Two guitars I'm planning to build

[william]

I'm looking at building two diffrent guitars. The first is a more traditional SG guitar with a strat style neck. I play dropped B tunings. I will be building the first one in a short while after a little more research. Mostly finding the tools such as a router and chisles and someplace to plane the wood.

The second guitar is mostly in the planning stages. I sometimes play extended power chords in dropped B tunning where the notes of an open powerchord would be B,F#,B,F#,B low to high and the highest string, C# not played. I would like to add a little more dimension to the sound with an 8 string guitar with the lowest two strings doubled two octaves up. This would be an unusual arrangment so I'm not sure where to get the bridge hardware from.

Any thoughts or comments on the two designs would be greatly appreaciated.

1st Guitar

This guitar is going to be an SG-like, 25.5" Scale, 6 string guitar.

Color: Dark natural wood type finish

Body material: 2 pc. Ash (mahogany)

Pickguard: no

Pickup color: black

Knobs: Volume

Inlays: Dots on 7, 12, 17 frets

Body binding: no

Neck binding: no

fretboard: Black Ebony (Not available locally)

Fret Wire: Jim Dunlop 6100 (jumbo frets)

No. of frets: 24, last four frets will be scalloped

Neck wood: 3pc laminated: bubinga (wenge) sandwiched between 2 pc. of Am maple

Neck scale: 25.5" scale

Neck type: Similar to my Schecter's

Neck joint: Neck through Body

Hardware: Black

Pickup config: H in bridge

Pickups, Neck: none

Pickups, middle: none

Pickups, bridge: H Symore Duncan Dimbuckler ( G. Lynch Screaming Deamon)

Pickup Switching: none (toggle Cut switch)

Bridge/tremolo: Tunomatic (??) String through body

Jack: Mono jack switchcraft brand

Tuners: GOTOH, black

Strap buttons and locks: Schaller strap locks

Neck will be angled slightly back, headstock will be straight. Only one Knob, the volume knob and one switch, an On/Off toggle mute switch. The neck dimensions will be based of my schecter Omen 6 guitar. Upper neck frets will be scalloped to ease upper notes. Bubinga may be replaced with Wenge depending on price. No inlays on front of fret board, dot inlays on top edge. Ebony hasn't been found locally yet, so that may be either mail ordered, or subbed with rosewood. Electronics will be routed through rear. Tunomatic Bridge with string through body ends. Finish will be a Dark wood finish.

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This guitar is going to be an SG-like, XL - Scaled, 8-string guitar.

Color: Dark natural wood type finish

Body material: 2 pc. Mahogany

Pickguard: no

Pickup color: black

Knobs: Volume, tone, cut switch

Inlays: Dots on 7, 12, 17 frets

Body binding: no

Neck binding: no

fretboard: Rosewood

Fret Wire: Jim Dunlop 6100 (jumbo frets)

No. of frets: 24

Neck wood: 3pc laminated: bubinga (wenge) sandwiched between 2 pc. of Am maple

Neck scale: 27" scale

Neck type: Not finalized

Neck joint: Neck through Body

Hardware: Black

Pickup config: H in bridge

Pickups, Neck: none

Pickups, middle: none

Pickups, bridge: H ???

Pickup Switching: none (toggle Cut switch)

Bridge/tremolo: Tunomatic (??) String through body

Jack: Mono jack switchcraft brand

Tuners: GOTOH, black

Strap buttons and locks: Schaller strap locks

This guitar will be an 8-string guitar with the two lowest strings doubled two octaves up. Tuning will probley be B-F#-B-E-G#-C#, but may be lowered to Dropped A to ease tension on neck. Same neck as before, but with a 27" scale length. Neck will be straight neck through body design; headstock will be angled back. Unsure what pick-up will be used. As before bubinga may be replaced with Wenge. Hardware will be a big problem as far as a bridge is concerned. Strings will be a string through body design. Electronics will be simple as before with addition of tone knob. Lots of more research needs to be done to finalize design.

[westhemann]

hey just a suggestion but what about a 26" scale for the #1 guitar?with a dropped b tuning this would give the strings more tension,which might be a plus.

the schecter neck profile is a good one,as it is meaty enough to handle the stress,but have you considered carbon fibre rods as reinforcement?(one on either side of the truss rod)on those longer scale instruments the string tension is pretty stiff(especially the 27")

and the pickup on the second guitar.you might look into an emg 707.it is made for seven string guitars but has blade type pole pieces(under the covers) so it might have a wide enough magnetic field to cover 8 strings.

i am not sure about a screamin demon on a dropped tuning like that,i think it might go soggy in the bottom end.you might look into a dimebucker:the bottom end is super tight and the pickup is more than crunchy enough.

[krazyderek]

ya, i agree with wes, for drop tunings like what you're talking about you want pickups with lots of crunch and grind, like any of the emg's (707 is probably going to be the best bet for the 8 string) and for drop tuning ya, dimebucker, but mostly the emg 81 85 and 89 come to mind for the bridge.. Although, the dimarzio drop sonic claims to be designed for droped tunings, and the X2N.. that could be a good crazy bridge pickup

[Reaper]

Not only that, but for the first axe, without a neck pickup, the bridge pickup's going to give you a lot of treble, you may want a neck pickup if you want the bassier qualities, which you might want if you're playing dropped B.

[westhemann]

well i have had one pickup guitars before,and they are o.k.

if all you play is the bridge pickup anyway then i don't see a problem with that.

it leaves a large area that you can put a desighn on.

[william]

Please excuse the ignorence of this question, but why would not having a neck pickup cause the bridge pickup to carry more of the high frequencies? The thought of having more space for a design on the finish is desirable, although I don't believe the wood finish I plan to use will allow a decal to be applied. I don't want to add a second pickup, because I don't ever use the one on my current guitars. If I don't have to add something I won't use it eases construction and will save my cash. I like that.

I will look into using graphite for support, is there anyplace that sells it and has information on its application?

I have a Jackson Kelly that I replaced the bridge pickup with a Dimbuckler and the differnce was remarkable. So I will most likely use one of them. I have also heard that it is based from the Bill Lawrence design, so I might go with one from there to stick with the hand built theme. I was looking at the EMG 707 as a solution, but it still doesn't help with the bridge solution.

I didn't explain the 8-string concept very well I think. My thought is if you take the lower four strings of a 12 string guitar, and strung the other four strings normal, then lengthed the neck to 27" or I guess 26" (the comment about a shorter neck is valid) scale, thats what I'm looking for. The more I think about it, I like the idea of haveing the lower two strings doubled two octaves higher. When I bar a power chord while riffing this will add another dimension. So the layout would be like this using standard dropped D as a refrence.

|D1/D3|A1/A3| D | G | B | E |

And a Fifth chord would be like this,

| 1/1 | 1/1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | X |

So that D1/D3 would be one pair with D3 two octaves higher. A1/A3 the second pair, with A3 two octaves higher. Then the rest would be tuned as normal.

I'm not looking for anything like a seven string guitar, I rarely use the High E on my current guitars for anything but normal bar chords, so two additional strings would just be in the way and not be used.

The first guitar is going to be exploratory and done for experience. The SG body design is a good one for a light guitar, a good sound, and it just looks cool. And as I get older, I find myself enjoying glossy finishes less, and enjoying the look of natrual wood.

William

[westhemann]

not having a neck pickup will not affect the tone of your bridge pickup.i think he just meant that you might want the bassier neck pickup sound at some point.i think that if you don't want it,don't put it in.i am currently building one in just that fashion.

this place right here has the carbon fibre rods(graphite...same thing) plus instructions on how to install them.they are only about $10 a piece and i would use 2.one on each side of the truss rod.they will keep your neck straight and rigid and should prevent any problems.(twisting and such)plus with a 3 piece laminate you should have a fine strong neck for that 27" scale guitar.

the 707 is good for bridge or neck.

what kind of finish are you going to use?i used tung oil on mine but i can tell that the guitar is getting banged up pretty quickly.plus it is harder to keep clean.someone else suggested tru oil once which is a hardened version of tung oil.i would look into that.just so long as you keep the moisture out.

[william]

Thats cool, thanks for the site. There is a treasure trove of information on stewmac. So the graphite is just glued into a groove in the neck simlar to the truss rod? So I press the three pieces of wood together, then route the truss rod channel, and two additional channels next to it for the graphite.

I was considering tung oil. Also I have considered the finish on my schecter. Its not one of the glossy finishes, but more like a dull walnut finish of some kind. I actually like it. I like the texture of that finish more than on a glossy one.

William.

[krazyderek]

sounds like a "silk" finish, basicly the neck was just sanded with 600 grit'ish to keep the back "roughed up" in terms of finishing standards, it's also alot faster cause since it's less smooth, your thumb is touching less of the back of the neck, therefore less friction, therefore you can move your hand faster. haha, here i sound like professor hobo...

i think you can actually just leave the graphic unglued, just drop it in like the truss rod

[westhemann]

they reccomend you glue it.they say either wood glue or super glue.