Thinking about building a guitar!

[Sialys]

So I've decided that I'm going to build myself a guitar completely from scratch over the next couple years or so. I'd like it to be ready for my first decade of playing guitar. (:

I want it to be a Quicksilver style body, which is built by Ed Roman Guitars.

So far I've decided on black Korina for the back and sides, quilted maple for the top, with (if I can get it right) pearl binding. The fretboard will be Indian rosewood set on probably a maple or mahogany neck.

I'll send the neck out to Ed Roman Guitars for custom inlay work and possible scalloping, but unlikely.

It'll have 22 frets on the low E string, and 24 on high E.

I'll be practicing on cheaper woods getting the body perfected before I move on to the real deal just to be absolutely sure I don't fuck up $500 worth of wood. I'll do a clear satin finish on the back, sides and neck while the top will have some sort of burst. Probably dragon burst since it's absolutely fucking awesome, but it'll take a shitload of practice.

It'll have rear chambers and hopefully I'll be able to keep the guitars weight between four and six pounds.

I'll have either Seymour-Duncans or DiMarzio pickups with a Fernandes Sustainer.

No pickguard.

If I can figure out how to do it, the strings will be run through the body. If not, then I'll just do a stop tail.

All hardware will be gold.

Recessed knobs.

Double cut away.

I'm going for a lot of low and mid range, with enough high range to break through any mix. And I believe the set up I've chose will nail that goal.

Any other questions about my setup, ask away.
Any comments about how I've made a horrible mistake, PLEASE let me know.

Should be a really cool project and when I get started I'll post pictures regularly. (:

Yay or nay?

[Sialys]

At 9/17/09 04:37 PM, ZStriefel wrote: you're insane. lol

lol I know.

But I want a guitar I can really call my own.
Not just something I had made in a custom shop or bought from some guitar chain store.

[Bad-Man-Incorporated]

Holy hell dude. That is bad ass.
If it works out, would you build one for me? (Hopefully cheap)

I have many kids to feed. :(

[Sialys]

At 9/17/09 04:56 PM, ZStriefel wrote: well thats pretty badass man! good luck. be sure to update us on your progress!

Will do. (:

Also, I've decided instead of sending the neck somewhere and having the inlay done by someone else. I'll just do that myself too, lol.

[Sialys]

At 9/17/09 05:01 PM, Bad-Man-Incorporated wrote: Holy hell dude. That is bad ass.
If it works out, would you build one for me? (Hopefully cheap)

I have many kids to feed. :(

If it all works out, and you think mine turned out well.

I would love to build one for you if it goes well for me, you're the Bad-Man how could anyone say no!

I'll probably get started on this after I move in with my girlfriend and start up at the new job... Next March.

[Zhuriel]

At 9/17/09 04:35 PM, Sialys wrote: I'll have either Seymour-Duncans or DiMarzio pickups with a Fernandes Sustainer.

I'd get a sustainiac. it's the same thing, slightly cheaper I think, easier to install and much more customizable. Also, the guys from sustainiac are really friendly. I recently had contact with them (ordered one, I should get it next week) and they usually replied in 1-4 hours.

Also, the sustainiac looks cooler :P

Yay or nay?

Definitely Yay! :D

[Sialys]

At 9/17/09 05:13 PM, Zhuriel wrote:

I'd get a sustainiac. it's the same thing, slightly cheaper I think, easier to install and much more customizable. Also, the guys from sustainiac are really friendly. I recently had contact with them (ordered one, I should get it next week) and they usually replied in 1-4 hours.

Also, the sustainiac looks cooler :P

Yay or nay?

Definitely Yay! :D

lol, I'll look in to the Sustainiac.

But I've wired a Fernandes before with an on/off, high/low/mid switch.
So I've got some experience with them.

I will definitely look in to those though!

[Sialys]

At 9/17/09 05:18 PM, Alchemist94 wrote: Awesome, I hope it all goes well! :) Just be careful you don't bite off more than you can chew, it's a big job :P

Yeah, it's a huge job... But I'm going to be practicing on local forest woods to perfect the exact shape. Then I'll order a few cheap woods and practice on those before starting on the final version.

And throughout this whole learning experience I'll be taking pictures. (:

By the end of this I'll probably have like 20 or 30 guitars, lmao

[Sialys]

The finished product is a lot of practice and learning away, but when it gets here it'll be amazing. I'm extremely excited to get started!

But currently I'm focused on purchasing a car, saving money for when I move out with my girlfriend and finishing up high school. (:

I just thought of something, maybe I'll build myself an amp cabinet too... Shit man, there are so many possibilities!

[Will]

At 9/17/09 05:48 PM, Sialys wrote: Currently I'm focused on purchasing a car, saving money for when I move out with my girlfriend and finishing up high school. (:

Yes. Life first. Scratch-made guitar second!

[jarrydn]

At 9/17/09 04:35 PM, Sialys wrote: If I can figure out how to do it, the strings will be run through the body. If not, then I'll just do a stop tail.

All of that work would be a waste if you didn't make it string through, which should be easy enough anyway.

[FlamingFirebolt]

At 9/17/09 04:35 PM, Sialys wrote

Yay or nay?

Why don't you roll over so they can stomp on the other side of your face! >: l
/reference

All jokes aside, howmuch would such a thing cost anyway? Well you won't pay for assembly obviously but shipping might be more expensive. I've never heard of anyone or know of anyone who made there guitar themselves. So i'm fairly intrested. You better post pics !!

I'll be rooting for you!

[loansindi]

I'm curious what kind of shop you've got available to you. There's a number of somewhat specialized tools needed for guitar construction, based on my own readings in the past.

[Sialys]

Well my dad is an electrician and all around hobby man himself and so is my grandpa. So I know I've got all the woodworking tools for getting the basic body shape down. But as far as luthier specific tools go, I've ordered a couple catalogs. One from Stewart-MacDonald and one from Luthier... Something... International. (LMII)

I have no problem what so ever throwing down money to do this since it probably won't be the last guitar I build. Hopefully after I've learned everything from this one I'll be able to start building guitars for other people like Bad-Man. (:

If all goes well, I'll probably never buy a guitar again.

I do know for sure that after this whole project I'll build myself a couple 4x12 guitar cabs loaded with a mix match of Celestion Vintage 30's and Celestion G12H30's, that should be a lot of fun too.

Don't worry guys, I'm going to be putting at least a year of practice in before throwing all of this money and time in. I want to be absolutely confident that I can build this thing before I go through with it.

I've already planned to start with woods I find in the local forests just to get the feeling of wood working. And I'll do this for about three or four months before I buy cheaper woods and practice on those. (I'll have a shit load of bodies and necks lying around...) And then hopefully by winter or spring of 2011 I can start working on this guitar and have it finished by April 2012.

I say April because that'll be my 10th year of playing guitar. And what better way to celebrate a decade than with a guitar you built from scratch with your own two hands. (:

It should be a really cool learning experience and hopefully it'll open a few doors for me in the luthier world and I'll be able to sell a few of my creations to people. (:

I know along the way I'll probably make a Newgrounds guitar, that should be pretty cool. (:
If I could trust users not to keep it I'd probably send it around so all the well known users could sign in but that'd be a terrible idea. lol

I'm just hoping that it all works out and I've got a beautiful looking and sounding guitar. (:

[Sialys]

At 9/18/09 11:30 AM, FlamingFirebolt wrote: All jokes aside, howmuch would such a thing cost anyway?
You better post pics !!

Didn't see this when I wrote that last comment. :P

I know the wood is actually not that bad and I found a few good retailers. I'll be looking around where other luthier's get their supply from and hopefully I'll be alright. So far the wood looks to cost around $300, which is extremely cheap for the wood I'm using.

Most of the money is going into the electronics and hardware I'll be using.

I'll be using DiMarzio's EVO2 in the bridge, a DiMarzio EVO in the neck and I haven't decided on a middle pickup, If I'll even have enough room. lol

So there's about $300-$400 in pick ups alone.
About $50 to $100 for a tail piece.

Schaller locking tuners are like $100

Pots are only like $5 apiece, so that's nothing. Except the push/pull pot that'll be around $20

All the wiring will be cheap stuff... Strings are cheap, truss rod is cheap... Screws and stuff are cheap... So I'm looking at about $1,500 for a guitar built exactly the way I want it. Compared to the $2,100 I got, or even $5,000 I got looking at other guitars.

So all in all it's an EXTREMELY cheap project when you look at it that way.

[Zhuriel]

At 9/18/09 03:34 PM, Sialys wrote: I'll be using DiMarzio's EVO2 in the bridge, a DiMarzio EVO in the neck and I haven't decided on a middle pickup, If I'll even have enough room. lol

Didn't you say you want to use a sustainer? You wouldn't be able to have a neck pickup with one.

[Sialys]

At 9/18/09 03:57 PM, Zhuriel wrote: Didn't you say you want to use a sustainer? You wouldn't be able to have a neck pickup with one.

Right...

Oops. lol

[Wolfos]

I wanted to do it too, but I was told not too (on these same forums)

[Sialys]

At 9/18/09 04:07 PM, robin1232 wrote: I wanted to do it too, but I was told not too (on these same forums)

If you're willing to put the money and the incredible effort. Go for it...

But make sure you've got all the proper tools and an extensive knowledge of guitars. If you asked me how something worked or where it was on a guitar I could tell you.

If you've got all of that. Go for it! (:

Or you can just get a kit and take that route, but no company I know of offers a kit anything like what I'm doing, lol

I don't even know if Korina/Maple is even able to work. Theoretically it should, but I'm not sure.

[Psil0]

This is sounds pretty good, if you can do it (if you successfully do it, might I suggest opening your own custom guitar shop).

P.S. - Since I love the idea of what you're doing and if you do a good job, I'd actually like you to build me a custom guitar too (don't worry, I'd pay well for it too).

[Sialys]

At 9/18/09 05:51 PM, Nosferatu-of-Worms wrote: This is sounds pretty good, if you can do it (if you successfully do it, might I suggest opening your own custom guitar shop).

P.S. - Since I love the idea of what you're doing and if you do a good job, I'd actually like you to build me a custom guitar too (don't worry, I'd pay well for it too).

Hey man, if it works out well that'd be awesome. I'd love to get a custom shop started up!
I've been toying around with the idea of putting together custom guitars, cabinets, and I've even gone so far as wanting to teach myself to build amps.
I'll make sure I keep this, or a new thread updated with sketches and actual progress.

If you went into detail about what you want I could start pricing it build it next to mine and possibly Bad-Man's.

As far as paying me goes, I don't know if I could accept that. Or how it would even work out, I'll probably have to set up a website and shit and get a Pay Pal.

This is awhile down the road though. At the moment I have zero experience. None. Nada.

But hopefully by this time or later next year I'll have a few different guitars built up. I'd be more than happy to give those away for free as kits for anyone wanting to try that out. They'd probably be made up of the same materials as an Epiphone Les Paul.

There are so many ideas to toy around with involving this project!! lol

[thecoreman]

That is so fucking rad, man. Good luck!

[FlamingFirebolt]

At 9/18/09 04:07 PM, robin1232 wrote: I wanted to do it too, but I was told not too (on these same forums)

Make one too! Then it will be a Guitar Building Face Off!! :) The forum will vote who's guitar looks better.

Epic?

[thecoreman]

At 9/19/09 07:48 AM, FlamingFirebolt wrote:

Epic?

Yes indeed!

[Sialys]

lol I won't be doing any serious building 'til I've done my practice. :P

I've got a pretty tough challenge ahead of me that I'm not even sure I'll be able to tackle. I'm really hoping I'll be okay though. (:

But don't let that stop you, go ahead and build yours. (:

If you want, PM me and I'll give you all kinds of good sites for supplies.

[Sialys]

Also, was doing a little bit of math... If I were to build 100 guitars and sell them at $1,750 apiece. I could make about $350,000. O.O

Insane right?!

I'm seriously considering this whole luthier as a profession deal... Maybe I'll be the next Paul Reed Smith!

[Metaljonus]

Do it up, and when its done post pics of it in a bikini lolz.

[Sialys]

At 9/19/09 11:40 PM, Metaljonus wrote: Do it up, and when its done post pics of it in a bikini lolz.

I'll build a flying V and paint it up to look like a woman spreading her legs and give it to ya.

How's that for makin' you lookin' like a man on stage. (:

[jarrydn]

At 9/19/09 11:01 PM, Sialys wrote: I'm seriously considering this whole luthier as a profession deal... Maybe I'll be the next Paul Reed Smith!

Don't get too ahead of yourself there mate ;)

Build your first guitar, and then take it from there. Also, keep in mind how long it takes to build an instrument. I know a luthier who makes extrordinary instruments, has dedicated many years of his life to his craft, and was making like...$2 - $4 per hour on average :P

http://www.ormsbyguitars.com/

[Metaljonus]

LOL, that would rule.