neocon58 Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 (edited) I actually started planning this a while ago, so I will give you guys a breif run-down on what I'd like to achieve and then you can check out my thread at ultimate-guitar.com and give me any suggestions you like! *Very basic mock up of what I am going for* My objective is to make a hardtail JEM in a rainforest design. I have already obtained a green mirror RG style pickguard and a Wizard II neck. I plan to buy a body blank in the near future and go to town on it with a bandsaw rather than going for a pre made body. I have considered several colours and designs, but I think I have come down to a rainforest design, which would see the headstock and body refinished all "green and foliagey' . Anyway, there is a TON more info at the Ultimate Guitar thread, so I suggest you give it a read through if you like. Warning to 56kers though, quite a few pics already, mostly of mock up designs and whatnot. HERE is the ultimate guitar thread: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showt...d.php?p=4824973 If you have any questions or suggestions, or would like to flame me for making a JEM with a hardtail, please do so here! Edited March 30, 2006 by neocon58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarchump Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 man i like the idea for some reason haha. Are you going to use a photo under the clear coat to get that forest picture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoSo_Spencer Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 that is one dead sexy pickguard you have yourself.... seriously your design looks great, but that one with the city takes the cake for me.. with a black mirror pg and that paint job you would have yourself a stunning guitar imo. anyways hope whatever design you choose it turns out good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted January 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 Yeah I like the city one too, I just prefer the Rainforest idea, especially now I have a nice pickguard to do the job. The rainforest design will probably be painted on by a friend. It's obviously not going to be as detailed as the mock up (in which a photo was used), but thats the whole point, it's meant to look like a painting, it's meant to look arty, it's meant to be an unusual looking guitar! The neck has a fine finish crack in the headstock (I am told this means the light finish covering the black plastic on the headstock). This was another reason I considered refinishing the headstock. If I remove the thin black plastic from the headstock and sanded underneath for painting would I have any problems when installing tuners because the headstock is too thin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Nothing much to update you about. Expecting the neck to arrive in a few days, and expecting the pickguard any day now. Time to bore you with specs! Body wood: Unless something else comes up, Poplar. It's cheaper than alder, a little heavier, and has a similar tone, supposedly. Closed grain so finishing shouldn't be too painful. Pickups - Dimarzio, Tone Zone or perhaps evo for bridge, (any suggestions for neck pup?). Now the pickguard I have is a H/S/H setup, I know nothing about single coils, so can anyone suggest a single coil that will work well with dimarzios? I reckon I will go for a simple 3 way switch. As far as cutting out the monkey grip I will use the tutorial on project guitar. Anything else I think of I will post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rokeros Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 I really like the design imo. Its excellent. Its hard for someone not to steal your concept (don't worry, i am not planning to trace your idea). Yep its good, but a HARDTAIL?!? Man, what you should really do is if you can't afford, is to get a speedloading Floyd Rose from www.guitarfetish.com and colour it green with spray or enamel or dipcoat. Same goes with tuners and knobs...etc. Cos if your going for the green forest look, then you should go all the way with matching pickup covers too!! Ever considered a material finish with high quality print on photo paper? Just a suggestion. You proprably would have thought of that. But I totally respect the material finish lol. Can wait to see this done. Man. If I were to build one like this, I would definately hang it on a bare wall then expacd the forest to the rest of a bedroom wall by painting it. As if the guitar was a jigsaw piece, get it? lol to act as a part of a larger forest. Then when you take the guitar to play, there would be an outline of the RG body and neck with no forest hehe!! Anyways, good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 (edited) Nice ideas! The bummer thing about doing this through school is I have to have plans submitted by certain dates, and since I'm in my senior year, everything gets moderated by the department of education, who may frown upon me making changes. Unfortunately I think I am stuck with a hardtail, not enough time and experience up my sleeve this time around. I will certainly take your idea about colour scheme into consideration, whether it happens, well since I've submitted my plans, it's basically up to the school! Will be talking wood with my tech teacher on monday, he might be able to get some cheap good wood through the school. I do appreciate everybodys advice. Thanks for checking out the thread! EDIT: Regarding colour schemes...Pickup covers, nice idea! I never even thought of that. Edited February 3, 2006 by neocon58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rokeros Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Yer, what course in school do you take? I personally take GCSE's and right now I am doing a guitar myself for project, but you are one lucky Bas***d to be able to use a current design. I am forced by my tech teacher to make my own design. I think he want me to do this because originally, i wanted to build a telecaster but unfortunately my tech teacher is a big telecaster fan so he doesn;t want my custom to beat any of his (and yes, he plays guitar professionally, very well in fact). PS: Your work should be collected in, in periods, but you can always adjust things when you hand in your final copy. Mine is already 83 A3 pages full of work and still i havn't began the manufacturing section. SO think how I would feel with all that hard work if my teacher or the examination board would not let me make some adjustments. PPS: To build a guitar is a big challenge 4 a skool student so as long as its good, no one would even care how much you ammend! Hope this could cheer you up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Lol yeah, that would suck! It's just Year 12 Music in high school. The course is two parts: Individual Study and Ensemble Performance. I'm so set on some green tone zones or evos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sambo Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 For pickups... i'd go for evo 2 in the bridge (bit more versatile than the evolution), HS-3 in the middle and an air norton at the neck. That should give you a nice set of sounds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 (edited) Thanks for that Sambo. I was pretty stumped as far as single coils and the neck pickup. I'll certainly look into it. The evo 2 has a wider dynamic range, am I right? Like, you can go balls to the wall but really clean up the sound when you roll back the volume (and pick lighter)? Sounds pretty awesome to me! I'm thinking green tops for the pickups, to go with the paintjob. Or perhaps a green/black for the humbux. Edited February 3, 2006 by neocon58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~john~ Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Its a strange looking guitar, but in a good way. I like the strat you did, hope this turns out as good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sambo Posted February 4, 2006 Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 Damn right on the evo2. It's my new fave pickup (yeah... the steve's special has been succeeded!). They're great. They work like a nice old school pickup... Raaaah! at 10... sweet at 3 wayhey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 (edited) I ordered my hardtail, machineheads, and locking nut today. They are all black, very sexy! I also had a look at pickup prices today. Bottom line is there is no way I can afford the three pickups at retail prices. I'm not even interested in a single coil, it's just the pickguard I bought is routed for a H-S-H setup. The HS-3 is $175 AUD by itself. I'm going to be looking at ebay for Evo 2s and Air Nortons. If I see a single coil on there for cheap, I'll buy it too. It has also been suggested to me to just grab a crappy singlecoil from anywhere and not bother wiring it up. Saves time and money, and money is something I don't have a lot of. I still want an Evo 2/Air Norton combo though. Edited February 4, 2006 by neocon58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rokeros Posted February 4, 2006 Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 Just helping out a little here: http://cgi.ebay.com/Dimarzio-EVO-2-Humbuck...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/DiMarzio-F-spaced-Evo-...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/Dimarzio-DP215BK-Evo-2...1QQcmdZViewItem THis one is quite suitable http://cgi.ebay.com/DiMarzio-F-spaced-Nort...1QQcmdZViewItem If you're feelin cheap http://cgi.ebay.com/DIMARZIO-DP193-AIR-NOR...1QQcmdZViewItem Or try Universal Jems - (btw, u live in the states? And brian, if you are there, why are the dimarzios on your site only for US only??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 I'm in Australia, so I can only go for the pickups that can be shipped here. lol, I can get an Evo 2 from ebay for $98 including shipping, or I can get an Evo 2 through my local music shop for $189. Wonder which one I'm gonna go for??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rokeros Posted February 4, 2006 Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 TOUGH CALL..HMM... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 Lol yeah! Well, the green pickup cover idea has basically gone out the window, since even if I wanted to pay full price, I can't get them in through my local store, so I've basically reverted to my original plan. Green body and headstock with BLACK hardware including pickups, bridge, nut, knobs, machine heads, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenderSurrender Posted February 4, 2006 Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 I dont know if ive understood the whole thread correctly but why dont you just buy your normal hardware, and then chuck on some of THESE I REALLY look forward to seeing this completed, as many people know, im a huge JEM fan and anyone building a jem style guitar gets attention ~~ TS ~~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 I dont know if ive understood the whole thread correctly but why dont you just buy your normal hardware, and then chuck on some of THESE I REALLY look forward to seeing this completed, as many people know, im a huge JEM fan and anyone building a jem style guitar gets attention ~~ TS ~~ Wow, those look like an awesome idea! I'll look into them. Thanks for your input, man. I appreciate you checking out the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rokeros Posted February 4, 2006 Report Share Posted February 4, 2006 Brian is quite a good person to buy parts from. Shipping is soo cheap! Even if it may take longer than usual, he usually has his resons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2006 The green mirror pickguard just arrived, it's beautiful! Well made, the face of it is still covered in plastic wrap, peeled a tiny bit of plastic wrap away, and it looks great. So when it's on the guitar, I can rock out and check my hair after every song! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenderSurrender Posted February 5, 2006 Report Share Posted February 5, 2006 I dont know if ive understood the whole thread correctly but why dont you just buy your normal hardware, and then chuck on some of THESE I REALLY look forward to seeing this completed, as many people know, im a huge JEM fan and anyone building a jem style guitar gets attention ~~ TS ~~ Wow, those look like an awesome idea! I'll look into them. Thanks for your input, man. I appreciate you checking out the thread. Glad i could help bro Good luck with the build ~~ TS ~~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenderSurrender Posted February 6, 2006 Report Share Posted February 6, 2006 Just thought id help organise things for you bro... If you ordered 5 pickup bobins for your project in green, shipped to you (australia right?) then itd only cost $13.50 (usd) I said 5 since 2 x 2 for the humbuckers and one for the single coil, thats if you make all of them full green Pickups - Dimarzio, Tone Zone or perhaps evo for bridge, (any suggestions for neck pup?). Now the pickguard I have is a H/S/H setup, I know nothing about single coils, so can anyone suggest a single coil that will work well with dimarzios? I only just caught this part of your thread... have you decided what SC your going with yet? if not may i recommend the YJM? Ive been using one for a little while now in my backup guitar and i absolouty love it, definitly considering adding one to the rest of my guitars ~~ TS ~~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocon58 Posted February 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 I'm going to be using either an EVO or EVO 2 for the bridge pup, and at this stage, since I'm not overly fussed right now, my uncle is going to hook me up with one of his old single coils and an unknown dimarzio humbucker. I don't mind, saves me a ton of money, and I'm still making sure I get exactly what I want for my bridge pickup. So yeah, still the H/S/H combo obviously. Considering that includes shipping, that's good! Thanks for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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