A guitar like no other?

[deeaa]

Here, a guitar I built for meself when I was 16 or so:

I don't have a clue about the pickup. Rather dark-sounding, not very strong output. From late 70's anyway, possibly from an Aria Pro. See how the grounding is done

The neck was also home-made, it's birch. No truss rod. Saddle is brass, but underneath it there is actually a strip of wood, a strip of paper(!) and a strip of plastic glued to raise it high enough.

The neck was crafted with rather coarse instruments, by hand...and it shows. Quite a flat shape too, because shaping was hard back then. Tuners work the wrong way around and are utter crap anyway.

Backside...not so sturdy neck screws, LOL

Where it usually resides...also shows the fireplace out of which the stone came (some excess slabs from building it)

Front view...the overall shape also governed by the stone slab, because working on it was hard...

Interested in how it sounds?

 

[Eric]

Interested in how it sounds?

Heck yes! This is the mythical instrument of rock you've spoken of before...

I'm hoping for clips here...

 

[deeaa]

Heheh...I will post a vidclip one of these days, sure...it just misses a string now and had no time. But soon.

It's pretty terrible to play...the action is actually surprisingly good but the intonation is well off, because at that time I had no idea how to set it so I approximated...it's close enough though to sound somewhat OK in that respect. The scale is weirdly short, rendering the low e string sound kinda dead. Past 12th fret its unplayable mostly, too much string buzz, the neck is weird and quite narrow too...and its heavy as hell and the neck comes too close to player's body.

BUT it sounds pretty much like any electric guitar in the end. The pup is rather dull sounding though, but that I can compensate with amp EQ.

Since the body doesn't resonate at all and the bridge is also teetering there, the sound is somewhat, I dunno, it kind of exaggerates drive sounds. Actually it confirms the notion the heavier and deader the body the smoother and thicker distortion sounds.

But, I'll post a clip how it sounds hopefully quite soon!

 

[hubberjub]

I have got to hear that. How much does it weigh?

 

[deeaa]

It's a touch over 13 pounds...not impossibly heavy but certainly no fun to hang on yer neck for long...

 

[Tig]

Does it play any music other than rock? oke
Oh, I kill myself sometimes. :rotflmao: :rollover

No matter how heavy or crude, it is still priceless to you, I'm sure.
It looks much better than my mahagony wake board I made in shop class when I was 17. That was long before wakeboards were invented, so I'm still awaiting my royalty checks!

 

[Eric]

No matter how heavy or crude, it is still priceless to you, I'm sure.

Knowing Dee, it's probably more valuable to him as living proof that woods don't make much difference in guitar tone...

 

[marnold]

That'd probably come handy in a bar fight too

 

[Zip]

Impressive first build. I gotta ask, though - how in hell did you route the rock for wiring???

 

[MichaelE]

Hea-vy man...

 

[Eric]

For those who didn't see the new thread:

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=15294