Hehehehehehe!!! The bridge testing is done, the strings have been tested and the winners installed, the frets are dressed and polished, the action is adjusted, and the head is tensioned. Tonight, the tweaked and now fully set-up 8 String guitar banjo hybrid experiment is complete and in full fighting trim. You will not believe the tone of this thing. I can't hardly believe it. I should have some recordings of it by this weekend. Now, for my fellow Geeks, here's some fun facts...
- It has a 10" aluminum banjo rim with wooden flanges and 12 tensioning bolts all suspended from the guitar top.
- The head is an Aquarian 2-ply textured finish drum head.
- 24 frets, 5 full octaves, tuned (low to high) E-B-E-A-D-G-B-E, string diameters from .090 to .010 (Ernie Ball Slinky)
- After much testing, it is currently equipped with a solid rosewood bridge.
- The tuners are ESP/LTD electric guitar tuners (one of which is slightly drilled out to accommodate the .090 bass string!)
- Fingerboard and tailpiece are from a single piece of nicely figured Bubinga.
- The nut is carved from my all-time favorite nut material, Lignum Vitae (the Wood of Life!)
- The back and sides are 1/16" thick aluminum.
- The neck is formed from a piece of 5/8" 7-layer birch plywood sandwiched between two slabs of yellow poplar.
- The plywood part of the neck actually keeps on going in a sort of neck-through-body style of construction.
I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have about this crazy thing, and I promise I will have audio and video real soon. You just ain't gonna believe it.