My guitar build!

[LSA]

Now there have been builds posted here before Slodave's awesome lp and that beautiful red thunder-bird but my guitar is a little different as I'm sure my musical tastes are a little different than the general populace of ppot.

This guitar is going to be a lean mean shredding machine. I wanted to make a truly wicked axe that took the best of all my guitars and had the faults of none. My Ibanez plays great but a cheap bridge and lack luster pickups really hold it back my Schecter is awesome great tone quality parts but lacks a floating bridge, my Jackson was an all-right all-around guitar but just felt a little on the cheap side.

So with a couple of ideas I started gathering parts I wanted to go used to keep the total price down but some of the items I had to buy new such as the body which we will start with.

I scoured ebay trying to find the perfect body. There were a few here and there but what made it difficult was I wanted a single volume knob no tone and a single bridge mounted pickup that was angled like the old kramer bodies which was why my pickings were so slim. Eventually I settled on Warmoth great quality made in the us guitar parts and found a blemished poplar body for sale and had it cut to what I wanted.



after routing out some of the cavities to make the bridge fit 100% and the cable jack hole needed to be a little bigger. (i did it with a dremel)



The neck I also had trouble finding something in 25.5 scale with 24 frets or more that had a locking nut so I just settled on a new neck from some guitar shop that sells their stuff through ebay. Rock maple made in the us, real inlays 24 frets pretty good deal for ~100 iirc.





Since it had a rosewood fretboard I decided to give some black staining oil a try to give it more of an ebony look and I've got to say it came out awesome!

Coat1


Drying with coat2


Another issue I had along with having to rout some of the cavities was that initially the heel on the neck was too tall. Luckily my friends dad has a friend that owns a wood working shop and we took a band saw to it and lopped off just enough to get it to sit just right.


and voila after the bandsaw


More to come! the lectronics hardware and I think the most unique thing about my build how I'm going to finish it (not with paint).

[vas930]

Cool!

[craigster59]

Very nice! What are you using on the body? A clear colored stain would look nice, is the Floyd Rose going to be silver or black?

[azasadny]

Nice project!!

[Rick Lee]

What timing. I'm starting my EVH 5150 tribute guitar tomorrow, just bolted up a piece of scrap wood to hold it while I start painting in the morning. I'm not going to make it something fancy, just want a beater. Your looks very nice, sort of like a Kramer Baretta and Jackson hybrid. What pickup is going in there?

[slodave]

Whoo hooo! Right on. Looking forward to the updates. Nice job chopping the neck down.

[LSA]

Thanks, yeah chopping the neck down was iffy. I couldn't decide what to use, almost ended doing it with a belt sander before I got the help from my friends friend.

Thought about going clear but not on this guitar the green blotch on it is why I got it so cheap and popular isn't a very interesting wood. not good enough for a clear coat and I've got bigger flans for the finish.

As for the electrics an emg 81, got it with the wiring on ebay a while ago for ~60 and the hardware is not chrome or black. I have a Floyd rose special which isn't made in germany like the original but it's leaps and bounds better quality than any other licsensed cheap floyd. It's black nickel and I don't have a picture of it with me but it's kind of a smoked grey color it looks really cool.


going to yank off the tone knob and only use the volume the wiring is simple enough to solder.

My custom neckplate! I bought a blank one and my girlfriend had it engraved with my design 4152 is our "band" name and by band I mean my friend who plays drums and myself lol but anyway. I didn't realize on the picture I gave her the writing was so small but it says.
Made in the USA
Serial: 0001
4152-1


A little showy touch I thought of the other day, picked up a set of black coated strings to go with the whole metal shred machine theme, probably just go my to my regular ghs's after I wear them down a little bit don't know maybe I will like them

[LSA]

So for the finish I'm going to be putting on a layer of 50/50 carbon fiber kevlar around the outside. Originally at my friends suggestion I saw just going to do normal carbon but at the fiberglass shop I just ell in love with the red and black hybrid and knew that's what had to be done.

Unfortunately kevlar is very difficult to work with however I work for an aerospace insulation company and we have a clean room and people who cut kevlar every day and they cut these awesome patterns for me!

Here's all the patterns I have, doing the body and headstock


The body will be done in 3 pieces, one on the top and bottom and a strip around the edge, so we will have to bag it twice.


and The headstock which is simple enough, just doing a top and bottom sandwich.

[azasadny]

It's gonna be great!!!

[LSA]

Holy frig finally got off my lazy ass and got my friend off his lazy ass and we did the carbon yesterday! Can't wait to unbag it.

[scottmandue]

Wow... this is going to be uber cool!

Nice job!

[911Freak]

Very interesting! Being a fellow shredder I'm following this build intently. I hope we get the payoff of hearing this bad boy in action?!

Awesome

I'm contemplating doing something similar but with the Red Bull F1 checkerboard carbon fiber pattern on a RG series and an old JCM800 slant cab.

Thanks for posting. Can't wait to see how that red CF finish turns out.

[LSA]

More pics, finally took all the tape off couldn't get all the adhesive residue off but it's not a big deal you don't really notice it under the resin unless you look closely. For some reason the camera flash really makes it obvious though Going to need to do a lot of sanding but it looks awesome!

Body and neck with all the tape removed, still have a strip of carbon to go around the outside of the body, have to cut away a bit of excess material first.


Picks of the headstock after the second coat of resin. I'm really stoked on how it's coming out.

[azasadny]

Very nice work!!!

[herr_oberst]

Just gonna have to go ahead here and subscribe to thisseehere thread so I can see the final project.
übercool!

[WolfeMacleod]

but...but...

[cue AVH/tonesnob mode]

Will the carbon fiber alter the tone??

[Scooter]

Wolfe,

I bet you could build a pickup to compensate for any tone changes, yes?

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by Scooter

Wolfe,

I bet you could build a pickup to compensate for any tone changes, yes?

well.. yes and no. Can't compensate much for deadened resonance. Don't know what CF will do though.. but I know there are plenty of guitars build with it, so I don't think it would necessarily be a bad thing. People go on and on and on about Polyurethane paint vs. Nitro, vs. Polyester and how much each changed the resonant qualities. Putting anything on the body changes that.

People get really nuts.

I was mocking guitar forums there.

Warmoth parts are good stuff. I worked there in the '90's

and now..another guitar forum mocking

Did you use REAL hide glue? If not...oh no!

They argue endlessly over hide glue vs others, as well...

Looks good. Keep us updated!

[LSA]

Two uber cools so far, thanks guys.

haha I know you're just joking about the tone but with the amount of reverb, drive and other stuff I pile on top of it I doubt you'd notice especially since it's going to be an 81 with the 18 volt mod as well as cf being superior to wood in just about every way for guitars :P

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by LSA

as well as cf being superior to wood in just about every way for guitars :P

I worked for a guitar company for a time called Stump Preacher guitars. We used Carbon Fiber for the necks. It wasn't bad, but it was a pita to work with, I remember.
I believe Rainsong moved into the building we were working with, after Stump Preacher closed down.

I don't know if any testing has been done to measure the resonant quality differences between wood and CF though. Structurally, no question. I'm sure it's resonance is better than some woods, for sure. What, to you, makes it tonally superior?