[Hexer]

soooo..... got some money saved up and this important test coming up that I have to pass! figured if I pass it I'll do myself something good and finally order my first custom guitar (if I dont pass said test though, I'll probably need my money for other things anyway).

thing is: I'm still not shure about a few of the specs.

here are the basic things that I have pretty much decided on:
7-strings (OF COURSE!!!)
V-shape (not just a standard V, something a little more extreme )
neck thru maple with ebony board
mahogany wings (would be my first mahogany guitar)
PUs: X2N7 and Ducan Jazz (good idea? I'm after a "as accoustic-sounding as possible" clean-tone with the neck-PU and a crushing, cutting, evil distortion with the bridge)
electronics: volume, 3-way selector, miniswitch to select series/parallel/split for neck-PU, killswitch
Floyd Rose

1. what concerns me most at the moment is: what scale-lenght would be the right thing for me to get??
I've only owned 25.5" guitars so far, but I have an eye on a 27" scale for this one......
I know it has been discussed many times, but I'm too lazy to search for all the info about this thats spread over the whole forum, so could someone please give me a sum-up of what differences a 27" scale would make as opposed to the exact same thing with 25.5"?
I'm not afraid of not being able to play on a 27 or something, its not MUCH of a difference after all, but I dunno if it will be better for me overall....
I have played my 7 only in standard-tuning so far, dunno if I'll tune down in the future or not

2. inlay I'll get only 1 single inlay at the 12th-fret-area. I'm searching for something dark, maybe occult, you get the idea. and please dont suggest a simple pentagram lol I'm after something thats not that..... "usual" if you get what I mean. I did a design of a "double-pentagram" (positive and negative combined) but not shure....

3. Pickup rings: yes or no (direct mounted)? any advantages/disadvantages that one has over the other?

thanks in advance guys!

PS: I'm heavily leaning to RAN for doing this

[rogue]

haha shouldnt you be revising

personally i think it sounds awsome, amy designs for the body shape? i would go 27" i love the ebony/maple/mahogony thing, its lovely. but if your going expensive custom have you thought of one of these really exotic things for the fretboard. cant remember the woods but over on the leviathan website theres some beauties.

also are you going to go solid colour or what

[Elysian]

i think it sounds good so far, why not try and get a 26" scale, or maybe 26.5"? if the luthier is willing to be that flexible with you... pickup rings? seeing as you're going to be using a duncan and a dimarzio, things might look a little odd, as the pickups don't look the same, rings might be a better way to go. the only advantage to direct mounting is a cleaner look, it does 0 to improve tone etc unless your pickup is microphonic. i'm just finishing up building a guitar with maple neck through and mahogony wings and x2n7's in it, and it sounds monstrous, the x2n7 is a great way to go. if you are set on direct mounting, maybe look for something from dimarzio that might be closer to a jazz, the an7 would probably be a great pickup to combine with the x2n7, the paf7 might be closer to the jazz 7, but i'm not sure how well its output would work with the x2n7... the air norton 7 has just slightly higher output compared to the paf7... you really aren't going to get any acoustic like tone from a pickup though, you'd have to go piezo, and then itd still ultimately sound like a piezo, not an acoustic...

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Hexer

...but I'm too lazy to search for all the info about this thats spread over the whole forum...

oh come on . i searched with "scale length" in "thread titles" only.

Delving deeper into the nitty gritty of scale length
Noob questions regarding neck scale length
Does scale length really affect tonal quality?
switching to lower string gauge/switching to smaller scale length...
string gauge, scale length, tuning and other Q's...

[Durero]

I'd highly recommend fanned frets.
You could keep 25.5 for your highest string and then extend your 7th to 27" or whatever you like.

[Hexer]

ah, you guys are so fast with answering such questions, I just love you

Leon: thanks, I'll read through that when I have a bit more time (at work at the moment)

Durero: the Fanned frets do sound interesting, but I've never had the chance to play something like that and what I'm looking at wouldnt make that much of a difference, so I dont think I want it to be fanned. also I think it would make the otherwise symmetrical V-shape look pretty damn odd

rogue: I'll try to either get a shape like the Moser V (not the Bastard V) or to use a shape that I designed myself
colour-wise I'm going for something really dark, ebony fretboard and body, neck and headstock in satin black with white bindings all around (and black hardware, too)

Elysian: yea of course I'll not really get a really acoustic sound out of something electric, it was just to give you an Idea of what I'm looking for. I'm not really after that really dark, jazzy clean-tone, I want something brighter (thats more like an acoustic in a way). the duncan Jazz seemed so sound that way

[Durero]

Originally Posted by Hexer

Durero: the Fanned frets do sound interesting, but I've never had the chance to play something like that and what I'm looking at wouldnt make that much of a difference, so I dont think I want it to be fanned. also I think it would make the otherwise symmetrical V-shape look pretty damn odd

a reasonable point
Makes me think fanned-frets on a Rhoads-style V would be perfect

[Hexer]

Originally Posted by Durero

a reasonable point
Makes me think fanned-frets on a Rhoads-style V would be perfect

he he, certainly would look better than on a symmetrical V. you could mirror the rhoads body to make it look another bit sicker

I think if I ever get a fanned-fret guitar it'll be more along the lines of a superstrat body (or something else with double-cutaways)

[metalfiend666]

Have you thought about a Rico Jr Vixen? They're pretty extreme V's.

[rogue]

sounds amazing dude, have you thought about headstock shape?