Luthier altert: building your own guitar

[brammy]

I'm planning on taking a night class at the local community college on guitar making.... the project will be to build an electric guitar. It's advertised as "all tools supplied, students will supply materials".

So I thought this might be a nice thread to share guitar building tips (please let me know if this thread is repeated elsewhere). I know that there are a bunch of us with lots of experience in this area and others (like me) with little to none.

My initial plan is to make something similar to a 660/12 but with a semi-hollow body: 24.75 scale, 21 frets, 1.75" wide neck at nut. Body shape is TBD. And yes, my plan is to do a RIC-style 12-string tuner configuration at the headstock. Too ambitious? Should I start with a solid body 6-string?

[paul_yan]

This will be a great thread, Kent. Go for it!

I look forward to reading your report (with as many pics as possible) on the process of your learning and making of the guitar. I vote for a 12-string. I'm sure it's going to give you extra fun and challenge!

[jimk]

No Kent. Go with Plan A. Build your dream guitar. Sounds exciting. Keep us posted, by all means.
JimK

[kiramdear]

Yup, build it the way you want it. And don't forget pictures! Good luck, Kent!

[brammy]

OK, thanks! ... I have a feeling that no matter what the outcome I'll be building a better guitar with the comments and advice I get here.

First thing is for me to come up with a design. I have good CAD tools for this and I'll post some pix for comment before I cut any wood.

[brammy]

Went to the first class tonight and got some good ideas for the 12-string I'll build.... I think it will be pretty innovative as you will soon see.

But for starters, I wonder if anyone can give me some direction on pickups. It'll be a semi-acoustic about the size of a RIC 360 body but perhaps a bit smaller. I love jingle jangle, but my intent is to not create another Rickenbacker.

Since I'm not an electronics genius by a long shot, I was thinking that perhaps a pickup kit might be the way to go. I was thinking of trying to combine a single coil pickup with other humbucker-style pickups. Are there kits out there for a dummy like me?.... or do I have to get into individual components, wiring diagrams and soldering irons? I'm hoping for a simple solution because I'm going to be putting my main effort into the woodworking.

any help is MOST appreciated.

[egosheep]

Went to the first class tonight and got some good ideas for the 12-string I'll build.... I think it will be pretty innovative as you will soon see.

But for starters, I wonder if anyone can give me some direction on pickups. It'll be a semi-acoustic about the size of a RIC 360 body but perhaps a bit smaller. I love jingle jangle, but my intent is to not create another Rickenbacker.

Since I'm not an electronics genius by a long shot, I was thinking that perhaps a pickup kit might be the way to go. I was thinking of trying to combine a single coil pickup with other humbucker-style pickups. Are there kits out there for a dummy like me?.... or do I have to get into individual components, wiring diagrams and soldering irons? I'm hoping for a simple solution because I'm going to be putting my main effort into the woodworking.

any help is MOST appreciated.

Do you have to make your own pickups?

If you are making your own, here is an idea you may want to try: wind a pickup about 7k like a vintage toaster. Then wrap more wire around this same pickup, making a second separate pickup coil, using the same polepieces. This would allow you to combine the sounds for a hot single coil sound, or use them separately for different clean sounds. They each sound distinct because of the distance of the coil from the polepieces.

[kiramdear]

I think in the long run it's going to be worth it to do the homework a bit and choose pickups that are going to be just right. You shouldn't be too discouraged at the thought of wiring components; it's fairly straightforward. Put it this way: if I can do it, anybody here can, too.

[cjj]

Ooh, this is bound to be an interesting thread!

In my quest for modifying the pickups on my 4004Cii, I found this cool website with lots of info on figuring out what pickup placement does to tone. It gets a bit detailed into the math and such (which is great for a techno-geek like me ):
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponse/index.html

But the best part is that the guy wrote this cool Java applet that lets you put in the scale length, number of frets and string frequency, and then lets you add pickups and move them around to see what it does to the frequency response:

http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResp ... index.html

There's even tables at the end with string frequencies and scale lengths of many guitars & basses - including Ricks!

[paul_yan]

Looking forward to it, Kent.

Cool links! Will get some time to read and digest them. Thanks, Cj!

[8mileshigher]

Should be an interesting project... and we'll follow along with the pictures you post.
Good luck !

[brammy]

Wow, great info.... I think I'll stop short of wiring my own pickups, but I got a book "Guitar Electronics for Musicians" (Brosnac) which I think will help a lot. It tries to be simple... ie: the name isn't "Guitar Electronics for MIT Professors".

As for body shape, I'm thinking of something similar to the Rickenbacker Combo 800

Sort of a cross between a Rick 350 and a Maton Mastersound

but mine will be a bit larger, almost 360-ish

[brammy]

12-STRING WRAPAROUND BRIDGE/TAILPIECE COMBO?

What I REALLY would like to do is purchase one of the wraparound combo tailpiece bridge units, but replace the saddles with 12-string versions (2 grooves per saddle). I just cant seem to find a 12-sting wraparound unit or the proper replacement saddles. If anyone could help solve this puzzle I'd be MOST appreciative.

standard 6-string wraparound combo tailpiece bridge

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_ta ... ridge.html

[paul_yan]

IMHO, a 12-saddle bridge is quite necessary, Kent. You can really have control over how in-tune or out-of-tune the 2 strings in each course are to each other with such.

Gotoh makes 12-saddle bridges. Note that 6 strings pass through the tail end, and 6 pass through the guitar body like on a Telecaster, if you're not against the idea of having 6 holes and ferrules at the body's back.



Additional infos:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_ta ... es#details

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-de ... ridge.html

http://www.warmoth.com/hardware/bridges ... iagram.pdf

http://www.warmoth.com/Gotoh-12-String-C707.aspx

[egosheep]

What about building your own bridge? Aluminum U-channel, drill some holes and you just need screws, locking nuts and aluminum saddles. You could have 6 saddles and cut/compensate the saddles for 2 different strings. Having 2 strings on the same saddle is not perfect intonation wise, but some would say it adds to the sound to have the slight differences ringing out.