# Troy's New Build (Inspiration Returns)



## troyguitar (Oct 21, 2009)

EDIT: OP has been edited to include the specs along with photo and video of the finished product!

Final Video:



Final Specs:

Solid Oak body and neck from a single 48" x 7.25" x 0.75" board
27.5" scale tuned EADGCFBbDG
36 tall skinny frets with completely uninterrupted access
Flat bloodwood fretboard (no radius)
62mm nut width
Uniform profile 1.07" (27mm) THICK! neck
"Custom" top-loaded hardtail bridge
Angled EMG-45DC pickup w/ volume and tone knobs
4+5 headstock w/ "weight relieved" ESP tuners.
Black hardware + natural oil finish over the oak
"Expert Hand-Drawn" Sharpie logo and side dots

Final Expense Report:

EMG 45DC pickup: $110
9 ESP-logoed tuners: ~$75
2 6-string bridges hacked together for a 9-string bridge: $25
bloodwood fretboard: $20
set of strings from juststrings: $20
truss rod: $15
knobs, jackplate, nut blank: $15?
fretwire: $12?
4 feet of 1x8 oak: ~$8

total: ~$300 yeah I spent too much 

Final Photos:















































































































































---() Below here is the original unedited thread. ()---

So as much as I wanted to finish my fanned RR-8, I just don't have the resources to finish it in a playable manner. For now that project has been shelved.

But late last night I was sitting here staring at all of the parts I'd bought, trying to decide what to do with them and 

I can build a kickass 9-string if I buy a new fretboard, a 9th tuner, and 9 hardtail bridge saddles! 

Unfortunately I didn't take many pics as I was excited and in a major hurry to get work done, but I started with the 48" x ~8" x 3/4" piece of oak on the bottom here:






I then drew a detailed sketch of my design 






Then I actually drew it out in reasonable detail on the wood itself and attacked it with the bandsaw. I also cut the truss rod channel on the mill. Here's the current state of things:





















The whole thing came from that single piece of oak. I had to double up the pieces for the body since it's only 3/4" thick. I should have a fretboard here sometime next week, and anticipate having a playable instrument well before the November 30 deadline. (Yes I know that buying a pre-slotted fretboard is not really in the spirit of the competition, but I want an instrument that plays in tune  )


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## ralphy1976 (Oct 21, 2009)

it is the badest, biggest penis shpaed 9 string mofo i have ever seen!!!!

go for it my son!!!


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## flo (Oct 21, 2009)

Holy s**t man!

That looks like the secound most brutal approach to guitar building I've erver seen (There's an 8-string on wiki you know?  )
But fuck this is cool!

I'm so curious what an oak guitar (9!!! string) will sound like!


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## Arminius (Oct 21, 2009)

this is gonna be sweet!


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## troyguitar (Oct 21, 2009)

I forgot the specs:

27.5" scale tuned F#BEADGCEA
36 tall skinny frets with completely uninterrupted access
Flat bloodwood fretboard (no radius)
60mm nut width
Uniform profile 1" thick neck
Custom hardtail bridge w/ strings through body
EMG-45DC pickup w/ volume and tone knobs
4+5 headstock w/ ESP tuners.
Black hardware + natural oil finish over the oak

I started gluing the 3/4" body pieces together to get 1.5" body pieces. Check out my coffee table, err, workbench 






A couple shots of the halves drying:











Here's a couple of scale drawings of my bridge and pickup laying on the body. I'm thinking about angling the pickup to get a less piercing tone from the high A string while keeping the F# tight, what do you guys think?






More updates, I didn't have to work today so I spent some more time on it this morning. I should be doing homework, but this is more fun 

First up I unclamped the 2 body pieces I glued last night and glued the third piece, here they are:






Then I decided to go ahead and do the angled pickup route. Off to the garage! Here's my "router" 






The good part is that it's easy to cut a straight line without a template. The bad thing is you can't use a template anyway  This mill is also very old and has a lot of play in all 3 directions, which always makes things interesting. Here's the first pass of the route (1/4" deep) in progress:











Test fit before going any further:






It fits! Actually it's slightly big but that's ok. Now to go down to the final depth of 1/2" so I can mount the EMG directly to the wood without using any foam or springs underneath it...











Yummy! 

A nice 1/2" deep route:






But the pickup doesn't sit in it nicely yet:






We need to cut out a channel for the cable and the connector that go underneath the pickup:






Much better!






The pickup happily chilling in its brand new route:











Next on the to do list is to start working on the headstock, maybe I'll have another update later today. Someone bump this post before then so that I won't have an auto-merged quadruple post


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## Bungle (Oct 22, 2009)

That pickup route has turned out quite nicely I think.

Looking forward to see (hear) some vids of this beast in action!

Oh and yeah, it is kinda penis-y... Perhaps you can paint the headstock purple and put some "vein of life" inlays on it.


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## Arminius (Oct 22, 2009)

Damn you for having nice, clean edges with no need for bondo


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## troyguitar (Oct 22, 2009)

Alrighty, the other work I did earlier today was on the headstock as promised... the first step was trimming it down from 0.760" to 0.630" so tuners will fit properly:











There we go, much better.






Now to figure out where to place the tuners. I'm going for a small-as-possible headstock to hopefully keep neck dive to a minimum.






3/16" starter holes drilled at the tuner locations and the headstock sides sanded down pretty close to their final size.






What do you guys think I should do at the end of the headstock? Leave it pointy, round, or flat?


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## Empryrean (Oct 22, 2009)

I think a curvy point would look nice, like one of them Oni's 

Looking good!


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## White Cluster (Oct 23, 2009)

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>
/

Dual point


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## Bungle (Oct 23, 2009)

\
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Triple point, it'll look like a tulip =D


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## troyguitar (Oct 23, 2009)

Haha, those would be some awfully small points


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## damigu (Oct 23, 2009)

hilariously phallic. i like it!


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## troyguitar (Oct 23, 2009)

Here's a better mockup of the bridge and pickup:






Unfortunately I probably won't get to do much more until this time next week because I'm waiting on a bunch of stuff to get shipped here from CA.


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## Fred (Oct 23, 2009)

Looks awesome dude!


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## flo (Oct 23, 2009)

Thank you for posting that many pics!!!


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## troyguitar (Oct 24, 2009)

Well I have good news and bad news. First, the good news is that my bridge stuff and my final tuner got here already. It turns out that my bridge will actually be top-loaded so I don't have to worry about ferrules or anything. 

I chopped up two 6-string bridges to make one 9-string bridge. No action shots since I was lazy, but here is the final product sitting on the body:
















Now for the bad news. I drilled the tuner holes out to .390" and tried to install the tuners. Guess what? The guy who designed the headstock is a moron and forgot that he needed to allow space for more than just a 10mm hole for each tuner!



Rather than start over or chop off the headstock and do a scarf joint, I decided to modify some of the tuners to reduce the mass at the headstock 

Here's the result, see if you can spot the mods 











With any luck I'll be cutting the control cavity tomorrow.


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## Apophis (Oct 25, 2009)

being honest it looks really interesting  work on body shape and it will be something really nice  reminds me a SKY Guitar Uli Jon Roth using, not penis as said above


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## Customisbetter (Oct 25, 2009)

icwhatudidthere...

seems to have worked out ok though. the tuners will keep each other from moving.


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## damigu (Oct 25, 2009)

can the tuners actually go all the way around?
it looks like the knobs would hit each other if two adjacent knobs were set parallel to the neck.


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## troyguitar (Oct 25, 2009)

damigu said:


> can the tuners actually go all the way around?
> it looks like the knobs would hit each other if two adjacent knobs were set parallel to the neck.



They can... barely. There's like a .030" gap between the buttons if both are parallel to the neck 

Tuning it will be a PITA but hopefully it will hold decently 

Double-post Update!

I cut the control cavities today after gluing on the bottom body wing last night. Check it out!


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## Kapee (Oct 28, 2009)

Looks interesting! Have anything that we should see? ^^


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## Customisbetter (Oct 28, 2009)

your routing makes mine look like a joke. 

great job.


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## troyguitar (Oct 28, 2009)

My fretboard arrived today!











It immediately got cut down to size:






Before gluing it down I also worked more on the body. The electronics are all completely soldered and in place now as is the bridge. Drilling the huge hole for the output jack was kind of a pain, but it's done.

Now I'm waiting impatiently for the glue to dry so I can shape and fret the neck before stringing it up for the first time. How long should I leave it clamped?


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## Spratcho (Oct 28, 2009)

Just a Question, how the hell would you bee able to get a clean tone on the 36th fret
with your finger? The only way i could think of it is with your pic....Or the pic of destiny


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2009)

lookin' good troy. is this gonna be sparkly and doomy like your last one?


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## troyguitar (Oct 28, 2009)

I don't know if it will get the sparkly doom treatment. It's going to stay raw for awhile anyway until I figure out the neck shape and everything.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2009)

fair enough


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## troyguitar (Oct 29, 2009)

Incredible progress today. IT'S ALIVE!

First I put a few strings on to test my fretboard alignment and to see that my wiring is working. 











Then it's (plastic) Hammer Time!






36 frets in all their glory:






They're even somewhat close to level and the neck is decently straight!






Which means we need strings ASAP:






Even though there's tons of work left to be done, I need a break. Time to jam!






If I can bring myself to quit playing it for awhile, I'll go ahead and do a bunch more work on it this weekend. For now I have to say that I'm very impressed with myself. It plays like a Chinese Squier at this point but that's way better than I was expecting. The fact that it's playable at all is amazing to me


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## somn (Oct 29, 2009)

reminds me of a chapman stick there cool


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## Xanithon (Oct 30, 2009)

Thats done really well man!

What kind of finish? Gonna keep it natural finish?


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## Wi77iam (Oct 30, 2009)

wow hot damn, good job mate


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## AeonSolus (Oct 30, 2009)

Amazing dude  Fuck ergonomics! you just need wood, frets and strings to headbang  say...is that fretboard from Lmii? i'm thinking to order from them for a personal project


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## Bungle (Nov 7, 2009)

Holy shit dude, lookin' good! =D

I can see why you didn't go for the triple point "tulip" headstock though ahahaha.


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## troyguitar (Nov 8, 2009)

Update: I had some time to work on shaping the back of the neck this weekend. With any luck I'll also glue on the upper body wing later tonight. Here's a shot of the back of the neck






And for fun, here's a couple of nice neck comparison shots of an Ibanez RG7420, my 9-string, and a Jackson Stars RR...


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## Kapee (Nov 10, 2009)

Video clip anyone? want to hear how that beast sounds


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## troyguitar (Nov 10, 2009)

I don't know if I'll do any clips before it's finished or not, but it's totally playable in its current state and sounds very good IMO.

Gluing on the upper body wing:






I threw a strap on it and the balance is GREAT! Hopefully I'll have time to get the thing finished completely by the end of this weekend. Here's the current status:


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## TimSE (Nov 10, 2009)

not convinced by the penis ... but still sick effort man  will be killer to get some vids of this beast haha


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## rob_707 (Nov 11, 2009)

haha sick man resembals a warwick bass.


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## troyguitar (Nov 13, 2009)

Well I took it apart this afternoon and did a bunch of sanding in addition to finally gluing on the last little body piece. Tomorrow I'll be doing a bunch more sanding and hopefully the first coat of tung oil!











The extra glue there is to cover up some really crappy seams


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## Adam (Nov 13, 2009)

troyguitar said:


> Well I took it apart this afternoon and did a bunch of sanding in addition to finally gluing on the last little body piece. Tomorrow I'll be doing a bunch more sanding and hopefully the first coat of tung oil!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Looks waaaay better with that last piece glued on, I like it Great job man


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## troyguitar (Nov 14, 2009)

Today was a day of sanding and outdoor photos. Enjoy:































Here we are totally done sanding and awaiting out first coat of tung oil:











My awesome Sharpie headstock logo 






Look at that smooth forearm contour!











Weapon of choice:






Looks fucking awesome!





















I kind of gave up on making the neck heel area look nice. Oh well
















Once the fretboard is cleaned up too everything will look even better, right now the fretboard is pretty dry and blah looking. 

Anyway that is probably the last update for the next few days as I now have to do several coats of tung oil with a day in between them. Expect a finished guitar next weekend!


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## Wi77iam (Nov 15, 2009)

Looks good, but I wish that horn didn't look somewhat like a penis, otherwise i'd be drooling all over it..  Remember to post video of you playing the whole thing, not just low end chugs. (I mean, ERG means you have range right? we wanna see some solo wankery shit that runs all the way up and down the thing )


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## Empryrean (Nov 15, 2009)

Does that beast have a truss rod? O.O


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## courtney2018 (Nov 15, 2009)

This is pretty cool even though the body shape looks like a penis. To be able to say all the wood is from Home Depot is impressive. I wish I had learned of this contest when it first started. This would've been fun to do. Your project looks great. Can't wait to see it in action!


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## ralphy1976 (Nov 15, 2009)

courtney2018 said:


> This is pretty cool even though the body shape looks like a penis. To be able to say all the wood is from Home Depot is impressive. I wish I had learned of this contest when it first started. This would've been fun to do. Your project looks great. Can't wait to see it in action!



courtney, the contest is an on-going thing, you start when you want and anyone and everyone can enter...

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/home-depot-build-challenge/


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## courtney2018 (Nov 15, 2009)

Thanks, but doesn't it end on Nov. 30, which is in 15 days? Doesn't give me enough time really. Maybe next time. Would be pretty fun.


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## ralphy1976 (Nov 15, 2009)

apologies courtney i did not read all the way to the date!!! 

i am sure there will be another one soon!!!


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## TomParenteau (Nov 15, 2009)

I'll check out anybody's build, Home Depot or not, no matter when it gets worked on.


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## courtney2018 (Nov 15, 2009)

Well, I have a prototype neck I've been working on made out of Poplar bought at Home Depot, but it's done on the CNC. Probably not appropriate for this contest, or so I've already read concerning the use of CNCs.

Regardless, I'll probably post it up but not on this thread.


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## troyguitar (Nov 15, 2009)

Empryrean said:


> Does that beast have a truss rod? O.O



Yeah you can see the access hole to it at the headstock.

And there will be plenty of meedley meedley high notes in any clips I make, I'm not a rhythm guitarist  

update: I lied about no updates for a few days. Today after seeing that the first coat was dry I decided to clean up the fretboard and take a few (unfortunately overcast) outdoor pics:


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## Janiator (Nov 15, 2009)

I don't like the body shape, but it looks kinda cool anyway.


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## troyguitar (Nov 16, 2009)

BONUS! The Formby's stuff dries super fast (dry to the touch in a couple of hours) so I put the 4th coat on late last night and am calling it good to go as of this morning. It's overcast again, but expect photos of a complete guitar later this afternoon!

And after doing some research, I learned that Formby's "Tung Oil Finish" is really more or less a thinned varnish - not at all an actual oil finish. Oh well, that just means it took a few days instead of a few weeks to complete the finishing process 

It's DONE! Well everything except for the cavity covers but I'm calling that done 

I'm also still waiting on octave4plus high A strings so it's just got a D'Addario .007 string on there tuned to G. Sadly the sun won't come out and let me take nice pics, but here's some overcast pics of the final product:


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## gatesofcarnage (Nov 16, 2009)

That is really awesome! Wish i wouldve made my avenger 9 i might take a stab at it after christmas if i got the cash this has inspired me


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## Empryrean (Nov 16, 2009)

you could kill someone with that headstock


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## darren (Nov 16, 2009)

It's wangtastic!


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## possumkiller (Nov 21, 2009)

but you still have space for more frets on the end of the fretboard!


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## troyguitar (Dec 1, 2009)

So November 30th came and went without me posting a video of this. The truth is I still really suck at playing it  but I made a crappy video anyway this afternoon. With my connection it will take forever to upload it, so I'll post the link when I get home tonight. In the meantime, here's my expense list:

EMG 45DC pickup: $110
9 ESP-logoed tuners: ~$75
2 6-string bridges hacked together for a 9-string bridge: $25
bloodwood fretboard: $20
set of strings from juststrings: $20
truss rod: $15
knobs, jackplate, nut blank: $15?
fretwire: $12?
4 feet of 1x6 oak: $8

total: ~$300 yeah I spent too much 

Also while we wait for the video to upload, here are a pile of photos taken with a slightly less than overcast sky...


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## Customisbetter (Dec 1, 2009)

that thing is manly.


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## troyguitar (Dec 1, 2009)

video evidence of its functionality (and the fact that I don't know how to play it  )


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## Customisbetter (Dec 1, 2009)

That things sounds amazing.


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## TomParenteau (Dec 1, 2009)

"More is more, right?" I could never play that thing. It sounds much better than I expected. Nice job on the neck! It turned out great.


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## damigu (Dec 1, 2009)

your scale length is too short, your strings are too thin, and your EMG sucks.


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## ShadyDavey (Dec 2, 2009)

It's quite amazing - I didn't know what to think when I first saw the body shapes and yet it's awesomely unique.

Nice one


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## controversyking (Dec 2, 2009)

Hahaha "enjoy... or don't"

Love the guitar great job man! It's freaking me how how you're EXACTLY like my family friend jason (looks and demeanor) your just the rock and roll/metal version ... who built a sweet 9 string!

Good luck and hope ya win


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## JacksonKE2Shred (Dec 7, 2009)

That is so sick. I'd pay for am 7 or 8 string version of that. 9 is just too big for my hands.


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## MF_Kitten (Dec 8, 2009)

it would be cool if you later on made a new body for this thing, something with more of a proper shape and stuff. it´s just a simple transplant on a guitar like this anyways, where the pickup, bridge and neck are the only components that really matter.

so many options!


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## Konfyouzd (Dec 8, 2009)

Fuckin' AWESOME, Troy!!!


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## troyguitar (Dec 8, 2009)

MF_Kitten said:


> it would be cool if you later on made a new body for this thing, something with more of a proper shape and stuff. it´s just a simple transplant on a guitar like this anyways, where the pickup, bridge and neck are the only components that really matter.
> 
> so many options!



It's a neck-thru so I won't be changing anything on this one, but I do have plans for a new one in motion shaped like this:







The main change besides the shape will be 30 frets and a neck pickup instead of 36 frets with no neck pickup. I'm also thinking about a tremelo system for later versions


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## ChasingTheSun (Dec 8, 2009)

Um.... i want one.... alot....


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## The Hiryuu (Dec 11, 2009)

I like the body shape for practicality purposes. Almost never see a guitar without that stupid fucking lower horn.


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## Wi77iam (Dec 12, 2009)

Sounds pretty good man


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## Variant (Dec 16, 2009)

Dude, not enough range!  

No... seriously, that's awesome.


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## sirshredsalot (Dec 17, 2009)

nice

cool.


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## Necris (Dec 22, 2009)

Great job man. That thing sounds really good. Definitely has me considering trying to build my own guitar.


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## leipzig175 (Dec 26, 2009)

Seriously, where the fuck did you order that neck from? I must have one. Great sounding guitar by the way.


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## AEQUITAS7 (Dec 30, 2009)

Huge respect to you my friend. That is one killer sounding penis !!


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## Metal Ken (Dec 30, 2009)

AEQUITAS7 said:


> Huge respect to you my friend. That is one killer sounding penis !!



I thought the same thing


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## The Hiryuu (Jan 10, 2010)

But yeah. I would totally buy one of those from you if you could replicate it.


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## snuif09 (Jan 10, 2010)

Metal Ken said:


> I thought the same thing



hmm why do you guys think about penises so much 

that guitar is great sounds good too =)


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## crazyprofessor (Feb 13, 2010)

Amazingly cool project dude. Makes me wanna build my own.


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## Ironbird (Mar 5, 2010)

Rad guitar! And you play really good, too!


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## muckypup1 (Apr 2, 2010)

Really cool guitar dude, and some cool playing!


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## skua (Jul 5, 2010)

Wow... very cool. Sounds way better than I was expecting. Really quite impressive.

Kinda gives 'cock rock' a whole new meaning! If you 'practice' too long you'll go blind.


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## Efilnikufesin (Jul 8, 2010)

you're guitar is giving me the thumbs up sign. Right on my 9-stringed friend. Right on.


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## slumcitysounds (Jul 17, 2010)

Dude that is amazing!!!Ace work!


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