Custom Job

[Daz.]

Hey guys, first post here.

Am starting building my own guitar. Gonna be a Les Paul style.

Basically i want to put three humbuckers into my guitar.

But then have them on individual 2-way switches, so i can independently switch between variations.

Has anyone had experience with doing this?

Or more importantly, can anyone see any snags with this proposed setup?

[Doeringer]

Welcome to PG. Let us know more about your project and your talents, there are many great minds here and everyone learns from everyone.

No snags, but it may note be the easiest for quick "on stage" switching, but should be OK once you get used to it. I have a 3 pup Ibanez LP, I kept the 3 way switch the same, made one tone pot a master tone, and changed the other tone pot to a direct wired volume for the middle pickup. This way I have any pickup combination and in most cases a blend of sorts. Still not stage convenient but I just do some personal studio stuff anymore. The other option is a 5way switch, but you will have the "Strat" pickup limitations. It will all depend on what you are looking for.

[Daz.]

Thanks.

Im just seeing as to how far and what limitations i can find.

I'd like to be able to switch off and on humbuckers quite quickly, i.e On stage speed.

My project, being my first, is just a simple Les Paul Custom in Alpine White.

I've purchased the body (a B grade sunburst) and the neck (mape w/rose fret) and am currently midway through sanding down the body. (The neck is new).

Am going to go for a simple, white body, with black pickguard and covers, topped with gold instruments and switches. Gonna use cheap, decent quality equipment first, to make sure everything is correct. Then slowly replace it with high quality equipment used in Les Pauls (spotted some nice Alnico 490's)

Another detail i was going to try was to have roman numberals as inlays on my fretboard.

After reading the tutorial on soldering inlays in. Im currently trying to get hold of some gold coloured solder.

I've also tried my hand at designed my own colour scheme for my guitar. This is the most promising at hte moment:

Lemme know what ya think, n i'll try and get some pics up once i finish work in a couple hours.

[Doeringer]

Love the roman numeral inlay idea BUT I'd re-think the solder inlay, Although there is a tutorial on it, several people here (including me) are a little skeptical. Do a search for the other threads talking about it. I think a better option is metalic powders mixed with epoxy. (Yep, more reading)

You might also want to review the pic posting rules, as yours might be too big.

I like the body art, if it is done right. I could see it white with black lines (Very contrasting) or white with anouther white of a slightly different shade, one where you almost don't notice the design right away. Keep us posted in the progress section.

[Paul Marossy]

I like the design on the body. Pretty cool!

[Ducati]

Great design pic! I love it.

[spazzyone]

please stay away from the solder inlay it is a very bad idea

[Robert_the_damned]

I've done a guitar with individual switching before and it is usefull for getting lots of combinations but as has already been said its not easy to change quickly. Maybe consider a 5 way 4 pole switch? then you could pick five pickup combinations that you really like and be able to access them really quickly too. though you'd probably have to mount it down near your vol/tone knobs. another idea you might consider is using a regular 3-way for switching the bridge and neck and then have a push pull that turned on the middle pickup (if you wired it right you could get the middle pickup on its own by turning down the volume of the pickup that was selected by the pickup selector).

love that design for the body!

I'd also urge you not to use the solder inlay...especially on a fret board!

Edited October 23, 2006 by Robert_the_damned