Going electric

[pavliku]

Hi guys,
I thought it was about time I went electric. I've been building mostly ukes. I've got quite a lot of good quality hardwood. I want to make the neck wood run through the body of the guitar - I forget the exact term for this type of construction. The wood for the body will be tallow wood and the neck will be another non-native hardwood that I don't know the name of - it's very hard and heavy, old fence batton, very flesh like colours - shades of light pink.

What I really want is advice on hardware, pick-ups etc. I'm embarrised to say that I know nothing about electrics.
I would love some advise on a good set-up for the woods above. I'd be looking to make something of a blues/rock sound. For me price is something of an issue - I defenately don't want to buy rubbish - but havn't the cash to buy anything too expensive. I'm sure you guys must know what hardware is out there.

Thanks,
Paul.

[Benj]

Hey mate,
Glad to hear you are heading to the 'lecky side! You'll have heaps of fun simply because of the amount of options! Please bear in mind I am no expert, but just sharing my experiences!

In terms of hardware, there are a few big considerations, all of which cost a bit, but if you use places like Stewmac, Guitarfetish (GFS) and dragonfire, you'll be able to find something that suits you, and keep the price down. We'll start from the headstock and work down the axe.

1. Tuners/Machineheads - I have used GFS grover tuners on a few guitars and love them for the price (around $25 per set). You could look into Gotoh's or Sperzels, but then you are talking big bucks.

2. Nut - Always used Graphtech, available from heaps of places and pretty cheap, great quality though.

3. Pickups - Where to begin? For a bluesy/rock feel, once again hit up GFS for their 'Hot Liverpool Specials'. I have these on my semi hollow tele-copy and they are so nice and crunchy. If not, try their p90's or for a more driven sound, dragonfire's screamers are good fun. All of these are well below what Seymour Duncan / DiMarzio try to charge and they are definately gig-worthy pickups.

4. Electronics - Head to Stewmac's website and get their wiring kits. All instructions, wiring etc are included and all you need to do is solder. If you haven't before, read up on it, theres heaps on youtube, and make sure you get yourself a good soldering iron, dont skimp on it or you'll end up hurting yourself or your guitar.

5. Bridge - Again, I feel like I'm plugging them a bit, but GFS have some great hardtail and tremolo bridges (if you are game, try their XTrem, great bigsby style trem), but I'd stay away from the floyd-rose style bridges, only because I've tried licensed ones before (Edge 3's on Ibanez's for example) and there's nothing like the Original, if a double locking-floating trem is what you are after.

Oh and get some of GFS/Dragonfire's strap locks (GFS are better IMO), they are a must have on all of my guitars.

Hope this helps a bit,

Benj

[pavliku]

Thanks Benj,
Exactly the type of advise I was hoping for - not bad for only two previous post - I think you might have found a good home here.
I'm sure there will be many passionate electric fans out there who will have some advise.
Thanks.
Paul.

[rocket]

IMG_1712.JPG (91.43 KiB) Viewed 15566 times

IMG_1705.JPG (100.35 KiB) Viewed 15566 times

Hey Paul my first full on leccy was a semi hollow build, the pups i pu in it were fro Stumac, Golden Age PAF's very reasonable price, very ballsy hardware check them out, they've got some very nice stuff at good prices,
Rod

[Benj]

Thanks Benj,
Exactly the type of advise I was hoping for - not bad for only two previous post - I think you might have found a good home here.
I'm sure there will be many passionate electric fans out there who will have some advise.
Thanks.
Paul.

Haha yeah, no worries mate, really glad that I can help someone! If you need any help on this, let me know, because as well as helping, I'll be learning.
What kind of electric are you hoping to make? (ie tele, strat, sg etc). Do you have a plan laid out incl the finishing?

[jeffhigh]

The term you are looking for is "neck through" for that style of construction.
I have done a couple, the main thing with these is getting your bridge first and making sure your neck angle works with it. And think about how you will get wires to control cavities, it is not always straightforward.
Tallowood may be a bit heavy unless you do some chambering.

[Nick]

Hi guys,
I want to make the neck wood run through the body of the guitar - I forget the exact term for this type of construction.

Strangely enough Paul despite your failing memory( ) you were fairly close, they are refered to as "Neck thru" as in neck through body. I've recently finished an electric bass which utilises this type of construction. A good way to go in my opinion. Although hopefully from your description of the neck material, it isn't Jarrah! Very stable, hard wood but gives your finely sharpened cutting edges a hard time! We used to have to cut 4x4 posts of the stuff down to size in a metal bandsaw as it burnt the drain gang guy's chains out on their saws.
As to your other questions, Gotoh now make excellent hardware (tuners, bridges e.t.c), when they first started out the quality was a little dubious but they've really put the work in & now make a product comprerable to any 'quality' parts the likes of Schaller (German company) make. Gotoh's have the added bonus of making a range of products to fit any budget, they do fairly cheap for quality right thru to top of the range stuff. Stewmacs are a great source for their products, infact there's not much you couldn't get from Stewmac. Their electrical components, which can be bought as kits which include wiring, pots & caps aren't too bad although having said that, I get CTS pots from another supplier who's name escapes me just at the present , which are considered 'the best' and usually give a lifetime of trouble free use, the resistive track inside cheaper ones is usually thinner & breaks down over time so you get crackles & noises through your amp everytime you adjust it. I would also recommend looking at some sort of sheilding for the cavitys (Stops interference from 50 cycle hum from flourescent tubes & radio waves) either copper foil/tape or as I prefer, carbon paint (Stewmac again). Played a guitar once that wasn't sheilded and wasn't grounded properly & I could hear the local radio station through my amp,from it inbetween songs! Strings make the perfect aerial.
As far as pickups go I've only ever used Seymour Duncans or DiMarzio's but mainly because of the range of different types they've offered, like any company they can sell the odd bad one but I've never had anything but quality from them. I wouldn't buy any locally either, NZ retailers such as R**kshop charge way too much for their pickups. Online & shop around if you want 'name brands'! U.S retailers have quite a variance in prices as they like to compete more with each other & you can get quite a bargain sometimes, exchange rate isn't too bad at the moment, You'll probably be able to buy & ship two pickups from the US for the price a local has one in the shop for.
I also have a few "Golden Age" pickups earmarked for a wishlist build down the track, which are the Stewmac house brand which are supposed to be good value for the money as Rod (above on that beautiful semi hollow) will attest to.

[Benj]

Sorry I completely forgot about that! SHIELDING IS A MUST!!! Either get some adhesive copper tape or the conductive paint, they make a huge difference.

Also as said above, go US for pickups, if considering DiMarzio/S.D/EMG/BKP's etc. You can get a Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz set (a great bluesy/rock set) for about $130 from ebay, whereas in aus/nz youd be paing that per pickup.

[Kim]

Hardware is like most everything else in guitar making Paul...what's best is dependant upon the intended style of instrument to be built and how you feel after wading to the other side of the pool of speculation that come with discussions of such a subjective things. M2c is you only get what you pay for, as always.

If your wanting a rock guitar, then a pair of (enter brand name here) humbuckers would be a good starting point. Humbuckers have plenty of output and make the wiring job pretty simple as you don't need to be so concerned with shielding. CTS make good pots and at about $6 each only cost a couple of bucks more than the real rubbish. Switchcraft make good switches and jacks. Gotoh is a good choice for hardwear ranging from pretty good at a reasonable price, to cutting edge at a hideous price. A tuneomatic bridge and stoptail keeps things simple and work well on a neckthru.

On wood for electrics. Before getting too caught up in the tonal 'flavours' debate to find yourself wearing the one eyed guernsey of the half blind, have a read of this article...many will not agree but it is what it is.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/educa ... 22k7b.html

(EDIT) I thought I posted this before I went out to PU my daughters from school. At that time nobody had responded...I come back to see it still up on the monitor un draft...Oh well, forgot to hit the 'SUBMIT' button.. but it explains why I have repeated so much of what others have said already..or not ...Link now fixed..

Cheers

Kim

[seeaxe]

Hi Paul

You have an online supplier of pickups and bits very close to you - http://www.guitarparts.co.nz

They do a range of pickups - obviously they import them and you are paying the postage but there are some economies and they have stock close at hand. I have bought a fair bit from them and the service is always good and quick.

From my vast experience of building 2 electrics - (both teles - I am very biased when it comes to such things) I can tell you wood DOES make a difference. I built the last one out of kwila and its so bldy heavy you can’t use it for more than a few songs - hence it was quickly consigned to "back up guitar" in the band it was on loan to. It's now back in the fold and I need to get the router out and cut away as much wood as I can. Point of story – don’t make it too heavy!!

The big chunk of wood that is an electric usually has sustain for Africa, even if you make it out of pine. So tonally, I agree with Kim, it’s all about the hardware and that is driven by what kind of sound you want. If you are looking for SRV or Dave Gilmour then don’t buy humbuckers. If Slash and latter day Jimmy Page (he started on a tele before the drugs clouded his judgement) are your idols, don’t buy single coil pickups.

+1 for Gotohs, I like them. Warmoth in US have almost everything you will need, also.

There is a guy building very cool electrics in Auckland if you need some inspiration or fret wire - ashcustomworks

Good luck

If you are ever up in the big smoke of Jaffaland and feel like catching up, drop us a line

Cheers

Richard

[pavliku]

Thanks for the info everyone - I'm sure I'll need to read over this thread many times.
It was my intention to carve away a lot of material from the body because of the weight of the woods. Even so it will be too heavy to sustain prolonged playing, I've got a lot of nice totara which would work nicely for the rest of the body. - thanks for pointing that out so deffinitively Richard ( I will deffinately look you up if I get to the big smoke, by the way the offer is reciprcal to you if you get down here. And anyone else who might like to come for that matter).

I'm learning a lot from this thread.

Paul.

[Lillian]

Paul, here's some reference material for you to peruse. http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electronics.html

[kiwigeo]

From what I can see the choice of wood for the neck is going to influence sound of the instrument more than the choice of body wood. The neck after all is a dirty big energy sink ( think sustain or lack of)

[demonx]

I only build electric guitars. Hardware I like to use:

Bareknuckle Pickups - made in the UK go into most of my builds. They are as diverse as you can imagine from the purest of clean tones to the most aggressive metal pickups. They are the best at everything they do. They are at the top of the price ladder, but you get what you pay for. Simply the best pickups I've ever tried. If I was to divert from these I've experimented with "Guitar Logistics" pickups made in the USA, which are quite good value for money. Dimarzio have been mentioned above are also another good "economy" pickup.

Tuners - Grover have always been my favorite. Followed by Schaller. Gotoh for a good quality budget alternative.

Bridges - Hipshot, Tonepro, ABM, Schreoder are all good fixed bridge brands - Gotoh also make quality budget range bridges.
Tremolo - I tend to like the Gotoh floyd rose trems the best, however the Genuine Floyd Rose will always hold its own as well. Kahler trems are my favorite as a builder, but as a player they loose much sustain. I've installed many of these also.

Electronics - I like to use CTS pots and switchcraft jacks and switches. For such a cheap/affordable item it's not worth going budget to save a few dollars. I tend to stick to 500k pots for both volume and tone and stick with 0.022uf Paper Dipped in Oil Capacitors.

Truss rods - I only use Allied Luthierie rods. Ive tried nearly all the major players on the market and been let down by all. It's worth it in my opinion to spend a few extra bucks and buy these.

Fretwire- my personal favorite is Dunlop 6150, but this really is a personal choice. The 6150 is a nice wide/tall size without being too wide or too tall.

[demonx]

Hints and tips -

Building a neckthru you really need to plan everything around the bridge. Know what bridge you're using BEFORE you cut anything, as the engly you build into the neck is all worked out back to the bridge position and height.

When building an electric guitar - pickups are the most important decision. Timber plays a massive role in an acoustic guitar, but in an electric the pickups effect over 90% of the sound - the rest of the 10% is devided between strings, timber, eother electronics etc etc - so you can imagine how important it is not to stooge out and save a few dollares on the pickups, as the guitar will suffer immensely for the sake of a few dollars. Timber DOES effect the tone greatly also, but the pickups are the crux of an electric guitar.

I'd be doing some pretty good research on the neck timber if you don't even know what it is. Sounds like trouble to me. I'd like to know its stability characteristics before bothering to make a neck from it. Could turn out to be a twisty and ruin for you what could be a a great guitar. Guess it comes back to planning and knowing everything before you start...

[pavliku]

Thanks Lillian - I completely forgot that stewmac had an information section - I'll put that to good use as well.

Thanks to you also demonx for listing your choices for hardware, and construction advice.

Paul.