Flamesong

Oakay! I'm almost convinced to buy the lump in question. My next thought was about knots. Aesthetically, I like the character that knots give wood but I was concerned about using knotty wood for guitars until I did a Google image search. This is the piece I am thinking about buying.

I found the problem. Basically, the pickups I bought did not have the wiring colours of the diagram I was following (black and white were reversed) which I discovered too late. I corrected this with the installation of the mini-toggle switches but I completely forgot about it as far as the push pull switch was concerned. Every diagram I looked at said to connect it to the white pickup wire but in my case, it should have been black. I put it back together and it works fine. I'm still a bit overwhelmed with the options I now have but time to play.

I generally agree, though I have no expertise as far as guitar making is concerned, I'm generally recalling what I learned in physics and as an aircraft mechanic. Sometimes it helps to look at extreme examples, softer materials are used to dampen so clearly harder materials have the opposite effect. Some of the densest materials are soft (e.g. lead) or even liquid (e.g. mercury) but they are clearly not going to provide much sustain as they will absorb the vibration. I read one comment somewhere (not here, I don't think) that the overall density of the guitar body was the key factor and that drilling holes in the scratchplate would have a negative impact on sustain. I couldn't find the energy to sign up to the forum just to weigh in (NPI) but the scratchplate isn't in what I think of as the vibrational circuit and unless it is loose ought not have any effect in my perception but I'm happy to be corrected. Talking of which, I have an aluminium scratchplate on the guitar I just put together and I noticed by accident (I had some echo on my amp and I heard the effect a second or so later) that it picks up impact noise from my plectrum. I tested another guitar and it did not happen. At first, it concerned me but after playing around for a while, I got to like the idea that I could make percussive noises and thought about adding a kind of mini washboard or engrave some parallel lines that I could scratch. Anyway, as far as the wood is concerned, a major factor for me is cost and one of my favourite sayings is 'necessity is the mother of invention'. I mean, some people make guitars out of shovels and cardboard.

Thank you very much for your reply. I have packed up for the day but will be stripping it down tomorrow to do some work on it so I will do that then. I had a bit of a brainwave earlier which may solve the problem but I won't know until I open it up tomorrow.

Having just finished a kit guitar which I customised, I plan to buy a pre-made neck and use my own body design which will be based around a standard Strat scratchplate. I have searched online for opinion about using oak and the consensus seems to be that it is too dense and not very attractive - one person saying that it looks like a material for old men. I don't understand either of these objections. I'm considering buying a piece of oak big enough for three bodies which is not unattractive - so that's not an issue. But the density objection baffles me. I'm not an aficionado but I always had the impression that sustain was the Holy Grail of guitars. As I understand it, material density increases sustain; although, I would disagree with this as there are some materials which are very dense but I think would not give good sustain, I would argue that the required property is actually hardness. Then, there is the question of weight. If the material is dense, the body will weigh more and could be uncomfortable. If that is an objection, might oak be considered if the body I intend to make is about 80% of the volume of a standard Strat?

I can't see an edit button so: P.S. I opted not to have a Fender shaped headstock. Although all but one of my guitars are either Fenders or Strat copies, my ultimate intention is to use an original hardtail body shape I have designed which uses a standard Strat scratchplate - maybe in oak (cue dissent!).

Hi, this is my first post. I've been messing around with guitars for years but I just finished constructing my first guitar, if finished is the right word as I seem to have been bitten by something which won't allow me to stop wanting to do more. I simply don't have the space or experience to build from scratch but I aim to design my own bodies and buy necks until I have confidence and somewhere I can make them myself. In the meantime, I bought an ash body ST kit and put the electronics on the preloaded scratch plate to one side and bought some upgrades. My aim was to have three dual rail humbuckers, each with a series/parallel mini-toggle switch and a push-pull bridge on switch and a momentary push kill switch all mounted on a copper coloured anodised aluminium scratchplate. Also, due to me sometimes knocking the volume knob whilst playing, moved the knobs so that the volume knob (with push pull swich) is next to the jack socket. I finally got the result I wanted all apart from the push-pull bridge on switch. I have spent hours trying to figure out why, having followed the wiring diagrams I have followed (which are essentially all the same), when I activate the push-pull switch, the signal circuit shorts out and I get nothing. I'd post a copy of one of the wiring diagrams but I don't want to infringe any copyright in my first post but basically, it connects the white wire from the pickup to one of the push pull terminals and the volume pot to the other. If anybody has any thoughts on what I might have done wrong, I'd be grateful.