Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

StefanM

StefanM

New member
I'm itching to make another guitar. I have a nice MIM Classic 60s neck here to build a body for, and would really love to hear your ideas!

If I'm making another guitar, it may as well be fairly different to my tele, even though the only thing I don't like about it is the weight. So far I have...

* has to be a lot lighter than my tele (the sound & lightness of chambered appeals)
* Would like a fedner-style trem, as I've never had a tremed guitar
* most likely back routed
* natural finish
* perhaps either dual humbuckers, or P90s, or a combo of each (like 1 phat cat, 1 humbucker)

I really dig the looks of the new Fender TC-90, a lot of G&L guitars like the dual P-90(ish) looking ASATs & ASAT Juniors, and love the shape of the Music Man Sabre. The Sabre is one of the few shapes I'd consider putting a pickguard on, there's something about it that looks great.

So.. if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Hi Stefan -

If you really want a trem, there's no good reason I can think of to use a traditional 6-point Fender trem bridge if you aren't going for a vintage Fender look. The Gotoh-Wilkinson 2-point trem bridge is a great piece of hardware.

This is probably my ignorance, but what is a Music Man "Sabre"? I see the "Silhouete" on the MM site...

What's the headstock shape on that neck of yours - Strat or Tele? You might use that as a starting point for ideas.

Other cool places to look for ideas are the customer galleries at Warmoth and USA Custom Guitars. Check out the "sticky" thread at the top of the USACG Forum too. Finally, the MIMF (Musical Instrument Makers' Forum) has lots of great info, even if the atmosphere isn't anywhere near as friendly as this "place".

Hope this helps,

Chip
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Thanks Chip. My neck has a strat headstock, but it doesn't really make that much difference, as my tele has a strat headstock too. (I like them). I've been through warmoth etc looking for inspiration and ideas, but thanks for the other forums, I'll look them up. I'll look up the gotoh/wilkinson trem too - I just want somethign simple, not like a floyd rose.

The Music Man Sabre 1 was a Leo Fender design before he started G&L. Don't worry , I hadn't heard of them either until a few days ago :) I quite like the shape:
http://www.scottyscape.com/images/2002-05-21/P1001201.jpg
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Take a flying V body shape but put the neck pocket inside the V instead of the tip like this:

->

Then put on P-90s. Have it be made of ash with a poplar cap, just 'cuz that would be rediculous.

No volume OR tone control, just an input jack and um...rabbit stickers. everywhere.

I need to get some sleep...

-X
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

JohnJohn said:
I just built a tele,(pancake body with1/8" mahagony veneer on the back and a folded 1/8" maple veneer on the top over a carved body).It's going to be a hardtail through body with a single hum in the bridge.
Take lots of pics too,work in progress is always cool.
Click to expand...

Got any pics, JohnJohn? My tele was a lot of fun to build, 6 years ago. Not capped, but laminated down the middle as I couldn't get a slab of Tas Oak thick enough. Made routing the pup wire channels etc easy. When you say carved, do to mean carved top like a LP, or countoured like a strat? I did my 'strat' countours with an angle grinder :) I have some work in progress pics somewhere, I'll have to dig them out.

Curly - thanks for the links. Jonathan Kaiser's I especially like - my kinda axe. Reminds me of a Maton without the racing stripes.

Empty Pockets - yes you do :D
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Iv got over 20 guitars that i picked up at PAWN Shops for a little of nothing. I fix them, repaint them, do whatever needs to be done and sell them.
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Umm...

I'm really confused by your post, RacerX. I don't mean to offend you, but I really don't see what that has to do with the price of milk.
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

I was just stateing that you can find many good guitars at Pawn Shops to rebuild, insted of building on from a kit thats all. I dont see how that could be confuseing ? Any ways, not offended in the least, just thought id offer you some other choices.
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Ok, thanks Racer X. I see your point. Maybee I should have made my first post clearer - I don't want to build a guitar from a kit, I want to make another one from scratch. By 'another one', I don't just mean I want another guitar, but meant to imply that I'd built one before and want to build one again.

The tele in my avatar, I built from scratch years ago, made the body by hand and bought the rest. It's the process of building another one that I'm looking forward too, more than the end product of owning another guitar.
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Not your fault bro, mine. I just dident read it right, sorry. By the way, very nice guitar, you should be very proud of it, I would. Take care, with much respecet, RACER X/GARY.
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Racerx - don't apologise, my first post really isn't very clear at all. I'd love to be able to pick up guitars cheaply at pawn shops & do them up, but that doesn't seem to happen over here.

Y2stevo - yeah, that's what I meant by chambered (again, I wasn't very clear!). I'm thinking solid down the middle with big chambers either side. Not sure whether the area behind the bridge should be left solid or not.. I've always thought the area in line wit hthe strings was important, but all the warmoth etc bodies route behind there too, so maybee it isn't. Or did you mean completely hollow?

JohnJohn - look forward to the pics. I went pretty basically on the tele, but this time around I want to do somehting curvier.
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Do a design that'll put BC Rich to shame...haha, lots of sanding in tight corners...

Sorry about that last post, dunno where my brain was...ha!

-X
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Hi Stefan -

I almost hate to send you there, but the MIMF Library (which you only see if you register) has tons of info on chambering & making semi-hollow electric guitars. If you've already made a solid body, that might be your next step/challenge ;)

FWIW Warmoth does seem to hollow out the space behind the bridge. Somewhere I saw a really cool pic of the inside of a Rickenbacher - the center maple block extends from the neck joint past the end of the bridge, but it's all one cavity around the center block. USA Custom Guitars only chambers the sides and leaves the area between the bridge & the butt of the guitar solid - this may be to allow mounting a Bigsby bridge without worrying.

Someday soon, I'll have to tools to make my own body from a block of wood... I totally understand why you'd want to make another guitar :)

Chip
 
Re: Want to build another guitar - throw your ideas around

Thanks Chip - I registered with the MIMF, was going to post but it's read-only on weekends. Didn't look around much, but I will do. A chambered solidbody wouldn't be very difficult at all with a body with a cap. With my tele (which has a split down the middle, so imagine 2 thin guitar shapes on top of each other glued together) I actually put in some small chambers because I was concerned with weight. I went easy because I was worried it have an adverse effect on the tone/sustain. Basically just matched the control cavity space to the other side to make it symmetrical. With a hardwood, big chambers on either side is no deal at all, just have to measure up for depth. No different from routing a control cavity, except you do it from the insdie out.There are pics in The Telecaster Book of the inside of the f-shole teles done the same way.

I'm really curious about the sound difference between big chamber (liek the rickenbacker) vs 2 side chambers (like semisolid tele or warmoth), vs zillions of small chambers (like chambered warmoth)

I didn't have any tools when I made my guitar, really, besides a sander, files etc, jigsaw and bench drill frame thing for mounting a regular electric drill in. Borrowed a router and learned how to use it, and got a woodworker to cut the rough body shape out of the slab of wood with a bandsaw (did a great job). My dad helped me a lot. The hardest part, really, is making the templates for the neck pocket and pups and getting them right, and measuring stuff up like putting the bridge in the right spot.
 
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