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ALRIGHT! the 21 st century guitar has arrived!


Bruce Bennett

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Originally posted by axegrinder

That DOES look hot!
:eek:

Bruce, you refer to them as "sets" of pickguards. Is there just the second piece for the control cavity? And what material is that going to be? I think early on I voted for the use of aluminum & copper (I love copper), but for economy or weight, are you going another direction?



yeah, the control cavity will have a sort of "football shaped" stainless steel plate over it as well.

I couldn't go the Aluminum because of the combo pickguard/tailpiece/bridge idea. not strong enough for me...

copper would be lovely.. but darn expensive and really impractical appearance wise. but still that may be do-able later on for say, a special color scheme? say with a high polish? Brass would be do-able too.

I'm working toward making this guitar as unlike anything out there with all the custom hardware as I can..

sadly that means this guitar is eating a fair sized portion of my paycheck each month :(

This will be a expensive guitar to make a run of 12 of. :( I still don't know what the final figure will be .. but it will be much higher than I first thought. and I will have to find some buyers for them before i start them...

but they will be built.. damn it!:mad:

:D
;):D:cool:

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Originally posted by Bruce Bennett

here's another photo without Jimmy S.


astrocaster28.jpg



Looks great, I'd love to have one with an engine turned (or is it tuned, you know, like an impala or buick dash from the 50's/60's) pickgaurd. I like it lots.

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Originally posted by warriorxtman

It kinda looks like a futuristic concept they would have come up with back in the 50's.



It's crying out to be given a pearloid plate and glittery, accordian-style finishes.... a guitar like that should look more like it was built from plastic than wood. :cool:

Edited to add..... if ever you were doing a big enough run of these to bring the price down to under USD1500, I think I'd be well tempted - I'd prefer a bolt neck with a maple board, though, myself, but damn this is shaping up to be an incredible guitar - one of those rare things, a "different" design that looks as good in the "flesh" as it does on paper! :thu:

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quick update,
I delievered the freshly corrected drawings back to the Laser cutting place and they say that the new corrected pickguards, will be ready in about 2 weeks. I'm haveing 12 guards made so you know I'll build at least 12 guitars.

Sorry for the delay, guys but this project is REALLY costing me and I have a new grand baby comeing, and she is due this month and my daughter is only 14,
and thats taking a lot of my "project monies" away for baby stuff.

But I had a small windfall recently, so I may be able to get this one back on track here shortly.
lets see how the pickguards look in the next two weeks.
Keep your fingers crossed.

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Originally posted by unistudent1980

WTF 14? Is that legal?

Ask Jerry Lee Lewis. It's legal if nobody prosecutes (and her daddy don't shoot ya). Actually I don't know what the law is, but doesn't really matter because it's going to happen now regardless of what Bruce does or how he feels about it.

 

Nobody has a crystal ball, but I remember when I was in my late 30s with small children at home, marveling at the ingenuity of other 30-something friends who had kids graduating high school and leaving home. Two decades later I STILL have one crumb-snatcher clinging on and I'm getting too old for this {censored}. There is a silver lining Bruce.

 

And great news about the faceplate tooling. I'm drooling along with everybody else to see pics of the finished run. More power to you on all fronts.

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unistudent;
The "Legal" Issue is something we have mutually decided to ignore for the moment..
My daughters happiness is much more important to me than some legal/moral issue.
and I have to admit that my daughter chose a pretty good guy,
He's a guitar player and often wears me out with questions about building guitars. but we actually get along pretty darn good. he's here at the shop with me now,

as for the guitar.
I am planning to build at least 12.. after that, The money will just have to be there otherwise. 12 is all the world will see.

and Thank you ID-Man.

I do know that there is a Silver lining. and I'm looking foward to it. for now, either way 4 more years is about all the "extra time" I'll have to put in. ( at least thats the story I'm telling myself and the kids :D )

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Originally posted by Bigfun

Sorry about the 'Gregg' thing...Bruce, I must have had Greg Bennett of Samick design fame in mind. He had just been in Rapid City doing a little show for Samick guitars and I had him sign my black Samick 12 string. Aside from the general brain-fart, I just got my 'Bennetts' confused for a moment. I'm sure it happens to you all the time.


Here's a couple of new, 'over th' top' designs to peruse if ya'll get tired of looking at the 'same ol' new ones. This visual monster hasn't been named yet....'Bizzy' might be appropriate though. (The 'wrinkly' look is from the vellum paper I use when drawing these types of sketches, the scanner picks them up a bit too well):

Superretrorocketageguitar.jpg

This one is called the 'Mobius' ('Mobius Dik' would be a fun twist on the name......ok! maybe not), It's not entirely thought-out as far pickup type or even proper placement for them on the body. I just slapped a few on it 'wherever' for now. Notice the clever(?) 'Saturn' tone and volume knobs, I'm quite proud of them:

Mobiusconceptguitar.jpg


If you build a cheap-ish (750 or lower, yeah right:cry: ) mobius, I'll buy one off you

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Originally posted by Mercer


If you build a cheap-ish (750 or lower, yeah right:cry: ) mobius, I'll buy one off you



believe me, if i could.. I would

But with the current pricing of materials and labor and Stainess Steel being what they are here in the USA...

these will probably be very limited production and unless there is some sorta HUGE demand for them.
will never see overseas manufacture/cheap pricing... Sorry.. :(

But that COULD turn out to be a good thing to those that saved up and purchased one, in say about 20 years down the road...

i mean back when they were new.
we all stood around saying.. "now who in thier right mind would give 8K for one of those PRS "Dragon" thingys."..:rolleyes:

wish I had..:(
and I'm sure someone said the same exact thing about those 249.00 Les Pauls back in 1959 too. ( remember, in "59, 250 could buy you a nice used Cadillac.)

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Originally posted by Bruce Bennett


But that COULD turn out to be a good thing to those that saved up and purchased one, in say about 20 years down the road...

 

 

And keep in mind that I'm 55, and could keel over any (cough! cough!) day now, making my (wheeeze! gasp!) original designs all that more.....uh....investment-worthy, especially if they were built by Bruce who'll make sure they're quality-built and actually playable.

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Originally posted by Bruce Bennett



believe me, if i could.. I would


But with the current pricing of materials and labor and Stainess Steel being what they are here in the USA...


these will probably be very limited production and unless there is some sorta HUGE demand for them.

will never see overseas manufacture/cheap pricing... Sorry..
:(

But that COULD turn out to be a good thing to those that saved up and purchased one, in say about 20 years down the road...


i mean back when they were new.

we all stood around saying.. "now who in thier right mind would give 8K for one of those PRS "Dragon" thingys."..
:rolleyes:

wish I had..
:(
and I'm sure someone said the same exact thing about those 249.00 Les Pauls back in 1959 too. ( remember, in "59, 250 could buy you a nice used Cadillac.)


My sister just bought a nice used cadillac for 700 today:)

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