Was thinking about building a guitar.

[nateb]

So, I have been rolling this around in my head for a couple of years. I just "Donated" a Ibanez RG series to a friend who has a band and needed a backup. So, I think now is the time to go ahead and splurge and have one built for me. I have the guy to do all the assembly work. but, I want to ask a few questions to settle my mind at ease before I go for it.

1 - For the body, what is the brightest sounding wood and has good sustain qualities?

2 - Would you suggest a Hollow Body?

2 - If you get a laminant, does that effect the tonal quality? Would spalted maple effect it negitively?

3 - What is a good dealer for guitar bodies besides Warmoth? Are there any other choices?

The goal is to build a Jackson Style guitar with a spalted mable laminent. It will have a black bind around the body and neck (hard maple, reverse jackson spalted laminant headstock)

-Nate

[Chrisb]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

Warmoth is the only company I know of that offers a jackson peghead. If you want brightness your best bets are Maple and Ash. Your best bet I think is a Strat Hollow Ash body with black binding and the spalt top. Hollow body increases sustain, and I say strat because they don't offer soloist in hollow body.

Then for the neck for brightness I'd go with plain/flame/birdseye maple and then a dark fretboard to match with the black/brown lines in the spalt and the binding. Ebony, Macassar Ebony and Ziricote are all tonally bright but the latter two have more exciting streaking that might match up well with the spalt color. My suggestion would be Macassar Ebony.

Spalt tops only are available in 1/8th in most places. Jackson Custom Shop offers them in 3/4 but they are a 400 upcharge. Its a very difficult wood to work with. A 1/8th top is unlikely to tonally effect your body wood in any way. I prefer to balance my guitars tone a bit more but some people like a very bright almost biting tone. What I've suggested would definitely give you that with a nice look and the price probably won't be to bad.

[zeegler]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

Mighty Mite also makes a pointy headstock. You don't have endless options like with Warmouth, but you can get sharkies.

[Chrisb]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

Mighty Mike necks are great but not as nice as warmoth IMO. You pay more though even for a basic wood combination warmoth is more. I am not sure if the mighty mite headstock is the same as the jackson, the warmoth one is trademarked so I assume its the same cut and everything.

[quiksilver]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

1. Maple
2. No (feedback issues)
3. No
4. There are many choices, and many are cheaper. Warmoth is the highest quality, as far as I know. Warmoth has earned a stellar reputation. I've never seen nicer components than the body & neck I got from Warmoth.

[sully]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

owning one spalt top guitar, and recently sending another to its owner, i commend your choice! spalted maple is pretty cool looking, for sure. if you're going to put a maple cap on it, i'd go with a more medium toned wood like alder to keep an even-toned spectrum. it's easier to dial out tones via EQ than try to add something you don't have (low end) here's a sound sample of an alder body with spalted maple cap on it: http://www.mothrastewart.com/images/...yfirebird.mp3.

it's not crushing death tone, but that guitar also has duncan seth lover pickups in them, which is very "old les paulish." that guitar has a satine neck with an ebony board. it's bright, has great sustain, yet is full sounding.

as far as where to go, warmoth is your best bet for a spalt top. i would NOT get a hollow body for feedback issues (i assume you're gonna be playing heavy rock/metal on this). also, warmoth's jackson styled headstock is NOT accurate to jackson's headstock. see?

here's a jackson:



here's a warmoth:



a pretty big difference, but that's fine because you weren't trying to make a fake jackson anyway. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

the mighty mite jackson styled necks can be found here: http://www.guitarshopsupply.net/inde...7ba4546feeb565

please note: these are 24 fret necks, so you'll need a 24 fret body, so warmoth would be out of the question if you go that route. you'll probably need some fretwork on the MM necks, (same for a warmoth neck) but they're decent, and very affordable.

nice call on the black binding, but warmoth won't do a spalted maple cap on the peghead because spalted maple has to be on the thicker side (it's very fragile). the black binding will also add $100 to your neck's cost. and warmoth doesn't offer headstock binding. personally, if you're going to get an ebony board (i would), black binding is a waste b/c the wood is already so dark. knowwhatimean, vern?

hope that helps.
sully

[Chrisb]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

[ QUOTE ]
but warmoth won't do a spalted maple cap on the peghead because spalted maple has to be on the thicker side (it's very fragile).

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes they will. But only on angled pegheads. Like Sully said I would get Maccassar Ebony or something and leave the neck unbound, just binding on body and headstock. As for the hollow/not hollow issue. I've never noticed feedback on a hollow strat. But, if you don't get that you would be able to get a soloist body which is more in line with a jackson looking guitar. Hollow Body gives you more sustain but I guess some people have feedback issues. I've seen showcase guitars with headstock binding but that may not mean anything because sometimes they do wierd things on their showcase guitars, like woods they won't let customers use (ie cocobolo). I'd ask about the headstock binding just in case. I know they do spalt maple caps though cause I've seen them. But only on angled pegheads cause of the thickness.

Wow I never realized how much wider the jackson headstock is at the base. Interesting!

Because its only a 1/8th top I'd still say go with Ash or maple. And then use the neck wood to bring some low end. Something that is a lighter colored wood such as Bocote, Goncalo, Canary, or Koa. Koa pairs really well with Ebony. Canary is the wood that looks the most like Maple but with a warmer tone.

[sully]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

the tip is much different on the warmoth as well; they're different angles altogether.

[Chrisb]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

If anything the warmoth looks pointier [img]/images/graemlins/what.gif[/img]

[sully]

Re: Was thinking about building a guitar.

well, the jackson is bound, so that's gonna soften the edge a bit.