xanda90 Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Hi well as the name suggests i am going to embark on building a guitar... for the first time i will need help, and tips and general info, if you guys could help it eould be great! Well i plan to make a guitar off parts bought off ebay, i have seen a good body, and neck, with all the machine heads and frets and bolts attached! My first question is what else do i needto buy, i have found s few things, Tuning/volume knobs Pickup selector Guitar jack socket Guitar Jack plate humbuckers eventully. ( i will need help chosing them) My Biggest worry is wirring, i can solder fine, but i am not sure how to wire the humbuckers, switch and knobs togeter. The body is a les paul, i plan to make it black with gold hardware p.s waht do call that thing which the knobs attach to? not the guitar whats the switchlike thing called Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 (edited) ...that said click me please!!!(buy it today, it will answer all of these questions...and w/o the laughing smilies) Edited July 29, 2005 by thegarehanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pask8 Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Yes definetly get a book or two they help alot. also go to www.stewmac.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanda90 Posted July 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Hey do you haveany idea where i can get a Fender 72 reissiue pickgaurd? I live in the UK but i can order form the us if i have to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batfink Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Hey do you haveany idea where i can get a Fender 72 reissiue pickgaurd? I live in the UK but i can order form the us if i have to. ← Whats wrong with Allparts or WD's in the UK to name but two without using any brain energy ! Jem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanda90 Posted July 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 sorry i AM new to this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Use the search feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Churchyard Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 1) read up on things, Hiscocks book for instance is great. There is so much info needed for this that we could not possibly tell you every thing you should consider here in reply, although buying premade parts helps a lot, BUT 2) DO NOT buy anything yet! For instance not every neck works with every body, you could not buy a Stratocaster-type neck to put on a Les Paul-type body for the scale length, the neck pocket, the neck attachment type, the widths and heights and even the neck angle are all different... What is the fingerboard radius? Will it work with the bridge? and so on... 3) Read all the tutorials on the main projectguitar.com site, it should help a lot to get an idea beforehand before the book arrives, and 4) Check out the supply section on www.projectguitar.com before buying anything... 5) Clear up ideas and make yourself as clear as possible... (for instance what does the Fender pickguard have to do with the black Les Paul? I don't understand...) 6) With the "switchlike thing the pickups are attached to": Do you mean the pickup selector switch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Yes, like everyone has said, you need to really start by reading a book or two on building. Martin Koch's "Building Electric Guitars" and Melvyn Hiscock's "Make You Own Electric Guitar" are essential readings for building guitars. Get them first, and read them. Stew Mac has a parts list for Stratocaster and others, but not a Les Paul. But it will give you a basic idea of what parts go into building a guitar. The best advice is to read, then search Project Guitar to find answers to your questions you may still have after reading. Good luck with your guitar. MaTT Vinson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanda90 Posted July 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 cheers... i made a long reply and i stalled..... so i cant be bothered to re-write it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kith Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 by the thing the knobs attach to, do you mean a control plate like on a telecaster? it wont fit on a carve top les paul. or do you mean potentiometers? Get the book Build your Electric Guitar by melvyn Hiscock, It will help. check to make sure the neck will fit the body. soldering is not a big deal. a solder gun can be bought for 15 bucks, and soldering is easy. As for humbuckers, It depends on the type of music you will be playing. Id suggest passive, not active. If money is no object, Id suggest using a Seymour Duncan Jb in the bridge and a 59 or jazz in the neck. thats a really versitile combination. If money is really no object, use prs pickups However, Money is usually a factor, so Id suggest buying mighty mite or bill lawrence, or kent armstrong pickups. Just dont buy one of those dimarzio dual sound pickups. Originally they were called super-distiortions, but after a few years of popularity, people realized they really sounded terrible when clean, and pretty lifeless even when distorted. (people can be pretty stupid, they should have realized it earlier.) So Dimarzio renamed them "dual sound" and now uses 4 conductor wiring instead of 2. thats the only real difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanda90 Posted July 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Cheers, yeah i ment control pots, what cheapish pickups could you suggest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanda90 Posted July 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 (edited) Decided to re write what i was going to post, Ok plan is to buy an Gibson Les paul body and neck in black in the hope to make a black beauty. [img=http://www.cranbournemusic.com.au/images/custom_blackbeauty.JPG]http://www.cranbournemusic.com.au/images/c...blackbeauty.JPG Parts i will need to buy: Body (with Bridge and tailpiece) Neck (with macine heads and bolts) 2x Humbuckers Pickgaurd Backplate(s) 3 way toggle switch Jackplate and socket 4x Black knobs Studs 4x 500k ohms Pots Mounting Rings I will also need to buy a soldering kit and i will use shielded guitar wire, Also i found a site with a les paul wiring diagram. So what do you think? Edited July 29, 2005 by xanda90 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 You should know that black beauties typically have 3 humbuckers. However, I've heard it doesn't sound much different from their 2 humbucker counterparts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzocchi705 Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 You get the Black Beuty 2p'up and 3p'up versions. Linky it shows the 3pu, but you get a 2pu version, as it says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Did anyone listen to the sound clip in that link? You'd think they'd play something a little more technical or entertaining than Freddie Freeloader(blues progression) if they were trying to sell a $1100 guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Xanda, I just don't get it --why not just buy the guitar you want then? Okay, maybe not the Gibson, but an Epiphone or one of the other knockoffs (many of which are probably made in the same factory anyway). What you're really talking about is assembling a guitar--which can be fun too I suppose. In which case, you can always take apart the guitar you buy and reassemble it. You're not going to save any coin doing it your way, even though I understand that prices are pretty steep in the UK. And you risk ending up with woefully mismatched parts. And a lot of cheap stuff that you'll want to replace anyway. Tell you what though, if you really want to have fun with this AND get your feet wet with an actual project, you should looking into REFINISHING --which is a lot of fun all by itself. That way, you're not limited to finding only a black LP --you don't care about the color, because you'll be stripping it down anyway. But yeah, in the meantime, you need to read up....hit the books boy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanda90 Posted July 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Yeah, the thingis i plan to buy second hand parts, where can i look for more infomation on refinishing and repainting. I plan to get a body form a old gibson but the paint is knackered so i will need to redo that, and a epiphone neck, i want to change the logo on the neck, NOT the epiphone, there is a logo that says special 2 and i want to change that to Les Paul. How should i do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kith Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 Id suggest sticking with the 2 pickup version (cheaper, easier, and you dont worry about hitting your pick on the middle pickup) as for decent cheap pickups: 1. Look on Ebay. emg and seymour duncan pickups still go for about 50-60 dollars, so dont buy them, but off-brand pickups can be bought very cheap 2. Mighty Mite mightybuckers Ive seen these on ebay for $15 a pair 3. Mighty Mite motherbuckers I bought a pair of these new for 43 dollars but I havnt used them yet 4. emg select humbuckers about 25 from stewmac 5. stewmac golden age pickups- Ive heard good things about them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kith Posted August 1, 2005 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 go on ebay, and look for neck logos. there are a ton of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cunnins4 Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 Howdy, I just received my fancy new pre made "stratocaster type body" i purchased off ebay. With the excitement of a child at christmas i tore the packaging open, and found a black and shiney stratISH body. to my amazement it came with a pickguard. great i think, so i pull out the pre wired pickguard i bought, my new tremolo bridge and got ready to attach. oh no wait. this thing is a piece of crap. 1. the pickguard was the wrong shape. 2. the routing didn't fit the pots 3. the holes were misalligned 4. the tremolo cavity was too narrow and thus useless 5. the holes in the pickguard didn't fit the screws 6. the holes for the bridge were too narrow and also too shallow 7. the "bathtub routing" went so deep the body was paper thin between the rear and front routing 8. the jackplate actually fit to my amazement 9. the neck socket was crap. nice and tight, but useless. small gaps here and there. terrible 10. when i attempted to attach my non functioning tremolo springs the screws ripped out of the body (ouch that one hurt) this revealed a large crap going horizontally through the body. crap crap crap crap crap moral of the story. build it yourself, or buy a real one. don't buy it on ebay, there's a lot of crap out there. avoid "acoustic angel" on ebay and don't be as naive as me. bouli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cunnins4 Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 got a reply from the seller. he'll take it back but i've to fork out for the shipping. i'm gonna try and salvage it. but seriously, beware of ebay, not everyone's as nice as we'd all like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X1TX Posted August 3, 2005 Report Share Posted August 3, 2005 I just finished a 'strat-ish' guitar. Bought one of those Saga kits for something like $85. I wanted a natural, matte, cherry finish (essentially just stained wood) but those Saga bodies have a 'sealer' on them that must have been developed to resist anything short of a nuclear attack. After a LOT of elbow grease I finally got it off. I stained the wood and covered it with a matte finish. Looks old and beat up (which is what I was looking for) and for the most part it plays okay. But it was a relatively inexpensive way to learn what goes where. Next stop, build a V................ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kith Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 ...........I dont think you can find a saga for that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Churchyard Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 ...........I dont think you can find a saga for that ← Sure you can. Even less. Here, for example Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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