Not yet an owner. Help in general

[Tony Russell Davis]

The top pic is of the tail end on a homemade. Blind slots at the back hold the ball ends of strings, and then they go over the upright which has been half-rounded on the back edge so the string goes over a curve behind and a (blunt) "knife edge" at the front. The ball-end anchors are spaced for your chosen string spacing rather than put nicks in the bridge top; the strings stay put by their tension alone. The bridge in both guitars is of angle aluminium. The nut is basically the same. The bridge cover on the white guitar is a part from a Precision bass (usually discarded by bassists). On these guitars the bridge and nut are both set in a channel routed to match the thickness of the aluminium. The angle piece for the nut "returns" underneath the fretboard to hide it, an additional channel at the back of the bridge allows room for the ball-ends (you can see that better on the white one).
PM me for an email address if you want more detail 'cos it's pub time now!
Kind regards, Tony.

[nevada150]

Hello again Gav,
Tony has given you some very good tips on construction, I remember he told me the same things when I asked for help on this Forum.
As for the number of strings, I'd go for 7 or 8. I started with a 6 string 1947 Gibson BR3 carcass which I rescued and rebuilt with an "Artec" humbucker. I still love it and it sounds great. 68 year old Mahogany is always gong to sound good!
I then made an 8 string to my own design, leaning heavily on the early Gretsch model for shape. Initially I used aluminium angle and channel for the nut, bridge and string anchoring. But later I replaced the bridge with a piece of 12mm S/S round bar. I filed a flat on the round bar to give it a good "ground" to the body. It has a 25" scale which gives lots of sustain and a hot rails humbucker pickup which is very mellow. I can also switch it to single coil, giving it an almost "chorus" sound, great for playing backing chords.
The additional 2 strings make a huge difference, no "whizzing" up the neck on the 1st string for that higher note, or having to play a desired low note an octave higher to fit the tune..
At present my tuning is C6 with High "G": from high to low: G,E,C,A,G,E,C,A. But, I often tune the lower A down to G to fit a particular tune and to give it a bit of "Growl".
Tony can vouch for the sound of my guitars, we'll be playing together next Sunday at our bi-monthly meeting.
I personally wouldn't go from any preset plans, decide on the shape you'd like, make it traditional or unique, whatever you want, position the pickup(s) and controls in a sensible position, then get started.
Your luthier pal will build whatever you want if he's as excited as you've said.
Good luck,
Keith