Building your own guitar

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Ogilvie
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Neil Ogilvie

Still Learning.......
Okay, so I'm not actually building my own guitar but I I am drasticly reworking another.
A year or two ago I bought a guitar by a company called Sattellite - it was only £50. Had a single humbucker at the neck. What I liked about it though was a nice almost acoustic feel to it. weird.....
However, I set about modifying it, because to be honest the look and feel of it sucked.
I firstly stripped it down to the bare wood and have painted it a lovely electric blue colour - better than tobacco stained white. (btw, I am an experienced spray painter, so its not a half arsed hand painted job) Before I did this I routed another space on it to put in a pair of Gibson SG pick ups I got off a friend ( very cheap too :) ). Being a very simple guitarist really, all I want on this guitar is a volume control for each pick up, so if I need to change pick ups all I do is turn one all the way down. No tone controls, so pretty basic.
Could someone please give me an idea on how to wire this baby up? I have looked on ww.guitarnuts.com at the stock-Gibson schematics and they seem like they could be useful, however, I don't really know how taking the selector switch and tones out would affect the wiring?
I know this is a very basic wiring idea, but I have no experience wiring guitars, only conventional home appliances like drills etc!
If anyone could point me in the direction of a website or even post a .jpg of the schematic it would be real real helpful.
Also, I haven't yet painted the neck. All I have done is sanded it back to wood. Should I laquer it now or french polish it? Which would be the better feel and finish on the guitar?

Cheers.
 
I think doing mods on guitars is a blast! Here's a link to a company that sells pickups and stuff - but the coolest thing is that they've got the wiring diagrams on line to look at.

Here's the link: www.guitarelectronics.com

There's really no magic to soldering - Just make sure the iron is hot and that the solder "takes" to both the wire and the thing you're soldering the wire to. Do a quick web search on soldering if that's weak point. Otherwise, you're home free!

I'm doing strat right now. I'm putting a Lace gold in the neck pickup, keeping stock on the center and putting a Danelectro lipstick on the bridge. Then I'm going to rewire (as per the above link) to do a single tone control, single volume control and then... a switch to toggle between the normal strat pickup wiring and tele wiring and then.... a push-pull volume knob that will keep the bridge pu on all the time. I'm also putting graph-tech saddles, nut and "T"; Putting on a new pickguard.

Still a strat, but it'll be one of a kind! You're going the right direction in my mind....
 
I built mine out of mahogony and went to the automotive store and got a few cans of touch up car/truck paint.. metallic. & a few cans of clear.

make sure you conductive shielding paint on the eletronics cavity to keep unwanted freqencies away from your signal.

Dimarzio.com also has wire scematics

Good Luck!

guitarfront.JPG


electr.JPG
 
additional painting tip. Try to avoid just painting it with any ol can at the Home Depot. Its an excellent idea to use a sealer befor applying any paints. The wood will absorb the paint otherwise, and not in a uniform manner. Different grains will draw it in faster and in time you will have a grip of shadows from paint being drawn in.
 
KaBudokan,
That is beautiful, what is the construction? chambered? and what wood?
Magic finish.

Clive
 
Clive Hugh said:
KaBudokan,
That is beautiful, what is the construction? chambered? and what wood?
Magic finish.

Clive
Click to expand...

Thanks! It's not chambered - maple on a solid alder back. (I was going to do a hollow body, but decided against it. I'll probably do one eventually though - this is addictive.) This is my first time building a guitar or doing the finish. The color started off as being based on the Tom Anderson Bora Bora Blue, and kind of evolved from there. it's a little bit darker than the Anderson, but maybe a little richer, too.

It's been a lot of fun so far, but I have a good bit of work to put into it still. I'll be doing the clear coats for the next 2-3 days, then letting it cure for about a month, then doing the final polishing, and then finally putting it together.

For more info on finishing, check http://www.reranch.com
 
Cheers guys, loads of useful tips and stuff on this thread - the sealer and Minwax in particular.
As for the wiring, I think I have it kinda sorted now. I've done a load of research and had to learn a lot about basic wiring.
KaBudokan, that guitar is a credit to you. It is incredible! the paint job is breath-taking. Nice one.
Anyway, cheers for the help.
It might also be worth keeping thius thread going for anyone who's looking into building guitars, etc. Just a thought.
 
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