Building Your Own Guitar

[Paul Wolfe]

After reading a comment from Stiltzkin in another thread, I am curious:

1) If you were to build your own guitar, what would it be like (style-wise)?

2) How much would you spend on it?

3) Would you build it entirely by hand or out of parts from someplace like Warmoth?

[Paul Wolfe]

First of all, I'd be building a bass

I'm inclined to think I'd go with a Warmoth G4 body' routed for a Music Man bass pickup in the bridge position... a single volume knob... maple neck with maple fingerboard... no neck inlays... all black hardware and bare wood, no finish...

All this would come to about $800 which is about the most I'd be willing to spend.

Here's the general idea...


I think I might try Warmoth's glow-in-the-dark finish, but I'm not sure. Here it is on a Strat body, they say it's white with a faint green tint in the light and, obviously, glow-in-the-dark green when the lights go out.:

[Paul Wolfe]

Wow, 39 views and no comments?

So I was thinking about maybe doing a chambered P-bass body with the glow-in-the-dark paint...

[blues_n_cues]

i've been wanting to build a star for a while but just haven't found the budget lately.

[Stiltzkin]

i've been wanting to build a star for a while but just haven't found the budget lately.

What's your budget then?
meanwhile, feel free to jot down your specs of choice

[Paul Wolfe]

i've been wanting to build a star for a while but just haven't found the budget lately.

When you say 'star' did you mean along the lines of this?

[Stiltzkin]

When you say 'star' did you mean along the lines of this?

wowza that's a shiny guitar right there
I actually built a few years ago ... maybe not so much built
but I painted it and put it all together had to use polyurethane
since it hardens quicker than nitrocellulose. Layer after layer
during 2-3 weeks, with approx 2 days between each.
It was a fun experience but I sold it off last year. The body
anyway the pickups were long gone and I can't imagine
somebody wanting the Floyd Rose copy I know I didn't

[rice_pudding]

1) Seeing as I'm not very skilled with such things, and lack things like a lathe I would keep things simple. Probably a strat body and neck. Maple or rosewood fingerboard, no real preference there, but I would go to some length to get a fingerboard radius that doesn't play like a dog. Actually, if I couldn't get 10' or 12' I wouldn't bother making a guitar. I would go with a stop tail bridge and two hum bucker set-up, volume and tone. I would probably buy most of the hardware from Trev Wilkinson.

2) I would not spend more than the cost of an equivalent model on the marketplace (with the exception of the paint- i shall explain in the next point!). So If I spent £800 I would expect it to sound and play better than a Mexican strat, but it would be unrealistic to expect anything I built to sound as good as an American strat. Probably I would limit myself to £500 or so (minus paint) that would be $800 american.

3) I would have to use pre cut bodies and whatnot, and I would have to get someone to paint it. I would be willing to spend quite a bit on paint if it looked truly unique. My friend is quite the artist so maybe he could come up with something, either that or polka dots!

Rob

[rice_pudding]

Speaking of custom guitars I had the pleasure of meeting John Case at his workshop in Kent last week and was lucky enough to demo this... http://www.caseguitars.co.uk/index.htm (Edit: Specifically the J1 22R listed under stock!)

I'll be making a documentary and series of promotional videos on his work over the next couple of months. I'll post the finished product as and when it's done!

Rob

[Paul Wolfe]

Speaking of custom guitars I had the pleasure of meeting John Case at his workshop in Kent last week and was lucky enough to demo this... http://www.caseguitars.co.uk/index.htm (Edit: Specifically the J1 22R listed under stock!)

I'll be making a documentary and series of promotional videos on his work over the next couple of months. I'll post the finished product as and when it's done!

Rob

Ordinarily I don't care for guitars based on the Les Paul and then tweaked (not sure why, but the LP is the guitar to me and I don't like to see it messed with)... However, that is one beautiful guitar right there!

[rice_pudding]

Ordinarily I don't care for guitars based on the Les Paul and then tweaked (not sure why, but the LP is the guitar to me and I don't like to see it messed with)... However, that is one beautiful guitar right there!

I tend to agree, the Les Paul is the Les Paul, it's just classic. But that Case guitar is not your typical Les Paul, far from it actually. Between the set up, hollowed body cavities and coil tapping it's really a guitar in it's own right. I didn't give it a proper test but it felt more like a PRS in my hands and the sound was very open and resonant, it had it's share of ES-335 tones for sure.

I don't know if you are familiar with one of Robben Ford's latest albums 'Truth' (incredible album). The guitar basically nails all of those lovely Blues/Jazz tones through the Fender Tweed I was using. But for classic LP action here is Roy Fulton playing a gold top model. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc3smizIqSA

I've always told myself I want a top notch LP one day, I think I'll save for one of these instead, not to cuss Gibson, but it just seems much more guitar for the money

Rob

[Paul Wolfe]

Roy Fulton sounds great on that video... definitely peaked my interest in this axe.

[blues_n_cues]

When you say 'star' did you mean along the lines of this?

wowza that's a shiny guitar right there
I actually built a few years ago ... maybe not so much built
but I painted it and put it all together had to use polyurethane
since it hardens quicker than nitrocellulose. Layer after layer
during 2-3 weeks, with approx 2 days between each.
It was a fun experience but I sold it off last year. The body
anyway the pickups were long gone and I can't imagine
somebody wanting the Floyd Rose copy I know I didn't

yup.

[blues_n_cues]

i've been wanting to build a star for a while but just haven't found the budget lately.

What's your budget then?
meanwhile, feel free to jot down your specs of choice

zip. we're getting the oldest daughter married off next month.


h/s,floyd,single vol w/ toggle. bird's eye maple fretboard,maple neck,not sure about the body cap yet but mahogany or koa body(I have contacts in hawaii).

[Paul Wolfe]

This is getting me psyched about building a bass... I wish I could buy all the materials at once, but, alas, I'm having to buy a few parts at a time over a couple years...