Gotoh Trem has post 74mm apart, is that a fairly common width for dual post vintage systems? What about a dual fulcrum?

[Bizman62]

1 hour ago, FuzzFace said:

I think sawing bodies might be a bit passed my ability and I definitely cant afford a quality jig saw and then Id need one of those hardcore bench belt sanders?

Sawing a guitar body is no rocket science. As I've often said, there's only a couple critical parts in a body: The neck pocket and the bridge placement. Everything else is for looks and ergonomics.

You can do it with any saw, even a carpenter's hand saw.

A cheap jig saw ($10-20) can be more accurate, though, and less painful for your muscles. There's basically only one thing to remember with jig saws: the blade tends to bend to one direction (only one, it doesn't change) which is more distinct on thicker materials. When you know which direction it bends you can follow the line quite closely as the underside will be larger.

No matter what kind of a saw you cut the shape with, you'll have to fine tune the edge either with a router and a template or simply with rasps and files.

 

[FuzzFace]

On 7/18/2022 at 6:11 PM, curtisa said:

What about if you buy a kit guitar and modify it to your requirements? Some of those can be quite reasonably priced. There's also plenty of Youtube vids detailing how to take a cheap kit guitar and pimp it up.

Oh Ive rebuilt a number of guitars. But routing and adding a floyd is a bit more of a challenge. I find most of the kits tend to be a bit over priced, but you are right some are not too bad. You can buy cheap guitars from Harley Benton which are better than well known brand names, in fact their pro series you can buy a guitar for $600 that could cost $5k+ at another company. 

Im trying to find the place that does the cheapest pre cut floyd rose bodies or kits. Still considering using a GnL or Squier for the project. Have a few more ideas on the electronics I want.

Will need help on here to get the pain effect Im after

[FuzzFace]

On 7/18/2022 at 6:34 PM, Bizman62 said:

The neck pocket and the bridge placement

Just on that point. If Im changing from a fixed bridge or a vintage trem, to a Floyd Rose. How do I work out the placement? Is it 25.5" from the nut to where the strings touch the Floyd Rose saddles?

Do you know of any good cheap places for bodies, kits etc?

I been looking around, there is a plethora of cheap squiers and such that I could use, I just need to figure out about the behind the nut lock for the strings. Although some people now, with graphite nuts and saddles are getting away with locking tuners, it seems the thicker gauge strings need string trees, where the problem with vintage trems is the G string getting stuck in a nut, but graphite nuts seem to have fixed that.

Id like a neon paint, where would I source such paint from, Im assuming not a hardware store? I love the Rainbow Crackle effect, but that might be a bit hard for my skill level.

[Bizman62]

On 7/20/2022 at 11:42 AM, FuzzFace said:

If Im changing from a fixed bridge or a vintage trem, to a Floyd Rose. How do I work out the placement? Is it 25.5" from the nut to where the strings touch the Floyd Rose saddles?

If your fretboard is designed for the 25.5" scale then basically yes. The scale is measured from the very edge of the nut to the very edge of the saddle, inner edges if that makes any sense. Due to thick strings having a longer "dead zone" the bass side saddles need to be moved farther away from the nut. Thus it's recommendable to move the saddles all the way to the front and measure from there - maybe leaving some ½mm or 20% adjustment range forward in case you'd change to a lighter gauge.

[FuzzFace]

On 7/27/2022 at 6:53 PM, Bizman62 said:

If your fretboard is designed for the 25.5" scale then basically yes. The scale is measured from the very edge of the nut to the very edge of the saddle, inner edges if that makes any sense. Due to thick strings having a longer "dead zone" the bass side saddles need to be moved farther away from the nut. Thus it's recommendable to move the saddles all the way to the front and measure from there - maybe leaving some ½mm or 20% adjustment range forward in case you'd change to a lighter gauge.

Yep that all makes sense to me. I ended up deciding not to dive in and buy anything yet, have been studying other builds an a lot of routing videos ie for Floyd Rose properly. 

Where do most people buy cheap blanks from?

[Bizman62]

2 hours ago, FuzzFace said:

Where do most people buy cheap blanks from?

As people here are from all over the world it's hard to name any source. For example the local timber yard in Arizona that may let you search through their piles for the fanciest figured woods is beyond reach for us living in Europe.

Another question is what kind of "cheap blanks" do you mean. If you need wood intended for instrument building, there's online shops all over the world even outside Ebay. Usually the shipping costs are lower if you find one on the same continent.

For practicing purposes visiting your local timber yard is most likely the cheapest option. Learn your local common species and compare their quality and features to "guitar woods" on sites like https://www.wood-database.com/wood-filter/.  There is no one single "right" choice - actually commercially built guitars made of mahogany or rosewood may not be built of those at all! There's many substitutes for endangered species, some of them not even being related. But they look and act similarly so they can be marketed under the more valuable names.

Most of my builds are made of no-tonewoods, meaning wood bought from a parquet factory (maple, walnut, cherry, merbau) or the local hardware store (roasted alder intended for sauna benches). Remember that the wood species used by the big name factories are those that they could easily get! Aside suitability, price and availability were the main criteria of the wood choices of the iconic guitars.

 

[FuzzFace]

On 8/9/2022 at 6:33 PM, Bizman62 said:

Most of my builds are made of no-tonewoods

Cheers. Most of the woods here are either native which are flappen expensive or are just pine. Although you can get anything from maple to swamp ash blocks on Ebay. Likewise you can get pre routed, but the price goes up clearly.

Ive found a floyd rose alternative, in fact its a licensed model, but instead of the cheap softened metals often used, it uses hardened steel, and sceptics give it goo reviews. Its nearly 1/5th the cost of a Schaller made Floyd Rose or Korean FR1000. 

My main stumbling block is finding a neck that works for me, I typically like Schecter necks, thin C/D, 19-21mm 1st to 12th, 12" radius, and 42mm nut, wider than a strat but not as wide as an Ibanez Wizard which exclusdes me from my more 70s style Funk Rock techniques, they are 16" radius and start at 43mm and out to 57mm. 

I found a Yamaha Pacfica Alder dirt cheap, about $150USD in a quality case, it has barely been played. But the neck is narrow, although has a13.75" radius. , just too narrow at 41mm nut. It is quite strange how such small refinements can make a neck fit your hand or not. The recent Squier Contemporary necks are perfect for my hand, they have crappy floyd roses and the pickups suck and the body is poplar. 

Prices start to add up and I think, maybe its worth spending $400 more and getting what I want pre made. But then I think, aside from the neck, I can pickup quality pickups on the used market for 40% their new price. 

Anyway I guess I would be paying $150 for an alder strat body, I could sell the neck and pickups, bridge etc and maybe get $50, probably $50 for the case, so its now a $50 strat routed Alder body. 

I have seen Floyd Rose pockets done with a chisel and detail sander on the cheap instead of a router. I know, pretty hack, but it turned out fine.... 

Right now Im not able to work due to health and our mortgage is over half a mill, which is hard on a single income and eating etc. So maybe now isnt the time to buy all the tools. As much as I really want to. But probably for now modifying a strat style gat is what I should focus on rather than building a body and having to buy the tools. But then pre routed bodies are very expensive and so are necks, you do not save a lot.

Probably the cheapest route is a Jackson JS32 bolt on neck with scarf joint and a budget FR Special, and just replace the FR Special for this licensed model of hardened steel, then swap the pickups out and Im done, but I hate all up this pushes me closer to guitars I can import for the same price this would cost.

Conundrum. So I dont think you really save money building unless you are building everything, which is an investment in tools, it then needs to become a hobby done often enough to justify the cost of the tools. 

Im not sure where I would find the perfect neck for me......

Edited August 22, 2022 by FuzzFace

[Bizman62]

2 hours ago, FuzzFace said:

Most of the woods here are either native which are flappen expensive or are just pine. Although you can get anything from maple to swamp ash blocks on Ebay. Likewise you can get pre routed, but the price goes up clearly.

Native woods apart from pine or spruce are expensive here as well. Native hardwood is also hard to find, it seems to go directly to the industry like birch which gets turned to Baltic Birch. What I meant, trying to find sources other than tonewood vendors can be quite cost effective. Equally, as you mentioned, prefabricated items cost even more.

2 hours ago, FuzzFace said:

Conundrum. So I dont think you really save money building unless you are building everything, which is an investment in tools,

That is very true. I don't own the tools needed nor a workshop so I participate the winter courses in the communal workshop. The cost for one winter is some €330 plus the woods and hardware. I couldn't justify buying a €500+ guitar every year, but building one during a winter or two is another thing.

The cheapest way to get a top quality guitar is to find a good used no-brand one and change the hardware if/when needed. Seems you've noticed that too.

[FuzzFace]

21 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

The cheapest way to get a top quality guitar is to find a good used no-brand one and change the hardware if/when needed. Seems you've noticed that too.

Haha yep, even when it wasnt fairly common knowledge 35 years ago I was buying cheaper guitars, doing some basic luthier work and installing my own electronics.

The problem is, there are NO cheap used floyd rose guitars, well there are Jacksons JS32, it has a scarfed neck joint which makes upper fret access much easier.. There are online guitars that are insanely cheap. One of which has a mahogany body, a 5 top maple (not sure if veneer or is thicker), stainless steel frets and an original Floyd Rose for ~$180, even the pickups are not bad. I plan to put a sustainiac picup and system in my next guitar. The newer EMGs that use ceramic like old school pickups with an Active coil as well are insanely good too. In fact the TW ones also include a seperate single coil on the outside. But they sound amazingly organic, so you can use them and sound like a passive pickup but you can still get silence and of couse the high gain they are known for. Much like Fishman Moderns but even better, let alone the single coil with the TW versions. Anyway either a Hot 70s EMG or a 57 in the bridge and a Sustainiac in the neck. 

EMG Pickups / 57/66 TW Set / Electric Guitar Pickups, Bass Guitar Pickups, Acoustic Guitar Pickups

I had another thought. maybe I could hire a router for the day, might cost $30, to do the floyd recess needed for pulling back etc..... Ive found GFS make a licensed floyd that is of high quality steel, which is why the Floyd Special and more so the licensed usually suck, like on the Jackson JS32, they use soft metals. GFS has assured me all components are hardened steel. They are $70usd (half price a the mo) vs $537 for the OG Floyd Rose. So I could buy this cheap Yamaha Pacifica and route the Floyd Rose for maybe $130 all up. 

The thing about modding vs building is, Id rather be building as you are missing all the fun and all the tools (which maybe useful for other house things)

OMG he had the choice of 40 Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredders and he picked out the worst one haha. This would be my dream guitar, if it had a neck through. I enjoy necks that have a widish (but not too wide like Ibanez Wizard) string spacing, lik 42 to 42.5mm, 41mm and below classic strat necks just dont accomodate my sausage fingers haha. Although it forces me to try be less sloppy, it also makes me sound sloppy even though its the string spacing. I enjoy a neck with 42mm nut, 12" radius and 20-22mm 1st to 12th depth. Although these new necks on Charvels and Jackson with the 12-16" compound radius means you can play open chords easy where it matters, but it flattens out midway up giving speed for shred, which is why Ibanez is 16" the whole length, but I play muiltople styles, so either the first neck or the compound neck I mentioned. Where can I get necks like these? Anyway he explains sustainiac, but some awsome videos on its use. All the virtuosos like Vai use them now. 

I swear if you combine a classic Fuzz pedal with a Wah pedal and a Sustainiac pickup and a Floyd Rose, Im converted from Science into believing there is a heaven.

 

[Bizman62]

1 hour ago, FuzzFace said:

I had another thought. maybe I could hire a router for the day, might cost $30,

You can get a router for almost that price! And with any luck there'll be a dozen bits with it. Agreed, most likely not the best quality but the tool itself should be good for a dozen guitars and even the bits should work for shallow one-off jobs. I got mine from Clas Ohlson who are a Swedish chain selling anything from kitchen utensils to computer accessories to power tools, a similar one is available at Biltema, another Swedish chain selling car parts alongside with the previous. The best bargain I've seen was by Lidl, the German grocery chain who have weekly bargains about anything. Their router comes with a box of bits. To me all three look identical outside the colour. 6 and 8 mm chucks plus a 1/4 inch available - most likely as a standard part for any router. And the price is about €50...

 

[FuzzFace]

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

price is about €50...

Where I am is so far away from any large continents that all products are expensive, even the cheap tools. Economy of scales and all that.

BUT, what I might do is look in the used sales site for them, a near new on might be close to $60 (which is about $40EU.

[Bizman62]

You raised my curiosity: Where is this isolated island you live on?