crafty

Use a Speedloader system. *ducks* Seriously, it would look cool, eliminate string-pull issues and tuner placement, and it'd still leave some good wood on the headstock for mass, ala Dean.

Most Mexican strats are made of poplar. It's a fairly good tonewood, but not very visually attractive. There really isn't much of a nice grain pattern and the wood tends to have a weird greenish tint to it--almost like pressure-treated lumber. Either repaint or veneer it. The natural poplar will just look bad.

Hooooly Craaap!! You paid nearly $300 for two Seymour Duncan '59s?! I understand why you're leery to risk ruining them. If you change your mind, maybe you could find a set of cheapo humbuckers to practice with. But hey, I'm just suggesting something that may be a little less complicated than routing bigger holes through the back of the guitar. Do whatever you feel comfortable doing.

If you look on the bottom of the pickup you'll notice that the polepiece screws on the "hot" coil go all the way through the baseplate. I'm suggesting that you replace two of those screws, say the A and the B string screws, with longer screws that will screw all the way into the body. It'd be kind of the same way you'd mount an old non-dogear P-90. It would be nearly impossible to get machine screws to firmly attach to the wood itself, so you might try to find some threaded inserts for the body side. This way you can firmly attach the pickup and not worry about it falling out. Just trying to think outside the box.

Well, you could always cut the mounting ears off the '59 and replace a couple of the screws on the "screw" coil with longer screws that will attach directly into the wood. You might be able to find some brass or steel studs to go under the pickup and in the wood. This would allow you to use machine screws to mount the pickup. I think that's how Ed Roman retrofits SD's into Parkers, and I know that's how the JB and Jazz are mounted in the Fly Mojo. Again, I'm not sure how much time or trouble you're willing to put into this, but I think this could be a cleaner and simpler solution instead of carving big holes for the pickups all the way through the body

Wow, that turned out great! It's like, you almost get dizzy from staring at it because your eyes just can't focus because of the inverse pickguard. I know Ed didn't much care for people copying his "art", but I think he'd really like this one. Especially since he recorded "Cathedral" on a stock, single coil Strat. Good job, man.

You probably won't lose very much sustain at all. The most important part is to keep sufficient wood around the neck joint and the bridge. Carving a pickup-sized mass of wood for each pickup and then attaching each pickup to the top through the back will probably be just fine. On the other hand, if you wanted a simpler method of attaching the pickups without having to use covers or rout space for the mounting ears, you have a couple of options: 1. EMG makes the 81, 85, and 60 in a neat P-90 sized package. They mount directly to the wood with no mounting ears or covers needed. 2. Use DiMarzio pickups that are designed to fit into Parker guitars. They don't have mounting ears either, and retain the classic humbucker look. A screw in each coil is replaced with one that goes through the baseplate and into the wood of the guitar. I think they offer most of their models, with the exception of the Evolution, in the Parker style. I think both options will give you a nice, clean appearance with quality pickups.

So THAT'S why the guitar looks damn near perfect and you proto'd the electronics! It was kind of funny reading some people's reactions when you freehanded that router to form the edge of the top curve. Some people really do have the touch, others have to build up to it. If you are of the latter, I'd say your experience blows away (at least) 90% of the people here. I think the key is going to be working with your Client. If he's been around the block, he's going to know what kind of sounds he wants and how to get them. The beauty of custom work is the ability to bring the ideas and dreams of your Client to life. BTW, I don't think Ned Steinberger had even played a bass before he turned the guitar world upside down with the original Steinberger basses and guitars. Graphite guitars? Active electronics? Transposing bridges? NO HEADSTOCK??!! People still paid some good scratch for 'em, though. Let the design and craftsmanship speak for itself and stand alone.

I'm still standing by my post, simply because of Jeremy's post. If you put the time into making an instrument that is worth $2500, you should get $2500. Now, I'm not saying that's what he should charge for whatever guitar he's building, but quality craftsmanship comes at a premium price. If I asked anyone here to build me a $2500 guitar and you delivered a guitar that was up to that standard of quality, I would pay that $2500. It doesn't matter what your experience is--it's just like what Jeremy said--if you can do it and you do it well, charge for it or it will just cheapen your reputation. If you don't have the confidence or time to do it right for the money that you're expecting--don't do it until you are ready for the responsibility. As for the quality of the guitar, I don't really care if it plays well or not. From what I've seen in the pictures and the quality that is evident, I believe he has the skills to do the job. I'm sure if his friends saw and played the guitar, that would probably be the reason WHY they WANT him to build it. I think with the guitar he built, a built-from-scratch, handmade, laminated-neck through with a carved cap, he gained a lot more experience than some of the people on this list who've put together 1,000 bolt-on guitars made from Warmoth or USAG parts for 10 years. When I used to repair computers in college, I started out lowballing for my time because I was sort of a newbie, although I did have formal education with computer repair. But after a couple of days I realized that my work was every bit as good, if not faster and better, than some more experienced people. I didn't want word to get out that my time was better AND cheaper, so I went from charging $15.00/hr to $20.00. I didn't want to fight my old labor charges for years, so I charged a fair, competitive rate for my services. If you go low end, you'll be in the low end forever. Charge what your time and family time is worth to YOU.

Nonsense. That guitar is top-shelf. If you are putting in $500-$1000 worth of work, then charge the $500-$1000 over the cost of the materials. If your friend feels like you didn't put in that much work when it's done, then take a step back and look at the guitar. Look at it and see if you really put that much work into a quality instrument. If not, give him a break ON YOUR LABOR COST, but only IF the guitar is not up to par. Talk it over with your friend and see how much he'd be willing to pay for the guitar, then go from there. You will not, however, find a finer handmade instrument for less than $1000. I really think you should get a fair price for the quality of the finished product instead of low-balling it just because it's only your second project. You seem to be a well-seasoned woodworker and I believe that the time and energy you put into the project (instead of say, your family) should be fairly compensated. Remember, it only costs Fender about $100 bucks to build an American Strat, and they sell for $850-$1500 depending on options. I'd say take your Costs x 2 and figure in about $20/hr. for labor. It doesn't hurt to make a profit--use it to buy more tools or take your family on a vacation.

A suggestion: don't use a pickguard! That's some really nice looking sapele. I'd just use a tele bridge and plate for the bridge pickup, a mounting ring in the middle for the humbucker, and a mounting ring for the neck single-coil. Route the controls in from the back and you'll have a nice looking guitar. Good luck recarving the neck pocket.

Don't worry--either of those combos will still burn hot enough to get the sound you're looking for. The key is they blend power with clarity, something rather difficult to get in high-power passives. If you want to spend some money and go active, check out the EMG 85.

No passive magnetic pickup is perfectly noiseless, but yes, the Classic (which I own) and Hot Stacks are stacked-coil humbuckers that respond almost as well as a true single coil. Pretty much the same basic layout as the Fender Noiseless and SCN pickups.

The Hipshot hardtail will keep things simple for both you and him: a. You won't have to route the body for a tremolo b. If he breaks a string, the rest of the strings will stay in tune much better -and- c. Most new "punk/metal" bands don't have extensive guitar solos anymore. Needless to say, he probably will have no use for a trem, much less a Floyd Rose. The Hipshot is also made of machined brass, which is well known as "the" true musical metal. Very high quality unit for only around $50. Now, you haven't mentioned if you're building a carved-top guitar or a Fender-style flat top guitar. If it's a carved-top, the Hipshot won't work--but I'm willing to bet you already know what you're doing anyway.

I'm kind of curious as to what you mean by "the planer chews up the last couple of inches of wood"? Anyways, it's kind of late to plane the wood. It should have been done before you cut the shape out. I would suggest carving an arched top. It would remove a lot of heavy material and would look very nice with that wood. If you did want to risk planing the wood now, it does look like you could stand to cut another two inches off the end of the body. It looks just a little too long, proportion wise. Also, I'm curious as to how you're going to build the pickups with neodymium magnets? They are incredibly powerful and may dampen the strings so much that you lose sustain. I'm not trying to stifle your innovation, but how much planning and design work have you really put into this project?

Seymour Duncan Hot Stacks!!

Ah, then you'd probably get more out of a Dimarzio PAF Pro/FRED combo like what Satch runs, or the Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz or '59 combo. Good rock sounds, good clean sounds all the way around.

Hey, I wonder how much Prince weighs? He's pretty slight, but he can still sling that Tele around with the best of 'em. I like Kenny Wayne Shepard. His opening act was one of the only good parts of the Extreme Van Halen concert I saw in St. Louis back in '98. I think he's a master of the Texas Blues and I won't insult him by saying he's trying to copy SRV. We all have our influences that make their way into our own music, but they mesh and combine to produce the innovative offspring we call our own songs. Calling KWS a copycat of SRV for playing the Texas Blues is like calling BB King a copycat of Robert Johnson for playing the Mississippi Delta Blues. It just doesn't work, and I've heard enough out of KWS, Johnny Lang, Dereck Trucks, and Joe Bonamassa to know that they channel the blues from all over Texas, the Delta, and Chicago. You can't pigeonhole innovation or the new blues artists.

Petrucci and Vai use DiMarzio pickups, the Evolution, Breed, Norton, and Tone Zone model, I think. The Evolution is one of the hottest pickups you can buy and will cover just about any kind of shredding you can handle. The Breed is slightly lower output and has a much cleaner, less wooly sound when used for clean tones. Vai uses his Breed-equipped guitars for just that purpose or softer, less hardcore overdrive. Petrucci uses the Air Norton and Air Zone, I believe. His sound isn't necessarily over-the-top speed shredding, either. His guitars have to sound good both clean and overdriven, so the Air pickups are a little kinder to clean amps. Alan Holdworth is now an endorser of Carvin guitars and they make replacement Holdsworth pickups for any humbucker-equipped guitar. Personally, I think Vai/Petrucci/Holdsworth are completely different animals compared to SRV. SRV's tone came from beat-up old Strats with overwound single-coils and Dumble/Matchless amps. The idea was not over-the-top shredding. You can come close by coil-splitting the pickups with switch or push-pull pot, but your basswood guitar and distortion-oriented pickups are going to sound significantly different no matter what. Here's what I prefer: vintage-style, lower power pickups and a hot amp. Slash, Hendrix, and Page made do with relatively weak but clean pickups and still managed to lay down some hot licks. Sensitivity to attack is great if all you're going to do is shred, but IMHO you can't beat a set of SD Alinico II Pros or Pearly Gates for TONE. I watched Vai accompany Nelly Furtado at the Grammys a few years back and his clean tone just sounded too sterile and cold even with running a Breed-equipped JEM. Since you sound like more of a metal fiend, I'd go with a Seymour Duncan JB bridge/'59 neck combo and a Classic Stack in the middle pickup position. That'll get you Dave Mustaine and Phil Collen's setup. You can also coil-split the JB as well. Or the ever classic EMG 81/S/81 combo. Active electronics give you sensitivity and cleanliness , but the tone can be a bit brash.

There's no reason to use electric strings at all. Just as long as they're regular steel-strings the pickup will be able to sense the strings with no problem. You can't really use it on a nylon/classical guitar, obviously, but it shouldn't be a problem with a regular guitar. I use a Seymour Duncan Woody with my Big Baby Taylor and it sounds great. Some magnetic-soundhole pickup manufacturers put some kind of volume control on the pickup. Gibson used to do this before they had piezo-bridges and would simply mount the volume on the upper bout of the instrument. With the humbucker, you may lose some of the clarity and high-end of the frequency range, but it should sound fairly good. Especially if it's out of a Gibson Les Paul.

Well, if it's lasted this long, it's probably a pretty solidly-built axe. Since it's not worth anything and it has a cool body shape, play around with it a little! Refinish it, replace the electronics, or even dupe the body out of a better wood, it's all up to you. I remember around '98 I saw a couple neat Aria Pro electrics. They looked like Strats, but they turned the input jack 180 degrees so that the cable couldn't fall out and you could run it between the body and the strap much more comfortably. They also mounted the bridge pickup, an SD JB Jr., to the wood and didn't have the pickguard covering it up. Neat looking guitars, those Arias.

Try Wal-Mart's paint and stain section. I found some Formby's Tung Oil there the other day.

Gee, the action on my Taylor was pretty high, about 1/4 inch or so at the 12th fret, so I "cranked" the truss rod a 1/4 of a turn. For some reason, the action suddenly became lower and easier to play... I guess the fact that I'm on Mars would explain that aberration of the laws of nature. And I'm sure Dan Erlewine is an idiot, too. Here's a tip: Learn to not be condescending when replying to posts. I had to learn this, and so did everyone else. People will actually listen and respect your opinion when they don't feel like you're talking down to them. If you feel like calling someone an idiot, then take the high road and don't say anything at all.

If you only have $100-150 to spend, get a Boss Metal Zone and a Dunlop Crybaby. You'll probably have to pick one of the two up used, but that's all you really need for a basic metal sound. Later on you might look into tube preamps and such, but that setup will get you by for a while.

There's been a few acrylic guitars that sound alright. The last couple of Foo Fighters albums, Dave Grohl played an Ampeg-Dan Armstrong for most of the songs. I think I've seen Keith Richards and Joe Perry play 'em too. Ibanez also made a few acrylic JS guitars as well. I think the key to using alternative materials is to use things that will actually sort of resonate. You can build a guitar out of MDF, cow dung, and beeswax, but it's still going to sound like crap. However, if you have enough scratch lying around, you could commission Waterford to blow a crystal glass body for your next guitar. Resonant, sure. Bright? Off the chart. Pricey?