Headless Guitar Kit Revisit (non PBG kit)

[FrankenWashie]

I see, mad science guitar hacking time!

[DrNomis_44]

I see, mad science guitar hacking time!

Yep....hahahaha....mad?....mad?......truly he was mad, and mad was he, he, who was mad, we shall see.....hahahaha.


*Starts babbling-away incoherently, while laughing manically*

[FrankenWashie]

Marthter, thall I pull the thwitch!? hehehehehehehe!!

[DrNomis_44]

Marthter, thall I pull the thwitch!? hehehehehehehe!!

*Spoken in a very exaggeratedly accented germanic voice*...Ja...Igor, pull zee svitch now und ve shall schtart zee experiment.

[DrNomis_44]

I just did a tap-test of the newly-installed Entwistle HV58 pickups, and they both seem to be both working, furthermore, they seem to have upped the coolness-factor of the guitar, I'll post a pic of it after it is all re-strung and tuned up.


Update:


Just done a quick play-test of my Headless Guitar with the newly installed Entwistle HV58 Silver PAF Pickups....and.....they sound really good in the guitar, so, I think that they are keepers, the HV58 have really fattened up the guitar sound, I'm not getting the annoying boomy-ness that I was getting with the Infinity pickups, best way I can describe the sound I'm getting is a lot like the tones you get out of a Les Paul guitar, crunch tones sound wonderfully midrangey and fat, cleans are good too, so, I'm happy now that I have found the perfect set of pickups for my Headless Guitar.


Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I also changed the gauge of strings from a set of 42-09 to 46-10s, maybe the thicker strings also helped to fatten the tone up, I dunno, all I know is that my ears like what they are hearing, I'm playing the guitar through Bias Desktop which is an amp modelling VST plugin made by a company called Positive Grid, definitely worth getting.


And here's what the Headless Guitar looks like now, with the HV58 pickups installed, I think that the HV58 pickups have definitely upped the Coolness-Factor of the guitar:




And yes, it will Djent too, just trying it out tuned down to B, the strings aren't too floppy cause they are 46-10 gauge.

[Andy40]

This is a seriously cool build Doc. I didn't think i'd like one of these guitars but now yours looks really great.

[DrNomis_44]

This is a seriously cool build Doc. I didn't think i'd like one of these guitars but now yours looks really great.

Cheers mate, I think it'll look even better once the body has been spray-painted Dark Metallic Blue, like the HotRod Strat, I'll be doing the spray-painting over the Christmas break, I might even record a demo track of the guitar too.


I did notice that Pitbull Guitars do stock a Headless Guitar kit amongst the other kits on offer, I think you'll find it in the Misc Kits section, would you ever consider doing a Headless Guitar kit in the future?, if you do, I'll be only too happy to help you out with your build.

[Simon Barden]

Good progress, Doc. Have you cut out the wood blank for the middle pup cut-out yet? And are you also going to fill in the old 5-way switch slot, or maybe cover it with a scratchplate?

Sticking with .010"s on any Gibson scale guitar is always a good move. Once you get used to them, .009"s seem so flimsy.

Those Ibanez INF 1 & 2 pickups are pretty basic pups and not great sounding - certainly a bit muddy. One of the first things to replace on the lower-end Ibanez guitars IMO. I had some on my RG-08. Not sure if the newer INF 3 and 4 models are any better as I haven't heard any of them. But the IBZ pickups (made by DiMarzio) normally fitted on the next step-up Ibanez models sound pretty good indeed. If you are thinking about getting an Ibanez, then paying that little bit more for one with IBZ pups is well worth the extra cost as you won't need to replace the pups unless you really want to.

[DrNomis_44]

Okay, I can't resist it any longer, I'm going to record a quick and dirty little demo of my Headless Guitar so you can hear what it sounds like, first half will be a clean sound (Bias 67 Blackface Duo Preset), and the second will be a crunch sound (Bias 69 Super Lead Preset), stay tuned.

[DrNomis_44]

Good progress, Doc. Have you cut out the wood blank for the middle pup cut-out yet? And are you also going to fill in the old 5-way switch slot, or maybe cover it with a scratchplate?

Sticking with .010"s on any Gibson scale guitar is always a good move. Once you get used to them, .009"s seem so flimsy.

Those Ibanez INF 1 & 2 pickups are pretty basic pups and not great sounding - certainly a bit muddy. One of the first things to replace on the lower-end Ibanez guitars IMO. I had some on my RG-08. Not sure if the newer INF 3 and 4 models are any better as I haven't heard any of them. But the IBZ pickups (made by DiMarzio) normally fitted on the next step-up Ibanez models sound pretty good indeed. If you are thinking about getting an Ibanez, then paying that little bit more for one with IBZ pups is well worth the extra cost as you won't need to replace the pups unless you really want to.

Haven't cut out the wood blank for the middle pickup route yet, I might do it this weekend, the original 5-way pickup switch slot is going to be filled in with wood too, the Headless Guitar actually uses the Fender 25.5 inch Scale length, and the fretboard has 24 frets on it, at some stage later on, I'll have to do some fret-leveling work on the neck, as it happens, I have a white Ibanez RG350DXZ which I'm considering swapping out the Infinity pickups in it for some other pickups, maybe two Tonerider Rocksong full-sized Humbuckers (Neck and Bridge), and a Kent Armstrong Dual Blade (Middle).