Something stirs in the FrankenLab

[Simon Barden]

As the two humbuckers will be pushed that bit closer together by having 24 angled frets, you'd probably want to pick pickups with different characteristics rather than having two of the same type, otherwise you'll notice a much smaller difference in sound when switching between the two positions.

You may want to space your control knobs and selector switch out a little bit more as they look a little bit tight to me.

Also, the volume knob is a fair way back, so isn't placed for quick volume adjustments with your hand. All depends if you find the volume knob position on a Strat useful, or you find it gets in the way and you keep knocking it. At the moment it's roughly equivalent to the neck volume knob position on a Les Paul.

Your bottom E string doesn't look like it will have the straightest string pull over the nut. Top E looks pretty straight, so having the strings bunch up a bit at the headstock will look a bit odd. I'd suggest checking the string paths and maybe moving the lower tuners to the right slightly, and widening the headstock appropriately.

The bridge looks a bit too offset with respect to the centreline. The difference in radius between say a 0.010" string and a 0.048" string is 0.019" or 0.5mm, in order to get the strings running parallel to the sides of the neck. Your offset looks to be nearer 1mm. You'll undoubtedly position it empirically, but you may as well get it right now, in case it does affect the overall guitar geometry slightly, as you are using the sides of the bridge for the neck layout.

Can you show the neck pocket outline and confirm the neck shape at the pocket end? To me, assuming it's a fairly standard bolt-on neck, the pocket doesn't appear to provide much support on the treble side, and you could probably only fit one screw on that side unless the neck itself was elongated beyond the end of the fingerboard. Or is that whole centre section up to the bridge part of the neck and it''s all bolted in, with the bridge fixed on the end of the neck?

If you made the hook part of the headstock out of steel, you could use it to take the caps off beer bottles.

[FrankenWashie]

As the two humbuckers will be pushed that bit closer together by having 24 angled frets, you'd probably want to pick pickups with different characteristics rather than having two of the same type, otherwise you'll notice a much smaller difference in sound when switching between the two positions.

You may want to space your control knobs and selector switch out a little bit more as they look a little bit tight to me.

Also, the volume knob is a fair way back, so isn't placed for quick volume adjustments with your hand. All depends if you find the volume knob position on a Strat useful, or you find it gets in the way and you keep knocking it. At the moment it's roughly equivalent to the neck volume knob position on a Les Paul.

Your bottom E string doesn't look like it will have the straightest string pull over the nut. Top E looks pretty straight, so having the strings bunch up a bit at the headstock will look a bit odd. I'd suggest checking the string paths and maybe moving the lower tuners to the right slightly, and widening the headstock appropriately.

The bridge looks a bit too offset with respect to the centreline. The difference in radius between say a 0.010" string and a 0.048" string is 0.019" or 0.5mm, in order to get the strings running parallel to the sides of the neck. Your offset looks to be nearer 1mm. You'll undoubtedly position it empirically, but you may as well get it right now, in case it does affect the overall guitar geometry slightly, as you are using the sides of the bridge for the neck layout.

Can you show the neck pocket outline and confirm the neck shape at the pocket end? To me, assuming it's a fairly standard bolt-on neck, the pocket doesn't appear to provide much support on the treble side, and you could probably only fit one screw on that side unless the neck itself was elongated beyond the end of the fingerboard. Or is that whole centre section up to the bridge part of the neck and it''s all bolted in, with the bridge fixed on the end of the neck?

If you made the hook part of the headstock out of steel, you could use it to take the caps off beer bottles.

Good point, I haven’t done a lot of research on MS specific pups as yet.

I will continue to play with my knobs, I’m not entirely sure if I am going to retain the in line arrangement.

There is some tidy up work to do on bridge alignment, yes, I am still playing with this as my Adobe skills are not quite there yet.

im pretty confident on the string pull over the nut, that seems the line up quite well in the full plan.

The pocket profile is going to be similar to the IB-5 I have underway. It will bulge out rather than go square as a traditional strat. The lines between the bridge and neck are indicators only, it will be a “Traditional” bolt on arrangement.

Bottle opener eh? Hmmmm.....


all good points, this is a reduced diagram, the actual AI document has the neck pocket mapped out with four ferrules. There will be epoxy mounted threaded inserts in the neck heel for the M6 Button head capscrews.

[Simon Barden]

I will continue to play with my knobs

I presume the multiplicity is is all down to Igor, whilst the fun is all down to you.