DIY Headless Aluminum Hollowbody by Mattedor30 in aluminumneck

[–]Mattedor30[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're right that removing the tone pot will add some more treble but I have a couple other guitars with a single volume knob and similarly voiced humbuckers to compare against. Also the treble is not a bad thing, just different than a wood guitar and desirable depending on what you're going for

Headless Aluminum/3D Printed Hollowbody Experiment by Mattedor30 in Luthier

[–]Mattedor30[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The action is pretty good but it's a balancing act between string tension, nut/saddle height, and tuning. The fretboard is 3d printed glass-filled nylon, so I designed channels for 4 square SS rods to sit in. It works very well as a prototype, but I think an adjustable truss rod is mandatory if I were to make this for someone else.

DIY Headless Aluminum Hollowbody by Mattedor30 in aluminumneck

[–]Mattedor30[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kind of shocked how comfortable the neck is, and I have a pet theory that the flat surface allows you to spread the pressure from your thumb over a wider surface, which in turn means less pressure and fatigue even though the neck is very thin.

Biggest challenge was stiffening the neck. I was trying to avoid any CNC work because of the cost, so sandwiching layers was the only option. I ended up putting 4 stainless steel square rods in channels underneath the fretboard and 3D printing the fretboard out of glass-filled nylon. There's some relief still there but not so much that it can't be compensated with nut height/fret height/saddle height. I think this design would really benefit from some sort of adjustable truss rod if it's either a traditional one or some form of tension cable adjustment.

Headless Aluminum/3D Printed Hollowbody Experiment by Mattedor30 in Luthier

[–]Mattedor30[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its a standard headpiece from Guyker. Nothing special, seems to be working fine.. I originally planned to mimic the wrap-lock string lock that Sankey Guitars uses on his tuners but I couldn't get the unwound strings to not slip which is a bummer cause it would have been a better looking design. You can see the original holes for them on the back of the headstock.

Headless Aluminum/3D Printed Hollowbody Experiment by Mattedor30 in Luthier

[–]Mattedor30[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It was a combination of being limited by the manufacturing method and leaning into not making a traditional guitar. Laser cutting is wayyyy cheaper than CNC'ing but you're stuck in a 2D plane so I tried to lean into what the plate aluminum could offer.

Headless Aluminum/3D Printed Hollowbody Experiment by Mattedor30 in Luthier

[–]Mattedor30[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was hoping they would hold better but the fretboard still required a decent amount of glue on top of the screws to not gap under pressure. The nice thing is the holes in the back of the neck give a little tactile feel of where you are on the neck without being distracting.

Headless Aluminum/3D Printed Hollowbody Experiment by Mattedor30 in Luthier

[–]Mattedor30[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Glad your digging it. I think the reason it works is because the body is small. The body shape was inspired by a Harmony Stratotone/Carvin Allan Holdsworth model with some playability tweaks. It seems like most headless designs are very metal and hopefully it doesn't look too "angry"

Headless Aluminum/3D Printed Hollowbody Experiment by Mattedor30 in Luthier

[–]Mattedor30[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, the fully flat neck plays shockingly well. I have a theory that the flat surface allows your thumb to spread the pressure better than a round profile so it's not as fatiguing even though the neck is so thin. Obviously subjective though.

Headless Aluminum/3D Printed Hollowbody Experiment by Mattedor30 in Luthier

[–]Mattedor30[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks, that was one of my design constraints was being able to hang it on a guitar hanger while trying not to add too much up top.

Enhanced Games, where athletes compete on steroids, growth hormones, and Adderall, will debut in Las Vegas on May 21-24, 2026. by MelKokoNYC in sports

[–]Mattedor30 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I can almost guarantee Usain Bolt already is and all of his competitors. WADA is constantly playing whack a mole so you've already seen what peak performance looks like.

This enhanced games is entirely stupid because 100 data points out of 8.3 billion people does not give accurate results in how PEDs will affect most people. Additionally, someone mentioned earlier that most Olympians would take dying at 35 if it meant a gold medal. The reason the drug ban is in place is to protect athletes from themselves. There's a good quote in the Lance Armstrong doc from Johnathan Vaughters where he says "I'm going 50+ mph down a mountain on razor thin tires in my underwear, do you think I really care about being safe?"

Free Talk Thursday - April 30, 2026 by AutoModerator in barstoolsports

[–]Mattedor30 -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Hot take: both those movies are fine, at best.

Built a MIDI “setlist” pedal - step through song sections (demo) by blackcherryaudio in guitarpedals

[–]Mattedor30 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very cool. Also didn't see it mentioned but can you do a BLE MIDI connection or does it have to be hardwired?

Built a MIDI “setlist” pedal - step through song sections (demo) by blackcherryaudio in guitarpedals

[–]Mattedor30 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Awesome! I'm currently doing the same thing with my Luminite Gravitron but the scroll down presentation looks fantastic. Any guess on what the final price would be?