27 posts
Put together from parts I had and parts I bought. Total cost was around $400, most expensive part was the neck, even with 20% off at Warmoth's holiday "Showcase" sale, it still came out to $160--it's birdseye maple with a really light rosewood board, and abalone dots. The body is also a Warmoth, in lake placid blue. I bought it on ebay years ago, with the Wilkinson trem installed, for $100. I got the pickguard at Warmoth too... they had the best looking silver pearl I could find. The pickups are GFS 60's-70's Grey Bottom Overwounds, and I am really happy with them. All other stuff was purchased from all over at varying costs. I'm really stoked because I have another Warmoth body and neck sitting in the wings, and after putting this together and seeing how easy it was to set up and how nicely it played, I am really looking forward to the next one... I will end up with two really killer guitars... when I get around to working on the next one.
I doubt that guitar will get lost on a dark stage! Very nice. :)
Looks great, nice addition. The fretwork looks flawless.
NICE!!! Looks good. I'm inspired.
the more I look at this, the more I like it. I LOVE the color and the pickguard! Put a maple fingerboard on that thing and I'd have to have it!
Yeah, that pickguard really jumps out at ya and, I have to agree with our resident audiopediaphile, I would have put a maple fingerboard on that one! :)
It sure would have been cheaper to go with all maple!
I don't like the way maple fretboards wear under my fingers. I'm not convinced there is much of a tonal difference but I don't like the way they look after I play the crap out of the guitar for a few years... my sweat kills guitar finishes.
I've heard some stories about maple, but I still want one. All of my fingerboards are ebony, I'm not sure why but I've just never cared much for rosewood (or some of those other exotic woods I've seen).
I will say that, for rosewood, your fingerboard is one of the nicest I've seen - those inlays help too! :)
Charger,
There's lots of ways to finish a fingerboard... ok, only a few but, a gloss maple fingerboard can look killer, and should resist sweat better than other finishes. Just saying. It's not like I'm "anti-rosewood." I have rosewood boards on my PRS and Ibanez JS. I just love the look of a maple board on a strat. I can't wait to see that in person. The color is just POPPING on the photos. If it looks that good in person, it will be awesome.
Oh and, FRETS?????
Maple boards can be killer! Some of the nicer Peavey Wolfgangs (when they were made) had birdseye maple boards. Stunning!
We have a PRS Swamp Ash Special at the shop that has a flamed neck and fretboard that is stunning. My Ibanez RG770DXRR has light flaming on it that looks killer with the red sharkstooth inlays.
I love the PRS Swamp Ash!
My Wolfy had one of those necks, loved how it looked but HATED playing it (I don't tap). That neck radius was like 16" and chunky as all hell around the 12th fret. Compare that with my favorite neck (also a lovely birdseye maple BTW) which was on my Music Man Axis - that had a 10" radius. In fact, that became one of the requirements for all of my custom guitars.
Unknown to most, there's a third custom being built for me by Jeff Miller (for those that remember him from Andy's forum). The funny part is that it's FINALLY going to use the pickups that were supposed to go in the original Variax conversion. All of the parts were paid for long ago and there's no rush on this one at all (it's been in the works since March 2007). It's just something for Jeff to have fun making when he has time and for me to use as my primary guitar (it's taken longer because he moved in the middle and our agreement has always been that his home fixes and remodels come first - his new place has a HUGE 30'x40' workshop for him though).
This one has the nickname the Red Rocker (can you GUESS what color it will be? ;) ) but it will feature a maple neck and a light black limba (aka korina) back. Here's a few pictures of about where he's gotten to as of Labor Day:
http://www.nwdreamer.com/Pics/Miller3/
Dearthian: — Jan 15, 2010Maple boards can be killer! Some of the nicer Peavey Wolfgangs (when they were made) had birdseye maple boards. Stunning.
I just saw this sig on another forum...
"Hand over that maple board slowly and nobody will get hurt..." ;) ;D
I personally like 'em as well, no better or more than rosewood anyway, so many other variables to the rest of the guitar they're attached to. My Legacy Strat has a maple board and so will the Charvel So-Cal I'm picking up shortly.
Dude, that is a GORGEOUS guitar! I dig the black hardware on those light colors. How does it sound?
Drool! That is some fine work there. Makes me want to try a build.
I rarely use the bridge pup in my strat, so I'd probably do an HSS and never leave the house... :)
Great looking guitar. I also would prefer Maple, but I would not kick that guitar out of the car because it has rosewood. (Although Rosewood is my least favorite fingerboard, I have one with rosewood and it is one of my all time favorite guitars).
What kind of pups did you use?
http://store.guitarfetish.com/60grboovstse.html
They are killer-- I can't believe I got them for $70. They are hot but not ridiculous, and have really nice chime in the in-between positions. I'm now looking to replace some of my other pickups with GFS... I'm super stoked on them. Only bummer is they only sell most of them as matched sets and don't sell many options as single pickups. But since you can buy an entire set for $60-$70, it's not that much of a downside.
I am working on clips but don't really want to post something DI. I got a decent live jam recording the other night, but I recorded it on my iPhone so it isn't mind-blowing from a quality perspective. I may post a piece anyway...
charger — Jan 19, 2010http://store.guitarfetish.com/60grboovstse.html..
I have to have Noiseless pups myself and they have some called the Neovins http://store.guitarfetish.com/coju20nepino.html Nice looking sets too.
I reference The Gear Page here, only as the largest musicians forum on the net. Every time there is a thread about GFS pickups on TGP, the general consensus seems to be that they are very good, and hands down winner in the affordable pickup category. You RARELY find anyone who doesn't agree with this.
We installed some of those Neovin pickups in a Tele at the studio. They sound pretty good, and are hum-cancelling. The only real issue we have with them is the size. Because neodymium magnets need to be pretty far from the strings, the pickups are deeper than other pickups. We were unable to get them into the tele body (an import copy, not a Fender) without routing some wood out of the rear pickup pocket. This may or may not be a general rule with the neovins... I've read other accounts of the same issue. Anyway, the Alnico pickups seem to be real winners and I'm going to be picking up some more.
You have to bring this to BG. Keep it on the plane. Tell them it's your girlfriend. Do whatever you have too. I'm offering free use if the Egnator for the weekend, with your choice of cabs! :)
I've GOT to see it in person. The color is POPPIN' on the pics.
Yeah the color is great, and so is the pattern/color of the pick guard. Nice looking guitar all around. Very Nice.
That is a beauty charger... really nice!
Richard has been using and recommending GFS pups for a few years now.
my drop C guitar had been driving me crazy, has forever had this odd ringy metallic quality to it no matter what pups I've put in it, tech has vetted the electronics and eventually I just settled on that it must be in the body/wood somehow. So one day I pulled out my old frankenstrat that had been closeted for years. So many years it still had 9's on it. I decided to try it out as my new drop C and of course it needed to be resetup by a pro. Well I decided to try my hand at it. The big issue issue turned out to be truss rod adjustment, as I simply do not have the correct wrench for it. I managed to get it somewhat better with what I had on hand, but it is less than perfect, as I stopped when I realized I was just as likely to gouge the headstock or my hands trying to turn it further.
Anyway, I got the intonation perfect and it sounds much better than my old drop C'er, no weird ringiness.
One of these days I need to play it again, lol..
Anyway these pics have me thinking of grabbing a new body for it again. Was actually fun doing the adjustments myself, even if it was out of necessity at the time.
Wow, gorgeus !! Congrats !
Ciao !
Marco