Guitar Building and Modifcation Questions ? Click Here !

(27 Apr 2006 16:24)

See the list of links at the bottom of the page for guitar parts , building supplies , and "do it yourself" guitar kits !

Feel free to drop questions and comments here - this will be an ongoing discussion for sure ! I'll be glad to answer any basic guitar building and modding questions you may have , or post helpful links to info to get your guitar project going on ! I'm sure I will learn stuff in the process myself . All good !!!

If you don't see the questions & comments area on the right , click this [ link ] to bring up this same page again - with an interactive message box !


( This all came about from a comment in my shoutbox . My answer ended up being Way too long to fit there , which gave me the idea to do this instead . So thanks to "LastMastr" ! hahaha look what you started 8 )

LastMastr (22 Apr 2006 21:32)

Thanks for the comment Brainstorm it sure as hell is something i am going to remember....i thought you only modified them..but it turns out you build them..I want to get started..but i am having financial problems..

When i come across money for at least a router and a belt sander...i am going to buy all the other tools like a Hand Saw and Clamps and stuff. but i already have a Power Drill. So yea..but i dont know exactly how to get started. I have a book but i wouldnt know the Easiest 1st route to take...

And thats what i want help with.


Right on ! I assume you want to build guitars completely from scratch , which is a lot of work but totally cool ! If you are still in high school , your school may have a wood shop class . Have a talk with the shop teacher about your interest in building guitars . If you're a good student and show the teacher you are serious , maybe you can take the class and get to use all their cool tools for free ! You might even be able to make your own guitar as a class project for a grade - might be a plan ! Teachers like it when their students take interest , so you may have to build a few bird-houses and book-cases , but if you do well and get in good with them - it will increase your chances greatly of getting to build guitars - on their time with their tools ! ( IMPORTANT NOTE !!! Power tools like saws , drills , routers . soldering tools etc are highly dangerous and can hurt you bad ! Please be careful with power tools and solder - they can hurt you quick and we dont want that - it's not good for your playing ! )

You can probably find a decent bolt-on neck guitar cheap for the neck and other parts , then make a body to fit - in any shape you want . The neck is the hardest part to make , since it has a "truss rod" inside for reinforcement and the frets must be precise in placement and height , but the body is no problem if you have the right tools . Your local guitar shop may even have necks and spare parts , so finding parts for a project should be no problem even if you have to look online . Shop around , ask your friends , and you can find this stuff on the cheap ! ( You can also buy do - it - yourself guitar kits with all parts included - see the links at the bottom of the page for more info on kit guitars ! )

A bolt - on neck guitar is relatively easy to build or modify , it's just a matter of having the right parts . Many necks and bodies are easily interchangeable , and you can often put a nicer neck on a lower quality guitar and really improve it . If you aren't sure if a certain neck & body combination will work together , you can ask the people at your local music store / guitar shop . A good guitar shop can even do some of the more critical measurements and procedures for you . If you ask nicely they may let you watch them work , which is a great way to learn . (This varies of course - some shops are totally cool with this , others will say no way.) My first one in the 70's was an Explorer body - a friend at a music store cut and routed it for me . I took the neck off my old Tele guitar , bolted it on , wired in pickups , and ta da - instant pointy guitar ! Later that year I got into Van Halen and wanted a whammy bar , so I took all that apart and transferred the parts to a Strat body , then after I got a better guitar I returned that neck to the Tele again !

If you'd like to get into guitar building on your own , I would recommend starting with a cheap "project guitar" to experiment with . "Stratocaster" ( "Strat" ) style guitars and parts are widely available . A vast variety of different companies make this basic neck & body style so the quality and measurements can vary quite a bit . Look around and find a good deal on something like a Squier Stratocaster for example - you can get a cheaper model brand new for $100 , and less for a used one ! Ask around - one of your friends may even have something cool to use . The cheaper the better (as long as it's not badly damaged !) The paint job doesn't matter - since you're going to take it completely apart and repaint it anyway !




You can learn a lot just by taking the strings off and disassembling it - the neck is held on by 4 screws , the pickguard by a few smaller screws . Just put the screws in a little box and keep up with any parts you take off . Of course you want to pay attention and make notes or drawings as you go - since you do want to put it all back together again ! You can disassemble the whole thing with a large and small philips screwdriver and a soldering iron to de-solder the output jack and ground-wire - with those three tools , I can have a Strat completely apart in minutes . After you take all the screws out and the parts are in the box , you're ready to sand it a bit and prime and paint it . You can even mess around with the shape if you like - I've seen some interesting Strats where people have filed or cut the body , and even an Ibanez RG550 with little holes drilled all through it ! If you've kept up with all your screws and parts , you should be able to reassemble it all yourself , but if you get stuck - your local guitar shop can help you out .

The most important factor is the "scale length" ! If this isn't correct - the guitar will not tune up or play properly ! The "scale length" of the neck has to be the proper size to match up with the body and bridge . The distance from the nut to twelfth fret determines the distance from the 12th to the bridge - in other words , the 12th fret is the exact center between the nut and bridge . This [ link ] from Warmoth shows typical bridge distance and neck pocket dimensions . Get that right - and the body can be cut any shape you want !

The two most common bolt-on scale lengths are 25 1/2" and 24 3/4" . Here are a couple of examples . Eddie Van Halen's "Frankenstein" guitar is a 25-1/2" scale Charvel built-from-parts Strat that has been through more modifications than Pamela Anderson . Just below is the Epiphone Zakk Wylde , a 24-3/4" Les Paul with a glued in (not bolt-on) neck . Epiphone and many others make bolt-on Les Pauls but I'm using the Zakk for illustration because it looks so cool ! Les Paul copies aren't necessarily always the 24-3/4" scale - always measure from the nut to 12th fret then double that measurement to determine bridge placement before trying any neck as a donor replacement ! The bridge will have screws for "intonation adjustment" , which helps zero in the exact scale length for each string - differences in the size , pitch , and height above the neck ( "action" ) for each string make this necessary for proper tuning ! Also important - the length of the wood-screws that attach the neck ! If the "neck bolts" are too long - they will poke through the fingerboard - not good ! Too short , the neck joint will be weak .



Note on the Van Halen guitar that he has put a humbucker pickup in ! Had he used a pick-guard , it would cover any enlarged routing for the pickups . Some Strats have a rectangular "universal rout" that allows you to use any pickup configuration since the pickguard will cover all the routing anyway .


HUMBUCKER VS. SINGLE-COIL

The difference between single - coil and "humbucker" (double - coil) pickups is one of the more frequent questions I get . The first pickups invented were single-coil . Over the years as radio stations and other sources of electrical interference became more common , the humbucker pickup was developed to solve the problems of buzz from TV , fluorescent & neon lights , and late-night religious broadcasting coming out of the amp .

A humbucker pickup is basically two single coils wired out of phase , which cancels out the radio and other electrical interference that reaches both coils equally , and retains the sound from the strings since they vibrate unequally over the coils . Most humbuckers have the coils side by side , but there are also "stacked" humbuckers and half-width humbuckers to fit in single-coil guitars without cutting out for a full-sized humbucker .

The humbucker pickup has much more output due to the two coils , and a bigger darker sound due to the out-of-phase connection . Typically a single-coil pickup is much brighter by comparison , and more prone to radio and 50-60Hz buzz as well as microphonic squeal feedback . Single-coil sized "stacked" humbuckers help that a lot without sacrificing the single-coil tone , as do side-by-side half-width humbuckers like the Hot Rails or Fast Track which sound more similar to a full-sized humbucker .

To experiment with this , try standing near a TV or conventional CRT computer monitor with your guitar plugged in and turned up ( I haven't tried this with a flat-screen yet ! ) Even if you do have humbucking pickups , you'll probably hear a big hum or buzz that changes as you turn from side to side ! Turning on the distortion will really bring this out ! If your guitar has a 5-way switch with a combination of humbuckers and single-coils , slowly click through the pickup switch positions - if you have a "H-S-S" or "H-S-H" pickup configuration , you'll hear a lot of difference in the buzz as you click from humbuckers to singles . A regular "S-S-S" Strat can sometimes be wired humbucking in the 2 & 4 positions therefore 1 , 3 , and 5 will have more buzz .

There are a wide variety of replacement pickups to fit your guitar without modification but get more the kind of sound you want . I play metal but still need diverse sounds so I use my favorite , the Bill Lawrence L500XL as my bridge ( lead ) pickup in most of my guitars , and usually a darker-sounding Dimarzio neck pickup . The L500XL is very high output and has a crunchy bright sound when distorted , but is also brighter than a lot of single-coils are when clean . The Duncan SH-13 "Dimebucker" is a replica of the L500XL and is almost as good but is higher in price . Either of these will turn a humbucker guitar into a serious harmonic squeal monster ! For single-coils I use the Lawrence L250 or Dimarzio HS3 and the occasional Hot Rails . For Strat players , half-size humbuckers like the Hot Rails will give you a dramatic difference in your sound for hard rock stuff without cutting the guitar for a larger pickup . There are a lot of choices from mild-sounding pickups to very agressive metal-only pickups . Check out the "Custom Parts" links below for pickup websites !

More on humbucker and single-coil pickups here : [ link ] [ link ]



"stacked" humbucker for Strat-style


"Hot Rail" half-width humbucker for Strat-style


"Dimebucker" full-size humbucker , copy of Lawrence L500XL


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5 - WAY PICKUP SELECTOR
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I also get questions a lot about the how and why of the pickups and selector switch .

The Ibanez Jem , 550 and many other H-S-H (Humbucker - Single - Humbucker) guitars use a new 5 - way 4 - pole switch that "splits" the humbucker into a single-coil in the 2 & 4 positions . This gives a better "strat" sound in the 2 & 4 positions by making the humbuckers more equal in tone and volume to the softer quieter single-coil middle pickup . Otherwise - positions 1 & 5 are full humbucker . It's a very versatile setup !



Position 1 - Neck pickup
Position 2 - Neck (Bridge side coil only) and Middle
Position 3 - Middle pickup
Position 4 - Middle and Bridge (Neck side coil only)
Position 5 - Bridge pickup

In most of my guitars , especially the Jem and 550s , I use a deep bassy neck pickup and a very bright bridge pickup to make the changes between even more exaggerated . I am constantly changing the pickup selector and volume controls in mid-song to get the proper sound for the moment - having the right sound at the right time is every bit as important as what you play . With my typical setup , position 1 is bassy and blurry , very un-trebly . Position 2 is similar but has a subtle treble edge from adding the middle pickup , which by itself has a soft nondescript sound at position 3 . Position 4 is a more aggressive version of the prettier # 2 , not subtle at all since it has half the bridge humbucker in there - # 4 is the twangy odd Dire Straits-ish "strat" sound . Of course position 5 rips , full humbucker , very bright , harmonic squealies and feedback , definitely the most fun place to be .

More pickup switching illustrations and explanations later !


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HAND SCALLOPED STRAT FINGERBOARD
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A "scalloped" fingerboard is scooped in between each fret , giving the effect of very tall frets and much better grip for bending . When done properly , each dip should be of equal depth , which gives the illusion that the narrower ones at the higher frets go deeper . Ritchie Blackmore , Yngwie Malmsteen , Neil Zaza , and many others play this style of neck .

I have seen some really bad scallop jobs - one of the most common mistakes I've seen is filing too deep and damaging the inlay dots , sometimes even exposing the truss rod ! The mechanoreceptors in the human finger are very sensitive to touch and can detect variances of a few thousands of an inch , so the scallops don't have to be very deep at all to feel extremely obvious .

-=RkR=-'s [ link ] Strat turned out really nice . I did all of it by hand with a series of different sized files and improvised sanding blocks , taping up the frets to avoid damaging them if I slipped . I went through almost a whole roll of masking tape since this involved taping off a new area for every step of the process . We decided to go for a scallop depth roughly equal to the height of the frets , so I did a line of masking tape along the edge of the fingerboard to mark the depth of the pilot cuts for the files to follow .






[b]( Note - all the inlays are intact ! )

Both of us have been playing partially scalloped guitars for many years but this is the first time I had done a full scallop job at every fret . ( I did my Kramer V from the 10th fret up , our Jems have the last 4 frets done , and he did his Warlock to match . ) [ link ] [ link ] [ link ]

The key to doing this right is patience - it took about three weeks but we were more concerned with accuracy not speed . With this much filing and sanding your hands get tired so it's much better to do a few frets' worth a day and take breaks so you don't slip and make a crucial boo-boo ! ( Especially on someone else's guitar ! )

This [ link ] from projectguitar.com is a very good illustrated tutorial on scalloping using a Dremel contour sander , which would be faster but would also really rip your frets or fingers if you miss ! Whether it's done with files or power tools , it is very important to tape the frets heavily and replace the tape any time you begin to sand through it .

stay tuned - more on the way!



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GUITAR CUSTOM PARTS AND KITS LINKS

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There are several companies that make guitar parts and specialized tools for people who want to upgrade / build / repair guitars . Check out these websites - some are very informative and I'm sure you'll get some good project ideas !
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PICKUPS
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Bill Lawrence pickups rule ! [ link ] The L500XL has been the bridge pickup in most of my guitars for 25 years ! Versatile , inspiring , and dependable - the L500XL is one of the most important factors in my guitar sound .
The L-500 Series [ link ] is available in four different options: the L-500Clean / L-500Regular / L-500Lead / L-500eXtraLead . (C , R , L , XL ) I also use L250s for most of my single coils . [ link ]
Here are a few of my Bill Lawrence equipped guitars : [ link ] [ link ] [ link ] [ link ] [ link ] [ link ]

I use DiMarzio pickups [ link ] mostly at the neck postion , usually a Super 3 or Super Distortion , occasionally a PAF . I go for a deep bassy sounding neck pickup to contrast with the very bright bridge pickup . Most of my guitars from the links above have a DiMarzio at the neck . One of my RG550s came set up with an X2N-HS3-Super Distortion (bridge-middle-neck) which is a pretty good HSH combination for an all-Dimarzio set .

I've never been a big fan of Seymour Duncan pickups [ link ] but they occasionally suprise me . The new Dimebag Darrell SH -13 absolutely nails that Pantera sound (with the right amp , effects and noise gate ! ) I like it a lot but to me it doesn't seem as versatile as my real L500XLs . I also have a couple of Hot-Rails that work well , one in my lap steel [ link ] and another in the neck position of a HSS Tele .
Their website has video instructions on how to install pickups at this [ link ]


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NECKS , BODIES , GUITAR KITS , FLOYD ROSE , PICKGUARDS , PARTS
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[ link ]
Warmoth Guitars [ link ] makes some of the best quality replacement parts I've seen . They make bodies , necks - everything you need to build your own guitar . Their stuff is sort of expensive compared to some companies , but it is top notch quality woods and construction [ link ] , and they do many custom options the others don't . Their necks rule ! [ link ] [ link ] They will do about any custom option you request , with many choices of woods , fretting , and inlays . They also do radical bodies like the Rhoads V , Explorer , Flying V , Firebird , Iceman , Star , Mockingbird , Warlock , Wolfgang , and several other cool shapes ! [ link ]



(above : Allparts Tele Thinline , quilt maple top)
Allparts [ link ] makes good stuff too ! Their prices are a little less , and they have an even wider variety of parts . I made the body for this guitar myself [ link ] [ link ] , but the neck and metal parts are from Allparts . I also used a few things from Allparts for the Explorer guitar at this [ link ] .
Allparts has all replacement parts for Floyd Rose nuts & bridges !

WD [ link ] is another good company for guitar parts and hardware , similar in price and quality to Allparts . They also sell guitar kits ! [ link ]
WD has Floyd Rose replacement parts including "String Saver" saddles !

Projectguitar.com [ link ] is a great site for instruction and information ! Their tutorials are very good - they have all kinds of tutorials [ link ] covering everything from basic construction to excellent paint job tips . They also have a page of resource links for parts , supplies , and other info .
Vai Swirl ! [ link ]




Holoflash ! [ link ]



Stewart McDonald [ link ] is probably the best site for specialized guitar tools and supplies . They have a nice free info page [ link ] and their print catalog has a lot of info too - request their catalog and they will send you one !
Stewart-MacDonald has all replacement parts for Floyd Rose nuts [ link ] and bridges ! [ link ]




Saga [ link ] makes guitar kits that include all parts necessary to build a Strat , Tele , Les Paul , or Paul Reed Smith style guitar , all in one nice package ! Saga's complete kit prices vary . The Strat & Tele kits are cheapest - the Les Paul & PRS kits are more expensive because of the flame maple veneer top . Either way , this might be a good way to get started , especially if you want to do a transparent color - over - flame maple paint job .

Torres Engineering [ link ] sells the Saga kits for a much lower price ! Strat [ link ] , PRS style [ link ] , and Les Paul style [ link ] ! A great deal on the LP & PRS veneer flame-tops !

Carvin [ link ] also makes strat-style guitar kits ! [ link ] They are USA - made , therefore more expensive but higher quality ( a Carvin body alone is the price of some of the other kits ! ) You can specify custom options with a Carvin kit like different pickups , pickguard color , gold or black hardware , pre-painted , left-handed , etc . Carvin also has full-body-length necks for building neck-through guitars ! [ link ]
I have used several Floyd Rose original bridges from Carvin for my own and others' projects .






( Carvin bass neck-through - this neck continues 12" beyond the fingerboard to run the entire length of the body . Two body "wings" are then added to the sides - in any shape desired , from traditional to radical . I have played a bass made from one of these - very nice !)
I recently visited the Carvin store in Hollywood and checked out a 6-string neck-through style guitar neck ! It felt great - the shape was comfy and the frets looked really good ! I think it would be cool to build a neck-through guitar from one of these .




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( More to come ! And be careful with those power tools ! )

Rock On ! -

JJ
[/b]



JJ of PROJECT : BRAINSTORM heavily plays and highly recommends Dean guitars and basses . Because they rule .

PROJECT : BRAINSTORM is not affiliated with Fender or Gibson in any way ! The terms "Stratocaster" , "Strat" , "Les Paul" , "Flying V" etc are their respective trademarks and are used here for educational purposes as descriptive terms for guitars built in those styles . Any other manufacturers or companies are mentioned herein purely for educational purposes and not intended as advertisement .

PROJECT : BRAINSTORM assumes no responsibility for accidents or other damages to you (or your guitar) arising from the advice and suggestions herein , but does suggest care and attention when working , especially concerning proper measurements as well as safety practices . Always exercise extreme caution with all cutting tools , especially power tools ! If you aren't sure about a part or procedure , ask advice before proceeding !

Measure twice , cut once .
Some assembly required .
Your mileage may vary .
No shoes , no shirt , no service .
It's not "vintage" , it's "used" .



Click here to go back to the Project : Brainstorm homepage !

Click here for the Project : Brainstorm Music & Lyrics page !

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