mnbaseball91

Edit: Pictures on page 4!!!

As most of you have noticed, I've been trying to build a guitar for a while now. It looks like I'm finally going to have the time and money soon. This will be my thread for all my questions. There will be many questions, and many of them will lead absolutely nowhere, so bear with me. This is my first time ever doing anything remotely like this, so I'll be asking a lot of opinions as well as technical questions.

My inspiration for this project is the new Ibanez RGA321. It's basically a normal RG body with an arched top.

Wood
I'm going to buy a prerouted soloist body from warmoth. I'll have a mahagony back with a flame maple top. I'm pretty much set on the body. I'm still considering my options for the neck. It'll either be mahagony, maple or rosewood with either a rosewood or ebony fretboard.

Finish
This is a picture of what I want to do with the top:


I'm still undecided about the back color. It depends partially on the wood I end up with for the neck. I would either do just a clearcoat on both the body and neck, a solid or stain blue or black on the body and clear neck, or a stain blue or black on the body and neck. Opinions and suggestions are welcome. I'm going to tape off the side of the maple top to look like mock binding (you'll just see the uncolored wood).

Electronics
It will be an H/S/H pup configuration. I'm pretty much set on a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Alncio II Pro in the neck. Don't know about the middle yet, but I'm not really worrying about it until the finish is done (which will be at least a month, probably more). I'm going with one volume, one tone, and a five-way switch.

Hardware
All chrome. Gotoh 510 wrap arround bridge, standard Gotoh 3x3 tuners, either black speed knobs or chrome dome knobs.

Here's my first round of questions:
1) For the burst top finish, is it best to use water or alcohol based stains or should I try to get nitrocellulose aerosol cans in colors and do it that way? If I go with the nitro cans, where do I buy them (the only place I found only ships in the UK)?

2) What kind of tone would a rosewood neck with an ebony fretboard give me. Would it match well with the body wood and pickups I'm using?

3) What would you recomend I do as far as finishing the back and neck?

4) Are the Seymour Duncan "zebra" pickups black and white or black and creme?

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Mascot

Theres another thread floating around on the first page called "neck finish" or something, and people said they true oil or gunstock oil for finishing.



Thats what the zebra looks like and its more of a creamy white to me. Sort of a aged white, but not to the point where its yellow.

AlGeeEater

1)alcohol based is best IMO. www.reranch.com has an article on it.
2)I know that ebony is more snappier then rosewood, but if you're playing distortion and thru a lot of effects it doesnt really matter.
3)Clear the back if its mahogany, and leave it natural.
4)Um, cant answer, but you can specify if you want black/white or black/ cream

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mnbaseball91

Thanks to both of you. I've played guitars with ebony fretboards so I've got a pretty good idea of what that'd be like, but I have to idea what to expect from a rosewood neck.

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mnbaseball91

Update time: I think I've decided on a Rosewood/Ebony neck. It will look something like this: http://www.warmoth.com/showcase/sc_...=0&filters=true
although not that exact one. I'll use a clear satin finish on the neck.

The back and sides of the body will be finished in reranch's "ice blue metallic."

Comments on that?

Oh, and sorry for the double post, but hey, it's my thread!

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"The most important thing is to learn how to play the guitar before you get 50,000 dollars worth of complicated gear" -Slash

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CorduroyEW

Yup true oil is really good for the neck. You could use to clear coat the whole guitar if you wanted, BUT if you have a rosewood neck you cant use true oil because the oil in the rosewood will stop the chemical reaction that makes the oil finish harden. If it were my I'd probably leave a rosewood neck unfinished.

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I've spent more time in hospital than out of the hospital over the last 3 or 4 months so I apologize for the recent poor communication and slow deliveries.

HateEternal

The Zebra pickup is white and black, not cream and black

mnbaseball91

Thanks Hate, that's what I had thought. Doesn't Dimarzio have a copyright on creme humbuckers or something crazy like that?

Anyway, I had thought about leaving the neck unfinished like you said corduroy, but wouldn't that make it more vulnerable to warping?

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CorduroyEW

Rosewood is stable enought that a finish won't really make a differance.

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I've spent more time in hospital than out of the hospital over the last 3 or 4 months so I apologize for the recent poor communication and slow deliveries.

mnbaseball91

Excellent. Maybe this won't be so hard after all!

Is there a wood that rosewood could be compared to tonally?

Edit: Oh, another question. Since the wood is coming directly from Warmoth, can I skip the wood prep steps (can I skip using grain filler?) and just lightly sand before I start with the finishing?

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"The most important thing is to learn how to play the guitar before you get 50,000 dollars worth of complicated gear" -Slash

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Mascot

Bump. I'll delete this post as soon as someone more intelligent than me has something to say, but I just really like the look of this guitar and would like to see it completed.

Come on mnbaseball91, update this thread! Pictures, and lots of 'em!

Edit : Warmoth says rosewood sounds warmer than maple but with dampened highs.

CorduroyEW

What would look really cool is a cocobolo neck that is 1 piece (fretboard and all) then an ebony skunk strip down the back. It would give you all the warmth of East Indian Rosewood but with some sparkle in the highs, and a the fact that you won't be laminating a fretboard onto the guitar means you will get a cleaner tone. Plus as an added bonus, after it ages it will look like brazilian.

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I've spent more time in hospital than out of the hospital over the last 3 or 4 months so I apologize for the recent poor communication and slow deliveries.

mnbaseball91

OK, sorry about the delay.

I went ahead and ordered the wood and hardware from Warmoth a couple days ago. They say it will take about a month to get it to me, but I feel like it'll be worth the wait.

I ended up with a rosewood neck with ebony fretboard (paid a little extra to get a dark piece of rosewood) and the soloist archtop mahagony/maple body. Once I've actually seen the wood, I'll order the finishing supplies from reranch. What I plan to do as of now is a transparent blue finish on the back and sides of the body, the original blue-green burst finish for the top. The neck will remain unfinished.

Hardware wise, I got the Gotoh 510 and standard gotoh tuners. I also got chrome mounting rings that I think will be a nice touch.

Even if I had read your idea before ordering the neck Corduroy, I still wouldn't have been able to do it due to the price (I'm already way over budget). Sounds cool though. I was a little hesitant about the rosewood neck to begin with simply because I've never played something like that, but it's a bolt on so I can always change it if I really want to. Also, it just occured to me as I was typing this that my acoustic guitar is mainly rosewood and I have nothing against the way it sounds!

Again, I won't be able to do any work for at least a month unless warmoth surprises me, but I'll try to find this thread once it comes.


Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome as always.

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"The most important thing is to learn how to play the guitar before you get 50,000 dollars worth of complicated gear" -Slash

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Aioua

^I've order from warmoth, they say longer than it usually takes... My neck came like 2 weeks early... Of course, I also like about 15mins form warmoth...

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mnbaseball91

^That's good to hear. I live on the other side of the country, but I actually don't mind waiting because it gives me time to save up for the pickups.

I'm actually very impressed with Warmoth so far. I was a little upset that they wanted extra for a dark piece of rosewood as I felt it was expensive enough already, but they made up for it by going through my order and making sure everything fit correctly. It turns out I had ordered the wrong screws (I needed two short and two long but had ordered four short) and the wrong mounting rings. It was nothing major but they saved me some hassle.

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"The most important thing is to learn how to play the guitar before you get 50,000 dollars worth of complicated gear" -Slash

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Mascot

Hmm, those Warmoth people sound pretty nice. What's the total price coming out to be?

mnbaseball91

It depends how much I spend on pickups but it will probably be in the $1100 range. I'm going all out - I could have done it for much less money fairly easily, but I want this to be a really good guitar, not just a project.

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"The most important thing is to learn how to play the guitar before you get 50,000 dollars worth of complicated gear" -Slash

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mnbaseball91

While I'm waiting, I may as well start thinking about pickups. I'm pretty much decided on a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro in the neck, but I'm not sure what I want for the bridge and middle yet.

As far as the bridge goes, I want sort of a Def Leppard meets Randy Rhodes type tone. Something crunchy with clarity, but very powerful. The leading contender right now is the Dimarzio Super Distortion. I had also considered a Dimarzio Evolution and a Seymour Duncan Custom.

I'm pretty much clueless as to what I want in the middle postion. I really don't know the first thing about single coil pickups. I want to be able to use it for jazz runs and such - it will be clean 90% of the time. I don't want it to be too twangy but I want it to have a little punch. Also, I want to cap the price at $55 (ebay is fine).

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acdc101

^ Texas Specials are great single coils.

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