So, I've already done a story on one of my aluminium neck guitars here so here's the next one for you.
This was metal neck number two and was very similar to number three on the Perspex guitar but with a little more "meat" down the centre, thus a little heavier. It was still very thin at the nut and had more material behind the volute making it neck heavy. Both of these "issues" were redesigned on number three to make it lighter.
This one has a timber body made from Victorian ash, which is an Australian hardwood that's great for bodies and necks. It's a thin body so the guitar was a little "neck heavy" so I moved the strap button to the back of the neck for better balance.
The fretboard is Jarrah just like number three which is a great Australian hardwood for fretboards as long as you dry it properly. It can curl and move a bit after cutting so I always thickness them down to 6mm, the thickness of all my fretboards, and let them dry for as long as possible. Once dry and stable, they don't go anywhere.
We have lots a great guitar building timbers in Australia but when I started making guitars you couldn't convince guitarists to use them. It seems to have changed a little lately with all the people making custom guitars now.
As I said before, the Vibratone is my upside down Jagstang design as I think most guitars looks better upside down. Must be the Mosrite fanatic in me ? Whenever I see a guitar shape I love, the first thing I do is turn it upside down and say "that looks better".
The cutaway was modified slightly to give better top fret access but the rest is pure Jagstang. The scratchplate shape is "stolen" from a Mosrite Mk II but with a nod to Fender with the metal control cavity plate.
This one has two P-90 pick ups which are my all time favorite pick up. I don't think pick up design has improved on a good P-90. They have everything a pick up should have and unlike some pick ups, sound good in everything I've ever tried them in.
Good P-90's have great frequency response, great attack, great volume, great string to string evenness, well, you get the picture. Some people comment on how they don't like the "noise" but to me Rock 'n' Roll is supposed to be noisy !!
The tune-o-matic and stop tailpiece are pure Gibson and even though I prefer the wrap around bridge/tailpiece I sometimes use this set up purely for simplicity of setting intonation.I usually run my stoptails slightly further back than Gibson as I like the tones it produces.
The aluminium neck has "overtones" that can be hard to tune to sometimes too I've found. I do have one of my aluminium neck guitars with a wrap around that I'll do a story on soon.
This neck also had the date stamped in the back near the neck plate. It was made in April 2001.
So, that's production neck number two in my metal neck series. I played this guitar live for a while and then used later models as I made/improved them. The "problem" with owning so many guitars AND making your own is that I tend to not use them very long before I'm making something else ......... Terrible "problem" to have :)
My Ric style aluminium neck guitar HERE
Vibratone Rhythm guitar
Vibratone Deluxe