Opinions on this Skervesen Shoggie?

[WillVinson]

mod edit: one thread on your build is enough, keep it in here going forward

I'm sure you all have heard of Skervesen guitars. They are absolutely incredible, at least aesthetically in my opinion. I have yet to actually play one. So, I am getting one built and would like opinions and thoughts on the specs I have chosen. What will be the tonal characteristics of this guitar be? (Of course tone wood isn't an exact science..)

So here are the specs:

Model - 7 String Skervesen Shoggie (headless)
Scale - Fanned 26 - 25
Frets - 24
Neck - 7 piece Wenge-Budinga-Mahogany
Fretboard - Ziricote
Inlay - Tangent Curve Mother of Pearl dots with Luminlay Side Dots
Chambered Body - Black Limba with a Spalted Maple Back and Buckeye Burl Top
All Binding - Natural Wood
Pickups (Slanted) - Bare Knuckle Painkiller (Bridge) Bare Knuckle Cold Sweat (Neck)
Bridge - ABM Saddles
Straplocks - Schaller

* All hardware is black.

Wiring - single volume and tone knobs, 3-way w/ Petrucci mod in middle position, additional 3-way selector (acoustic mode / coil split / regular)
Finish - acrylic satin

Please lend me your thoughts.

Thanks,
Will

 

[Watty]

Not to be rude or anything man, but you've got "so much" in the way of specs going on that it's going to be more depending on the pickups and your amp/settings than anything else.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

There is no way you are going to be able to judge what that guitar will sound like with those specs.

Tonally its going to have tight bass with bright high-mids with a lot of attack because if the Painkiller and Cold Sweat Pickups.

 

[will_shred]

I'm kind of along the lines with what the other dudes are saying.

If I were to get a metal guitar i'd get swamp ash because I've found it's a distinctly bright wood. Great for the Djentz.

I mean, there are so many variables with every guitar though it's not like anyone will be able to tell what it's going to sound like. The only way to find out is when you get it.

it's probably going to sound amazing no matter what though

 

[Halogran]

Curious, why would you get black limba, and put a spalted maple back on it? Black limba looks great, and its a chambered body. I feel like the maple back would kinda make the chambering useless. Idk though, just seems weird to me. Also, skervesen makes amazing instruments, and they're a great company to do business with! Ask Maciek how he feels about your spec choices.

 

[rifft]

Sounds interesting. I also would say you've got way too much going on with the guitar. It kind of sounds like an "I want a custom with all the things" build instead of a have a theme or vision for it imho. As others have said, the pickups/amp will dominate your sound; not sure if the wood will color it in a noticeable way. +1 for Skervesen, though; they make great guitars and are awesome to deal with!

edit: Also, I was going to suggest that you might have better luck in the luthiery forum but it seems you've posted this thread twice already http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...skervesen-shoggie-customization-thoughts.html

 

[jephjacques]

I'd lose the spalted back, seems unnecessary. But it's your guitar, if you wanna go hog wild go for it.

 

[WillVinson]

Visually, there isn't much of a theme. I did however research all of the woods that I found aesthetically pleasing and selected the ones that would give me the tone I imagine.

The neck: the budinga will have a bright midrange and a thick well defined bottom end; mahogany will have warm, fat tone; wenge will have a strong howling midrange tone and with warm lows.

The fretboard: the ziricote will have a nice medium tone.

The body: The black limba has a wonderful upper midrange from all I have read.

I feel the combination of these woods will work great together.

I really just like the way the way the spalted maple and buckeye burl look though it won't add much to the tone. The black limba and and buckeye burl will both be visible on the top.

The chambering is to reduce the weight a bit, though I don't think it will be a heavy guitar in the first place.

 

[Riley]

Visually, there isn't much of a theme. I did however research all of the woods that I found aesthetically pleasing and selected the ones that would give me the tone I imagine.

The neck: the budinga will have a bright midrange and a thick well defined bottom end; mahogany will have warm, fat tone; wenge will have a strong howling midrange tone and with warm lows.

The fretboard: the ziricote will have a nice medium tone.

The body: The black limba has a wonderful upper midrange from all I have read.

I feel the combination of these woods will work great together.

I really just like the way the way the spalted maple and buckeye burl look though it won't add much to the tone. The black limba and and buckeye burl will both be visible on the top.

The chambering is to reduce the weight a bit, though I don't think it will be a heavy guitar in the first place.

Combining that many neck woods equally really diminishes the qualities of each one individually and ends up sounding kind of middle of the road or sterile. Of course it depends more on how much of each wood is used. I think it is safe to assume you are just planning to have one wood primarily and the others as fillets so your choice of primary wood needs to be the one that suits your preference in tone. Usually when you see thin fillets in a neck they are put there for a combination of aesthetics and strength rather than to affect the tone...My recommendation would be to keep the bubinga down to just a fillet and use more of the wenge or mahogany.

IMO the spalted back is overkill and would make the guitar too busy. To me it comes off as "I can't have a guitar with a burl top and another with a spalted top right now so i'll just combine them"

It's all up to you though.

 

[Cloudy]

As stated above I'd focus on a primary neck wood. IE: Wenge or Mahogany, which ever one you preference for majority of the neck and run other woods as stingers for aesthetics.

I'd also drop the spalted back, seems really out of place and random. The wood contrast probably won't be that nice comparatively to black limba and you've already got a lot of different exotics going on.

Granted this is YOUR guitar not any of ours, just my personal preference. It'd also help in keeping costs down, although if thats not really a problem then go for it

 

[WillVinson]

I decided to get rid of the mahogany in the neck, and dropped the spalted maple back. Now it will also be a NTB. I think I was going a bit overboard before on the wood. Thank all of you for being the voice of reason!

 

[Riley]

With those specs it sounds like you have one heck of a nice guitar coming your way looking forward to seeing some pics.

 

[Cloudy]

I decided to get rid of the mahogany in the neck, and dropped the spalted maple back. Now it will also be a NTB. I think I was going a bit overboard before on the wood. Thank all of you for being the voice of reason!

I think you made the right call. Now its going to be one sexy beast!

Black Limba with a buckeye top WOOWY thats going to be hot.

 

[WillVinson]

I can't get a reply back from Skervesen to confirm everything.

 

[hikizume976]

as I placed my order a few weeks back, I've exchanged several emails with Maciek without issues. Are you writing to guitars@commelina.eu or guitars@skervesen.eu? You should get a response from either.

 

[WillVinson]

He actually got back to me last night after I posted this. Now just have to figure out this whole payment thing. Its hard to wire money from Afghanistan.

 

[WillVinson]

Advance sent! As soon as pics start showing up, I'll post them for those interested.