All 'Bout Dat Body

So in my last post, I made some decisions about the more technical adornments to be installed on Big Riff.  I was feeling pretty good about my conclusion until my hilarious, uber-talented, and very red-headed Jazzmaster aficionado buddy Mike insisted that I revisit the issue and go for the floating Floyd Rose / EVH D-tuna idea.  (His words: "I JUST WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY!")  More research to ensue on that.  I'm nowhere near ready to order anything yet, except perhaps the D-tuna piece itself for about fifty bucks, which I can test out ever-so-carefully on my beloved Jackson Soloist.  Over the past few days with that guitar, I've noticed that I do tend to pull up on the trem arm for vibrato far more often than I push down.  I have plenty of time to change my mind if I like.

So it's time to shout out what I already know I'm looking for:

Hell yes.  I want the body wood to be dense and heavy for the brightest sound and fastest attack possible.  One of my biggest peeves about about Fender bolt-ons in the past has been the lack of sharpness when I'm trying to play some heavy-handed palm muting.  To me, Fenders tend to have a sag when I dig the pick into the strings, some of which can be attributed to their bridges (Is there anyone else on this earth who hates those Tele three-saddle bridges the way I do?  Staying away from those height adjustment screws is seriously distracting when you're trying to palm mute and haul @$$.), but for this reason also I'm deliberately going to avoid the usual alder and swamp ash altogether.  Also, I know that I want the guitar to have a solid color paint job, so it doesn't make sense to spend extra money on some really exotic wood from, I don't know, Hawaii or Madagascar or the Amazonian rainforest, only to have that rich wood grain covered up.

Classical question: "So Nick...  If you want so much brightness and attack out of your maple body, why cover it up with a paint job?  Wouldn't that kill the kind of resonance you're going for?"

Romantic answer: Because it's cool.  Leave me alone.

I've always wanted a guitar with a surf green color.  This goes right back to when I was fifteen years old, enjoying my Squier Affinity Stratocaster and wondering about the new possibilities of the world that had just opened up to me.  Somehow the Musician's Friend catalog made its regular appearance to my house, and I loved flipping through the pages and pages of guitars.  I had no idea what the differences in features or price were, but I felt the passion and the connection with rock and roll...  through gazing at photos of surf-inspired Strats and Teles.  Weezer, punk, hardcore, and metal would all happen to me in waves across the next several years, but for that first year of guitar, it was all about the surf thing.  I never carried it further, but always looked back on it and wondered when I was going to get that dream guitar.  I guess now's the time.

Warmoth offers two versions of a solid green color that both look fun:

Surf Green

Seafoam Green

I'm picking the seafoam green because it will have a bolder contrast with the black hardware I intend to put on the guitar.  I'll save that stuff for my next post.

Also, notice how the traditional Strat input jack hole is right there on top.  (Shouldn't it be called the output jack?  Think about it.)  It shouldn't be a big deal to anyone else, but for some reason in my mind it's simply vitally important that I stick with the original design here.  Perhaps, with as many design liberties as I'm taking with this thing, I should still be able to look at it and properly call it a Strat.

I came across this blog today and loved all of the points offered, except for #6: "Your guitar (and amp) doesn't matter at all".  That's utter B.S.  Building your chops, practicing, and developing your playing style can and should be matched with your gear choice(s).  Start small and work your way up.  My USA Jackson performs in a particular way that suits my playing style.  The fast and heavy palm muting I love doing so much on that guitar can't be done in the same way with the same results on, say, an Epiphone semi-hollow body.  I get Bryan Baker's point that every guitarist should be well-rounded enough to be able to handle any musical situation that comes across, but the truth is, there really is something crucial that happens when you've got an axe in your hands (and amp cranked behind you) that's doing exactly what you want it to do.  It takes your focus off of the gear itself, you feel great, your muscle memory kicks in sooner, and you perform better.

To borrow from the synthesizer world, let's leave it to Dr. Robert (Bob) Moog to describe this mystical connection between the head, hands, and the musical instrument.  Fast-forward to the section between 11:47 and 15:21:

Big Riff's Big Tech Decisions, Compromises

I want to have answers sooner rather than later, because this month alone I have a ton of music-related stuff going on outside of my usual balance of full-time work and part-time school.  I probably won't be able to post again for another three weeks after today.  After some research and deliberation, I think I've finalized how I'll approach the previous two tech nightmares relating to Big Riff's body: Yes, I want the feedback controlling pickup, and yes, I want a Floyd Rose with a D-tuna installed.

I've decided to go with the Sustainiac Stealth Pro.  The circuit board is smaller/thinner, and I would have the freedom to mount the external switches anywhere I like; unlike the Fernandes Sustainer, whose switches are attached directly its wide PCB.  It's a little bit of a shame, because I honestly think the Sustainiac looks a little ugly with its funky diagonal exposed magnet on the top, whereas the Sustainer has a no-nonsense jet black cover.  But it's not a deal breaker at all.  I'm expecting to tuck the Sustainiac's circuitry underneath the pickguard.  More research to ensue on wiring the thing, for there seems to be quite a few configurations, but for the time being I'm happy to commit.

I've tried to read through all of Sustainiac's website.  I appreciate that they're not shy about putting every piece of information available on the site, including what works and what doesn't work with their system(s), but seriously, it made my eyes hurt a little and my brain a bit muddled.  I think the influence of my Seattle design-savvy-extreme-nerd-media-professional friends is rubbing off on me, so maybe I'll ask the company to organize their site better for future users, but whatever.

Sustainiac's website.  Several pages of this.  Organize, organize, organize!

Time to stop being a baby.  Here's what I'm finding out:

-Installation of the Sustainiac requires that the 9-volt battery is running, even when you've set your pickup selector for your other pickup, which may be passive.  The Sustainiac is itself an active guitar pickup, and from what I gather on their site, it's supposed to sound a little warmer like a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck position.  I'm a longtime user and fan of the '59, so this seems good to me overall even though I'm chagrined by the thought of running a battery down when I may not be explicitly using it.

-When you turn the switch for the Sustainiac on, the pickup selector is bypassed and the other pickup on the guitar is automatically activated for sending signal out.  The Sustainiac switches from its active pickup function to its sustaining function.  (I meant to say "electromagnetic sustaining function", but an active pickup function is, of course, also electromagnetic.)  The guitar returns to whatever function the pickup selector is in when the power switch is turned back off.

-Pickguards will usually have an aluminum or copper shielding underneath them to prevent outside electromagnetic interference (you know, hum) from messing with the internal wiring.  However, Sustainiac recommends removing the shielding from around the pickup(s) because the driver pickup needs to emit an electromagnetic pulse to get the strings to start vibrating.  ...Or something like that.  This is where my attention span trailed off...

-$200+ and it will need to be ordered separately, most likely direct from the manufacturer so I can pick and choose which switch and knob setup I prefer.  For example, I could go with a push-pull pot to turn the Sustainiac on or off rather than have an external mounted switch.

"F***ing electromagnets, how do they work?"

Let's talk about that Floyd Rose.  I called Warmoth and asked them if they could or would do that extra custom rout behind the low E string so that a recessed floating bridge with a D-tuna installed could move freely.  The guy I talked to on the phone told me that they've done it for one customer, who later returned the guitar because he wasn't happy specifically with the way that rout was cut.  I was told that if I absolutely know that I want the job done, I'd have to give them very highly detailed instructions on where and how to cut into the top, and I'd have to swear a blood oath that I would never attempt to return the guitar, all sales final.

After much thought, I've decided that the floating D-tuna attempt just isn't worth the trouble, so I'm going with a flush-mounted Floyd Rose setup to keep the D-tuna function.  This means the bridge will rest flush with the guitar body; I can dive down on the strings, but can't pull up.  I've already got a recessed float setup on my Jackson Soloist and the maintenance for that alone is a bigger pain in the neck than a truss rod adjustment (hahahaha...  get it?).  The trade-off of losing float for gaining the ability to switch to Drop D tuning on the fly is completely fair.  I'm not a heavy Floyd user; I mainly use it for light vibrato and the occasional metal dive-bomb.

If the guitar will stay in tune after pulling a stunt like this, I'm totally happy.  Not saying I'm capable of pulling off stunts like this.

Ah, well, I can't leave off this post without featuring one of my guitar heroes, Ben Weinman from The Dillinger Escape Plan.  I'm actually going to have a chance to meet him in a couple of weeks from now as part of a live recording class.  Check out his signature "Party Smasher" guitar.  Neck-through on a semi-hollow body?!  Brilliant.  If I wasn't so dead-set on having a Floyd Rose and preferred a hardtail instead, I'd very seriously consider having an Evertune bridge installed.  That thing is going to be revolutionary in the guitar world very soon.

Floyd Rose Whoas / Woes

Rule Number One about owning Floyd-Rose-equipped guitar: own a SECOND Floyd-Rose-equipped guitar.

The point of getting a Floyd Rose bridge to work properly is to match the string tension with the spring tension inside the body.  The strings are locked into place at the nut.  If set up correctly, the bridge will "float" in between these two sets of tension.  This means you can lower or even raise a note by pushing down or pulling up on the trem arm, and it will snap back to the original tuning when you release.  It's a mechanical marvel, truly, but there are drawbacks.  If you break a string, the springs will pull all of the other strings sharp, so much as to make it unplayable until you change your strings and reset the bridge all over again.  This is what is meant by the rule at the beginning of this post.

I LOVE my USA Jackson SL2H Soloist.  Such a killer guitar.  The neck-through body, the 12- to 16-inch compound radius neck, the bookmatched flame maple top, the jumbo frets, the sharkfin inlays, the transparent green finish, and the Floyd Rose trem.  Everything about it screams SHRED, and it has continued to be a source of inspiration.  My current green Soloist is actually my second one; my first one had a metallic black finish and I rocked it when I was playing for a metal/hardcore band called Overcome back in 2010-2011.  I sold the black one to help take care of moving expenses to come to Seattle, and missed it so much that I just had to own another.

Overcome at Cornerstone Festival, July 2010.

Right from the moment I had one, I took "proper" care of the Floyd Rose bridge, and it in turn took care of me.  Setup and maintenance on these things can be awfully tedious, and there are a number of shortcuts available to quickly tweak an FR into a basic playable condition.  Jason, the other guitarist in my band back in the Overcome days, resorted to the shortcut method(s), and he usually had tuning problems with it.  During a show, I never needed to touch the bridge's micro tuners; my tuning always stayed dead center, even when I dive-bombed the hell out of my strings (I've chosen Ernie Ball as my lifetime preferred string brand for their strength).  I still broke quite a few strings, but thankfully enough it only ever happened at practice and never at a show.  If you take the extra time to set it up correctly, there are real advantages to be gained.

And so it's no surprise to me that I should want Big Riff to sport a Floyd Rose trem.  The performance characteristics are just incredible and, just like the sustaining pickup devices described in my last post, useful for more than just metal.

One day at a certain major musical instrument retailer I used to work for, I sat down for a demo session with one of the newer Eddie Van Halen Wolfgang Special guitars.  Fast and snappy attack, but flawed with way-too-small frets.  What I liked best was the new "EVH-licensed!" Floyd Rose D-tuna system.  It's a small device that fits on the tail end of the bridge at the low E string to quickly and accurately drop the string's tuning when you want to play in Drop D.  If I remember correctly, in years past Ibanez at least has had this option available with their own version of a locking trem bridge.  Anyway, the EVH D-tuna is an aftermarket part that can be retrofitted relatively easily into any existing Floyd.  It runs for about fifty bucks.  I'm definitely interested in this for my Warmoth Strat.

I do have a couple of glaring concerns with the D-tuna, though.  I've only ever seen the D-tuna installed on a Floyd Rose bridge that isn't the fully floating kind—it rests directly on the body when the trem arm isn't being pulled.

Stock image.  The EVH D-tuna is originally meant to be fitted to Floyd Rose bridges that rest flat against the body.

Warmoth's angled pocket routing option on the left allows for the version of the Floyd that rests on the body.  The routing option on the right is the traditional style that includes space for pulling up on the trem arm, allowing for notes to be raised.

If I try to install the D-tuna on a floating bridge, there may be an issue with the action of setting the low string from E to D and vice versa, offsetting the tuning of the other strings.  Remember how string tension is balanced with spring tension?  Since the "fixed" version of the FR rests on the body, notes can be lowered or dive-bombed, but can't be raised.  I need to know if the float is interrupted by having a D-tuna...  hopefully not.

If I'm in the clear with what I want out of the D-tuna and the FR's float capability, there's a second issue at hand to deal with.  I'd have to have an additional section of wood routed out on the top to accomodate the inch or so of the D-tuna's length if I raise up on the trem bar.  Routing wood like this actually isn't much of a technical issue, but since I want the body to come from Warmoth pre-painted, I'd have to call and ask them if they will do an extra special custom job in this area.  I want the body and paint job looking totally pro.

Google image search: this photo shows exactly the problem with installing the EVH D-tuna on a recessed (floating) bridge setup.  It's going to ding the body if you pull up on the trem arm.

Yes!  I'm hoping it would be possible to call up Warmoth and ask them to rout an additional section of wood as shown here.  Do what I ask and I'll give ya MONEY!

One additional thing I need to find out.  On the design section of Warmoth's website, when I add the Floyd Rose, the locking nut is also included, but apparently there are different models listed as R2, R3, R4, and R5.  Never seen this before.  I'll have to look into it (and possibly think of the neck design sooner than I intended) so I get this right.

This and the sustainer devices are the biggest technical details I need to have sorted out for Big Riff.  The rest will come easy, but for now it's

research,

research...

RESEARCH!

Marty Friedman at his Jackson/Floyd Rose shredtastic best.

A Feedback Loop In The Head

It's time to start designing the body, and right off the bat there are some major complications.  In order to gain the most amount of... manipulative flexible potential with the strings, I want Big Riff to have a floating Floyd Rose bridge and a feedback controller like a Sustainiac or a Fernandes Sustainer.  These options mean routing wood out of the guitar and meticulously planning angles and dimensions and such.  Exciting and daunting and annoying all at once.

The Sustainiac Stealth Pro and the Fernandes Sustainer are pickups that can be switched on to act as an electromagnet to cause guitar strings to vibrate continuously, and allow for control of the feedback.  For those players who are familiar with the EBow, pickup feedback controllers are exactly like that except they activate any of the six strings on the fly and of course, are permanently mounted.  They do work on their own as a pickup, and both brands come in single coil or humbucker variations.

I've had an EBow for almost a decade by this point and love the control that it offers, especially when set in the fifth harmonic mode.  Add a delay to that and you'll find yourself floating in the audio equivalent of rays of light.  Fernandes tends to market their Sustainer-equipped guitar line toward metal players, but I think it's redundant since a metal guitarist is more likely than anyone to get feedback from pushing the gain on their amps so hard.  The simplicity and usefulness of feedback control goes far beyond the headbanging chucklehead looking to create noise; it allows for beautiful passages that couldn't otherwise be obtained.

For the layperson, I promise you know what that sounds like:

Anyway, so, using an EBow is rad until you need to set it down and start strumming the guitar mid-song, which takes an awkward five seconds.  A sustainer-equipped guitar will have two small switches mounted on the top: one to turn it on, and the other to switch between natural and harmonic modes.  No mess, just reach down and turn it on or off.  Pretty damn cool.

...Except that this means a battery and circuit board install are required.  Warmoth allows a routing option for placing either one or two 9-volt batteries on the back of the guitar.  Sustainiac and Fernandes single-coil and humbucker versions require just a single 9-volt, so no big deal.  However, that circuit board could cause problems.  I need to know the dimensions of each and determine how to make it fit in the control cavity.

There are two options:

1. Top rout, which is the traditional Strat style and my preferred way to go since I intend to put a pickguard on the guitar:

2. Rear rout, which I'm sure will fit either circuit board but effectively eliminates the need for a pickguard (though I want one):

This is the rout style of my beloved flame-top Jackson SL2H Soloist.

The FAQ section on Fernandes's website tells me the Sustainer circuit board itself is 3" long x 2" wide x 1" deep.  The switches are 1" apart and mounted directly to the top of the PCB.

Pulled this photo from a Google image search; it's the cleanest Fernandes Sustainer install I've seen in a Strat-style body (Ibanez JEM).

The Sustainiac's circuit board is 3.75" long by 1.15" wide by .725" tall, so it's longer but much thinner.  The switches can be wired anywhere.

Google image search result: Sustainiac PCB tucked away neatly into a section which would be covered by a pickguard.  This top rout configuration looks ideal.

It just might work, but I'm already really annoyed skimming through the technical details on Sustainiac's webpage.  So much info to sift through.  Choosing between the two systems will not be easy.

Why does all of this matter?  Because I want to get it right on the first try.  Most guitarists who do the feedback controller thing have to deal with a a pre-existing guitar setup working against them.  I want this to be the foremost consideration in order to have as little wood carved out of the body as possible for maximum resonance.  This post was actually supposed to be about the wood that I would have chosen for the body, but then I got sidetracked.

*sigh*  Time to rest up.

On The Romantic

Who Inspires You?

I realized as I was writing my first post that there was quite a lot of information that I was leaving out of it, but do feel is necessary, before I dive into the realm of numbers and settings.  One of my favorite books is called Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.  I don't subscribe to a Buddhist worldview at all, but Pirsig makes a fascinating case on the dichotomy between what he calls the classical and the romantic views.  Classical means a thing being the literal sum of its parts.  Romantic is the pursuit or emotion or mystique behind it.

Let's break this down in terms guitarists will understand:

The Classical:
-An electric guitar is [almost always] made up of two or more pieces of wood attached together to form a "neck" and a "body".
-These pieces of wood also have components attached to convert the energy of a plucked string to an electrical signal to be carried to an amplifier.
-A guitar neck can be bolted on to the body, "set" in (meaning glued to the body), or carved so that it goes through the body.
-Scale length is the distance from the bridge to the nut.  The typical scale length for most Fender models is 25.5 inches, while Gibson's is 24.75 inches.
-Tonewoods, pickups, potentiometers, wire, truss rod, scarf joint, strap pegs, pickguard, jack/jack plate, binding, paint, lacquer, fretboard, frets, and so on.

The Romantic:
-Every term meant to generate buzz like "Made in USA", "vintage", "boutique", "custom", etc.
-Les Paul left an indelible mark in modern music with his songwriting craft as well as his genius as an inventor.  The Gibson guitar that now bears his namesake is the most easily recognizable next to the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster.
-Ted McCarty, CEO for Gibson from 1948 to 1966, is considered to have ushered in the company's "golden era", a period of unprecedented workmanship and innovation in the electric guitar world.  Instruments from this time are still some of the most sought after in the vintage buyer market.
-A few of the original master builders that made up Jackson's custom shop in the early '80s, still work for Jackson over thirty years later, though the company as a whole is now owned by Fender.  As metal has become popular again throughout the 2000s, the wait period for a new custom axe is over a year.
-Bill Haley & His Comets rocking around the clock, Elvis Presley's shaking hips, Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival, Pete Townshend's windmills and nightly gear destruction, George Harrison's gently weeping guitar, Jimmy Page's double-neck stairway to guitar solo heaven, Eddie Van Halen's eruption into shredder glory, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

Alright, you get the idea.

So the Classical has to do with the actual features of an instrument here, and the Romantic is made up of the stories, the impetus behind why we choose this or that guitar, etc.  We tend to gravitate toward one of the two spheres as our way of viewing the world, but Pirsig's point is that both are equally valid and important.  In order to move forward with the planning phase of building my own custom guitar, I get to (and need to) revisit my own history with the instrument.

The Case For The Double Fat Strat 

Feast your eyes on this.  Stare at it for a while, because Lord knows how many hours I've spent doing so when I was sixteen:

It's in the photograph of love...

After a stint of listening exclusively to Christian rock (much of it was terrible!) during my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I decided that I needed more guitar distortion than I was getting.  It was 2001, and word passed around that Weezer were coming back to reign in a new era of dorky power chord fuzziness.  The Green album was the first secular record I bought to break my "fast".  [I bought Blue and Pinkerton shortly thereafter and yes, I'm now one of those their-earlier-material-was-better purists.]

No visible tattoos, no piercings, no hats, no grunge beards [extra points if you catch the reference!], just a group of nerds who want to rock.  And there's Rivers Cuomo, front and center with a Warmoth double fat Strat covered in stickers, and that lightning bolt strap.  That thing floored me, actually; it was the coolest thing I had ever seen then.  There was something fresh and punk as #&$% about it.  Weren't Strats supposed to have three single coil pickups?  Here we have the same familiar style and comfort, but those humbuckers and stickers...  Clearly this was meant to be LOUDER.

Of course, I had to follow suit with my Squier:

Note the Weezer sticker behind the bridge.  This is as edgy as a teenage Christian rocker guitarist can get.  It did not get me any female attention.

That's a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails humbucker in the bridge position.  I had originally planned to add a Cool Rails in the neck and a Little '59 in the middle positions, but I caught on to the Gibson thing once I found a hardtail bridge and a set neck to be more agreeable with what I wanted to do.  Why spend money outfitting a crummy Squier with new pickups when I could get dual humbuckers in my next guitar, an Epiphone G-400?  And so I moved on from there.

But there is still something to be said for the contoured comfort of a Stratocaster.  It just... fits.  The iconic instrument connects every guitarist with the rock and roll dream.  I love that.  My main arguments against it mainly have to do with the pickup configuration and the lack of handling capacity for heavier music, but those elements can be fixed.  If I want a double fat Strat, so be it.

I didn't even bother talking about my other major Strat hero, Billy Corgan, but that's enough for the Chautauqua today.  Warmoth design to begin with the next installment.  Enjoy:

That Dream Guitar

Greetings.  My name is Nicholas Greenwood.  Welcome to my nerdy blog wherein I will document my journey to build my dream electric guitar made of custom ordered parts from Warmoth.  I expect this to be a year-long project.

My first guitar was a Squier Affinity Stratocaster which my grandparents gave me for my fifteenth birthday (I was a freshman in high school).  That moment of arrest when I first laid eyes on it is forever seared into my memory.  I knew then that something amazing had just been added to my life.  In those first couple of years of playing, I adored everything Fender, and looked forward to the day when I might own a real Fender, not just a Squier.

Free, er, I mean, Fender love!

But Fenders are really hit-or-miss for me, or rather, occasionally-hit-and-mostly-miss.  I like the curves of a Stratocaster but just can't get over the clack and noise of single-coil pickups.  I get annoyed when Telecaster owners brag about some purported legendary twang; I tend to hear more plink.  The strings seem to sag when they ring out.  The attack on a typical Strat or Tele just isn't quick enough to take the kind of fast and heavy-handed palm muting that has become my primary approach to the instrument.  Every now and then a Fender comes along that has some serious mojo, you know, that one, but then I go home knowing that within a month it will be swiped from the guitar shop it rests in before I can get to it.

And so, for years, I gave up on Fender (though I do like their designs) and focused on brands like Gibson and Jackson as my playing style gravitated toward hardcore and metal.  Heavier, more beefy, more sustain, able to take a beating.  I now own my second Gibson Explorer and have had a Flying V.  I own my second Jackson SL2H Soloist, which over the past couple of years has become my main axe; it has the fastest attack and most sustain of any guitar I've owned.  Jackson's compound-radius, quartersawn maple neck-through just takes anything you can give it and dishes it back.  I love it and will refer to it often in this blog.

I just won't let go of my beloved humbuckers and now feel comfortable enough and even excited to do what I previously though was a waste: have them in a bolt-on guitar.  The draw for a Stratocaster has come full circle.  But Fender just isn't going to put in all of the features I want, and so I have chosen to turn my back on them.  Charvel's recent Pro-Mod So Cal models look promising, but I came to a conclusion that I could get a lot more of the features I want for only a little raise in price, plus the DIY aspect makes the idea resonate more in my mind.  My friend Michael Adams over at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar recently built a Rivers Cuomo replica Strat with pieces ordered from Warmoth...  Bingo.

I don't agree that every guitar needs a name, but this one does.  Guitarists have a weird corner on attributing exotic feminine themes to their instruments, looking wistfully away as they whisper the name of their muse: Charlene.  Luciana.  Daphne.  Ramona...

What?  This is rock and roll.  How about naming a guitar Star Destroyer?  Or some other rad name like Kid Monster, Jabberwocky, Cloaking Device, Trident, Particle Beam, Mystery Rune, Fire Smash, Pillar of Smoke, Synesthesia, or None More Black?

The moniker that's sticking in my mind at this time is Big Riff.  It seems a little too simple, and I'm not married to it, but it is the name of a Cave In song and a suitable suggestion for the sound I'm going for.  Big Riff will come together in pieces and hopefully see the light of day just before my thirtieth birthday next year, which marks the moment where I've been playing guitar for half of my life.  Ambitious?  Sure.

The intent is to balance all of the things I've been excited about with electric guitar design, past and present:
-Strat body with some funky surf color.
-Dual humbuckers, effectively making this a double fat Strat.
-Maple neck and fretboard because I've not yet had that on a guitar.
-Floyd Rose tremolo.
-Customizable for future pickup or electrical configurations (Duncan Liberator pickup selector, Fernandes Sustainer, etc.).
-Bright, fast attack, and built for shredding.

Early research to ensue on:
-Body tonewoods: Will a maple body be overkill on the highs?
-Circuit board size and power requirements for a Fernandes Sustainer system and/or active pickups.  This will affect internal routing of the body.
-Routing for recessed Floyd Rose trem—I want a floating bridge rather than a fixed one, but will it also accept an EVH D-tuna mod?

Going back over all of this, I seem a little scatterbrained, but I'm definitely excited.  I'll unpack these details and many more in future installments.  Time to fly to Jupiter: