New Design Proto Build - Lyra

First maple Lyra is complete.
Tone exceeds my expectations and it is quite overwhelming. I don't want to sound like a stupid 12 year old so I'd better shut up now and get some videos soon so you can share the magic. It is magic.

 

More photos...

 

I was playing soft finger style with no pick and no fingernails. Amp was set to the lowest input gain and flat eq (lots of treble for a Marshall) to get the cleanest guitar output without any push or character from the amp which is close to a direct plugin.
When played normally she sounds... Well... Normal. I did that to demonstrate the balance and articulation.
I will post a video soon.

 

Thx Scatter.
Custom padding to fit the body snugly

 

Thx Ricky

 

The real video will be done by Pete Thorn soon enough. I do not have the means to do a proper clip with my cell phone (-;

 

Thanks! Those guitars are magic... I spent many hours with both and made some last tweaks to bring them to perfection.
Will post more info shortly

 

Some changes made after playing and messing with it for a while.
The first thing I noticed is that the floating top really does make a huge difference. So much so that it sounded closer to a hollow body than a solid.. which is a great thing because I can now balance between the two by adjusting the sound post and adding another sound post on the bass side to transfer some of the vibrations down to the core.

I want to do this in a way that will allow for adjustment and going back and forth between full floating top (think ES-175) to a semi hollow tone (think late 50's ES-335).

As I adjusted the treble side sound post I noticed that it does it's job but even when tightened all the way down to the core the tone was still a bit too hollow.
I believe it is due to the fact I didn't want to add a bass bar but I took that option into consideration and here's the solution.

I made a longer ABR post




and replaced the bass side post so I can adjust it all the way down into full contact with the Mahogany core




Now I can install the ABR anywhere between full float (touching only the top for fully hollow tone) and full contact down to the Mahogany core (semi hollow tone)


The other issue I noticed was the lack of room to adjust the string height thumbwheel further down (due to the 2 thumbwheels of the system) so I shaved the ABR-1 ends down to allow a wider range of action setting.






The lowest position is almost touching the top




and the normal low playing action now looks like this

 

The Mahogany Lyra proto is pretty much identical to the maple model with the exception of the dressing and a slight change to the Lyra PAF.
I went for a classic nickel hardware and gold knobs for the bursted maple build because.. we.. it looks "right" to most including my old self (-;
but for the burnt cherry Mahogany I wanted something else...

The hardware theme will be black with Nickel. I don't want to do a black out thing as it looks childish and "dead" but a mix will look wonderful. I think.

Black chrome tuners with Nickel ferrules






Bridge set up is now identical to the revised version showed above on the maple top build. It works very well!
I made the ABR ears even thinner this time to allow for more adjustment... it can't hurt (-;





Plastics are going to be black.

Bakelite switch tip is turned, buffed and installed

 

ABR is the revised type with even thinner ears fore more adjustment range.




knobs are vintage tinted celluloid nitrate with black paint





PU's are the Lyra PAF's with two differences,
1) the slugs are adjustable and I make the threaded slugs from the same material as my standard slugs so there's no tone difference




2) I wanted the covers off look to get the black bubbins show but I still wanted it covered. Problem is that the Black chrome plated covers are slightly magnetic and this works against the design to I made them with 12 holes (-; since there are 12 holes now and the slugs are exposed I decided to add the adjustable slugs

So I still get the covers off look with the black color and the 12 holes but I also have a cover to protect and shield the PU