MaxTapper Mayhem

[PhoBucket]

Last Friday I purchased a used Megatar Maxtapper model. The instrument has been a bit "loved" by the previous owners, and used for a half-fretless tapper experiment (which sounds great with flatwound strings BTW).

First Impressions:
Between my newness to tap instruments, and the instrument being converted to half-fretless and in need of a good setup, I can't speak much about the playtability of the instrument. I can however talk to some degree about the sound and construction.

Holy Guacamole, Batman, those Barts sound good. Clear and full bodied. The warmth from the mahogany body with the clarity of the Bartolini pickups is really a wonderful combination. The quality of the sound from the Maxtapper really make me feel like this instrument is worth spending some money to get it back to spec or better.

As for design and construction, the instrument seems to have held up well to 7 years of hard time. The neck joint was tight and there were no cracks in the instrument. The woodwork was very well executed. The body appears larger in pictures than it does in person. Must be that thing about cameras adding 10 pounds.

The meg-strap system is just about the best strap since sliced bread. It held the instrument in a comfortable position without requiring support from either hand, and without getting in the way. I was able to play the 8.5lb instrument for almost 2 hours without feeling much strain on the back and shoulder. For really long gigs (more than 3 hours), I would probably invest in a Slider strap.

The tuners are one area of the instrument that could be improved. I'm not sure if these are the same tuners still used in production, but a finer tuning ratio and a more solid feel would bring this area up to snuff with the rest of the instrument.

The finish has clouded around the headstock, but I don't know if this occurred naturally or was the result of the instrument being left in a hot car or something.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase and the value of the instrument. A 12 string tapper of this quality at approx $1600 is a pretty sweet deal.

[PhoBucket]

Yesterday I brought the MaxTapper to my friendly neighborhood luthier, Tim Cloonan, of Callowhill Guitars (http://www.callowhill.net/) . I wanted to get an estimate on a re-fret, and on the possibility of lifting the fretboard and installing a new wenge fretboard (for a little nam myoho wenge kyo, if you will).

I'm now considering getting an entire new neck from Tim since the amount of labor involved in removing the old fingerboard and replacing it with a new one, and removing the scratches on the back of the neck is not that far off the cost of a new neck. Best of all, I can continue to play the instrument with the old neck while the new neck is built.

Now my mind is racing with options. Do I want to change the neck woods? Should I convert the instrument to a 10-string with wider string spacing? If I'm changing the hardware, should I get gold or black hardware? Hmm, since the body also has scratches, should I refinish the body? What color? How about a new pickguard? This is a sickness, I tell ya'.

[arsacane]

Did you considered the possibility to get a new neck from mobius? Or even sending you instrument there in order to have it fixed?
Traktor is that possible?

[PhoBucket]

Traktor was the first person I called. I think the new Megatar shop is geared around the design enhancements made to his newer models.

Maybe there will be a TrueTapper in the barn someday.

[GaryOpenhill]

Originally posted by PhoBucket
Traktor was the first person I called. I think the new Megatar shop is geared around the design enhancements made to his newer models.

Maybe there will be a TrueTapper in the barn someday.

What design enhancements? Elaborate, pls?

[PhoBucket]

That was just a dumb way of saying neck-thru. I don't want to speak too much for Traktor, as I'm no rep or insider for Mobius. Just a fan.

Gary, when you did your 10 string conversion, did the strings still go thru the body at the bridge? Was there still a gap between the melody and bass sides?

[traktor]

Although it's been noted from some of our EBay pix, I've not really announced that Mobius instruments do have a couple of design enhancements.

So as not to hi-jack this thread -- which is really an interesting thread! -- I'll start a new thread in the Newsroom section, and provide more details.

[GaryOpenhill]

Originally posted by PhoBucket
That was just a dumb way of saying neck-thru. I don't want to speak too much for Traktor, as I'm no rep or insider for Mobius. Just a fan.

Gary, when you did your 10 string conversion, did the strings still go thru the body at the bridge? Was there still a gap between the melody and bass sides?

I converted the megatar to a 10 string inverted M3 tuning, from C1 to C4. I filed a new nut with a little wider stringspacing, and eliminated the gap between string 6 and 7 in the bridge by simply cutting the middle part away and closing the gap. Had to move the pickups a little too closer to the middle, but that is no big deal on the megatar. No routing, just filing a little in the pickguard. The edge of the fretboard will not run parallell to the outer strings. It will be tapered. But if you dare to do this modification, you'll find that that does not affect the playing at all, you may even like it. (i actually like it a lot for a couple of reasons)
Btw, all along i made sure i could change it back whenever i wanted! And since then i HAVE modified it back to a 12 string, but kept the bridge. The great thing about the megatar is that it can take this kind of abuse! But i feel that i've pushed its limits and i will keep it exactly how it is now as long as i have it. Now i play the double treble tuning on it, which is my favourite tuning.

[PhoBucket]

Some decisions have been made. The neck will be wenge and mahogany with a wenge fingerboard. No inlays (plan on using C dots). 10 strings with no taper. Stainless steel frets. Sperzel tuners. The body will be refinished, but I'm trying to decide between a clear finish or black, or black sparkle. Hardware color depends on the finish.

[PhoBucket]

Work is underway on the neck at Callowhill. I needed to do some research in order to get the proper string sizes so that they could slot the nut.

I used this string calculator (http://www.pacificsites.net/~dog/StringTensionApplet.html) to calculate the necessary gauges for the appropriate string tension. I made a couple of assumptions based on the last set of BassBottom strings I purchased from Mobius.

For the BassBottom strings, a low B is .100", which works out to 19.08lbs tension at a 34" scale length. Using a 19lbs per string benchmark, I entered in the pitches and string types I needed into the calculator. Finding .107 and .093 strings was proving difficult or expensive, so I raised the tension on the bottom to strings to 20lbs and found more readily available gauges.

Is 19lbs per string a realistic benchmark for the entire range?

The first half of program below calulates string tension. The second half calculates diameter. In reality, I filled in the second half first, then adjusted the first half.

-- Low A#

len 34"

A3# .0115" PL == 19.07#
E3 .017" PL == 20.83#
C3 .022" NW == 18.82#
A2# .025" NW == 19.14#
E2 .035" NW == 18.53#
C2 .045" NW == 18.8#
A1# .052" NW == 19.57#
E1 .075" NW == 20.65#
C1 .095" NW == 19.75#
A0# .110" NW == 19.66#
total == 194.81#

A3# 19# PL == 0.0115"
E3 19# PL == 0.0162"
C3 19# NW == 0.0221"
A2# 19# NW == 0.0249"
E2 19# NW == 0.0355"
C2 19# NW == 0.0453"
A1# 19# NW == 0.0512"
E1 19# NW == 0.0717"
C1 20# NW == 0.0957"
A0# 20# NW == 0.1113"

At JustStrings.com (http://juststrings.com) I was able to find the appropriate gauges all by the same brand in nickel wound strings.

DAD_PL0115 $.070
DAD_PL017 $0.70
DAD_NW022 $1.28
DAD_XLB025w $3.30
DAD_XLB035 $4.04
DAD_XLB045 $4.04
DAD_XLB052 $4.04
DAD_XLB075 $5.20
DAD_XLB095 $6.30
DAD_XLB110 $6.30

TOTAL: $36.90

I am a little concerned about the relative closeness in gauge of A1 and C#2. If I change A1 to a .055 gauge string, it would save some money (because I could get a set containing .035, .055, .075, and .095 for $15), but this raises the tension of the A1 string to 22.56lbs. How noticeable would the difference be? It would only save about $5, so I would rather go with a better feel if there is a difference.

The next task is to get the bridge sorted out, but I need to visit Callowhill in order to get measurements on the existing bridge plate, which is still attached to the Megatar.

[PhoBucket]

So a few things have changed. The refret became a new fingerboard, which became a new neck, and now it's going to be an entirely new instrument. Which will also leave me with a Megatar that I'm going to eventually refret and put back into the BassBottom tuning. For now, I'm just excited that my new instrument is getting close. Guess I'll post the new instrument in it's own thread and keep this for the Maxtapper repairs, since that would be fitting with the thread title.