Prototyping

Well the custom amp project I'm planning is taking shape. I'm using CAD to lay out the whole project before I begin, this way I can make the amp as compact as possible, without compromising the sound quality.

I just finished the control board layout. It takes a large cue from the Mesa Boogie Lonestar, with seperate tone and gain control for each channel. It will be footswitchable, or controllable with the switch on the right.


If you have Adobe Reader 7 or above, you can spin it around in 3d, by clicking here.

Projects Update

Well the Maple Strat is back together, but with some odd fretbuzz issues. I think it might have been a clamping issue when I attached the neck, or it might be that I need to take out the large (1/8" thick) shim in the neck pocket. I think if I thin out the 22nd fret overhang on the neck, I can do without it.

Well if you read this blog, you know I'd much rather do something myself than shell out money. I've been lusting after that Marshall sound. You know, Jimi's glassy, thick clean tone from the Wind Cries Mary was a Marshall "Plexi" stack. Not having several thousand dollars to spend on an amp that would blow out my windows anyway, I set out on a quest to build the perfect amp.

RunOffGroove, OL Circuits, General Guitar Gadgets, DC Kits, and Several Amp Suppliers will supply me everything I need to make a tube-emulated, 44-watt, Marshall-sounding 2x12 Mini Stack. More on this later. For now, enjoy a picture of what it might look like:

Polishing and oiling

I guess I never took a really close look at the fretboard, but there was a LOT of gunk on there. Polishing it with metal polishing compound didn't help:

Here's what the fretboard looked like:

Wiping with glass cleaner didn't help much, especially right up next to the fret, so i used the dull edge of an X-Acto knife:

After that, oiling the fretboard with mineral oil made it look fabulous. . . .

So you can see the rest of the pics here.

It begins again . . .

Well it's time to start again. After the unfortunate news that my friend Mason has been (hopefully temporarily) shut down by Fender, it was clear that I couldn't wait on a new neck from him to reform the Maple Strat, incorporating the Mean 90's I bought from Guitarfetish. The neck was up for replacement because it just wasn't playing as well as the Blue Strat's, the Tele's, or even the Predator's. Well, a fret LCP (Level, Crown, and Polish) should take care of that. Additionally, it gave me an opportunity to clean up the messy routing you see in the picture above, since I had to rout it for two humbucker sized pickups anyway. I think the new routing is more elegant, and it makes the body lighter, too.

Check out the pictorial here:

Picasa Web Album

I'm done leveling and crowning the frets, now all that's left is to polish them. Some sanding still needs to be done on the body, but it's 90% ready for the new pickups.