Cool man. I had a Jackson Stars KE7 (dunno the actual model name, but, y'know) back when I lived in Okinawa. I remember digging it, but I was too young to appreciate much of anything I guess & didn't keep it very long. I also had an x2n in that thing...and I also have an x2n in my carvin & bc rich & have had one in an ibanez S as well. One tip I've learned, try lowering the pickup a little more than you normally would. There's so much output on those things they can handle being a little further away from the strings. I think it cleans up the low-end a bit, gives you a little more string definition but still keeps the balls and general feel of the pickup. I'll usually wind up having the bass-end of the pup a little lower than the high side as well.

 

Cool thanks for the tip! The good thing about my maple top plans is I will be able to remove my pickup rings and have the pickups sitting lower into the body so this will work really well for that.

 

Damn man, that is going to look awesome when you're done! Looking forward to updates

 

Sounds like a cool project and it's cool to hear that the fire is growing again
I look forward to seeing more about this!

 

The KE7 was the rarest of that series (which included the DR7 and RR7). Nice score.

That's quite a project you've undertaken. Give us some updates--I'll be curious to see how it goes.

 

:agreed:

BTW, someone put rings on that - the originals shipped with direct-mount pickups.

 

Good to hear you're back to playing, I'm looking forward to seeing how that project turns out.

 

So last night I had the idea Evertune... and I'm undecided.

Pros are obvious with the tuning and stability etc. With the 5mm maple top, I can fill my TOM bridge holes, glue the maple top over all the bridge and ferrel holes and and rout the whole thing out for an evertune bridge.

I do have 1 main worry, however. Kellys are slightly top heavy as it is, would routing this much wood out of the body make the neck dive any worse? I have it balanced by putting the strap button on the top neck bolt, but would making the body lighter unbalance it again?

If anyone has any advice at all on Evertunes, I'd be very grateful. It's a lot more money than I had planned but if its worth it, I'd like to do it.

EDIT: So after a bit of reseaching, I cannot get an Evertune The only available 7 string model is the F type and this is too low for this guitar. Sad day.

 

UPDATE! I got wood!

I also got a a few veneers for the headstock to choose from. A crap load of new tools to put to use too.
Drill with 70pc bit kit.
Obital sander with about 150 sanding pads of all grits for wood sanding and finishing.
10 or so clamps
spokeshave and nice new set of rasps and files.

Just waiting for my router and router table to arrive now.

 

Hell yeeaaaahh! What a top!

 

K dudes... I am unsure what to do with my wood, for this top. I would like some suggestions.
The wood I got above is really orange... like REALLY orange IRL. Its a really nice top but I was more after a golden maple colour for this guitar. Now I have this top in person, I think its too orange for this guitar.

So I bought this top instead :lol:

For ref, its this finish im going to aim for but with a darker burst around some of the edges:

I'll be honest, im very torn as to which top to go with but I will see when I have both here in person. I expect I'll go with this newer spalted curly maple top as I'm more confident I can get that firey golden finish pictured above. I got myself some hardwood for templating today so maybe I'll just make another Kelly replica with a few changes of my own. Longer scale, evertune bridge, or maybe a multiscale. Time will tell!

 

How thick are the tops you bought?

 

The 1st orangey top is 4mm and the 2nd spalted top is 8mm. That's a point, actually as the 2nd top will give me a better look as it is thicker and I can have more of it on the edge contours.

EDIT: Not to clutter out this thread with random posts, I'll add this edit here:
I also just bought this spalted ambrosia curly maple top too! Absolutely stunning! But that will be for another guitar I have had in my head for a while.

After a quick Google, the Ambrosia part of this maple is: "Much like Spalted Maple and other forms of figured maple, Ambrosia Maple is technically not a specific species of Maple, but rather a general description of any type of Maple that has been infested by ambrosia beetles. The beetles bore into the tree, and with it bring fungus that discolors the wood."

 

The 1st orangey top is 4mm and the 2nd spalted top is 8mm. That's a point, actually as the 2nd top will give me a better look as it is thicker and I can have more of it on the edge contours.

That's the part I was curious about.

Also, it's gonna be pretty tough sourcing a thickness planer that'll do the full width of a Kelly at a time, but idk, you might have more ample resources where you are. Any time i'm doing something that big, I plane the thickness of the guitar when it's in two halves and join if afterward but obviously that's not an option here. If you can't find a guy with a planer wide enough you could always do it by hand with a sharpened jack plane.

 

I have a local luthier friend who is going to help me out with that actually, which im just really lucky about. I will try and get hold of one myself in the future and plane all my pieces before glueing. I do live near a bunch of timber merchants so for future wood purchases I might go to them and see if they can plane my body blanks to the right thickness when buying :yesway:

 

I would hesitate to run anything thinner than 1/4" through a thickness planer, especially something with a lot of figure. Material thinner than that can be a bit floppy and the planer will destroy it in short order. Get a longer hand plane (Stanley No. 6 or longer), a toothing blade, regular blade and a card scraper to bring them down to thickness. Oh, and be sure you or work bench is flat and stable. Another option, befriend someone with a thickness sander.

 

Update:
I got wood again!

THIS is the top I will now be using for this guitar. The other top was too orange in person and while the quilt was nice, this 2nd newer top is going to be a much better quilt for the Kelly shape. It's a much lighter maple colour so staining will be much easier and give the results I'm looking for. Its also double the thickness so thats just a straight up win.