Friday, February 6, 2009

Building a guitar.

So, I'm building a guitar. At first I wasn't sure if I was doing this just as a weird little week-long obsession, but after a month of seriously thinking about it, I'm going to do it.
What I want it to be:
Solid Lacewood body. Lacewood looks like this. As you can tell, it looks awesome. It has a balanced sound, more bright than completely balanced though. If you read my last post, you can compare it to Alder. Similar tonal qualities. It obviously has a different look, and its heavier, which is why I'm getting it.
Single coils with a VooDoo Strat configuration. I know you aren't going to understand it, so I'll say this. A normal Strat looks like this. Notice the pickups, and how the one pickup at the left is angled. The lower part of the pickup is angled more left instead of being parallel to the other strings. Now look at this guitar, its the VooDoo Strat. Its modelled after Jimi Hendrix. Look at the same pickup. Notice the angle change? This will give the guitar the unique Hendrix sound. So the notes on the higher strings will be more bass, and the notes on the lower strings will have a more powerful treble. That's what I'm doing.
The body I'm going to design the guitar is the Gibson Firebird. This guitar is such an awesome, vintage looking guitar. I'm also going to put a reverse headstock on it. You won't understand this (Probably), so I'll just explain it. If you look at the top of the guitar where the tuning pegs are, you are looking at the headstock. Now imagine the same headstock shape, but flipped, so the curve and pegs are on the other side.
Now for the colour I'm planning on it being. I'm going to do one of two things, and this is where I really really need your guys' comments. Like seriously. Ok, so I can either do a clear gloss finish, so the guitar will end up looking like this. Or I can do a stained red finish, so it will look like this (But with lacewood of course). If I do this, it will be dark red. In fact, it will basically look like my Washburn guitar (Blue guitar, second post), but red and on lacewood. So please, tell me what you guys think.
The colours I'm choosing also changes other things. If I want a clear gloss body I will use gold hardware. So the tuning pegs, the tremolo bridge, and the pickup rings will all be gold. If I go red, they will all be chrome/silver.
So that's basically my new project. Now to get enough money to do it. :P
Thanks for reading, and again, please comment with feedback and ideas.

6 comments:

  1. Nice. I can't wait to see it!
    See, I'm reading your blog!

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  2. sweeeeet plan!

    red = hot but a bit predictable
    clear = suuuuper unique

    that's my two cents. from a total non guitarist.

    speaking of cents, how much will this cost?

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  3. Red=Awesome though
    Clear=Actually starting to get a bit used with exotic woods. Still might do clear though.

    You want the price in cents or dollars?
    Well, the wood will cost probably $100 just to get it over here. I know a guy who can get me 35% off all guitar parts from www.allparts.com which essentially has everything, so everything from there will probably cost about $300. Then there's the pickups, which are going to be Bareknuckle Slow Hand, which are £169.
    So in dollars, the whole thing will be about $500, give or take fifty to a hundred. In pounds, it will probably only be £300, again, give or take fifty pounds.

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  4. So I just went through all the products I'll need.
    In US dollars its $452.30 excluding body wood, pickups, and paints. In Pounds its £300, exluding wood and pickups. With wood and pickups it will be £500? Perhaps?
    Any donation is appreciated.

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  5. So I just did some more math. Everything from Allparts (The figures I listed above) with 35% taken off equals about £190. So, everything added up with shipping and stuff will probably only be £400. Good news!

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  6. Great Proj. Where did you get the diagrams from?
    I'd be interested to know if you can get a Non Reverse firebird Blueprint

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