Ed Shark Guitar

[Jahuli]

THIS THREADSHOULD PROBABLY BE IN THE GUITAR MAKERS FORUM BUT ANYWAY...

I'M PLANNING ON MAKING A REPLICA OF ED'S SHARK GUITAR THAT USED TO BE AN EXPLORER I THINK

I GONNA MAKE THE BODY AND EVERYTHING MYSELF, BUT BUY A NECK

ANYONE GOT ANY TIPS, HINTS TRICKS OR ADVICE

IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE ONE IF TALKIN ABOUT ITS THE ONE ON THE FRONT AND BACK COVERS OF WACF (AWESOME ALBUM)

[Don Corleone]

Drop Frankenstraat a PM, I know he's built sharks in the past and should be able to give you some tips.

Keep us posted as well (with pics if you can) how you getting on with it.

[Don Corleone]

I'll shift this to the builders Forum in the next 24hrs.

[Don Corleone]

The bridge pickup apparently was dimarzio, and has a really distorted sound. The body was korina which is a bright sounding wood, however when he cut it up, he said that he lost alot of tone so he tried to fix it with different pickups (thinking he'd broke his pick up) but he could never achieve the original sound.

There are also a few stories on how Ed made the jagged edge cuts. Ed claims to have drilled the guitar with a wood boring bit before he cut through the holes with the chainsaw.

[cdwillis]

Ed said after he cut out the section behind the bridge it sounded really thin. I dunno if I'd make it exactly like that, but I hope yours comes out cool.

[Don Corleone]

An idea might be to not go a near to the bridge as Ed did.

[BlimpyCHIMP™]

YOU SHOULD MAKE THE BODY OUTTA ASH WOOD IF YER GONNA CUT THE FUCKER UP LIKE THE HALFCHINKWIT DID

BC!!

[Nitro Express]

Ed made his shark guitar from an Ibanez Destroyer. The Destroyer was a Japanese copy of the original Gibson Explorer which were made from Korena wood which is simular to mohogany but comes from Africa.

The Ibanez Destroyer had a glued on neck just like a Gibson. Unless you are a pretty damn good luthier, building such a guitar yourself would require special tools and knowhow. I would just buy an Epiphone Explorer and cut it and paint it. Much cheaper and Ed said cutting that wood out fucked the sound up anyways.

[Jahuli]

I WANTED TO USE MAHOGANY

[Frankenstraat]

alright guys, Im back... I had some trouble logging on here for a while. I'm building one of these at the moment. I'll post up some pictures for you...

[GAR]

If you're making a blank, I'd choose a heavy ash, cherry, or birch in 1-5/8" stock.

This would get the density up to somewhat compensate loss of wood at the bridge when you drill and saw it out.

[GAR]

Originally posted by Jahuli
I WANTED TO USE MAHOGANY

If you use Koa or light mahogany I'd go 2-1/8" thick stock for the body.

[Nitro Express]

How fucked up on Schlitz do you have to be to drill a zillion holes in a guitar you like and then chainsaw junks out of it? Man, Edwood probably always was more fucked up than we had thought. I look at that guitar and shake my head actually.

[GAR]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Man, Edwood probably always was more fucked up than we had thought.

Chris Holmes told me Ed got the Ibanez because he had one first. He used to let Ed borrow it for months at a time and started having resistance from EVH to return it. He said, "Last time I got it back I had to physically threaten him for it, but we're already past that now. But back then I was pissed cuz it was the natural wood and he went and fuckin' painted it all fucked up and messed up the controls."

So when Ed went and got his own, he couldn't stop messing with it apparently and continued his experimentation beyond what he'd done to Chris's explorer - which in interviews he does regret doing having lost sustain.

[Nitro Express]

Theres a photo floating around on the net where it shows Eddie and the band in a studio and Ed has a sunburst Les Paul and you see the cheap keyboard and marshall cabinet he did "And The Cradle Will Rock" on. To the side you see a Explorer shaped guitar that is painted red. It's not the maroon and silver of the the shark guitar.

That has to be that guys guitar Ed borrowed.