The Cellar - Learning how to build an electric guitar

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- - Learning how to build an electric guitar (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=33881)

Yeah. Absolutely.

The fret board is done by cnc. For the wires and little dots.

Working there would be decent as a summer job, but each task was too specialized to hold my interest for any real time. This one lady was sanding by hand the bracing that is attached to the face panel. There are a dozen or so surfaces to sand on each guitar, and she said she does about 150 guitars a day. That would get old after a month or so.

Carpal tunnel lives here

They build wonderful instruments, and I love my Martin, but yeah, that's not luthiery. I don't know if I'll ever attempt an acoustic, but if I do... Much like I copied the Stratocaster....I'd be copying a D28 for the first one. So familiar and right feeling, it would be stupid to do anything else.

I'll get to that factory this summer

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt (Post 1030460)

That would get old after a month or so.

There's a legend in the UAW about production line Charlie who's job it was to put the wheels on the left side of the cars coming down the line. When they started compact cars with 4 lugs instead of 5, after a couple months he ran screaming into the night, never to be seen again. http://cellar.org/2015/shades.gif

I would love to have a D-45. Pick me up one o' those would ya?

Ya can pick out a D-45 from across a room full of guitars being played, just by the sound/tone.

Nothing sounds like a D-45. Nothing much costs like one, either.

Jim, I put this here so you'd be sure to see it.

Might want to blast a little extra Tool today...

Maynard turns 55 today.

I'll be crankin up later, after urrbody wakes up.

ETA: Man, if you ain't read his wiki page, read it. Very interesting. For instance, did you know MJK declined an appointment to West Point, and was almost the singer for Rage Against The Machine?

Yep, I read that years ago. He's a weird dude. And I didn't know it was his birthday, and I will be cranking my tool..... Um.... Playing it loudly that is.

Thanks bud!

Guitar experts, please give me some advice on buying a bass guitar.

Details in thread: Should I get a Bass Guitar?

*trick question*

it's actually a 6-string bass tuned EADGBE, one octave lower

I'm actually in the market for an electric guitar and associated paraphernalia to give to my boy for his birthday at the end of next month. I'm torn though because I don't want him to stop playing the nice Martin D-18 that belonged to his grandfather. But that's just me being selfish. I know he would love an electric.

I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I also don't want something he can't play. What was the source of that cheap guitar you purchased, LJ? And is it something you would recommend? If it has an annoying hum, are there fairly straightforward fixes for a handy lad and his dad? I saw your link to grounding the electricals to avoid hum. I'd guess I am in the sub $150 range and ideally around $100.

The red guitar came from monoprice. com

They have cheap amps too.

Saw these posts late. Will revisit tomorrow, time permitting.

Glatt, I wish you lived closer. I'd say you should order one like the red one, have it sent to me, and I'll dress it up for him for free. You can buy parts if you want me to upgrade it. Take a ride up to NJ and visit the lumbershop.

It was literally $106 shipped and taxed. I'll sell you the red one for what I have in it, alternatively.

I think I posted that amount if you read back

But it was entirely sufficient out of the box if you just want to order one and keep cost down.

Do you remember if it had a brand name?

I'm seeing tons of these package deals on eBay and Amazon. Not seeing a package deal on monoprice right now.

The Indio

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=610263

They appear to be out of stock

This one looks good

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=610366

This is the exact one I got... But it's open box
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38568

Buck up and get him this one

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=610402

They upgrade the hardware and set up. It's prob worth the extra hundred. You'd spend that getting the base model up to snuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lumberjim (Post 1029541)

Oh, and... Remember that red guitar I bought for $106? I've had it disassembled and kind of in my way for 3 weeks or so. I've been brushing up on the wiring inside guitars and what all that stuff does....

I had procured a bunch of pots and a few switches and associated bits of hardware in anticipation of wiring the next 2 guitars. One of the switches I bought is a Freeway super switch. It has the traditional in-line 5 positions, but it also has a second row of 5 that is accessed by tilting the switch lever. It could potentially be wired for 10 unique combinations of pickups. They have an archive of wiring diagrams for this switch as it controls various pick up arrangements. SSS and HSS (single coil X 3 and single, single, humbucker) for strat type guitars, and a few for other 2 pickup guitars. Here's the one I used to wire the red guitar :

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...896682ba8d.jpg

The switch is the rectangle with the BH OP BG etc... And 'note terminal A is not used '
See all those tiny little tabs you have to solder wires to? Look closer:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a275154565.jpg

I've been trying to get my nerve up to do it for the 3 weeks the guitar has been apart. I had pre tinned all the lugs on the pots and put the puddles of solder on the backs of the pots to hold the ground wires, on previous occasions, before chickening out and doing more research before tackling that birds nest of wiring... Well today, I nutted up and dove in. It took me about 4 hours to do it... But I did it. And it's really cool. I used 2 different flavors of capacitors(the orange things ^) on the tone knobs. Capacitors bleed off Treble. Turning the knob up takes less, and down takes more. The value of the capacitor represents how wide that range can be.

Common values are. 022 and. 047. People have a lot of opinions about which should be used with which pots and pickups. In general, you use a 47 for humbuckers and 500k pots, and 22s for single /250k. The way this set up works, the tone knobs have a potent effect on the sound. It's like another layer of variation you can get from the different pickup combinations. All in all, it makes the guitar incredibly versatile. The switch was $37, the pots came to $3.47 ea X 3. The wire and solder I already had, but maybe $1.25 in value... So now it's about a $150 investment. I could sell it to a friend for $250 and feel like I was doing them a favor.

Here's that post. I'm in it for $150