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Blank Slate: Build Your Own Californian Doubleneck!


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Posted

Not sure where you're getting those numbers, Tobe. I could have had the entire thing completed for right around $1k, minus case (which Alpep has for $100). When a new one would have cost between $5-$6k, and finding a used one is damned near impossible, it worked for me.

Posted

Shishkov should end the job which once started!

This body may have predated Mike.

Posted

it's a really, REALLY cool piece. but to get it right, there's a lot of work ahead.

- completely new fretboards

- body scallops and blended heels need finishing and deepening.

- routing the body (but that's actually the cool part - any configuration you want)

- doing the finish...could one really put Hamer logos on the headstocks?

I passed because I realized that it would go from sitting in Chris' house to sitting in mine. It's motorcycle riding season so I wouldn't even get around to planning and making contacts and deals until Christmas. And what Zorrow just said - I think the only person I'd want to finish the job would be Mike Shishkov, and he's got a pretty full plate. Although it would be pretty cool with Shishkov logos on those headstocks....perhaps stadium sized?? ;)

$1000 in hardware and pickups....at LEAST. I'd put a Sustainiac in the neck of the 6-string...and then order custom shop Seymour Duncan pickups. Sourcing the correct 12-string bridge - don't even know where to begin on that. The originals are massive brass units. The only parts I know I could order right now would be the Floyd Rose (although they're often out of stock of certain parts) and the Sperzel tuners I ALWAYS use.

Then a couple (few?) more grand in labor. I'm sure it could be done much more cheaply; hell, I could probably finish it on my own with some Stew-Mac stuff and a tung oil finish from Home Depot. I still have somewhere a full set of fingerboard clamps that I bought when I pulled the fretboard off my first 5-string Cruise bass to replace the truss rod. It wouldn't be the cleanest job but it'd be playable.

But this prototype deserves far more than that. First built, last finished...I truly expect it to be built to absolutely epic standards.

All of the parts are readily available and not crazy expensive (unless you go nuts with pickups). I purchased the 12 string bridge and tailpiece (in good no less) a few years back for my korina 12, which was also built out of an old Hamer case-plug type body. Standard catalog item w/Allparts iirc. Fingerboards? How wild do you want to get? @$100 apiece for ebony with boomers, which was less than Hamer's ebony upcharge in 1989!

As Kiz and BroChris can attest, there's a local guy (an actual luthier, as opposed to someone who slaps kit or parts guitars together) who does great work. I'm using him for anything I don't send to Stike. He'd rock the build out.

Posted

Yes it is.

Posted

I don't like double necks as a rule, I don't play passed the 18th fret or so, and I have no need for a 12 string.

Yet I was tempted.

THAT's how cool this thing is.

TRUE!

Posted

Not sure where you're getting those numbers, Tobe. I could have had the entire thing completed for right around $1k, minus case (which Alpep has for $100). When a new one would have cost between $5-$6k, and finding a used one is damned near impossible, it worked for me.

I pulled those numbers out of my butt at 4am? wild guesstimation :)

mainly, it was an exercise in making me feel better about passing on it ;) but it is true - I wouldn't get to it for at least six months.

Posted

.....or ya could've just drilled one quarter inch hole in the middle and loaded a clock into it and hung it on your wall.

Geez Tobe.....move back to the States an' ya lose all your fire. I remember when ya used to tear the fingerboard off factory graphic Hamers on your kitchen table, to fix the LEDs and truss Rod with a set of tweezers, SuperGlu and duct tape.

Next, you'll be trading your motorcycles and race cars for a bicycle and a Smart car....and playing Ibanez bolt-ons. :) :) :)

haven't quite lost my fire yet. just very obsessed with my bikes at the moment, which is an entire order of magnitude more expensive a hobby!

Posted

A bike hobby makes Hamers...hell, all guitars, look like chicken feed.

Posted

- doing the finish...could one really put Hamer logos on the headstocks?

Put a Hammer logo on it, and set the internetz on fire!

Posted

It was sold to me as a "Kramer" guitar, actually, so that might work!

Posted

.....or ya could've just drilled one quarter inch hole in the middle and loaded a clock into it and hung it on your wall.

Geez Tobe.....move back to the States an' ya lose all your fire. I remember when ya used to tear the fingerboard off factory graphic Hamers on your kitchen table, to fix the LEDs and truss Rod with a set of tweezers, SuperGlu and duct tape.

Next, you'll be trading your motorcycles and race cars for a bicycle and a Smart car....and playing Ibanez bolt-ons. :) :) :)

haven't quite lost my fire yet. just very obsessed with my bikes at the moment, which is an entire order of magnitude more expensive a hobby!

I've been giving more of my time to my C3 Vette, so I know what you mean!

Posted

.....or ya could've just drilled one quarter inch hole in the middle and loaded a clock into it and hung it on your wall.

Geez Tobe.....move back to the States an' ya lose all your fire. I remember when ya used to tear the fingerboard off factory graphic Hamers on your kitchen table, to fix the LEDs and truss Rod with a set of tweezers, SuperGlu and duct tape.

Next, you'll be trading your motorcycles and race cars for a bicycle and a Smart car....and playing Ibanez bolt-ons. :) :) :)

haven't quite lost my fire yet. just very obsessed with my bikes at the moment, which is an entire order of magnitude more expensive a hobby!

I've been giving more of my time to my C3 Vette, so I know what you mean!

Have you mastered the corvette wave yet?

Posted

.....or ya could've just drilled one quarter inch hole in the middle and loaded a clock into it and hung it on your wall.

Geez Tobe.....move back to the States an' ya lose all your fire. I remember when ya used to tear the fingerboard off factory graphic Hamers on your kitchen table, to fix the LEDs and truss Rod with a set of tweezers, SuperGlu and duct tape.

Next, you'll be trading your motorcycles and race cars for a bicycle and a Smart car....and playing Ibanez bolt-ons. :) :) :)

haven't quite lost my fire yet. just very obsessed with my bikes at the moment, which is an entire order of magnitude more expensive a hobby!

I've been giving more of my time to my C3 Vette, so I know what you mean!

Have you mastered the corvette wave yet?

Yes-you learn fast!

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