Project #2 - es-335 with some twists
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:50 pm
One of the guitars i've always admired the aethetics of is gibson's semi-hollow es-335, in its vintage cherry niceness, but OMG I cannot afford one - for something remotely awesome, you're looking in the realms of 2-3g, vintage is in the realms of 4g+. Even cheap current knocks offs, often poorly constructed with crappy uninspired electrics and poor wood choices, are around the 800+ dollar mark. so of course I took the next step and thought, hey, if anyone's going to bastardise a classic, let me do it, but i'll do it myyy waaaaaaaaay..
This is where i'm up to, after much work so far:
The body is all one piece of tassie oak/mountain ash (yay bunnings!), the top and back is thin layered pieces of meranti, that i've sanded to simulate the "archtop" style. (go steady, this is my second guitar, and I am not a purist in anyway, though am learning to be and appreciate the better woods to do these things). The fretboard is massanuba which i've radiused to 12" and fretted with jumbo stainless frets. It'll end up being cherry red, with gold hardware, and cream binding. It will be string through instead of stop bridge as well.
What's interesting (well, I think so) is going to be the electrics - of course, I like thinking leftfield with this stuff. For the bridge pickup, I have a dimarzio bluesbucker, and for the neck, I imported (from the US) a fernandes sustainer humbucker and circuit. For those of you who don't know the sustainer, it beasically adds a circuit to the output that vibrates the strings via the humbucker to create 'infinite' sustain, much like an ebow would create when applied to the strings.
Today, I have stumbled on the korg monotron (http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mu ... ents/e0db/) and oh yes, I will now get this and integrate it to this guitar. Why? Mostly because I like experimenting with the traditional design approach as well as the sound palette capability. Some might say I've destroyed a classic, whereas I say hey, you never know until you try - it might be awesome. I look to Mason Guitars in the UK - they design and produce Matt Bellamy's guitars that he uses in his band Muse, and there are some frankensteins in there, but wow are they innovative, and that's what I think about when I think taking electrics to the next level.
I'll keep you posted with the build, or follow my progress in more detail on my site.
This is where i'm up to, after much work so far:
The body is all one piece of tassie oak/mountain ash (yay bunnings!), the top and back is thin layered pieces of meranti, that i've sanded to simulate the "archtop" style. (go steady, this is my second guitar, and I am not a purist in anyway, though am learning to be and appreciate the better woods to do these things). The fretboard is massanuba which i've radiused to 12" and fretted with jumbo stainless frets. It'll end up being cherry red, with gold hardware, and cream binding. It will be string through instead of stop bridge as well.
What's interesting (well, I think so) is going to be the electrics - of course, I like thinking leftfield with this stuff. For the bridge pickup, I have a dimarzio bluesbucker, and for the neck, I imported (from the US) a fernandes sustainer humbucker and circuit. For those of you who don't know the sustainer, it beasically adds a circuit to the output that vibrates the strings via the humbucker to create 'infinite' sustain, much like an ebow would create when applied to the strings.
Today, I have stumbled on the korg monotron (http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/mu ... ents/e0db/) and oh yes, I will now get this and integrate it to this guitar. Why? Mostly because I like experimenting with the traditional design approach as well as the sound palette capability. Some might say I've destroyed a classic, whereas I say hey, you never know until you try - it might be awesome. I look to Mason Guitars in the UK - they design and produce Matt Bellamy's guitars that he uses in his band Muse, and there are some frankensteins in there, but wow are they innovative, and that's what I think about when I think taking electrics to the next level.
I'll keep you posted with the build, or follow my progress in more detail on my site.