How not to make a guitar...

Pablo · 10-05-2010, 03:16 AM

Just a copy/paste deal from HRI, but I thought you guys might enjoy a good laugh at my expense as well ;-)

Hi there gang!

For quite a few years now, my guitar playing buddies have been giving me flack for my preference for scalloped fretboards - or rather: they have been less than ammused when popping over for a jam, to realise that I only had guitars with said scalloped fretboards.
This is my shoot at redemption: my first non-scalloped guitar in years and I made it from scrap parts I've had around for years. Obviously, I decided to have a go at this guitar building business without any skills whatsoever: I can't draw to save my life (that's good design out the window), I am all thumbs when it comes to anything remotely related to fine motor skills (scratch any hopes for quality, fit and finish) and I just don't have the proper tools for this kind of thing... that's my bad excuse, anyway.

Here goes:

The neck is where I cheated: it is an old used maple/ebony Carvin neck that I bought for $100 ages ago. I picked it up solely for the Sperzels that came with it - neck and tuners were significantly less than buying the Sperzels alone here in Denmark. The guitar that I bought the tuners for is long since sold, but I had the good sense to recover the Sperzels before shifting it.

I made the body from two leftover pieces of maple from when my dad made our old dining table some 20 odd years ago. because of the thickness of the maple, the body ended up being only 37mm deep - a good 5mm less than a Strat. I sanded to 1000 grit and finished it in gunstock oil and wax.

The pickup is a Steve's Special from back when I thought I was John Petrucci - hardly an ideal pickup for the very bright combo of maple body, maple neck and ebony fretboard... but it was all I had left after selling off my excess PU stock - a 250k volume pot and a Neutrik locking jack complete the incredibly versatile electronics...

I made the pickguard and electronics cover from a scrap piece of plexiglass... with a piece of gift wrapping paper underneath the pickguard, just to underpin my excellent taste and penchant for style and design ;-)

I did buy one thing for the project: the Schaller 475 bridge. At a whooping 50€ it brought the total cost of the project to... 60€ which includes solder, sand paper, a few screws and a set of Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies.

Without further ado I bring you my 60€ Less-than-Ultimate-Weapon - the Pablo Psychocaster.

I obviously took design cues Elvis in Blue Hawaii, the Jetsons and, most noticably, J-Lo's derrière...

Behind the scenes - notice the plexiglass control cover, which highlights, reveals and accentuates my horrible soldering.

The butchered Carvin headstock... another testament to my bad taste

Here is the Psychocaster right next to my main guitar, my Warmoth Pablocaster.

So, how does it play? Well, surprisingly well, actually! The balance of the thing is downright excellent (the huge John Holmes inspired upper horn really works) and despite the solid maple body it is actually a really light guitar. For sitting down, the idiotic lack of a lower horn is obviously not ideal... but it's not that bad. Moreover, the Carvin neck is actually really nice and after a bit of TLC, the frets still have a lot of life in them.

Acoustically, this is one very loud guitar with massive sustain. Plugged in it is very bright, punchy and agressive. I tried to tame the Steve's Special a bit with the 250k pot, but it still cuts like nobody's business. To my ears the tone is somewhere between a Tele on steoroids and the old George Lynch signatures.

All in all, it was GREAT fun doing this and though I made more mistakes than I can count on this partial build (I didn't build the neck), but I still managed to make a nice playing guitar with a semi-unique look and tone. I will make another guitar as soon as the mood strikes me... this time it'll be for the lovers of scalloped fretboards...

Cheers

Eske

MaxOfMetal · 10-05-2010, 03:20 AM

Call me crazy, but I like it.

aslsmm · 10-05-2010, 03:31 AM

haha thats cool man.

BrainArt · 10-05-2010, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxOfMetal

Call me crazy, but I like it.

Jontain · 10-05-2010, 04:38 AM

That is so awesome man, dont discredit yourself it looks like it has turned out well!

JJ Rodriguez · 10-05-2010, 04:46 AM

I came in here expecting a Devries thread

74n4LL0 · 10-05-2010, 05:13 AM

It turned out really well. It's unique and has character.

BrainArt · 10-05-2010, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JJ Rodriguez

I came in here expecting a Devries thread

That was my first thought, as well. Then I saw it, and it's way better than a Devries thread.

bostjan · 10-05-2010, 06:53 AM

Love the maple!

Cool idea about the giftwrap.

I have two questions:

1. Did you modify the headstock or did it come that way?

2. What's the story on the Hum Hum Sing pickups on the strat next to the guitar?

Prydogga · 10-05-2010, 06:56 AM

That's pretty awesome, it's that level of 'out-there' to make it cool, and I love that neck.

vampiregenocide · 10-05-2010, 07:09 AM

See I thought this was someone else's guitar you'd posted and you wanted us to rip into it.

But I was going to defend it before I realised, because for someone with lack of tools etc, you did pretty damn well.

Konfyouzd · 10-05-2010, 07:51 AM

kinda funny looking, but it looks functional to me...

i look at guitars like my recently lowered standard for women... they don't have to be "pretty" per se... just don't make unpleasant sounds...

Esp Griffyn · 10-05-2010, 11:31 AM

What's the problem with scalloped fretboards? What issue do your friends have with them?

ellengtrgrl · 10-05-2010, 11:50 AM

I don't see anything wrong with your partoscaster. It actually looks kind of cool in a junkyard dog way. And it according to you, it sounds pretty good to boot! That's a win in my book.

bostjan · 10-05-2010, 11:55 AM

The more I look at this, the more I like that body shape.

Pablo · 10-05-2010, 11:58 AM

Thanks guys! I'm really surprised that so many of you actually consider the design pretty OK.
The main points for me were to not simply make another Strat/Super Strat clone and to make it functional - if I could make it a bit left field, that would only be a plus. As I said: I actually surpassed my own expectations and had a lot of fun in the process.

Trust me, I had my fair share of Devries moments on this build: the first neck pocket routing I made was crooked, so once I got my act together, I had to rout another couple of mm to seat the neck properly. Likewise the hole for the Neutrik jack - I didn't have a drill bit big enough, so I botched up my atempt at free hand routing, leaving a bit of a gap between the jack plate and the body.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bostjan

Love the maple!

Cool idea about the giftwrap.

I have two questions:

1. Did you modify the headstock or did it come that way?

2. What's the story on the Hum Hum Sing pickups on the strat next to the guitar?

You just got to love maple as far as wood working goes: tight, even grain easy to work and it takes just about any finish great - the oil and wax that I went with acually feels like a satin laquer. Moreover, I really like both the look and tone of the wood... and I LOVE the fact that it was free.

Yeah, I thought I was rather clever with the plaxiglass/gift wrap solution.

The headstock was just the standard Carvin 6-inline headstock - i just treated it to a bit of saw, file and sand paper, reversed one of the Sperzels (great feature) and drilled two new holes for it.

The HHS setup was pretty much the entire idea behind putting together a Warmoth Strat. Essentially, I have my favourite Strat tone (neck SC) and two typical Super Strat tones courtesy of the two humbuckers. Moreover, the split positions are much more than usable. The switching is really pretty basic:

Position 1) Bridge humbucker in series (a DiMarzio Breed neck)
Position 2) Breed split wired parallel with neck SC (a DiMarzio HS-3 that is always split)
Position 3) Neck humbucker in series (a DiMarzio Air Norton)
Position 4) Air Norton split and wired parallel with the HS-3
Position 5) Neck single coil (DiMarzio HS-3 wired to a push/pull pot on the tone control which does coil splitting. The PU is always split, but I have the option of pulling the pot and making it noiseless, if the lights mess with it)

Again: thanks for all the kind words and encouragement - I'll take it with me into my next endeavour in lutherie...

Cheers

Eske

Pablo · 10-05-2010, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Esp Griffyn

What's the problem with scalloped fretboards? What issue do your friends have with them?

Well, it's just a question of preference really, but scalloped fretboards can be a bit tricky to play, if you are not acustomed to them. Especially chordal work tends to give my friends trouble and weird out-of-tuneness is pretty much the order of the day.

Cheers

Eske

Customisbetter · 10-05-2010, 12:28 PM

SO SEXY!!!

Seriously, this is an awesome, unique, simple guitar. I don't like +1 headstocks personally, but it definitely fits the overall aesthetic of the guitar. Great job!

technomancer · 10-05-2010, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxOfMetal

Call me crazy, but I like it.

+1

teqnick · 10-05-2010, 12:41 PM

I dig it dude. It's like a flower-power non- carbon fiber onixplorer

ivancic1al · 10-05-2010, 01:43 PM

I like how it turned out! Great idea with the giftwrap.

SYLrules88 · 10-05-2010, 01:54 PM

dude you just restored hope that i may one day be able to construct a guitar that is actually playable. i actually hear that finishing a guitar is pretty easy so im sure you could do it if you tried. i think a solid white finish would be complimented well by the purple gift wrapping

ivancic1al · 10-05-2010, 02:00 PM

Man, as long as the neck is sound, (as in, buy a neck pre-made) pretty much anyone with half a brain can bold together and wire a guitar. It's great fun, and very rewarding once you've finished

bostjan · 10-05-2010, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivancic1al

Man, as long as the neck is sound, (as in, buy a neck pre-made) pretty much anyone with half a brain can bold together and wire a guitar. It's great fun, and very rewarding once you've finished

Don't be so sure that anyone can do it. I have seen many try to build their own guitars with x neck, y pickups, and z hardware and fail miserably. You would be shocked at how many dudes out there think that they can do it without so much as the slightest idea of where to put the bridge. I've seen eBay homemade guitars so bad that you could tell that the bridge was way off just from the crumby cell-phone-type pictures from the auction page.

ivancic1al · 10-05-2010, 02:41 PM

Well yeah, I'm just making the gross assumption that for the most part, the members of this community are quite well versed in guitar construction and parts.
I feel like the average member here could easily do it, I think that's really what I was getting at...

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10-05-2010, 03:16 AM	#1
Pablo Resident Wanker Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Aarhus, Denmark Posts: 952 Thanked: 5 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	How not to make a guitar... Just a copy/paste deal from HRI, but I thought you guys might enjoy a good laugh at my expense as well ;-) Hi there gang! For quite a few years now, my guitar playing buddies have been giving me flack for my preference for scalloped fretboards - or rather: they have been less than ammused when popping over for a jam, to realise that I only had guitars with said scalloped fretboards. This is my shoot at redemption: my first non-scalloped guitar in years and I made it from scrap parts I've had around for years. Obviously, I decided to have a go at this guitar building business without any skills whatsoever: I can't draw to save my life (that's good design out the window), I am all thumbs when it comes to anything remotely related to fine motor skills (scratch any hopes for quality, fit and finish) and I just don't have the proper tools for this kind of thing... that's my bad excuse, anyway. Here goes: The neck is where I cheated: it is an old used maple/ebony Carvin neck that I bought for $100 ages ago. I picked it up solely for the Sperzels that came with it - neck and tuners were significantly less than buying the Sperzels alone here in Denmark. The guitar that I bought the tuners for is long since sold, but I had the good sense to recover the Sperzels before shifting it. I made the body from two leftover pieces of maple from when my dad made our old dining table some 20 odd years ago. because of the thickness of the maple, the body ended up being only 37mm deep - a good 5mm less than a Strat. I sanded to 1000 grit and finished it in gunstock oil and wax. The pickup is a Steve's Special from back when I thought I was John Petrucci - hardly an ideal pickup for the very bright combo of maple body, maple neck and ebony fretboard... but it was all I had left after selling off my excess PU stock - a 250k volume pot and a Neutrik locking jack complete the incredibly versatile electronics... I made the pickguard and electronics cover from a scrap piece of plexiglass... with a piece of gift wrapping paper underneath the pickguard, just to underpin my excellent taste and penchant for style and design ;-) I did buy one thing for the project: the Schaller 475 bridge. At a whooping 50€ it brought the total cost of the project to... 60€ which includes solder, sand paper, a few screws and a set of Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies. Without further ado I bring you my 60€ Less-than-Ultimate-Weapon - the Pablo Psychocaster. I obviously took design cues Elvis in Blue Hawaii, the Jetsons and, most noticably, J-Lo's derrière... Behind the scenes - notice the plexiglass control cover, which highlights, reveals and accentuates my horrible soldering. The butchered Carvin headstock... another testament to my bad taste Here is the Psychocaster right next to my main guitar, my Warmoth Pablocaster. So, how does it play? Well, surprisingly well, actually! The balance of the thing is downright excellent (the huge John Holmes inspired upper horn really works) and despite the solid maple body it is actually a really light guitar. For sitting down, the idiotic lack of a lower horn is obviously not ideal... but it's not that bad. Moreover, the Carvin neck is actually really nice and after a bit of TLC, the frets still have a lot of life in them. Acoustically, this is one very loud guitar with massive sustain. Plugged in it is very bright, punchy and agressive. I tried to tame the Steve's Special a bit with the 250k pot, but it still cuts like nobody's business. To my ears the tone is somewhere between a Tele on steoroids and the old George Lynch signatures. All in all, it was GREAT fun doing this and though I made more mistakes than I can count on this partial build (I didn't build the neck), but I still managed to make a nice playing guitar with a semi-unique look and tone. I will make another guitar as soon as the mood strikes me... this time it'll be for the lovers of scalloped fretboards... Cheers Eske "Do be do be do" - Frank Sinatra

10-05-2010, 03:20 AM	#2
MaxOfMetal Likes trem wankery. • Super Moderator • Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Milwaukee, WI Posts: 21,512 Thanked: 93 Feedback Score: 5 reviews	Call me crazy, but I like it. Need help with setting up a trem? Need info on your Ibby? Live in Milwaukee? Please feel free to message me. New Rules. Read Them.

10-05-2010, 06:53 AM	#9
bostjan Spastic Kitchen! Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: St. Johnsbury, VT USA Posts: 7,561 Thanked: 15 Feedback Score: 1 reviews	Love the maple! Cool idea about the giftwrap. I have two questions: 1. Did you modify the headstock or did it come that way? 2. What's the story on the Hum Hum Sing pickups on the strat next to the guitar? [URL="http://sites.google.com/site/bostjanzupancickhereb/"[/URL]

10-05-2010, 06:56 AM	#10
Prydogga Giddyup. Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Apartment 5B, New York (Vic, Australia) Posts: 10,505 Thanked: 81 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	That's pretty awesome, it's that level of 'out-there' to make it cool, and I love that neck. M E M O I R S Music from myself and Kurkkuviipale! http://soundcloud.com/m-e-m-o-i-r-s I also do graphic design, both freelance and for label Myriad Records.

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10-05-2010, 03:31 AM	#3
aslsmm Banned Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: oregon bitch!! Posts: 957 Thanked: 26 Feedback Score: 3 reviews	haha thats cool man.

10-05-2010, 04:38 AM	#5
Jontain SS.org Regular Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: UK Posts: 1,103 Thanked: 13 Feedback Score: 2 reviews	That is so awesome man, dont discredit yourself it looks like it has turned out well!

10-05-2010, 04:46 AM	#6
JJ Rodriguez Pantysniffing zombie Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 11,700 Thanked: 82 Feedback Score: 18 reviews	I came in here expecting a Devries thread

10-05-2010, 05:13 AM	#7
74n4LL0 I'm a robot... Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: a place of settlement, activity, or residence. Posts: 887 Thanked: 29 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	It turned out really well. It's unique and has character.

10-05-2010, 07:09 AM	#11
vampiregenocide A Chap Called Ross Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Hertfordshire, England Posts: 15,061 Thanked: 273 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	See I thought this was someone else's guitar you'd posted and you wanted us to rip into it. But I was going to defend it before I realised, because for someone with lack of tools etc, you did pretty damn well. My Photography Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/rosswildishphotography Dissonant Media - The news source for new alternate/progressive music! Check us out: http://de-de.facebook.com/pages/Sawbridgeworth-United-Kingdom/Dissonant-Media/126448677394107 http://www.youtube.com/user/DissonantMedia#p/a http://dissonantmedia.tumblr.com/

10-05-2010, 07:51 AM	#12
Konfyouzd Dread-I Master Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Mars Posts: 15,665 Thanked: 191 Feedback Score: 4 reviews	kinda funny looking, but it looks functional to me... i look at guitars like my recently lowered standard for women... they don't have to be "pretty" per se... just don't make unpleasant sounds... "... and on either side of the river was the tree of life. The leaves of this tree were for the healing of nations." "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and the herb for the service of man." "Lifes too short to hate Floyd Roses."

10-05-2010, 11:31 AM	#13
Esp Griffyn APEX Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: SEVEN Posts: 3,617 Thanked: 23 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	What's the problem with scalloped fretboards? What issue do your friends have with them? think of it this way. you could have a room full of worthless douchebag darrel signature deans - jymellis

10-05-2010, 11:50 AM	#14
ellengtrgrl ss.org Regular Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Greenfield, WI Posts: 776 Thanked: 9 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	I don't see anything wrong with your partoscaster. It actually looks kind of cool in a junkyard dog way. And it according to you, it sounds pretty good to boot! That's a win in my book.

10-05-2010, 11:55 AM	#15
bostjan Spastic Kitchen! Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: St. Johnsbury, VT USA Posts: 7,561 Thanked: 15 Feedback Score: 1 reviews	The more I look at this, the more I like that body shape. [URL="http://sites.google.com/site/bostjanzupancickhereb/"[/URL]

10-05-2010, 12:28 PM	#18
Customisbetter WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Lansing, MI Posts: 8,462 Thanked: 76 Feedback Score: 8 reviews	SO SEXY!!! Seriously, this is an awesome, unique, simple guitar. I don't like +1 headstocks personally, but it definitely fits the overall aesthetic of the guitar. Great job!

10-05-2010, 12:41 PM	#20
teqnick The Juggernaut Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 1,696 Thanked: 51 Feedback Score: 24 reviews	I dig it dude. It's like a flower-power non- carbon fiber onixplorer EBMM JPX7 Fractal Audio Axe FX

10-05-2010, 01:43 PM	#21
ivancic1al Probrem? Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo, NY/St. Catharines, ON Posts: 1,484 Thanked: 5 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	I like how it turned out! Great idea with the giftwrap. Just as awesome as he is stupid. Dun, dadada dadadadada dun. CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CHASE-RAPE-THROW!

10-05-2010, 01:54 PM	#22
SYLrules88 I play drums! Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 1,526 Thanked: 18 Feedback Score: 4 reviews	dude you just restored hope that i may one day be able to construct a guitar that is actually playable. i actually hear that finishing a guitar is pretty easy so im sure you could do it if you tried. i think a solid white finish would be complimented well by the purple gift wrapping Agile AL-727 EB Carvin V3 Avatar 2x12 w/ Celestion G12K-85s

10-05-2010, 02:00 PM	#23
ivancic1al Probrem? Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo, NY/St. Catharines, ON Posts: 1,484 Thanked: 5 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Man, as long as the neck is sound, (as in, buy a neck pre-made) pretty much anyone with half a brain can bold together and wire a guitar. It's great fun, and very rewarding once you've finished Just as awesome as he is stupid. Dun, dadada dadadadada dun. CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CHASE-RAPE-THROW!

10-05-2010, 02:41 PM	#25
ivancic1al Probrem? Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo, NY/St. Catharines, ON Posts: 1,484 Thanked: 5 Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Well yeah, I'm just making the gross assumption that for the most part, the members of this community are quite well versed in guitar construction and parts. I feel like the average member here could easily do it, I think that's really what I was getting at... Just as awesome as he is stupid. Dun, dadada dadadadada dun. CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CLIMB-FIGHT-THROW-CHASE-RAPE-THROW!

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