Planning out my fanned 7 string, just some speculations so far.

[tuttermuts]

:hey you! yeah you, the next pages are more interesting:

Sorry no pics as of yet, just some specs so far.
I'm already starting this topic as to get some feedback and to have something of an ongoing thinking tank. (somehow keeping notes on paper, just doesn't work for me, always results in chaos :p).

So the goal:
A fast guitar that's mainly pointed at leads/shred for the lead sounds. And a warm country twang for clean, that can be suited into fusion like settings (I'm thinking holdsworth).
All in all something that can approach my favorite sounds from my Parker deluxe. I know in order to sound like a Parker I gotta buy a Parker...but you catch drift right?

Construction wise we've been looking at all kinds of things to make it as light weight as possible, but I'm starting to think that without a special way to finish it lighter woods will damage easily.
So we're headed down a more classic route.

Laminated neck through. Mostly maple, I don't know what exact kind laminate the builder had in mind. But he did show me a pic and I was immediately like "OH YES!".
The neck is going to show in the front, you know racing stripe style.
The neck itself is going to be pretty thin. Ofcourse some carbon rods.
Pau Ferro fretboard (anybody use(d) one here?), stainless steel frets (mediums).
And ofcourse fanned. How big of a fan, I don't know yet. The horizontal fret (whatsitcalledagain) I'm thinking about 7 till 9th fret.

Mahogany wings (stil not sure) and a rosewood or burled maple top (not sure either).

Schaller locking tuners and those individual bridges. (I'd love a trem, but yeah...)

Pups:
I'm a guy who likes mids allot, so for bridge I'm preeeetty convinced about the Evo 7.
Neck still not decided.
In the end I'd like em to be coil splitable to get a good funky/country/twangy sound.
Maybe a build in pre-amp or boost or whatever...

So there, this is pretty much the basics, I'll expand if wanted or as the guitar comes along (that might take a few weeks, he's finishing a bass at the moment).

[matttttYCE]

Sounds like this will be one amazing guitar!

And as for the Pau Ferro board, I've never used one but I've always wanted to. Heard that they are basically like a great combination of the sounds of Ebony and Rosewood. I'd expect it to work pretty well in the guitar you've proposed..especially with a mostly maple neck through (you did mean it was going to be a neck through right?)

[Apophis]

sounds interesting

[hufschmid]

sounds interesting man, send us updates when available

[caughtinamosh]

The horizontal fet: perpendicular

This sounds like a good project.

[ElRay]

Are you planning to keep the pick-ups straight? It looks like it because you're planning on standard pick-ups. Have you given any thoughts to angeling them?

Ray

[tuttermuts]

Mat: Yes it's going to be neck through (the showing in front, I mean like the high end ibanez prestiges)
Apohpis: thx
.........: I can't wait
Caughtinamosh: thx, I was thinking perpetrator first,...but that can't be right :p
ElRay: I have thought about it. By keeping them straight next to a fanned (or lets say angled) bridge makes em sort of angled like Eddy Van Halen (and many others back in the day) used to do, to get more balance between bass and treble strings. Don't know if it works that way in this case though.

[thinkpad20]

Have you given any thought to fretboard radius? I'm wondering (and I've got a thread going on 7 string forums) about how you would radius with fanned frets... especially stainless steels (which I'm also planning to have) which are very difficult to shape. So, maybe just flat? But then it might cause problems for chording...

[tuttermuts]

We're going to copy the radius of my Parker. The website says this :
10"-13" conical form
But yeah, the stainless steel huh, that's going to be a though one. The builder seems determined about it though. On the other hand, if you take the outer frets, they're more diagonal. I'd think they would need less shaping, or less work to get in shape as the curve becomes more spread then? ...right? I don't know, haven't done a single fret myself so far, let alone stainless steel.
Maybe my topic should move to the seven section? I thought fanned counted as extended range.

[thinkpad20]

Originally Posted by tuttermuts

We're going to copy the radius of my Parker. The website says this :
10"-13" conical form
But yeah, the stainless steel huh, that's going to be a though one. The builder seems determined about it though. On the other hand, if you take the outer frets, they're more diagonal. I'd think they would need less shaping, or less work to get in shape as the curve becomes more spread then? ...right? I don't know, haven't done a single fret myself so far, let alone stainless steel.

Yeah, the most extreme curvature would be where it's most perpendicular to the fretboard, so I guess it should be possible... just, difficult, but then again SS frets are always difficult to work with...

Originally Posted by tuttermuts

Maybe my topic should move to the seven section? I thought fanned counted as extended range.

Yeah I'm not sure... I figured mine wasn't extended range since I'm only planning on 24 frets, but who knows? I'm planning on tuning whole step down A-D, so...

[walleye]

Originally Posted by tuttermuts

And ofcourse fanned. How big of a fan, I don't know yet. The horizontal fret (whatsitcalledagain) I'm thinking about 7 till 9th fret.

the perpendicular fret

[tuttermuts]

Hey anybody tried out that black ice-alike diode mod on a seven string?
I'm looking for something extra to spice up the tonal options on this guitar.

[tuttermuts]

couldn't resist I had to say it sometime :p:p:p

Went on a road trip today to a place where they got all kinds of nice stuff. Not specifically for instruments, but still the finer and more exotic woods.

Before I go ramblin on I'll give you guys some pics:

these are the woods we chose in the middle (the black/white edge one at the top is not ours)


Come a little closer why don'tcha, the white ones are ofcourse maple (basis of the neck)



The pile with the paper on top is poplar for the wings.


Ebony for the fretboard, I was really set on pao ferro tone wise, but this piece was all YES the moment I dug it up. The pics don't show it but in person the waves are pretty wild. Especially when you consider theres going to be fanned frets on there.


I said come CLOSER!...sawwy :p

Now this is an intresting piece of wood, it's pernambucco. I had no idea this is what they use for violin bows for example. Now the purple might come off, the scraped bit in the middle is what it will largely look like. It's really hard wood, we're going to use it as a top and back.

Wood on wheels



Not all woods in the pics are for my guitar btw.

Furthermore we did some measuring and pondering, our fan isn't going to be that big, something like 25,5 to 27,5. 8th fret perpendicular.

btw: yes my cam skills kinda suck when I don't take time, it's with a phone.

[tuttermuts]

some more shots this time with the plans

[Apophis]

design and wood looks nice so far

[willybman]

looking really good!!!

[phaeded0ut]

Really looks awesome, please keep up the updates.

[thinkpad20]

Noice! I like the headstock, unique and cool!

[tuttermuts]

[tuttermuts]

bumpy(already?...nah just beeing an attention whore )






I had one of those crappy days today
and then you come home and find these pics online, whooooohoooow!


can't decide pups though, right now I think blaze bridge and air norton for the neck, anyone?

[Erik Hauri]

Looks great so far - if that really is pernambuco for the top, you guys are EXTREMELY lucky to find such a wide piece.

Are the neck lams tapered? This shot looks like they're not:



This shot looks like they are:

Originally Posted by tuttermuts

Hey anybody tried out that black ice-alike diode mod on a seven string?
I'm looking for something extra to spice up the tonal options on this guitar.

Forget the black ice thing - utter IMO.

Go with an EMG Afterburner, it works with either active or passive pickups - pull up to engage, roll up the gain, and its all over.

[tuttermuts]

thx man, yes it's tampered, the first shot is just angled kinda weird.
We we're verry lucky indeed, it was this pile of dusty dark purple and orange. And I thought the purple would like kind of spacy, turns out that was just the outside. It's from a fine woods place.

After reading up on the black ice, I pretty much decided the same thing (without hearing it, what a hypocrite :p).
Currently I've got two plans, one is just a small vollume boost. (that could be the afterburner maybe). Two is to make a small preamp that acts like a drive pedal.
But I'm leaning more towards just a vol boost.
Because the thing with pedals and stuff like that...somehow they never satisfy me. Never really used one as a handy tool either. (I just had really sucky pedals so far prolly)
I'm still in the middle on that one.

[Erik Hauri]

With pedals you pretty much get what you pay for - in 25 years of playing I've tried many, and Boss pedals always deliver. They are built rock-solid, and as long as you can try them out (at most guitar stores in the US at least) you should be able to find what you're looking for. The last pedal I bought was just last month, a Boss NS-2 noise supressor - for my rack!

But you also have to be willing to tweek your knobs and explore what they can do - half of being a good player is learning what it takes to dial in the tone you're looking for.

[tuttermuts]

Man this guy is a genius!

the headstock gets angled in two directions.



the pernambucco is beeing prepared, tomorrow I'm going to check it out in person.
I'm starting to like the brown/orange sides better. Maybe I'll take one of the lighter ones on the back,...not sure.




Air norton goes in the neck, the bridge is left.

[phaeded0ut]

Dude, that's looking very pretty! I'm not a fan of DiMarzio pickups in general, more of a fan of Seymour Duncans, Bartolini's and Q-Tuners. On the Q-Tuner end, you'd probably be happiest with a bookmatched set of Hi-Z for the neck and Super Hi-Z for the bridge pickup. Seymour Duncans SH-5 (7-string version Neck) and SH-6 (7-string version Bridge) might be similiar to the DiMarzios you've mentioned. I know that the Alan Holdsworth pickup by Seymour Duncan is not what he's using presently.

Hope this helps a little...

Whoops, looks like you've decided on the DiMarzios.