Pics here:
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=/a823&.src=ph
Probably the biggest project I've done as I built everything, including winding my own pickups. I am really, really happy with this one.
Specs:
3 piece Zebrano/ebony body with oiled finish,
Rock maple neck (perfectly quartar-sawn so it's hard as nails), 14 degree scarf joint, with Zebrano veneer on bound headstock,
Ebony fingerboard with no inlay,
28.5" scale, 24 frets, eight strings 9-68, tuned high E to low F#,
Pickups wounds by me - two humbuckers with 3-way switch and volume,
Hipshot eight string bridge,
Angled jack input.
It plays really nicely, action at the moment is very low which helps picked runs down onto the low strings! Pickups sounds great, which I was a bit worried about seeing as they're the first I've built - the bridge is suitably toppy while the neck is very smooth and hollow, and it has a very useful sound with both pickups on. Usually I find this position to be a bit non-descript, but in this it has the smoothness of the neck pickup with some of the bass rolled off. The guitar balances perfectly, despite the long scale and bigger neck, although I did move the bridge back into the body when I designed it in order to help the balance (so the 12th fret is in the same place relative to the body as a UV; the head is 1.5" further away from the body; and the bridge 1.5" further into the body - hope that made sense). The balance is probably also helped by the fact that this thing is really heavy!! I didn't know much about zebrano before I bought the body blank, so I have found out that it is very hard, and heavy.
It's huge fun to play - having two extra strings actually makes more sense than one, I think. I say this because alot of our usual guitar scales resolve on the sixth string, and with an eight string I have a whole extra octave that I can extend these scales with, before I have to start to go down the neck. With only one extra string you can only go half way down a scale from the sixth string before you have to go down the neck. Hope that made some sense lol!!
Anyway, that's enough rambling, any questions/comments always welcome,
regards,
Rich
