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OK, so I've been playing guitar for a while. Enough so that I have tried out a lot of things and developed my own eclectic preferences. Since I started playing in '98 my main guitars have been an Epiphone Dot, a Godin Exit 22, and a Charvel So Cal. I'm hoping random people on the internet can advise me on how best to find/build exactly what I need*.
1. Neck:
Has to be 1 11/16ths at the nut. I like ebony or maple fretboards. I like the feel of an unfinished neck, but don't like an unfinished fretboard (it gets dirty quickly). The nicest feeling neck I've ever played is on my Charvel So Cal Pro Mod (2008 USA made model), it's damned near perfect. Quarter sawn maple, heavily rolled edges, lovely soft unfinished feeling back of the neck. I've got two complaints about it though . . . the heel adjust truss rod is a gigantic pain in the ass. I hate having to take the neck off the guitar every time I want to tweak it, also it would be cool if I could get the neck the tiniest bit thicker. Very annoyingly, Charvel necks are not compatible with standard Fender neck pockets. They're 1/8th of an inch wider at the heel . . . which means no Warmoth necks or bodies.
I like ebony or maple fretboards. I like the feel of an unfinished neck, but don't like an unfinished fretboard (it gets dirty quickly - so to combat this, on my Charvel I took the neck off and applied). Was thinking about either a 1 piece quartersawn maple neck, or maybe padouk with an ebony fretboard.
My new neck NEEDS stainless steel frets. I like big frets. Was thinking either 6000, or 6100. I don't want a 24 fret neck because I don't like what the re-position does to the sound of the neck pickup.
So I think there are three options for me here:
- Buy a used Charvel so cal pro mod neck, refret it with SS wire.
- Buy an unfinished custom neck from either Musikraft (would finish on my own with Danish oil).
- Buy an unfinished custom neck from USACG (would finish on my own with Danish oil).
Body:
I've always liked the Jazzmaster body shape. It's cool looking. More important than looking cool though, I find the upper fret access on the jazzmaster to be better than the upper fret access on a strat. Because there's no lower horn you can kick your wrist out and keep the same playing position pretty much all the way up to the 22nd fret. This is hella important to me! I find myself spending more and more time up on the dusty end of the fretboard these days, and want it to be more comfortable than on a strat.
I've had good luck with maple, alder, and mahogany bodies. My preference would lean towards alder though - especially if I could get it roasted so it's lighter.
If I want the Charvel heel width, there is really only one option:
- USACG body
Then it's just a matter of finding a custom cut pickguard.
Body Finish:
I have no taste . . . and am magnetically drawn to neon colours. Particularly neon pink. I saw this body at Warmoth's site a while ago and nearly crapped myself because of how awesome it was:
Is there a place that could do this tranparent neon finish on a body I buy from Musikraft or USACG? Or is this the kind of thing that it would be possible to do on my own? (I'd also settle for a hot pink dye job over a flame maple top, with pink sides/back.) I figure I'd be up for spraying a jazzmaster body a neon colour with rattle cans and then clear coating it if we can't find someone to do the finish I want . . . but it would be more awesome to have it transparent.
Pickups:
I really like the SSL-5 bridge and the SSL-1 neck and middle that are in my Charvel. I really hate the noise they make . . . and would like the ability to get a more middy sound from them occasionally while playing distorted.
Here I'm thinking about either:
- STK-S4, STK-S4, STK-S7 with G&L style master treble/master bass as tone knobs
- Livewire II Classic Strat set with EMG SPC/RPC - I feel like this would do exactly what I want, with the annoying down side that I'd have to figure out a way to jam a battery in the guitar body.
Bridge:
- Floyd Rose Original or
- Gotoh Floyd
Thoughts?
*and by need, I mean totally don't need, but want
1. Neck:
Has to be 1 11/16ths at the nut. I like ebony or maple fretboards. I like the feel of an unfinished neck, but don't like an unfinished fretboard (it gets dirty quickly). The nicest feeling neck I've ever played is on my Charvel So Cal Pro Mod (2008 USA made model), it's damned near perfect. Quarter sawn maple, heavily rolled edges, lovely soft unfinished feeling back of the neck. I've got two complaints about it though . . . the heel adjust truss rod is a gigantic pain in the ass. I hate having to take the neck off the guitar every time I want to tweak it, also it would be cool if I could get the neck the tiniest bit thicker. Very annoyingly, Charvel necks are not compatible with standard Fender neck pockets. They're 1/8th of an inch wider at the heel . . . which means no Warmoth necks or bodies.
I like ebony or maple fretboards. I like the feel of an unfinished neck, but don't like an unfinished fretboard (it gets dirty quickly - so to combat this, on my Charvel I took the neck off and applied). Was thinking about either a 1 piece quartersawn maple neck, or maybe padouk with an ebony fretboard.
My new neck NEEDS stainless steel frets. I like big frets. Was thinking either 6000, or 6100. I don't want a 24 fret neck because I don't like what the re-position does to the sound of the neck pickup.
So I think there are three options for me here:
- Buy a used Charvel so cal pro mod neck, refret it with SS wire.
- Buy an unfinished custom neck from either Musikraft (would finish on my own with Danish oil).
- Buy an unfinished custom neck from USACG (would finish on my own with Danish oil).
Body:
I've always liked the Jazzmaster body shape. It's cool looking. More important than looking cool though, I find the upper fret access on the jazzmaster to be better than the upper fret access on a strat. Because there's no lower horn you can kick your wrist out and keep the same playing position pretty much all the way up to the 22nd fret. This is hella important to me! I find myself spending more and more time up on the dusty end of the fretboard these days, and want it to be more comfortable than on a strat.
I've had good luck with maple, alder, and mahogany bodies. My preference would lean towards alder though - especially if I could get it roasted so it's lighter.
If I want the Charvel heel width, there is really only one option:
- USACG body
Then it's just a matter of finding a custom cut pickguard.
Body Finish:
I have no taste . . . and am magnetically drawn to neon colours. Particularly neon pink. I saw this body at Warmoth's site a while ago and nearly crapped myself because of how awesome it was:
Is there a place that could do this tranparent neon finish on a body I buy from Musikraft or USACG? Or is this the kind of thing that it would be possible to do on my own? (I'd also settle for a hot pink dye job over a flame maple top, with pink sides/back.) I figure I'd be up for spraying a jazzmaster body a neon colour with rattle cans and then clear coating it if we can't find someone to do the finish I want . . . but it would be more awesome to have it transparent.
Pickups:
I really like the SSL-5 bridge and the SSL-1 neck and middle that are in my Charvel. I really hate the noise they make . . . and would like the ability to get a more middy sound from them occasionally while playing distorted.
Here I'm thinking about either:
- STK-S4, STK-S4, STK-S7 with G&L style master treble/master bass as tone knobs
- Livewire II Classic Strat set with EMG SPC/RPC - I feel like this would do exactly what I want, with the annoying down side that I'd have to figure out a way to jam a battery in the guitar body.
Bridge:
- Floyd Rose Original or
- Gotoh Floyd
Thoughts?
*and by need, I mean totally don't need, but want
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