I made me a quitar

Sporky McGuffin

Sporky McGuffin

New member
6 days in Wales with a chap who builds jolly nice guitars indeed. This is my second build, and I am rather pleased with it. It's in bits now for wiring (which I'm doing) and painting (which he is).

27-inch scale, alder body, maple neck with cocobolo fretboard, MOP inlays. Pair of Bulldog humbucklers, Sustainiac Stealth Pro, Steinberger gearless tuners, Hipshot contour tremolo.

Anyone who thinks a bolt-on neck and floating tremolo means a lack of sustain just hasn't heard it done right. :)

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Re: I made me a quitar

It was really light until the bridge went in - it's one hefty lump of metal. Amazing sustain though, even without the Sustainiac. Anyone who thinks bolt-on necks and floating trems mean no sustain can't have heard it done properly! :D
 
Re: I made me a quitar

The body shape is very similar - taken from a Jag DXF but with a few tweaks, mostly to smooth out some of the curves. The scratchplate is rather different in places - much smoother and better fitting to the body shape.
 
Re: I made me a quitar

Very nice .............. and 27" scale! how low do you intend to tune it? What gauge strings? I can't wait to see it after it's finished. I love the body shape!
 
Re: I made me a quitar

Very nice!!! Looks like a lot of hard work went into and are going into it. I, too, can't wait to see it finished.

-dave
 
Re: I made me a quitar

Great job Sporky, what going on with the neck pick up.... is that 3 coils??? Also, I like your jack socket on the back, as long as a guitar hangs right it makes sense. What colour you going for? Very cool guitar!
 
Re: I made me a quitar

It's tuned B-E - though I'm not yet decided whether that'll be BEADGBE (ie a conventional 6 with a low B added) or BEADF#BE (ie a baritone with an extra E on top).

The neck pickup has a normal 7-string humbucker and a Sustainiac Stealth Pro - infinite sustain, or squeally feedback or mixes.
 
Re: I made me a quitar

Looks nice. Seven-strings are awesome, more so on a longer scale. Have you played a Sustainiac before?
 
Re: I made me a quitar

I'm down with that. Very cool guitar indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.
 
Re: I made me a quitar

Jessie Sammler said:
Looks nice. Seven-strings are awesome, more so on a longer scale. Have you played a Sustainiac before?
Click to expand...

I have indeed - my RG570 has one. I might swap it out into something else though... hmm. That just has on/off and normal/harmonic though - this has on/off and then a knob that controls the power and normal/harmonic mode plus activates the mix modes.
 
Re: I made me a quitar

I wanna put a Sub-brainiac on one of my guitars!
 
Re: I made me a quitar

I built it!

I had guidance and some direct help from Neil Morgan - he's been running guitar building courses for a year or so but I believe this was the last one. I did the vast majority myself; Neil did inlay slots, a bit of the shaping around the neck joint and heel and the last nut slot. Otherwise it was mine own two hands, a bandsaw, a router, and assorted other power and hand tools.

It came to about £700 in parts, paint job will be around £330.
 
Re: I made me a quitar

How did you find the course? I'd love to do something like that sometime in the future
 
Re: I made me a quitar

I knew Neil (just) before he started making guitars. Most of his were beautifully made but not to my tastes - he did a lot of figured wood and fancy binding and such - but the quality was really good. When he said he was doing courses I pretty much bit his hand off.

There are lots of nice little touches - the neck joint is snug enough that you can pick the guitar up by the neck without any bolts in, and there are no visible fret tangs because the fret slots aren't cut all the way across the fretboard. There's a veneer on the headstock cut from the same blank as the neck so it's almost invisible, and the headstock joint is strong enough to put the neck on the floor and stand on it.

I did a previous course and built a Variax rehouse which I just need to finish the scratchplate for - it's in a fantastic flip-flop green/blue.

As you might have gathered, I am enormously happy with how this one has come out - I'd not have believed I could do it!

To my knowledge the only similar course is the Bailey one up in Scotland. I know a chap who did that one twice and then the Morgan one and enjoyed all of them - the Bailey one is, from what he said, very much a "build a guitar" course, whereas the Morgan one sets you up to go on and build as many more as you want to. I went back a second time because I'd not managed to get a workshop set up and wanted to try something more ambitious this time.

Next step is to strip, insulate and power the shed and move one pillar drill in, then I will buy myself a bandsaw. :)
 
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Re: I made me a quitar

Nice! :fing2:

I'd just put a thin clearcoat on the body and tung oil the neck. I like the idea of the input jack on the back of the axe! :)
 
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