Grateful Dead Music Forum

So sweet! Just joined the forum. I am the proud new owner of Dozin's 1991 Blackknife he put up for sale a few days ago.

What a beauty!

Dozin,
Any updates on the 87' blackknife Rich is building for you at the moment? Just curious.

Rich called me today actually. The body is done and he wanted to know what bridge I was using and nut to determine the degree of the headstock. It's coming along. I should have pics soon.

I'm struggling what I want for pickups in this guitar. I could do the Bartolinis but I really like my poor man cowboy guitar. The question is do I want to put H/S/H in this guitar and really love to play it or do I want it exactly like the 87 guitar. Struggling bad with this decision.

How about routing a swimming pool and installing a pickup ring that surrounds the entire area with lots of holes for mounting pickups. This way you can mount any type of pickup in any position and if you change your mind, you can switch to different pickups w/out trouble.

I guess there could be an issue with the mounting holes not being compatible with all pickups, however, maybe installing a different pickup ring or an adapter would solve that issue. Look at the pics of my poor man's Cowboy and what I did for the middle pickup. Use the same approach for all 3 pups. That's the approach I plan to take if I build another guitar.

btw...I have found that there's not enough time in the day to cover all bases. If you're happy with your poor man Cowboy, then stick with that sound in the new guitar. Otherwise, your next challenge will be finding the right amp, etc to match the pickups to give you that '87 sound.

Once you have the sound you're looking for, you can concentrate on playing. What a concept!

mk

just a quick peek. Still under construction but it's getting there. Still needs to sand down the heel to get the lines in there. I can feel my heart rate beating faster for this one.

One thing I think needs serious consideration is the type of bridge to be put on this guitar. There’s nothing more troublesome and nuisance ridden, not to mention tone robbing, in the world of guitars than the floating bridge … The Edge Pros, Floyd Roses, Kahlers and all of the others. Sure they are great if you’re into dive bombing and whammy coloration of your notes, but for the sheer trouble they cause, I find them terrible. And, If you do a lot of note bending, especially “cowboy bends”, forget it. Change a single or set of strings, set aside plenty of time and meditate prior to relax. There’s plenty of other options to consider.

I think that's a matter of opinion. I've tried them all. Not a big floyd Rose or wilkinson fan. Kahler makes some nice stuff. They all got bad raps in the 80's but they've come along way. I'm going with the 2300 http://www.kahlerusa.com/scripts/prodVi ... Product=67 I want to keep this guitar as close to the 87 Blackknife that I can. Although, I'm not going with Bartolini's or EMG's. I'm oing with the Cowboy pickups. All singe coils and a Waldo buffer. This is going to be tailored towards the sound I want. It's going to be sick!

How'd you decide on that bridge? It looks killer!!!

I agree, the trems have come a LONG way! My #1 has a Gotoh 510T and it's super stable tuning:
http://www.mojotone.com/guitar-parts/tr ... des-Chrome

Even a properly setup floating bridge on a $300 Mexican Strat will stay perfectly in tune ... if it's set up properly. I know because I have one. People make the mistake of putting the tremolo way down on the deck ... if you float it, it works. It's all about setting up the claw properly. Takes some time but it's worth it.

Here's a video:



It really does work. You don't need the special strings.

Is this a neck thru graphite neck like Bob's blackknife, or is that just a veneer over the neck on the body? Don't you have a blackknife like Bob's already? The one on your website is a neck thru, but a SSH setup. Are you doing the 3 singles all snugged up close down by the bridge? Anyway, it is going to be sick.

The neck is built like my Blue guitar, a graphite T section. If you look at the headstock close you can see the graphite. Its going to sound so much better than a full graphite neck. No I'm not going to squish the pickups. I plan on doing the exact spacing from what's going on in the cowboy guitar. I'm disassembling the humbuckers and converting them to single coils. A tone and volume knob, perfect!

I'll be coming up North to check it out!

mk

How do you disassemble them and convert them to single? Will it just be half of a DP196 and DP 197 in the neck and bridge and the virtual vintage in the middle? So is it a set neck?

Yes, you take the ribbon off around the pickups and pull them apart. There's more to it than that but that's the gist of it. I believe MK and I discovered that we pretty much stay in the single coil settings with these pickups. I absolutely love the sound of them and think this is the way to go for me.