If there was just 1 thing, just one thing you could warn me about, one piece of wisdom to pass on about building a guitar (strat or tele warmoth, usacg....lollar...) what would it be?
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If there was just 1 thing, just one thing you could warn me about, one piece of wisdom to pass on about building a guitar (strat or tele warmoth, usacg....lollar...) what would it be?
Take your time and recheck everything.
Be very carefull and precise on the drilling in the hard Maple neck, use drill stops so You are not drilling through the headstock and when a small screw is tapping the threads for the first time use a little bit of vaseline to make it go in smooth and You won't brake the little screws head.
Expect to try a few necks before You will find the right one as in my case and I'm very happy now with an eighties made in Japan neck, very good and affordabel.
Fender after market custom shop pickups are great especially the '54 and '69s. not very pricy used on the Bay!!
Really know what neck shape and fret size you want.
I thought a Boatneck would resemble my Bluesbird in feel, and I went with vintage size SS frets.
The stainless steel frets feel great.
It's a beutiful neck, but it really turned out to be too fat for me.
I would have been happier with a soft V and medium jumbos.
A naughty router can cause many sleepless nights.
A sunburst finish can hide the evidence.
read as much as you can about it by a respectable tech. take your time, and put it away when you get frustrated. i have to remind myself of that. that alone will help you avoid many mistakes.
Try not to fuck it all up. :D
i knew i liked you for a reason curtmo.
Well, I have learned that little piece of advice first hand because many a time, in many areas of human endeavour, I have completely fucked it all up.
On the other hand, don't be afraid to fuck it up! Those who are afraid to fuck up seldom do anything really great!
Absolutely. It's just, when you do try, try not to fuck it all up.
the tools required to get the neck and nut set up have made me sort not want to do this...I guess $150 of tools aint bad..maybe if I can score USACG web specials.. and go with oil finish to cut costs, I'm cheap.
I was thinking the same way with my build and ended up with an already painted realy nice body (Higway 1 in Daphne Blue) for 100 Euros and for 50 Euros left the fine tuning for the sett-up in the hands of a Lutier! :Banjo: instead of buying those expensive tools.
The thing I've learned is that You never stop tweeking and after the pro set-up she was finished and played a lott instead of tweeked a lott !! :slap
Pulled the trigger - 2 pc. body on the way from USA Custom.
Got a mint '07 American Standard neck from local Craigslist <It was like a drug deal - "meet me at Hardee's at noon, right off the express way. I will be in a red Ford 150."
I sold a guitar that way once. I brought a really big friend with me!
I'd recommend buying the body and neck from the same company. Check everything before you do any work. I've built a couple dozen Strat and Tele clones and try to make them as accurate as possible.
My favorite supplier for bodies and necks is USACG, always treated me right and have excellent customer service. I always order the lightest possible bodies from them, and have been pleased with their selection.
I'd like to order a couple of Broadcaster spec necks from Musikraft, at some point when I have time to decipher their on-line order form.
I've ordered 2 necks from Musikraft before. One tele neck with vintage specs and a neck for an EVH Frankenstrat replica build. They have excellent stuff and great customer service. Both necks were for KnE bodies and the bodies both needed a little sanding for the neck to fit. Nothing dramatic. :smile:
Well I did it - finished up last night. I didnt fuck it up. Man did it ever de-mystify things.. so simple. However... the one thing everyone said is, "have a pro make the nut". Well, I got ants in my pants - the local tech was backed up, would have taken 2 weeks to get the nut work and set up done. So I snatched a pre-cut nut off the shelf and got it sanded down (back was flat) and it went in, I set it up...tuned it. - its the worst nut on the globe. Never get a pre-cut nut. But, I have no fear of nut making now. files on the way, easy fix. Man this guitar resonates! Even though the nut is crap it plays ok and sounds fantastic. I never imagined it would sound this good (honey moon phase). I would imagine its the Callaham tremolo and Fralins doing most of that. Will post pics soon.
I have been putting on a Tusq (artificial) nut once on an allparts replacement neck with good results, the compensated nuts from Earvana must be pretty good as wel buth never tried them out jet.
For making my one nut or been done by a Guitar tech I would go for real unbleached bone.
Good to hear that things are working out well, I realy liked it to build my own Stratocaster and learned a lott on the way and it was very sattisfying to do so!
Yup, real unbleached bone is what its getting. Im an artist / craftsman, so with a set of files this will be a snap. It fits my skill set perfectly. The nut in my Martin is sort of crap too, its sticky. So, Im anxious to make some nuts! Funny, the nut was the part I feared the most.
Well the guitar just f e e l s right. I'm real stoked, more so than when I finished my amp. This completes my signal chain of gear constructed by me. It all fits.
Thats what will be my next project, making my own 5E3 and it will be all put together and made by the player! :ole
I remember the morning I got my 5E3 going. I got up at like 4:30am. to check everything and it all worked. I didnt get to play it until I got home from work. I was in shock that it worked. Its hard to believe that was almost 2 years ago. I'm still finding 'new' sounds.
Life is good and we are all so lucky.
I love cutting nuts! It's probably my favorite guitar related repair to do. I love seeing a bone blank turn into I nice, shiny, sculpted, functional part, using nothing but hand tools.Quote:
Originally Posted by KYChucky
I cut a couple of brass nuts for a friend. Those were fun to cut as well!
The key to having fun cutting a nut if having half decent tools.
I once purchased a $300 tool to press out nothing but BMW front end bushings. At the time I though I would never use it again. I have used it on at least 4 cars now. Oddly its one of the reasons I keep buying BMWs. So far working on guitars is very cool.
Well I cut a nut with some files that my dad handed over to me. I think they are jewelry making files. He had them for his model RR. I used the edge of the file, I couldnt believe it, the edges of the files were rounded with a diameter real close to my string size. The high E is too big but it works, no buzz from any of them. I do think I will spring for 'real' nut files. I cut them a bit high and still have another piece of bone. So I will get it down to the right spot when files get here. This was easy. I urge anyone to try it. I got lucky because I didn't have to purchase files the first time to give it a try.
I used jeweler's files for years with very good results, but nut files were a revelation! They brought my nut making to a higher level of ease, fun and quality.
I always forget this one!:daQuote:
Originally Posted by curtisstetka
so far so good. Still love it. Its a bit dark sounding but...just different.
Get a brighter amp.
Or raise the volume pot value!Quote:
Originally Posted by thegeezer
It might be easier to do a recap with an old one (NOS) or do the 50ies wiring trick, had some great results with both!! :wow
with the 50s wiring will I still have tone control over all 3 PUs? Im confused by that detail.
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazin...atocaster.aspx
Well, I got all 3 guitars out the other day and swapped around. Maybe dark is not the right word. My new build with the Fralins vintage hot (base plate on bridge, modern wiring) is more scooped lets say, when compared to my American Deluxe with SCN pick ups. The guitar has a bit more boom and less in your face mid-range. The bridge pick with the base plate is much warmer and sounds better to me distorted than the SCN bridge pick up.
Anyway - new strings - over and over seem to be the best thing for over all tone. Always so amazing. I've been using the DR nickel blues .10.
Love this stuff, I even had a blast this morning: 5:30am, coffee, strat, Line 6 pocket pod, headphones down in the laundry room. Then got the kids up, took coffee to my lovely wife and woke up the kids.
That wiring diagram does not change which pickups the tone pots work on. In that diagram the middle and neck p/us have tone controls. You can just move a tone control to the bridge tab on the switch (or add a jumper so a tone control affects two pickups).
Keep in mind that, with this wiring scheme, the guitar's tone controls act like volume controls more than they usually do. They're fine at higher tone control settings, but players who use lower tone control settings might not like it.
Get a book like "Building Electric Guitars" by Martin Koch, and actually read the whole book before doing anything. Then bookmark relevant parts so you can find them quickly.
Do not try to cut things too fast. Sometimes the slower method will save you from a mistake. When carving my first guitar body I learned that a rasp has many advantages over something like a chisel, dull plane, and a scary lookin old draw knife. I still have a small scar on my guitar where the chisel went too deep. On my recent neck project I could have used the band saw to save time on many steps. I did not trust myself or it to not mess up. Therefore I mostly used a pair of nice sharp spoke shaves, a rat tail rasp, some files, sandpaper, a hand held belt sander, and good planning. The most risky tool was that belt sander, but I did not make any mistakes I could not fix.
So always choose the tool that give you the most control, and don't try to rush it.
well Ive been playing the crap out of this build. The advise about the neck is true in that I had no real preference for neck profile at the time. The neck was the first piece, now I feel it needs to be replaced as I have developed a preference for more of a C shape and a bit more wood in my palm. I stated that the guitar was dark, what was I thinking, its not dark at all, just more scooped. Its funny how your preferences and ear changes, even over short periods of time.
well i put a different neck on this guitar. I got a USACG 54 with rosewood. Much better for me. Lots more wood there than the 08 american standard strat neck that was on it. The guitar sound much much better.... I think....placebo effect? I think I has more high end, I find myself actually turning the tone knobs down. But the feel of that fat neck. so much more to my liking. I think the guitar is done..for now. Oh, did get some files and string spacing ruler to properly cut the nut, lots better.