Custom 7 design concept - a little something i dreamed up...

[darren wilson]

So here's where my mind wandered this evening...


(click for a bigger image and full specs)

I'm undecided as to whether i should keep the fretboard naked or put some kind of swirly, organic shape in abalone at the 12th fret.

It's shown with a simulated quilted top under a translucent blue burst and there's a solid blue at the bottom of the page, just because i'm in a bit of a "blue guitar" phase these days. I had a hard time simulating a Tiger Eye Burst, and i didn't much feel like testing my patience this evening, so i didn't bother for now. I could also do without the body binding, but it's on there for the time being. Most of the specs are copped from the UV.

The bridge is something i just thought of today. If you slice the whole back section off the Lo-Pro Edge, you'd still have a very useable trem... all you'd lose are the fine-tuners. No big loss if you also chuck the locking nut and put some Sperzel locking tuners on there.

Anyway... i'd love to hear what people think.

[Christopher Chen]

VERY NICE!
Great Work Darren!

[alienx]

Hi Daren,

I'm impressed. The Design is very nice indeed.

There would be just one question: How did you decide for the Duncan Screaming Demon pup? As far as I could follow the critics about that pup is like "you like it or you hate it".

My pup selection would be if the space allows, neck to bridge: Sustainiac, Duncan Jazz, Duncan JB, Duncan CCC or Blues Trembucker (all in 7 string version of course).

Good luck.

[darren wilson]

Thanks, Christopher and alienx!

I guess my rationale behind using the Screamin' Demon is that i'm a big George Lynch fan. I've always loved his snarling tone, and with the JB in the middle position, i wanted something really hot and nasty in the bridge position.

Also, since George tends to use guitars with solid maple bodies (HEAVY!@#), i figured it would work nicely with the thick maple cap i envision on this guitar.

From the illustration, i may have put the two humbuckers a bit close together... i'm not sure if you'd have room for the Sustainiac transducer plus three full humbuckers, especially with 24 frets. (I may consider going to a 22-fret design, but that may depend on the technical details of how the neck will attach to the body.) Then again, one could always go the Nigel Tufnel route and just jam that whole space full of humbuckers!

This is just a dream guitar at the moment... i haven't got any immediate plans to build this. If i could afford to quit my day job and do an apprenticeship with a luthier, i'd love to design and build guitars full-time.

[darren wilson]

I've updated the page with a new Tiger Eye Burst version.


(click for a bigger image and full specs)

[bob oakman]

A couple things…

Though I love the untraditional in the design of most things, I am quite narrow minded on guitar design. This is one of the few customs I like. It is very pleasing to the eye. Very nice.

Also, it is a good demonstration of your excellent graphics abilities. Photoshop?

Oh… and two other things. I think I would like the tonal results of having the middle pickup closer to the bridge. I think it would give you kind of an alternate rhythm sound instead of two lead tones and one rhythm. A single coil in the neck position gets a big amen from me.

The idea about the inlay at the 12th fret is good IMO, if it looks like the one on the Tiger Eye Burst picture, but I wouldn’t choose pink.

I haven’t given much negative feedback, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead.

[alienx]

Yeah, the tigereye finish looks even better.

BTW, what software are using for this purposes?

Cheers!

[darren wilson]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

I really like the Tiger Eye Burst finish as well... i actually lifted a section from my favourite Tom Anderson "Guitar of the Week" and made it into a seamless tile just to see how it would look, then i shaded the edges a bit after it was applied to the guitar. (The blue quilt was fabricated entirely within Photoshop using KPT filters.)

I designed the overall shape of the guitar using Adobe Illustrator. I started with the 25.5" scale length, with the neck dimensions and bridge position roughed in, so i could lay out all the other elements as they relate to those fixed parts. After getting the overall shape and positioning of all the controls, etc. set, i export the Illustrator file to a layered Photoshop file. I then use Photoshop to add textures, highlights and shadows to the image to make it look more "real".

Most of the design was conceived with practicality as my primary concern. But of course, i had to make it aesthetically pleasing and visually balanced. The upper horn is more traditional in its shape and placement mainly for on-strap balance. There is no lower horn because i don't really see the need for one, but it's still got a rounded leg rest so it can be played comfortably sitting down.

The little "tail" at the rear has two purposes: It visually balances the long upper horn, and it offers a good place to put the upward-facing tilted/recessed output jack. It would also probably make it possible to stand the guitar on its butt end without falling over. So there you go... a little protrusion of wood has three reasons for its existence!

The body contours are another interesting feature. I envision it having sort of a hybrid of the JS and JEM contours. The top edge of the guitar would be totally rounded, like the JS, whereas the bottom of the guitar would be more square, like the JEM. This makes it more comfy on the arm and tummy, while having a more stable bottom edge for sitting on the leg. The tip of the top horn and the tip of the "tail" would be the points at which the rounded and squared parts make their transition.

For the pickup switching, i'm thinking of: 1) bridge humbucker (series); 2) outside coils of both humbuckers; 3) middle humbucker (series); 4) middle humbucker (parallel); and 5) neck pickup. Turning on the Sustainiac automatically selects the bridge pickup in series.

Hopefully i'll actually get to build it one of these days!

[bob oakman]

You have certainly put a lot of thought into it. I hope you get a chance to build it. I suspect it would be quite a time consuming operation with all the sculpting on the body.

The custom I am considering is far less ambitious. I’ll probably go with a production UV copy body style. I may chop away at the lower horn however. I have large hands and play with my left wrist at a 90 degree angle. Even with the more abundant space of the Jem/UV/RG cutaways, it’s still a big problem for me. *That bottom horn is really in the way. I like how it looks, but may consider loosing part of it on my custom.

Your design would be very accommodating for my needs, but I’m still stuck on the basic Jem/UV design.

I would like to try your design. Do you think it will be ready for Jemfest. :biggrin:

[jeffrey]

Very very nice.

Reminds me I need to reinstall all my graphics proggies again (just did a rebuild).

I hope you get to build these puppies.