My home made guitar based on the Ernie Ball MusicMan JPX-6 - By Alex Taylor, 17

[malagutial]

Note from DrKev: Tough moderating decision here, a very special case, but after some intercontinental head scratching and a good night's sleep, beej and I are in agreement - this is a cool personal project and we hope you'll all enjoy seeing it as much as we did.


Hello people!

This is my first post in the Ernie Ball forums, but I felt I had to share this with people that might appreciate it. Before people make a fuss about any copyright issues or such, I will never sell it and this project has never been intended for any kind of profit. It was mainly a learning experience for me, into which I drew inspiration from Ernie Ball's incredible products.

John Petrucci is the most inspirational guitarist to me. He has had a serious impact on the way I play and I have never found music that engages me on so many levels as much as Dream Theater's. John's tone has always been something I've loved and trying to imitate it when on a student budget is very difficult! When I saw the JPX-6 on Ernie Ball's website I fell in love. I already loved the feel and tone of the JP (after trying one in a shop), but the new shape of the JPX, the colour and the overall beauty of it just made me want one.

Knowing that I simply could not afford to buy one, I had a think about what it was that made the guitar so special.

The choice of wood had a great effect on the guitar's tone. The use of more exotic body materials resulted in a more unique tone and was something I liked. The Piezo-acoustic system was maybe my favourite feature of the guitar. Having the option to switch between acoustic and electric tones without switching guitars was such a brilliant concept to me. The construction of the JPX-6 is a simple bolt on neck, but the design of the fins and the height of the joint means that access to the high frets is easy, making the guitar more playable. The dual-outputs allow allow for more variety in tone/live and recording setup and for the guitar to be run through two amps.

I'm a design/technology enthusiast and a scholar of the Arkwright Trust so I decided I would combine my two favourite hobbies and make a guitar from scratch, based on the MusicMan JPX-6. I completed the project after 3 months (this was working around full time education), and entered it for my A-Level extended project, for which I received full marks. I am planning to pursue a career in Medicine/Medical engineering and this has been a fantastic experience for me that's left with me with a truly one-of-a-kind guitar!

The spec of this guitar includes a 1 piece Iroco body with chambering, a maple neck, 2 high output pickups (waiting for the funds to install DiMarzio's), a fixed bridge (I don't use tremolos), a piezo-electric acoustic simulator system (of my own design), locking nut at the neck, 5 way pickup selector, dual outputs, metallic purple high-gloss finish, and a MusicMan style headstock featuring my own 'MusicLad' adaptation of the Ernie Ball Logo.

Attaching a piezo-transducer to each saddle of the bridge, then into a special pre-amp circuit would have been too expensive. Performing research as part of my Physics studies I investigated the propagation of waves of differing frequencies through varying density of material and found that waves of lower frequency travel more strongly through a material. I therefore reasoned that there would be a sweet spot in the body where I could place a transduce that the frequencies from low and high strings would reach equally, making the output equalise naturally. Obviously, the output from a single transducer would not be enough to simply plug into an amp. In order to pre-amplify the signal from the transducer I bought a hearing aid module from 'Poundland' and replaced the microphone with the transducer. The hearing aid is powered by a button cell battery and boosts the signal to line-level output. I then connected the output of the hearing aid to the output of the guitar. You can hear a demonstration of this acoustic system in the video in this post.

You can follow the photos of the project from start to completion here. Feel free to add me on FaceBook if you want to follow my future projects/musical endeavours.

I recorded a demonstration video of the guitar, showing its tones for lead and metal, as well as demonstrating my design for a piezo-electric acoustic system and talking through the features of the guitar, and the features I incorporated.



I'm very proud of the final product. It plays like a dream and I really feel I can get a lot of new tones from it.

Alex Taylor

malagutial's Channel - YouTube
www.facebook.com/malagutial

[DrKev]

Wow! A very unusual and very impressive first post. Congratulations Alex! I can see you're very proud of your instrument, as you should be. I'm sure JP and the EBMM design crew will appreciate your unique and personal take on the JP design. To paraphrase Isaac Newton said, "if I have achieved anything it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". In this case, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I'm sure you'll all agree.

[Spudmurphy]

One thing I've seen on this forum is BP encouraging "tomorrows builders" - otherwise we would not see the "Dudley Gimples) of tomorrow.

Great looking project - well done.

Edit
Great presentation on the clip. I'd love to hear that piezo option through an acoustic amp like my AER.

I've tried to follow your link to FB but at the moment it's saying ... ... "This content is currently unavailable". Hopefully it will be back up later?

I'm building a guitar in 2012 - something a bit different to yours though!!!

[straycat113]

WOW! I am totally floored Alex over a number of things. Lets start with the guitar on which you have done an amazing job. It came out beautiful and sounds amazing, as well as appearing to play like liquid mercury. Next you playing and chops are sharp as a razor, and your over all demo and presentation would of had a board room give you a standing ovation. You are planning a career in Medicine/Medical engineering, well in a few years you will be able to own all the EBMM guitars your heart desires! I am certain your parents are damn proud of you, as I think you would be a success in anything you chose to do. I would not be surprised if Sterling tried to entice you to hop on a plain and come work for EBMM=Amazing!

[fbecir]

Very nice job Alex ! Impressive in fact !

I also love your sense of humor (Music Lad) !
You can be proud of your guitar.

[JMD]

Great job! Guitar building looks (to the untrained eye) like a marriage between science and art - congrats!

[koogie2k]

Nice work and congrats. You did an amazing job with that guitar.

[Slav123]

Very cool thread and story Alex, congrats on building an amazing guitar!

(Thanks for letting him post his story here guys!)

[jakedawgwhite88]

Bravo, excellent all the way around. Don't be afraid to look on the used market for those expensive pickups. You'd be surprised how quickly the price goes down after they've been used for awhile.

[GWDavis28]

Alex, did you use a CAD program to lay it out? If so, which one?

Glenn |B)

[kbaim]

Awesome. As you may already know, before Steve Morse joined up with EBMM, he had a very personalized guitar he spent quite a bit of time on to get to sound and play the way he wanted.

On a side note, good to know you will be pursuing medical engineering. The world always needs better medical devices to prolong and better the quality of life for those in need of them. Bravo. Good luck

[beej]

I'll echo everybody's sentiments here- what a fantastic job!

[Spudmurphy]

I've just looked at all the photos on facebook - great stuff.

[threeminutesboy]

indeed amazing work and thanks to the mod for allowing this thread that is a good tribute to EBMM genius

[malagutial]

Wow! A very unusual and very impressive first post. Congratulations Alex! I can see you're very proud of your instrument, as you should be. I'm sure JP and the EBMM design crew will appreciate your unique and personal take on the JP design. To paraphrase Isaac Newton said, "if I have achieved anything it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". In this case, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I'm sure you'll all agree.

Thank you very, very much for letting me post in the forums! I was worried that people might have had a problem with me using ideas from EB, but it was purely for inspiration and this project, as I said, has never been for profit. Thank you also for your praise and feedback. It's really great to hear what people think, especially those who know Ernie Ball products and can understand the finer details of my attempt!

One thing I've seen on this forum is BP encouraging "tomorrows builders" - otherwise we would not see the "Dudley Gimples) of tomorrow.

Great looking project - well done.

Edit
Great presentation on the clip. I'd love to hear that piezo option through an acoustic amp like my AER.

I've tried to follow your link to FB but at the moment it's saying ... ... "This content is currently unavailable". Hopefully it will be back up later?

I'm building a guitar in 2012 - something a bit different to yours though!!!

Thank you very much for the compliments! I'd love to hear from BP, but I know it's very unlikely! I think I may be one of tomorrow's builders as I'll always keep this up as a hobby and plan on making another of my own design this year. The FaceBook link definitely works as I've double checked it, so it'll be up later. If it doesn't work you can just add me at www.facebook.com/malagutial and the album of the project from start -> finish is in my photo section. Good luck with your guitar build, and keep me posted somehow!

WOW! I am totally floored Alex over a number of things. Lets start with the guitar on which you have done an amazing job. It came out beautiful and sounds amazing, as well as appearing to play like liquid mercury. Next you playing and chops are sharp as a razor, and your over all demo and presentation would of had a board room give you a standing ovation. You are planning a career in Medicine/Medical engineering, well in a few years you will be able to own all the EBMM guitars your heart desires! I am certain your parents are damn proud of you, as I think you would be a success in anything you chose to do. I would not be surprised if Sterling tried to entice you to hop on a plain and come work for EBMM=Amazing!

Thank you for all your kind words! I'm glad you like the look and sound of the guitar! Also, thanks for the compliments on my playing. I'd never claim to be a great guitarist, and I was limited by my camera battery and the amount of daylight I had that day, so my performances were mainly improvised and I don't think my best work. I did have fun making the video for this one though, using more camera angles and mixing different shots was a new experience for me. Yes, I'm headed down the Medicine route, but if any opportunity to develop a career in music or music technology appeared for me, I would seize it without a second thought as it's what I really love.
If, as you've suggested Sterling were to approach me, I would drop everything to come and develop this career! (HINT)

Very nice job Alex ! Impressive in fact !

I also love your sense of humor (Music Lad) !
You can be proud of your guitar.

Thanks for the compliments! The MusicLad was a last minute change of plan for me really. I never intended to put EB's logo on, as that's just wrong somehow, but I didn't like any of the designs I came up with using my own name. Then I wondered about taking yet more inspiration from EB and using their font and my name, so with a little bit of photoshopping I was able to get exactly what I was after and transfer it to the neck by watersliding. I'm actually probably the least 'laddish' person around these parts as well, so I liked the idea of putting it there

Great job! Guitar building looks (to the untrained eye) like a marriage between science and art - congrats!

I had to do a lot of research before beginning this project so that I could use it for my Extended Project at School. I'm studying the sciences, so I did a lot of research into propagation of waves with varying frequencies through varying density of material. This helped choose materials and also with the design of my Piezo system, so I have to agree with you there!

Nice work and congrats. You did an amazing job with that guitar.

Thanks very much for the feedback!

Very cool thread and story Alex, congrats on building an amazing guitar!

(Thanks for letting him post his story here guys!)

Thank you for your compliments! It took enough time so I'm glad people like the final product. I agree as well, I'm very pleased the EB people let me post this up here, it's very good of them.

Bravo, excellent all the way around. Don't be afraid to look on the used market for those expensive pickups. You'd be surprised how quickly the price goes down after they've been used for awhile.

Again, thank you very much for your feedback! I had a little eBay search for a Crunch Lab and Liquifire but I was still looking in excess of £50 per pickup, which is still unaffordable for me after the money I put into parts and paint already. Hopefully when I have more cash I'll be able to fit them!

Alex, did you use a CAD program to lay it out? If so, which one?

Glenn |B)

I did use a CAD program, it's called 2D design V2 and I think it's designed for school. It's very good and quite powerful though so I'd definitely recommend it. I also used Google's SketchUp for the 3D modelling before I built it.

Awesome. As you may already know, before Steve Morse joined up with EBMM, he had a very personalized guitar he spent quite a bit of time on to get to sound and play the way he wanted.

On a side note, good to know you will be pursuing medical engineering. The world always needs better medical devices to prolong and better the quality of life for those in need of them. Bravo. Good luck

I didn't actually know that, but it's an interesting thought now... haha
My career choice has always been between medicine and engineering. Both interest me and I've decided that I'll try and combine the two for a career. Unless of course, I'm able to go and do music or music technology in some successful way! Thanks very much!

I'll echo everybody's sentiments here- what a fantastic job!

Thank you very much! Thanks also for letting this get posted here

I've just looked at all the photos on facebook - great stuff.

Thanks, glad you like them!

indeed amazing work and thanks to the mod for allowing this thread that is a good tribute to EBMM genius

Thank you for your compliments and I'm glad you think this is a good tribute!

---------------------------

I'm actually blown away by all these compliments people, it's really made my day!

Thanks,

Alex

malagutial's Channel - YouTube
www.facebook.com/malagutial