crafty

1. Yes, but some people do the rout for the neck joint with chisels, routers, or sandpaper. Pick your poison. 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. No Think of a Les Paul with a carved top just like a violin or cello. The neck has to be at an angle to compensate for the strings coming off the bridge. The flat top-style Les Paul is no different if you use the same bridge set-up, however, the neck angle will be more visible as the fretboard IS slightly angled up from the flat body face. Two tips: Pick up the LP Plans from Stew-Mac, "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock, and some nice mahogany for the neck. Oak is not as good a tone wood because of the nature of the grain and structure of the wood. It just has too many dead spots and can't resonate as well. I'm not sure about the acidic content of the wood, but if it's been properly dried and seasoned that should never matter. Cherry should be an okay sub for maple, but again, it is usually riddled with dead spots. La-Si-Do Music in Canada builds many guitars out of Cherry. Rosewood, ebony, mahogany, and spruce are the traditional tonewoods of choice. Maple is nice because it resonates fairly well and is rock hard for bolt-on necks. Rosewood and mahogany make nice, warm sounding necks. Maple and ebony tend to resonate a little "brighter", so you'll often see rosewood fretboards on maple necks, or ebony fretboards on mahogany necks. It just helps balance things out. Alder, ash, and maple are also good body woods for solid-body electrics. Much brighter than mahogany and much less expensive. If you want an old violin/marimba maker's trick to show your students, borrow a tuning fork from the band/orchestra director at your school. Tap the fork and hold it against a few planks of each wood and see how they all resonate. It's good fun, and it's a good way to see if you've got "furniture grade" wood or "musical grade" wood.

This is the regular LP Junior bridge, it's only $19: StewMac LP Junior Bridge You can do one of two things: 1. Angle the neck -or- 2. Raise the neck so that you don't have to angle it. Each design has its advantages and disadvantages. By angling the neck, the strings will take a more natural path to the headstock off the bridge, making intonation easier and improving sustain. However, it sounds like you really don't want to do this, either from a lack of experience standpoint or you just don't want to mess with it. If you raise the neck, the intonation will be a little more difficult and you may lose some sustain, but the construction will be easier. It's up to you.

somebody get me a doctor!!

Considering that the Saga kits are made with the cheapest components available, it's not surprising that you're getting a little hum and such. It's probably just the pickups and possibly the "solderless connections" on all the wires. Hard solder everything together, shield the cavities, and upgrade to quality brand-name pickups and I bet 99% of that hum will go away. You're always going to have a little hum with passive electronics, humbuckers or not. It sounds like your grounds are fine if the noise goes away when you touch the strings--that's what the purpose of string grounding is. You just have cheap microphonic pickups and lousy wiring. Nobody's fault but the manufacturer, and just remember that they're only trying to keep it inexpensive. They're only trying to get $100 for a box of parts that cost them $5.

35 hours of classroom work to build the guitar should be enough, as the consensus on this forum goes. However, bear in mind that you'll be doing a lot of homework yourself. I remember my shop teacher staying behind for hours helping students finish projects or even just tidying things up a bit. There's always going to be one body or neck that comes out screwed up that you'll have to pull an all-nighter on rebuilding yourself so the student can stay caught up. Even if you've allotted 35 hours in perfect little time slots, teaching anything is never just a day job. You'll probably wind up spending another 35 hours in your own shop fixing little mistakes and rebuilding key parts. Just be prepared to make your students and THEIR guitars a priority if you're willing to take on the responsibility of a teacher and mentor.

If you have some extra scratch to spend, check out the Carvin Bolt kits. They only come in strat-style for the guitar kits, but the quality and wood is superior enough to the Saga that it's worth every penny. You won't be fighting cheap hardware, electronics, and wood, and you'll have a much more stable instrument that stays in tune and sounds great.

Yeah, because it's always fun to see video of teachers making students feel stupid...

Hey, next time take a ruler with you and compare the position of the neck pup on the Epi Elitist with the one on the SG Deluxe. I'm just curious because the Deluxe is a 24 fret guitar, so the neck pup may not be in the harmonic. That might be the reason why the tone is a little different, too.

Adding to Drak's note, just MAKE SURE they know how to actually operate and adjust the machinery properly, too. Half the time we spent in my high school shop class was about proper tool operation and safety. That and gluing will take up most of your time, waiting on tools to be freed up is another. When one person is using the bandsaw to cut a body, you'll have a whole queue (is that how they say it down under?) waiting to use the bandsaw to cut headstocks and other bodies. Something can definitely happen in the blink of an eye. In my case, it was a router bit spinning at about 20,000 RPM being jammed into the side of my body on accident by a friend, just below the last rib. Fortunately, my sweatshirt took the force of the bit and my t-shirt kept it from cutting my skin, but we ALL sure got a refresher lecture on safety that day from the teacher.

I was reading some specs on music123.com for the Elitist Les Paul and it said the pickups were actually Gibson USA Burstbuckers--even though they have a totally different number on the Elitists--and those same pickups are on the Elitist SG! So you may have Burstbuckers after all...I heard the new ones sound better and don't feedback as much since they're potting them now. BTW, referring back to an earlier post, potting pickups isn't difficult, just tricky because the hot MOLTEN wax can melt the bobbins if you leave it in there too long. The problem is trying to completely pot the pickup free of air pockets whilst not burning the damn thing up. Not something you want to try for the first time on a $100 pickup. Uh-oh, looks like our ESP fanboi is back...

Cool, lettuce know how the Burstbuckers sound.

Let me guess...one of those old Washburn Dimebag Darrell Signature guitars has shown up on fleabay in the wake of the Columbus tragedy and you're considering buying it? Dude, hold out for the Dean...at least the money will go to his family. *ducks*

Just figure out exactly what kind of controls you want, first. Do you want a master tone, or a tone pot for each pickup? Do you want a master volume, or a volume pot for each pickup? If you're looking to keep it simple, use a dual 250k concentric pot for master tone/volume, a switch to ground for the coil-split on the humbucker, and a three-way switch (either blade-style like a Tele, or leaf-style like a Les Paul). Save the little tone capacitor from either your LTD or the cheapo guitar. I converted my Strat to master tone when I installed my EMG preamp. It's not too hard and I just adapted a schematic on Seymour Duncan's website.

As I said, regular production models. ESP is not selling the angel guitars.

Whoa, that picture showed up a little dark on my screen. Anyway, you could do the neck pickup angle that way, I would do it with the high-E side angled towards the bridge, not the low-E side. Just personal preference. The humbucker doesn't automagically become a single-coil when in parallel with another single-coil pickup. On the contrary, the noise from the single-coil will be present in the mix. I would use the middle pickup from that guitar as your neck pickup because it's probably been wound reverse. That will give you a humbucking in-between effect when you combine the two pickups with the coil-split on the humbucker. With Warmoth, tell them to drill the holes for the bridge studs, give them the exact model of your bridge, and tell them that you want the neck pocket routed for use with an angled neck for a TOM bridge. They'll know what you're talking about. So we don't get confused on direction here, the angle of the neck would mean that the headstock is pointing down. I like the blueburst over flamed maple. Good choice. Try searching for the poor man's burst tutorial over in paint and finishing.

I'm not trying to put you down or anything Wasabi, but I've never seen anything come out of ESP that someone else hasn't been doing for at least 10 years. In fact, most of ESP's early endorsers simply slapped ESP logos on top of their Kramer and Jackson logos when they got their contracts from ESP. The Horizon: PRS Copy The Eclipse: Les Paul Copy The M Series: Strat/Dinky/Soloist Copy The Viper: SG Copy The EX: Explorer Copy The DV8: Gibson V Copy The LTD F/AX Series: Schecter Copy Besides non-production, not-for-sale instruments, I really haven't seen much innovation at all from ESP besides using EMG active pickups in a production guitar.

The only problem with doing the veneer yourself is probably going to be finding a veneer big enough to cover that body. Just keep that in mind when you go to find a veneer. $90 isn't too bad for a quality piece of installed 1/8 inch veneer that you can actually sand and stain without too much trouble. Paper-thin veneer is much more difficult to stain with the effect I think you want. But, it's your axe, do it if you want to do it. As for the neck angle, they will simply rout an angle in the neck pocket on the body--you shouldn't have to do anything to the neck. The back of the neck will not be parallel to the back of the body and will allow the strings to maintain a steep breakover angle on the TOM bridge without affecting the action. Think SG or Les Paul. It's a $10 charge to have them do this--if you're using a TOM you have to do this. I'm not sure how much it would cost to have them carve the body so you can use the ESP neckplate, or even if they'll do it at all. That's a "call and ask them" question. I'd assume the answer is going to be either "no" or "yeah, for $30". Also, just one thing I think would sweeten the looks of the design. Elminate the middle pickup and have Warmoth carve the neck pickup cavity at an angle, sort of like Tele bridge pickup but more of a softer angle like the LTD MV-200/300. It will also help the polepieces line up with their respective strings, reducing crosstalk. TOM bridges are narrower than Strat bridges, so the polepieces on Strat pickups are wider than they need to be to sense and separate the strings properly on a TOM-equipped guitar. If you put a coil-split switch on the humbucker, you can still get that "in-between" sound with both pickups activated, and it'll simplify the looks of the guitar. Star-shaped guitars look busy enough without 3 pickups on them.

Okay, all we have to do now is find someone with a lot of cash laying around, a skilled machinist, a CNC mill, and a scrapper SR-71 or MiG-25. 1. We've got that guy who did the aluminum guitar. 2. He has a mill, although not a CNC, maybe we can rent one at Home Depot, like a tile saw. 3. I don't live too far away from the Strategic Air Command Museum. They have an SR-71 on permanent static display. I wonder if they have any of the scrap titanium left over from the decommissioning and display process. We could root through their dumpster from the snack bar or something. 4. No cash. Rats! You gotta admit, if someone could pull it off, it'd be wicked awesome. It would definitely get my vote for GOTM. Hardened titanium frets machined into a billet of titanium for a fretboard would just rule, whether or NOT it actually sounded cool.

Yes, if you're neck heel will fit in the pocket, all you'll have to do next is attach the neck with the three screws that are in the normal spots. Then, using the fourth screw hole in the body as a guide, drill a new hole in the neck for the fourth screw and use a new standard neck plate. -or- See if Warmoth will carve and drill the neck joint so you can re-use the neck plate from your LTD and not have to drill another hole in the neck. Just one more thing to consider. Make sure that Warmoth carves the neck pocket so that the neck sits at an angle for the TOM bridge. Otherwise, your action will be atrociously high. It will cost you $10 extra to have them do this. Also, if you're ordering the body from Warmoth, why not have them put a maple veneer on it there? I'm not sure how much more it'll cost you, but it'd probably be worth it over putting a paper-thin veneer on a brand-new body.

One question: Are you an experienced machinist with access to a high-quality CNC mill?

That doesn't surprise me that the '57 sounds a little bright to you. Alnico II pickups tend to have very good high-end frequency response. You can either adjust the tone a little or use Alnico V pickups for a bit darker sound and higher output. As for the number of wires for the replacement pickup, most aftermarket pickups from SD and DiMarzio are going to usually have four wires. Unless you want to use a coil-split switch, you usually wind up soldering two of the wires together and just hooking up one hot and one ground wire to the system. On SD pickups, the red and white wires are soldered together and green goes to ground, black is hot. I can't remember what the DiMarzio combo is, but you get the idea. They'll come with instructions, anyway. On the SD's, to split the coils you just solder the red and white wires together to the same pole on a switch with the other pole on the switch grounded. Switch off, full humbucking, switch on, coil split.

Kevan-- No, I didn't catch the interview with the Crue, but on foxnews.com they were making it look like they didn't even care. The article stated "when Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx were asked whether they though the violence in the heavy metal music had anything to do with the shooting, they simply responded "That's retarded" and then proceeded to plug their upcoming tour." The article never mentioned Lee's statement that Dimebag and him were good friends. To the media, Dime was just another dirty, drug and alcohol-addicted, wild heavy metal guitarist. But to be quite honest, I think that's how Dime would have wanted it--and that's the real spirit of rock--not Mariah Carey covering "Bringing on the Heartbreak" or Celine Dion covering "You Shook Me All Night Long". To the media, this is just like what the rap community was experiencing back in 1994-98 when all of the gangsta rap stuff was going on. I'll be quite honest, I'm a pretty clean cut guy. I go to law school, wear a yuppy-style leather jacket, and drive an SUV. My lifestyle is probably more part of the problem of intolerance in this society than anything else. I've never used illegal drugs. But I love all music ranging from Segovia to 50 Cent to Megadeth. I don't like posers and some of my best friends in high school were the stoners, goths, and metalheads. I never pretended to be anything but myself and they taught me what real tolerance was--acceptance. Dime may not have been as pretty or clean as Ashlee Simpson, but he had the talent and the artistry down. His spirit will live on in the guitarists he influenced. Even if the media won't respect his legacy, the people who really matter will--all of us.

Staining the bondo might be a little tough...

Okay, I was just watching ABC News tonight to see if they'd have anything on about the murders. Sure enough, there was Peter Jennings slipping it in at the end of the broadcast. But what did they do? They blamed Dime and "the violent culture surrounding heavy metal music"!! They showed a five second clip of people punching each other in a mosh pit, and claimed that the gunman was simply responding to the example of violence portrayed in Pantera and Damageplan's music. It's like, they just pulled out the same material they aired when Biggy and 2Pac were killed, and just changed the names and pictures to suit the story. So according to ABC News, it wasn't the fault of some sick, deranged fan, it was the heavy metal community's fault. I'm hearing echoes of the AC/DC "Night Stalker" scandal again. Getting ready for the brown stuff to start piling up again.

Woodwind and Brasswind!! Every time I drive through South Bend to visit my sister in Cleveland, I always mean to stop there and check it out. I was a trumpet player in another life and I still haven't made it to that store, yet. I took my old Stradivarius out of the case the other day for the first time in 4 years, so maybe I'll have to stop in there next time I head out east. Anyways, the price on the pickup is surprising. I've found in most of the music stores around here that it seems like the Gibsons are always more expensive. The Seth Lover IS one of SD's premium pickups, so I guess that would explain the price difference. One thing I've never been able to figure out is why Alinco II magnet pickups are always more expensive than Alnico V or Ceramic. Yes, the sound quality is better, but is the magnet really that much tougher to make? Ibanez Artcores are a little smaller than the ES-355. They seem pretty lightweight to me, but they are definitely a different animal than an SG. Add unpotted pickups like a Seth Lover to the mix, and you'll have feedback for days.