Thinking of building a...

[M29]

Hello All,

Well...I am thinking of building a guitar and thought I would get your opinions being I have been out of playing guitar for a long while.

I recently picked up a Squire Strat that I absolutely love. I have been partial to Les Paul style guitars over the years (and still am actually), but there are some things I would like to be different on the Strat. The main thing is the volume control is always getting bumped or unintensionally turned when palm muting on the bridge. I never had this problem with a LP. I have been having a blast with all the tone and the ching chang of the Strat which I had never played more then once in the past and I just love the thing. Also I have been interested in the Fender Jaguar which I really like the looks of. I like the 25 1/2 inch scale neck which the Jaguar does not have, at least that I know of I am not that familiar with it but I love the looks. At any rate...what I am thinking of doing is building a Jaguar bodied guitar with a Carvin maple neck through neck. Having the strings go through the body with a fixed bridge. What I want to achieve is the (Strat sound), which I am hooked on. Do you think I can get this sound with this setup along with three single coil pickups arranged like the Strat? I will have to rearrange the controls as was my first intention but that will not be a problem. I was thinking of either a ash or swamp ash Carvin Jaguar body blank that I would cut into wings and attach to the neck through or possibly make my own Jaguar style body, which is what I will probably do. It is a whole lot cheaper. This will of course end up with a maple neck through with ash wings. I may add an eighth inch lamination of mahagony at the joints. It is kind of old fashion looking but I may do it anyway. Actually the more I think of the maple and ash it might be too much variation in the grain with the ash being so aggresive and the maple so tight or close grained. Maybe Alder would look better with the maple.

Well I have rambled on enough. I am just giving this some thought and thought I would put it up and see what you guys thought.

Thank you for your time and help.
M29

 

[ZoSo65]

I say go for it!!!

The volume knob "bumping" problem is easily fixable by a simple wire change, which will just reverse the direction you turn the knob, so when you do bump it, it's going up instead of down

With string through and neck through, your going to get some pretty awesome tone. I did a string through on my build but, the wood was black walnut(btw, it has a nice tight grain too).
I think it would be safe to say, no matter what what wood you use, with the 2 through designs, your going to be fine. It's most likely going to come down to how you want it to look.

 

[M29]

Yeah thats it...

Hello Zõ§õ,

Thats it, I will just change the wiring great idea! Up is much better then down

I was wondering if the suspension of the Strat had much to do with the sound but some have solid bridges and no trem so I guess that would not effect the Strat sound. Also I wondered about the bolt on neck. I am not too fond of the bolt on neck but they sure work great on a Strat. I guess it is wood and pickups that make the Strat and I think I should be able to get it with a neck through. I have the urge to build. I figure next winter would be a good time and I can collect stuff between now and then although I will probably start it once the wood is in hand. If I buy a wood blank locally I will have to let it set until winter anyway to let it dry out good.

Man that Zebra wood guitar you mentioned in another post looked great!! What is the density like on that type of wood? Is it really tight, hard and heavy. Shoot I just realized the guys will probaby have a field day with those words I just used.

Thank you Zõ§õ for the info and help.

M29

 

[Katastrophe]

A neck through Jag-o-caster, what a great idea! It would certainly be a different take on two classic designs.

As for the floating bridge / hardtail / bridge tightened down on the body debate, I think you can find good arguments for each. It's just kind of up to personal preference... On my prior guitars with Strat style trems I had them set up to be flush with the body, so that they didn't float for tuning stability. On my ESP, I dispensed with the trem completely and went with the 2 piece TOM style bridge, and have been very happy with that set up now for about the last 12 years!

I've never owned a neck thru or set neck (LP style guitar), but I've played 'em in the past... No doubt about it, overall there is more sustain from these types of guitars IMHO. However, all of my current guitars have bolt on necks, and the one that I count on to hold a note the longest (when its set up properly and working right) is my Ibanez, with a basswood body, bolt-on neck, and Floyd Rose floating trem (and a Duncan Invader ). A bolt on with a good, tight neck pocket will hold a note for a while if it's set up right!

 

[M29]

Making a Jaguar template?

Hello,

Does anyone have any ideas on how to make a Jaguar body template? Can I use a photograph and have it enlarged? It does not need to be very good quality but enough to get a shape out of. Do you know if a copy store can make this size or maybe a drafting shop.

Thank you for your time and help.

M29

 

[ZoSo65]

There's a CAD file here, you just need to get a viewer that will print to scale.
Also you could always go to a guitar shop and trace one out.

 

[M29]

Thanks a million!

Hello Zõ§õ,

That is a great link and resource, I have not been able to find anything searching.

This should work great, thank you very much I hope I can help you out sometime as well.

M29

 

[Bloozcat]

Anytime you vary from the original Strat design you're going to alter the tone. Sometimes the changes are subtle, sometimes they're much more pronounced.

A neck through guitar with a maple neck and ash wings is going to be a bright sounding guitar...probably considerably brighter than a bolt on with the same woods. The addition of that much more maple through the area where the pickups and bridge will mount will cause this.

There's a local custom guitar shop near me that I like to frequent because I learn so much there. The shop is owned by a friend whom I've known for about 25 yrs. He and his son build their own designed custom guitars as well as customer submitted requests.

One of the customer requested designs was a neck-through Strat. The body was made of red oak and walnut, the neck was five piece with maple and mahogany. The fretboard was Indian rosewood. The headstock had a 12 degree tilt back (if I remember correctly). The bridge was a string through, and the pickups were Kinman AVN Traditionals. On the surface, you would think the guitar would have been bright, but it wasn't at all...probably due to the mahogany in the neck, and the suprising fact that red oak is warmer than you might think. This guitar had incredible sustain and the most mellow single coil tone imaginable. The thing is though, that while it still sounded something like a Strat, it didn't sound like a Strat at the same time. All those funky little imperfections in a Strat - the bolt on neck, the alder body/maple neck, the string trees, the noisy single coils, the springy tone from the less than perfect tremolo system - all contribute to what makes a Strat, a Strat.

I'd encourage you to pursue your goal of making your own guitar, but just be aware that you'll probably end up with something that sounds a little different than you expect. It'll be unique sounding...which is not a bad thing.

BTW: The custom neck-through Strat I mentioned was custom made for blues artist Keb Mo. And to think that I was lucky enough to get to play it before Keb did...

If you'd like to see a standard offering, custom version of the neck through Strat you can see it here:
http://www.resurrectionguitars.com/

 

[ZoSo65]

No problem M29
A little here and there will help a lot in the long run.

 

[M29]

Some beautiful work!

Hello Bloozcat,

Thank you for the insight on where this build might end up tonally. I see what you mean and that surprizes me to about the red oak, that is some pretty hard wood.

Your message has had me thinking all day and I have decide to go with an all alder Jassmaster/Jaguar style Warmoth body which I am going to buy already cut and routed and swap over all my Strat stuff. This is probably the closest I am going to get to a strat sound and that is what I want to keep but change to the Jassmaster/Jaguar style body.
I will save the neck through for another project. I may even make the neck myself, I have made two other necks and that was over 30 some years ago. They were fine but this time I have more knowledge and more resources. Then I can get on with the neck through this winter with some humbuckings and mahogany.

Thanks again for your time and help Bloozcat.

M29

 

[Bloozcat]

Hello Bloozcat,

Thank you for the insight on where this build might end up tonally. I see what you mean and that surprizes me to about the red oak, that is some pretty hard wood.

Your message has had me thinking all day and I have decide to go with an all alder Jassmaster/Jaguar style Warmoth body which I am going to buy already cut and routed and swap over all my Strat stuff. This is probably the closest I am going to get to a strat sound and that is what I want to keep but change to the Jassmaster/Jaguar style body.
I will save the neck through for another project. I may even make the neck myself, I have made two other necks and that was over 30 some years ago. They were fine but this time I have more knowledge and more resources. Then I can get on with the neck through this winter with some humbuckings and mahogany.

Thanks again for your time and help Bloozcat.

M29

You're welcome my friend. I've gone through the same thing - a couple of times. You get an idea in your head that usually starts out as something simple and practical, and before you know it you've added so much that the project becomes unrecognizable. I've just decided that I'm not going to mess with the proven designs. Every time I've tried making them better, I'm disappointed with the results. So, if I want classic Strat tone, I'll try to pick up the best wood, parts, and electronics I can and then try to duplicate (hopefully) the best qualities of that instrument. Even then, it's a crap shoot.

As I mentioned, I'm very fortunate to have a custom guitar shop near me that does a lot of experimenting with designs and materials. They've combined things that you'd never expect would make for a toneful guitar...and yet they end up with incredible instruments. I've learned so much from them, not just about what to do, but just as importantly what not to do. It's saved me a lot of time and money. Even though they're my friends, they've been more than gracious in sharing their time in educating me. So, I feel compelled to pass along my good fortune if it can help others as it's helped me.

 

[M29]

Resurrection Custom Guitars

Hello Bloozcat,

I forgot to mention in my last reply that I took a look at Resurrection Custom Guitars and was very impressed! There is some very nice work going on over there, the place is just oozin quality. I really like laminating different woods and they have some nice designs, I bet they sound great and play great.

M29

 

[M29]

Ordered a body

Hello,

Well...I ordered a Warmoth body in the Jassmaster design with the s-s-h pickup configuration, http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/bodies/vintage.cfm?fuseaction=jmaster
I also requested a Strat trem rout and now that I have sent the order in I realised there are a number of different Strat (Fender) tremolo setups. I know about the Willkinson and Floyd Rose trems but I am not familar with the Fender styles and they will probably be emailing me asking what type of (Fender) trem rout I want.
I just wanted a basic fender trem as I am not real big on that style but I could be with more experience down the road so I wanted something versatile that I could maybe change later on.
From what I see on the Warmoth site, there is a (vintage six hole) trem, a (two hole) and (American standard) trem. My Squier has a six hole trem which I thought would surely be a lesser quality unit but maybe not.
Does anyone have any insight on this? What might be the best rout to order that I could maybe adapt later on without doing too much wood work or routing on a finished guitar? I can cut wood away but I cannot put wood back...

Thank you for your time and help.
M29

 

[Bloozcat]

If you go with the Vintage 6 hole tremolo routing you can use the Fender Vintage Tremolo, the AllParts Vintage Tremolo, or the Callaham Vintage Tremolo, all in 2 3/16" string spacing and with the correct type solid steel inertia block.

You can also use one of the Wilkinson/Gotoh Vintage style tremolo's with 2 1/8" string spacing, also with a steel inertia block.

There is one other that is available in 2 1/8" spacing w/steel block, but the name escapes me right at the moment. I'll post it when I think of it.

The main advantage of a 2 1/8" string spread is in that the E strings don't slip off the edge of the fretboard as easily as with the 2 3/16". This is especially true with a neck that has a 1 11/16" nut width.

 

[M29]

Great info

Hello Bloozcat,

Thank you very much as always for the info. I do have issues once in a while with the E strings slipping off the board. Man lots to think about.

Thank you for all the help I have lots of info to go over now.

M29