Thread: First Guitar

Originally Posted by dadovfor

Well done with the wood!

I have aspirations of making a bass or two ... one for me (just for the fun of building it, not playing it). And I have a brother-in-law who does play bass and wants to make one ... plus a guitar for his kids.

My local Bunnings will chop up wood ... I'm assuming they'll do mdf?? I find them more accommodating during the quiet periods.

I've made most of my templates from masonite (about 6mm from memory) ... cheap, easy to work with, and a strong smooth edge. In a couple of cases I've used the masonite template to then make a template on some 15mm pine off-cuts ... (for humbuckers, floyd rose routes, monkey grips, etc).

Now that we've hijacked this thread ... where's Floody!?!?

lol went to one bunnings today and waited half an hour for someone to come to the register....
didnt get the mdf though... just some stuff to finish the laundry and a whole lotta concrete... yes my back is sore

masonite is a bitch to cut is it not?

i know you want to make a bass, you asked me for a diagram
hahahaha

Originally Posted by floody_85

Hey give me back my thread!!
just joking. Right, thanks for the advice on blowing it up. just gotta find a good pic now lol.

I will be putting 2 humbuckers and prob two tone and one volume.
The neck is from a store called affordable guitar parts i think. they do bridges, pickups and everything. They look pretty good to me but if you's wanna check em out id be interested in your opinion.

I play alot of metal like trivium and bullet for my valentine where i tune in c so i my strings are 12 to 56 which are pretty heavy so i guess i want long scale?? but i guess i have to do it however long the neck is??

welll there you go....
why didnt you tell me this before,
i play abit of bullet for my valentine too... among other bands,
pretty sure their V's are the ussual 25.5 scale, but they are signiture guitars apparently, so i may check on that...

ahh yes iv seen this afordable guitar parts ebay store in my searches,
should be alright,
if it looks like crud when you recieve it put it straight back in the box and tell them you want your money back,

send me your email and ill see what larger rrV pics i have

Andrew ... I know I've told you about the bass idea, and I will take you up on the offer when I start to get more serious about it. Really it's only the neck that I need dimensions and profiles on as I have nothing at all to work from. The rest I'll make up. But that can wait a while yet. Thanks

And I've had no dramas with masonite ... except for dust I spose. Masonite is very easy to cut, file, and shape. So I've made masonite templates in order to route templates out of heavier stock. For example, fine tuning a masonite neck pocket template is a lot easier than trying to get it precise from 15mm mdf. So I make a really precise, snug masonite template, and then when I'm happy with that I transfer it to the thicker stock. But for a body outline / template, just the masonite template would do.

Floody ... I've bought a variety of things from Affordable Guitar Parts ... a guy called John Vella in Queensland. I had no problems with the quality on anything I've bought ... necks, pickups, tuners, etc. The necks have been great. And delivery is pretty quick now that he ships direct, rather than being a middle man.

ok cool. ill grab a neck off him. Any idea what his pickups are like?

hmm maybe im thinking of something else,
i thought masonite was hard stuff lol
i will have to look that up

good to hear affordable guitar parts are reliable, they are now added to my list of aussie suppiers

i really gotta stop hijacking threads

floody you need to start your build

Originally Posted by floody_85

ok cool. ill grab a neck off him. Any idea what his pickups are like?

I'm not a player so it's hard for me to judge ... but my son is very happy with them.

He supplies Wilkinson pickups in a few outputs and types ... alnico, etc. Maybe a search on Wikipedia might yield some information?

They sound just like electric guitar pickups to me . Once my son cranks his amp up and switches between effects, I hear no difference betwen the guitars I've built and those I've bought for gim.

and those I've bought for gim.

... oops ... bought for "him".

I'm now sitting at work with my first coffee of the day and I just read my last post back ... I obviously did it in a too much of a hurry

I checked Wilkinson pickups on wikipedia and I couldn't see anything, but there's a bunch of links on Google. I notice Stewmac stocks the single coils (I think John Vella only does humbuckers?) so I'm guessing that's gotta be a positive that Stewmac has that brand.

I think you'll be happy with the quality and price of John's stuff. I'm inclined to add "especially for a first build" ... but my feeling is that the quality stacks up well against the competition and you'll go back for build number two ... and three ... and ....

I've bought parts from a few places (Australian Luthier Supplies in Qld is another good one) but you just can't beat the price of John's necks.

Yea I couldnt believe it when I saw the price of the necks. Im wondering if the JEM looking neck,with the vines up it, would be to over the top for this type of guitar?

Andrew, thanks for the pics man. Big help dude

Just done abit of research on the wilkinson pups.
I think im gonna buy a set of Zebras. I read a few reviews and everyone said theyre really good. Theyre only $50 a set too. They'll do until I can afford EMG's lol

any time man

if you want the ibby neck with the vines,
then you get that neck....

the beauty of building a guitar yourself is you have control over every part that goes into it!

if your worried about over doing it... you could always attempt to do one of those "mock up" thingos in photoshop or on the net....

i didnt know wilkinson made pups....
i assume this is the same wilkinson thats famous for their bridges?

are you planning to paint the body?
not sure if i asked tat already lol...

Originally Posted by Andrew_B

any time man

if you want the ibby neck with the vines,
then you get that neck....

the beauty of building a guitar yourself is you have control over every part that goes into it!

if your worried about over doing it... you could always attempt to do one of those "mock up" thingos in photoshop or on the net....

i didnt know wilkinson made pups....
i assume this is the same wilkinson thats famous for their bridges?

are you planning to paint the body?
not sure if i asked tat already lol...

I think its the same company. I was looking at their bridges as well. The reviews i read were pretty good. They compare the pups to the dimarzio paf.

I am painting it. The kitchen company I work for has a polyurethane shop and one of their painters use to paint guitars for a job so hes gonna do it for a case of beer.
Im thinking of black with red pinstripes. i already own two red guitars, a blue and a white so i figured i need a black one. And black is the obvious choice for a metal guitar!!

Good tip on the mock up. I just gotta get a copy of photoshop

black and pink!!!!!!!!!!!

interesting colour scheme lol. it definately appealed to my fiance lol

Andrew (and Floody) ... that's the model we've just modelled our most recent build on ... but with a few small variations. We went with the yellow. I even did the Children of Bodom Hate Crew logo on the back ... but right way up and with no stripes on the back.

I'm still not quite finished ... just cavity covers and a few small bits to go. Body wood is agathis from Gilet; the tuners and neck are from Affordable Guitar parts ... but I remodelled the headstock a bit; Wilburn Custom Shop pickups from a guy in WA; all other hardware from Australian Luthier Supplies.



This is the bit that impresses Andrew B ... I did a logo for my son to match the COBHC logo on the back. Still needs a truss rod cover and I need to find a black string tree

the yellow is cool

i found these recently, was a bit of a bummer cause they are exactly what i have been planning for a year and a half lol.... except mine will be t-o-m string through bridges and have 27fretswith the end of the fretboard angled... and my V shape is a bit different...





kinda like this one




oh and theres a black and red up there to give you an idea floody boy

hey daddy, did you put a belly cut on the back of yours??

floody, are you planning a belly cut?

i cant decide if i want a belly cut or not.... hmmm