thorny64
08-04-2008, 01:26 PM
I have a friend building two guitars.
How is blood or zebra wood tone wise?
He plans to use mahogany and maple also, but plans to include pieces of Zebrawood and Blood wood in the contruction as well. One guitar is planned to be neck through, the other will be a bolt on neck. I think both will be 25.5" scales (possibly 24.75"), dual humbuckers, and likely have a fixed bridge for the bridge. The neck will be strat-like with a six-in-line headstock. Likely a 22 fret neck. Neck pickup placement will be where a 24th fret would be (I like the neck pickup in that harmonic location, and not moved to allow a 24th fret to be installed).
What humbucking pickups?
I am trying to decide what pickups will go well with the laminate wood bodies and necks. I think one we might like to have GOLD hardware on, so it might look better with gold covered humbuckers. I am open to suggestions. I am not really against the old duncan JB and Jazz (or 59) combination, but I know there are a lot more choices out there now and likely in a similar price range. The JB can sound great with some guitars and others are too hot or too bright. The advantage with the JB is that it has a great single coil tone too (most are more anemic sounding). I also wondered about the new Dimarzio Hot PAF and Anniv models too. I can't spend $150-$200 a pickup. I actually am not against getting something used and saving the money as long as it is appropriate and looks like new. I have tried lots of Dimarzios and Duncans in the past, and some Harmonic Designs, and Lindy Fralins - not much else. These will NOT BE active pickups.
Pickup Pole Piece Spacing
Wide spaced pickup (Trem or F-spaced) will be likely in the bridge position. I like the idea of the pole pieces being alligned with the strings.
Pickup mounting type
Also, mount directly to body or to pickup rings? I only had one guitar that had the pickup mounted to the body. How will that affect the tone?
Electronics
They will likely be simple. I am thinking a three way gibson or strat switch with a single shared volume and tone, maybe with a single push/pull that converts both humbuckers to single coils and back. Or possibly a "megaswitch" type 5 way, and a master volume and tone (no push pull required). We want something simple, yet versatile. Probaby 500K audio pots, and not sure if need to spend the money on a paper in oil or just use a normal quality poly tone capacitor. I prefer to have a setup that sounds good when the volume is rolled down without a treble bleed cap, but not sure if the tone capacitor will really affect that or not. Opinions?
What type of non-vibrato Bridge?
I am undecided on whether to suggest standard tuneomatic combinations or a more PRS-like Wilkinson tuning compensated aluminum bridge. Also another possibility is a tele/strat hardtail like bridge with a top load (he does not want string through body). I saw a nice one that GFS has as well as another one from some other place that requires a small hollow spot under the bridge and the strings just pop in a little larger holes and the the ball ends just rest underneath the bridge. I know the standard strat bridges, and I have a tele, but most of my guitars have form of tuneomatic (or a vibrato bridge, and he clearly doesn't want a vibrato bridge on these two guitars).
I don't have eperience enough with the PRS/Jr styled stoptail combo bridges to know how that affects the playability of the guitar. The lightweight aluminum one is supposed to be better sounding and costs a neglible amount more. Can anyone give me their opinion how that might sound or play differently than a good tuneomatic for instance? Should I just go with a good tuneomatic?
I have a Dean Icon, a thin bodied electric, sort of PRS shaped, with mahogany body and thin veneered maple top, rosewood board, a tuneomatic (I replaced the stock bridge with a larger metric Gotoh clone and it improved the tone, it has a dimarzion air norton in the bridge, a the neck has the bridge version of a Virtual PAF, it also has an ESP compensating nut on it) but the strings are strung through the body and there is no stop tailpiece. I love that guitar but one thing I noticed is that the string tension is pretty stiff because of the sharper string angle coming off the bridge and going through the body, so we won't be doing that.
Tuning keys
Likely some 6-inline wilkinson locking keys unless someone convinces me that something else must be used.
Nut
I like the idea of that ESP Earvana nut, and now they make "shelf" nuts for Gibson and Fender style guitars. He wasn't planning on using those, but I think I might try to change his mind on that matter. It worked wonders for my Korean Dean.
What do you all think? Give me some differing opinions as I have my historical blinders on from years of modifying and working on fairly conventional guitars, but have never built one, nor has my friend. We are not looking at something to sell either. We want something unique, hand made, and very playable. I want to be as informed as possible when I help my woodworker friend with his hardware decisions. He really is mostly leaving them up to me since I play. One will be a gift to a relative of his that plays. I am not sure what the other one will be.
Thanks for your opinions and suggestions! I might pass on pictures if he sends them to me as the project progresses.
John
:RoCkIn
How is blood or zebra wood tone wise?
He plans to use mahogany and maple also, but plans to include pieces of Zebrawood and Blood wood in the contruction as well. One guitar is planned to be neck through, the other will be a bolt on neck. I think both will be 25.5" scales (possibly 24.75"), dual humbuckers, and likely have a fixed bridge for the bridge. The neck will be strat-like with a six-in-line headstock. Likely a 22 fret neck. Neck pickup placement will be where a 24th fret would be (I like the neck pickup in that harmonic location, and not moved to allow a 24th fret to be installed).
What humbucking pickups?
I am trying to decide what pickups will go well with the laminate wood bodies and necks. I think one we might like to have GOLD hardware on, so it might look better with gold covered humbuckers. I am open to suggestions. I am not really against the old duncan JB and Jazz (or 59) combination, but I know there are a lot more choices out there now and likely in a similar price range. The JB can sound great with some guitars and others are too hot or too bright. The advantage with the JB is that it has a great single coil tone too (most are more anemic sounding). I also wondered about the new Dimarzio Hot PAF and Anniv models too. I can't spend $150-$200 a pickup. I actually am not against getting something used and saving the money as long as it is appropriate and looks like new. I have tried lots of Dimarzios and Duncans in the past, and some Harmonic Designs, and Lindy Fralins - not much else. These will NOT BE active pickups.
Pickup Pole Piece Spacing
Wide spaced pickup (Trem or F-spaced) will be likely in the bridge position. I like the idea of the pole pieces being alligned with the strings.
Pickup mounting type
Also, mount directly to body or to pickup rings? I only had one guitar that had the pickup mounted to the body. How will that affect the tone?
Electronics
They will likely be simple. I am thinking a three way gibson or strat switch with a single shared volume and tone, maybe with a single push/pull that converts both humbuckers to single coils and back. Or possibly a "megaswitch" type 5 way, and a master volume and tone (no push pull required). We want something simple, yet versatile. Probaby 500K audio pots, and not sure if need to spend the money on a paper in oil or just use a normal quality poly tone capacitor. I prefer to have a setup that sounds good when the volume is rolled down without a treble bleed cap, but not sure if the tone capacitor will really affect that or not. Opinions?
What type of non-vibrato Bridge?
I am undecided on whether to suggest standard tuneomatic combinations or a more PRS-like Wilkinson tuning compensated aluminum bridge. Also another possibility is a tele/strat hardtail like bridge with a top load (he does not want string through body). I saw a nice one that GFS has as well as another one from some other place that requires a small hollow spot under the bridge and the strings just pop in a little larger holes and the the ball ends just rest underneath the bridge. I know the standard strat bridges, and I have a tele, but most of my guitars have form of tuneomatic (or a vibrato bridge, and he clearly doesn't want a vibrato bridge on these two guitars).
I don't have eperience enough with the PRS/Jr styled stoptail combo bridges to know how that affects the playability of the guitar. The lightweight aluminum one is supposed to be better sounding and costs a neglible amount more. Can anyone give me their opinion how that might sound or play differently than a good tuneomatic for instance? Should I just go with a good tuneomatic?
I have a Dean Icon, a thin bodied electric, sort of PRS shaped, with mahogany body and thin veneered maple top, rosewood board, a tuneomatic (I replaced the stock bridge with a larger metric Gotoh clone and it improved the tone, it has a dimarzion air norton in the bridge, a the neck has the bridge version of a Virtual PAF, it also has an ESP compensating nut on it) but the strings are strung through the body and there is no stop tailpiece. I love that guitar but one thing I noticed is that the string tension is pretty stiff because of the sharper string angle coming off the bridge and going through the body, so we won't be doing that.
Tuning keys
Likely some 6-inline wilkinson locking keys unless someone convinces me that something else must be used.
Nut
I like the idea of that ESP Earvana nut, and now they make "shelf" nuts for Gibson and Fender style guitars. He wasn't planning on using those, but I think I might try to change his mind on that matter. It worked wonders for my Korean Dean.
What do you all think? Give me some differing opinions as I have my historical blinders on from years of modifying and working on fairly conventional guitars, but have never built one, nor has my friend. We are not looking at something to sell either. We want something unique, hand made, and very playable. I want to be as informed as possible when I help my woodworker friend with his hardware decisions. He really is mostly leaving them up to me since I play. One will be a gift to a relative of his that plays. I am not sure what the other one will be.
Thanks for your opinions and suggestions! I might pass on pictures if he sends them to me as the project progresses.
John
:RoCkIn