New To Guitar Building

[MusicMan]

So for my woodworking class I figured I'd build a guitar. The thing is, I might only have time for the body (Dean ML shape is what I'm going for), so I'll have to buy the neck separately because I'm not up to building a neck on my first go. So, what can I do about a 25.5 scale 24 fret neck? Any specific cuts I'll have to make that are different from 21 or 22 fret necks? I'm planning on putting in 3 humbucker routs with the obvious volume/tone controls with the toggle, but I was thinking of a kill switch as well... Oh, and one last question. I'm making the bridge a string-through design and I haven't found any videos on how different a string-through cut would be versus a tremolo system cut.

Thanks for any help relating to this.

^ By the way, I'm the new guy

[necroreaper]

Sounds like you need to do a lot more reading. Get Melvyn Hiscock's book and read it through several times

The amount of frets doesn't make any difference to how you route the neck cavity, just buy the neck and make a template based on that. The bridge position is the most important thing, obviously it needs to be 25.5" away from the nut.

Not sure what you mean about the difference between a string through cut and tremolo cut?? They are completely different, and every bridge will need to be mounted in a different way. Buy your hardware first and you'll know what you're dealing with.

[SwedishLuthier]

Welcome to the forum. The first advice I would like to give you is: Don't rush things. The second is: Whenever something goes wrong, take a few steps back, calm down and think through what happened and what to to to remedy the problem. These advices comes from first hand experiences

Now to your questions. I really suggest that you draw things out full scale. That will answer a few of your questions, like how to plan the neck pocket rout together with the pickup routs etc. The main difference between a 21 fret neck and a 24 fret is (obviously) the shortened distance from the end of the fretboard to the bridge. Having three HBs there might be a tad too much. Or perfect. But your full size sketch will reveal that to you. And regarding a fixed bridge vs a tremolo, my interpretation is that you are thinking of using a TOM (Tune-O-Matic) style bridge

with ferules on top of the guitars face:

and with "anchoring" ferules

on the back of the guitar. Well thats a totally different beast compared with a tremolo. First off you will need to have a neck angle or elevate the neck quite a bit over the face of the guitar. I'm pretty sure that the actual drilling for bushings, pressing the bushings in, screwing the bridge in place is something you can find on youtube or similar, but you need to understand how to measure for placement and to add compensation for intonation (if you're not using a TOM with extreme intonation travel distance for the saddles). That and how to calculate the neck angle is alone well worth buying the book "make your own electric guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock for. That book is extremely well written and will take you through all difficult parts of this particular build. I strongly recommend that you get this (or any other good book).

good luck

EDIT: Necroreaper beat me to it

[MusicMan]

The amount of frets doesn't make any difference to how you route the neck cavity, just buy the neck and make a template based on that. The bridge position is the most important thing, obviously it needs to be 25.5" away from the nut.

Buy your hardware first and you'll know what you're dealing with.

So the book is a must, essentially, great. And I just wasn't sure if the neck cavity was wider/thinner regarding more frets so thank you.

I really suggest that you draw things out full scale. That will answer a few of your questions, like how to plan the neck pocket rout together with the pickup routs etc. The main difference between a 21 fret neck and a 24 fret is (obviously) the shortened distance from the end of the fretboard to the bridge. Having three HBs there might be a tad too much. Or perfect. But your full size sketch will reveal that to you. And regarding a fixed bridge vs a tremolo, my interpretation is that you are thinking of using a TOM (Tune-O-Matic) style bridge on the back of the guitar. Well thats a totally different beast compared with a tremolo. First off you will need to have a neck angle or elevate the neck quite a bit over the face of the guitar. I'm pretty sure that the actual drilling for bushings, pressing the bushings in, screwing the bridge in place is something you can find on youtube or similar, but you need to understand how to measure for placement and to add compensation for intonation (if you're not using a TOM with extreme intonation travel distance for the saddles). That and how to calculate the neck angle is alone well worth buying the book "make your own electric guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock for.

So basically, I should buy the neck, then build the body around that, then the hardware (I'll probably swap out the middle humbucker for either a stacked humbucker or just get rid of it completely). But first, a drawing is necessary. And thank you, I didn't know what it was called (the TOM bridge).

[MusicMan]

Oh, and I forgot to ask. Do you think 24 frets is possible on this body as it is? I don't know if you need specifics or if you can eyeball it, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I'll read into if I'll need to change the body at all to support the couple extra frets.

http://www.deanguitars.com/img/mlat3000tbz.jpg

[necroreaper]

If you're building the body yourself you can have as many frets as you want, it doesn't make any difference. Just make sure you have the neck first and route the pocket in the position you want the neck to sit. Then make sure the bridge is positioned correctly.

And yes, I'd say the book is a must. I doubt there are many builders on here who don't have the book.. it's pretty much the bible for guitar building.