few questions.
1.what's the norm neck width at the last fret and nut?
2. I know I'm missing something from my electronics list i just can't think what so far I've got
pick ups
three way switch
volume controll
pre amp
(i'm not putting a tone nob in)

3. any one know a place to get variax guts w/o the guitar?

[sakeido]

Electronics...
Bridge & Neck pickups, Volume pot, Three way switch, output jack. That's it - preamp for what? Both passives and actives are all contained in the pickup, you will only need an external bit if you pick up one of the EMG circuit boosters or something like that.

I don't think there is a normal neck width. You should draw a 1:1 scale drawing of the guitar with your desired nut width and bridge and that will tell you everything else you need to know.

[darren]

The only place to get Variax guts is... from a gutted Variax.

[forzenfever]

oh and I forgot something.
I was on a Kramer duistributer site and read the following
"The Kramer Infinity Sustainer™ is NOT an on-board compression, limiter or other feedback device creating "artificial" sustain. In combination with patented electronics, the Kramer Infinity Sustainer uses a powerful neck-position pickup as an electromagnetic driver to actually DRIVE the strings and keep them vibrating. • The Kramer Infinity Sustainer offers the guitarist the ability to completely control true guitar sustain so that ANY note(s) played may be sustained INDEFINITELY! You'll be amazed at the effects that can be achieved using the Kramer Infinity Sustainer!"-http://www.musicyo.com/product_specs.asp?pf_id=319

is there anything like that available for 8 strings?

[darren]

Dude, you can't even get those for seven strings. And i hope you're not planning on doing anything adventurous with the Variax guts. Cuz those will only work on six strings, too.

If you want to add some kind of sustainer device, your only real option would be to go with a Sustainiac Model C which is an electro-acoustic sustainer (produces sustain by physically vibrating the neck) rather than an electro-magnetic sustainer (produces sustain by pumping the string with electromagnetic energy... sort of a pickup in reverse).