The Tundra Boy is a multi-instrumentalist. His main instrument is drums, but he also plays bass, guitar and keyboard. He also has experience with string bass, baritone and bassoon, but admittedly he hasn't played any of those in several years.
When he was first showing interest in learning guitar, he decided he wanted to also learn how to build one. I was all for helping him build a guitar (twist my arm) and suggested something with a simple design to help him learn.
Simple isn't usually part of the Tundra Boy's vocabulary. As a big Dream Theater fan, he decided he wanted to build a guitar like John Petrucci's signature Music Man Monarchy Majesty. Also, he wanted it to be a seven string. I looked at the pictures of the Majesty and shuddered a little inside. There were some technical items with this guitar that an experienced builder like myself would find challenging, let alone for someone's first guitar. I tried to steer him in a different direction, but the Tundra Boy was undeterred. So we forged ahead to build his version of the Majesty.
There were a few items we couldn't replicate, most notably the tremolo bridge. The Majesty uses a custom bridge designed specifically for that guitar. Music Man can afford to have custom components created when they're ordering by the truckload. My pockets aren't as deep, so we decided to substitute a Floyd Rose tremolo. The two custom rocker switches used by the original will be replaced by a single traditional 3-way switch.
There were other changes that were made, not so much because we couldn't do it as Tundra Boy didn't want to. The woods we used were quite a deviation from the original. Tundra Boy doesn't care for colored guitars, so he wanted his to be all natural colored. We also decided to omit the piezo pickup, and greatly simplify the fretboard inlays. Also, our budget was substantially less than the $5500 that Music Man is wanting for their model of this guitar.
Here are the specs for the guitar:
Neck Type: Neck through construction
Neck Wood: Flame maple with contrasting purpleheart laminations.
Truss Rod: Dual action
Reinforcement: Two carbon fiber rods
Headstock: Angled, scarf jointed
Tuners: Gotoh
Nut: Floyd Rose locking
Body Wood: Mahogany
Body Features: Based on the Music Man Monarchy Majesty John Petrucci model. Heavily contoured body. Inlaid zebrawood on the top.
Fretboard: Zebrawood, 14" radius with dot inlays
Scale Length: 25.5"
Pickups: Dimarzio humbuckers.
Controls: One volume, one tone, three-way pickup selection switch.
Hardware: Black.
Bridge: Floyd Rose tremolo and locking nut.
Finish: Satin poly
Weight: TBD
Click here to see how the Tundra Boy built this guitar.
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This page last updated on 06/08/2020