ESP MH-50 "Fauxrez"

[gavinturner]

Yet another inspired build Max. Can't wait to see the final result.

cheers,
Gav.

[WeirdBits]

That headstock is a transformation and a half! Good to see you're not doing any too radical this time...

Awesomely daring as always Max!

[Dedman]

I like your brand of crazy. Lookin forward to this!

[Simon Barden]

It's certainly amazing just how much a change of headstock shape changes the whole look of the guitar. May you continue to work marvels on it, Max!

[Fretworn]

Yes Max! Love this. It reminiscent of Molonator guitars.
http://molonatorguitars.com

[maxaxe]

Yes Max! Love this. It reminiscent of Molonator guitars.
http://molonatorguitars.com

Thanks gents for your interest in this little project.
Wow! Those Molonators are cooool. New to me & very clever.

Bit more work done . . . . wired the PUPs with the bridge SC concealed as planned. Deleted the tone pot. Vol pot is 500k which according to Simon B. will enhance the treble?

Headstock job Mk 1
Laid out to assess
Blacked out guts

[Simon Barden]

Your certainly don't hang about! Looking really good.

You'd get most treble without a volume and tone control. The volume pot interacts with the pickup (which is itself a low pass filter) to lower the cut-off point for that filter. The higher the resistance value of the pot, the less the cut-off point is lowered, so the brighter the overall sound is. A single coil will almost always have a higher in-built cut-off frequency point than a humbucker, so will start with more high-end, which can sound overly brittle. This is why single coils typically use 250k pots and humbuckers use 500k pots.

Obviously the choice and spec of pickups has changed significantly since the 1950s when those 'standard' pot values were selected. Now single coils can vary and powerful ones can have more resistance and inductance than a classic humbucker, and really powerful humbuckers can have three of four times the resistance and inductance as a classic humbucker (and this pushes the pickup's cut-off point/resonance peak frequency down), so sometimes going with the standard pot values isn't always appropriate as the pickups can then sound too dark. For the price of a few different value pots, it's worth experimenting to see what you think works best.

[maxaxe]

Thanks VERY much for the insight into PU/Pot tech Simon.
I will indeed play with with different configs now I've been enlightened.

A bit more advancement has happened here meantime . . .

Got a pair of chrome HB surrounds coming from the far north.
Also playing around with the headstock "label/cover" graphics.
Fitted the selector and vol pot to the reso plate.
Made an "all in one" back cover/acess plate (complete with a bend for the scallop) from clear Lexan. I'll spray this black from the inside for a shiny finish. This will also make the front view through the reso plate punch outs look more dramatic?
Just shallowly routed the back to take this plate.
Hafta trim/paint the rough rout edges a bit I suppose (never ends - does it?)

Back to work . . . .

[Simon Barden]

No problem at all, sir. It's all coming along nicely.

[maxaxe]

Back plate came up OK, but the edges of the rout are as rough as bags (see pic)
Might "finesse this mess" with some black binding material that's kicking around - If I can actually be bothered.

Trimming the conjunction of the rez plate/cap with thinnish black stereo cable . . . WTF?
I'm happy enough with how it's done the job.