New guitar project and site feature article

[Prostheta]

I pulled the trigger on a guitar body from eBay this week as the basis for a new main site article describing how to take random parts and build them up into a complete instrument. The guitar body is an HSS carved Maple topped superstrat with an Alder (might be Ash, but who cares?) body routed for some variant of a traditional Strat tremolo.

The question I put out to you is, what would you like to see done to this project? It will of course need a neck building which of itself is part of the process. Bridge conversion? Some form of weird finish on that Maple?

Discuss.

[Ripthorn]

People love a good maple dye job. Me personally, I really like the PRS finish faded denim or whatever they call it. Tiger eye is another popular one. Could go with a trans-black or trans-something or other on the back and sides.

As for the bridge, a lot of people seem to either want to go from standard strat to either hard tail or 2 point (with some guys going all the way to Floyd). Hard tail seems almost trivial, so showing how to do a 2 point using something like the relatively inexpensive 2 points that are out there would probably help a lot of guys. Seems there are a lot of builders who want to try something without breaking the bank (me included). That also seems to be in keeping with the spirit of the other main page tutorials.

[Bjorn.LaSanche]

It depends on what the maple looks like. If it is highly figured I always thought this guitar was the pinnacle of figured wood/finish craftsmanship. It doesn't even look like wood http://nealmoser.com/guitarpics9.htm Maybe something similar, but a different color.

I am drawing a blank on the bridge. I do not like any of the traditional Fender style tremolos. They have never been comfortable to me where I position my hand and always end up cutting into the side of my hand.

Carbon Fiber neck. I'de really like to see how these are done

[Prostheta]

I guess it could seem somewhat trivial however I would like to incorporate Brian's original tutorial on hardtail conversion here also in some form. It seems appropriate to cross-link the various concepts and putting them into practice.

I'll have to see what is under the paint on the back as to whether it will go solid or whether it can be infilled with something that more or less matches.

If the Maple ends up with a dye job it will likely either end up like my long-lost Mirage or my favourite faded honeyburst. As much as this could easily end up a vanity build, I would like to do as much as possible with the project to feed directly into the educational aspect of PG.

It depends on what the maple looks like. If it is highly figured I always thought this guitar was the pinnacle of figured wood/finish craftsmanship. It doesn't even look like wood http://nealmoser.com/guitarpics9.htm Maybe something similar, but a different color.

I am drawing a blank on the bridge. I do not like any of the traditional Fender style tremolos. They have never been comfortable to me where I position my hand and always end up cutting into the side of my hand.

Carbon Fiber neck. I'de really like to see how these are done

That's quite the pretty piece of wood. Kind of the thing Perry springs on you when you're not expecting it.

Yeah, I dislike tremolos on the whole and I really feel that some level of conversion is necessary. Whilst I could hunt around for a trem that fits, I feel that making it different and detailing the processes and rationale is far more productive than a mere parts-assembly project. I don't want to make it radically different but treating it like a basis to build upon rather than keep as-is would be most useful for other people.

Carbon fibre isn't my thing really however I do have a friend across the other side of Finland who made a CF bass neck. I don't think I'll go down this route because I would like to keep each process "accessible" to the average pocket-money tinkerer. Building up an instrument from spare parts is what brings a lot of people to instrument building.

[Prostheta]

I might put this to a vote of some sort once we have specs and concepts on the table.

This is what we'll be working with:

[curtisa]

Good idea on the new tutorial, Prostheta. Some brain ideas/brain farts in your genereal direction:

Perhaps it would be good to define what the limits of the build will be a little more clearly. The body is obviously pre-finished and in good condition, and the brief is to put together a guitar from spare parts. I guess most beginners would start building guitars in this way (it's certainly how I got into it) - buy a pre-finished body, a fistfull of parts and slap them together.

In keeping with the "buy parts and assemble" ethos of this tutorial, would it be better to avoid the more advanced techniques such as refinishing, bridge conversion and neck construction, and limit yourself to sourcing premade components, fitting a bridge to the route it was intended for, fitting a premade neck and checking for alignment, doing a fret dress and setup etc? You could always include some more detailed steps in the tutorial such as how to plug and re-drill the trem post screws if the bridge doesn't exactly align with the original screw holes, or how to tweak the neck pocket if the neck heel is a slightly different shape.

If you were to make this more of an intermediate tutorial (maybe the reader has a couple of partscaster builds under their belt by this stage?) you could perhaps include a section on building a standard neck from scratch, stripping the body and refinishing, blocking the trem and fitting a hardtail, rerouting the neck pickup for a humbucker etc.

Probably a bit more high-level than you were intending, but a lot of such a tutorial could easily be used to update much of the main projectguitar website. IMHO the PG.com site has been looking a bit tired for a while now, especially in comparison to the forum and maybe this tutorial could be the impetus for giving the main site a spring clean. I've noticed that while it appears a lot of dead links have been pruned in recent months, there are still a number of external pages that are lost, or links to forum threads sans photos. Maybe now is a good time for a number of build/modification tutorials 2013-stylee and associated website pick-me-up?

Brain ideas concluded

[Prostheta]

All projects are good projects when the bounds and objectives are well-defined, the steps well-illustrated and the rationale laid out clearly. You're right.

The immediate things I can see that can be taken from the project would be demonstrating how to infill the trem routs for one. Brian's tutorial saw me well when I first did it and I would like to reinforce that concept through a fully-illustrated project. Despite the body being finished, I think stripping it back and re-finishing it would be valuable of itself. I do need to measure that roundover (4-5mm or so?) and figure out whether binding the body could also be figured in somewhere. Ultimately the whole thing will involve a complete neck build also.

I was thinking that perhaps there needs to be some classification for various techniques like "beginner", "advanced", "godlike", etc. I'd like this to be somewhere between the first two...."beginner with basic tools" level?

[LightninMike]

As opposed to doing a traditional binding, why not do the "fake" natural wood binding? It gives the effect, and you won't have to work out a routing that a lot of guys wouldn't be able to accomplish. As well, the roundover doesn't need to be changed - Two birds with one stone.

It winds up being a project that is reachable, yet still takes a certain amount of skill to do well. Not a beginner project, and when done well it is advanced work

[pan_kara]

I was meaning to suggest faux binding on this one... out of my own interest since I'm planning on doing a guitar like that but tests on scrap have not been successful so far. I think the maple top staining tutorial on this site is not compatible with faux binding in fact - the stain is supposed to be brushed on, the way I was doing this in the past was basically wetting the whole top with stain, which gave me a nice and even coating, but the stain penetrates so deep that

1. it soaks through at the edges

2. its nearly impossible to sand back to unstained wood to get nice contrast

[Prostheta]

Very good suggestion. Since I am doing a lot of work with shellac recently this ties in nicely. Whether I do it on this project or as a separate tutorial is probably academic but it is an excellent suggestion nonetheless.

[HCRoadie]

In keeping with the "buy parts and assemble" ethos of this tutorial, would it be better to avoid the more advanced techniques such as refinishing, bridge conversion and neck construction, and limit yourself to sourcing premade components, fitting a bridge to the route it was intended for, fitting a premade neck and checking for alignment, doing a fret dress and setup etc? You could always include some more detailed steps in the tutorial such as how to plug and re-drill the trem post screws if the bridge doesn't exactly align with the original screw holes, or how to tweak the neck pocket if the neck heel is a slightly different shape.

As a relative new comer to this site, and to guitar building/assembly/construction/design/finishing/, I feel that the site is lacking a bit in these basic tips and principles. There seems to be a lot devoted to the very experienced builder, which is awesome to read about and look at their pretty pictures. However, there seems to be a disparity between the accomplished builder and those that are still learning. I am aware that much time and effort has been spent by those that share their incredible builds with us. And I love going through the "build in progress" threads, but the skill and tool set to get there is daunting. Having some properly illustrated and described "baby step" threads and tutorials would be very encouraging to me and am I sure many others. Nothing is more gratifying than a successful project. And nothing is more discouraging than a failed one.

If you were to make this more of an intermediate tutorial (maybe the reader has a couple of partscaster builds under their belt by this stage?) you could perhaps include a section on building a standard neck from scratch, stripping the body and refinishing, blocking the trem and fitting a hardtail, rerouting the neck pickup for a humbucker etc.

Maybe Two threads are in order? If some of the more seasoned members would each take on different levels of these experimental/edifying builds, it could be quite inspiring. Also, I would like to say how much I genuinely appreciate the generosity of everyone's knowledge on this site.

Edited November 2, 2013 by HCRoadie

[Prostheta]

I think that breaking this down into several smaller "procedure articles" pulled together by one "project article" makes sense, yes. Blocking off the trem cavities is itself something I would like to do. Refinishing is a difficult subject and could comprise an entire sure on its own!

Some way of describing the difficulty or experience level of each step in articles would help too I think.

[LightninMike]

I was meaning to suggest faux binding on this one... out of my own interest since I'm planning on doing a guitar like that but tests on scrap have not been successful so far. I think the maple top staining tutorial on this site is not compatible with faux binding in fact - the stain is supposed to be brushed on, the way I was doing this in the past was basically wetting the whole top with stain, which gave me a nice and even coating, but the stain penetrates so deep that

1. it soaks through at the edges

2. its nearly impossible to sand back to unstained wood to get nice contrast

If it is a figured wood, you can do a light stain - wiped on and sanded back to enhance the figure. Tape off the edges of the binding and spray a layer of shellac or a sanding sealer. The "binding" will be safe from further staining as you wipe it on in light coats. Flooding the maple will always run through the grain and wind up underneath the sealer.

If it isn't a figured maple, the process will be the same although you start with taping and spraying. And then go to light coats of the stain until it builds up.

Edited November 2, 2013 by LightninMike

[Tim37]

a cool wiring scheme would be nice something cool but still usable.

are you gonna try to fill the trem and try to keep the figured top?

[Prostheta]

I'm not a big trem user to be honest with you. Despite this instrument being purchased purely for the purposes of demonstrating various techniques and as the basis for updating respective PG tutorials (photography, etc.) I would like it to be an instrument I would use. Setting myself a sort of target with a "what I would like to end up with" automatically sets me problems to solve. The thought processes behind all that would constitute the "project article" with each individual stage being its own article linked from the parent but being written to stand on its own also.

For many years I've wanted to build a copy of my old ESP Mirage purely out of nostalgia. The top wasn't particularly heavily flamed, the Floyd wasn't even recessed. HSS isn't a pickup configuration I would ever choose either. It was however a really solid and inspiring instrument to play. Definitely a proving case of top drawer workmanship trumping magic voodoo woods any day.

Out of this I could author new tutorials or demonstrate existing ones on:

• blocking up a trem cavity
• planning and routing for a Floyd
• cutting channels for binding plus installation and scraping back
• prepping a Maple top for staining
• designing electronics
• designing a neck within the constraints of existing specs (already sort of done this on my RSB BnG retrofit project)
• semi-hemi fretwork
• material selection

There's pretty much no end to the scope of what could be dragged out of one project when you start drilling the ideas back beyond what experienced builders tend to take for granted. Hell, you could write about drilling clean holes or simple best practice on glue application if you wanted and more than likely I will.

When the body arrives I'll take various photos and measurements, we'll have a look at it in this thread and open it up to what is possible, practical and most productive in terms of extracting usable learning material. Things like faux binding really depends on whether that roundover on the top is a loose radius, whether the top is solid and how far it extends from the top edge. I suspect that with it being a modern mass-production Aria (Korean, Indonesian most likely) it would have been geared for maximum yield/profitability so a veneer is not off the cards. A solid carved top would be me lucking out. We'll see :-)

[Prostheta]

If I'm lucky it will look like this underneath:

http://ariaguitars.nsf.jp/aria_int_pics/electric_guitars/mac_series/MAC-PRESTO_M_AN_image7.jpg

[bob123]

I cant tell, is that an actual top or a veneer (ala prs se style)? If its a veneer, that would affect your refinish options, no? Guess you could be uber careful and not sand through it all the way.

Suggestions ->

- making a neck is cool, perhaps using a premade fretboard (stew mac sells em pretty cheap), and focusing on the structural parts.

- showing how to do a scarf joint properly if you wanna go that route would be very informative.

- I would pass on the floyd honestly. Perhaps a 2 point wilkinson style trem would be cool. Its a great upgrade to a lot of guitars, and more accessible then a floyd rose.

- I've done a ton of tutorials on ball ended frets... everyone loves em, but no one seems to care about doing it lol. I would suggest focusing on the basics, and showing that as an "option" more then focusing an entire tutorial on it.

- wiring is one of those things that people rely on schematics too mcuh for simple things. Explaining the exact process of why the wires go where they go is kind of one of those "teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime" thing. Understanding the wiring will help a lot of people avoid mistakes and streamline their processes. It would also help them make their own schematics and figuring stuff out would be easier.

all depends on how in depth you wanna go I suppose.

[Tim37]

Bobs post really made me think on the neck most people are more likely to buy a neck and build a body around that. Some thing that might be interesting is to buy a neck and show what is needed to do a scale change if its possible on that body

[bob123]

Bobs post really made me think on the neck most people are more likely to buy a neck and build a body around that. Some thing that might be interesting is to buy a neck and show what is needed to do a scale change if its possible on that body

Thats precisely WHY he should do a neck tutorial. People are so fearless with bodies. When it comes to necks, people are so gunshy "oh its so difficult, I cant do it". People don't really understand its just a couple pieces of wood glued together and some precision holes. Fretwork comes with time, getting someone the courage to start it is pretty important.

[curtisa]

- wiring is one of those things that people rely on schematics too mcuh for simple things. Explaining the exact process of why the wires go where they go is kind of one of those "teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime" thing. Understanding the wiring will help a lot of people avoid mistakes and streamline their processes. It would also help them make their own schematics and figuring stuff out would be easier

That's a pretty good suggestion actually, and is an area of the PG.com site that appears to be lacking somewhat. At a basic level guitar wiring should be really simple to understand, but there's still a lot of misinformation and voodoo floating around clouding the issue. I'd be willing to contribute an entry-level tutorial on such a topic if the project warranted it (although not wanting to step on yer toes, Prostheta!) Edited November 4, 2013 by curtisa