Absolute Newbie to this. Any information\advice welcome

[One]

G'day. My 21st is at the end of this year so I was looking for a nice guitar to celebrate. My original thought was a PRS CE22, but here in Australia: They retail for 4.4k and that's a long way out of my price-range. A second hand PRS is impossible to find down here because they're only like 2 PRS dealerships and they're small guitar shops.

So I'm starting to look at alternatives. One alternative that I thought of was Warmoth. Now then: I have absolutely no experience with building a guitar or ordering any of the components. I know the basics, but since I've never taken a guitar apart to see what's inside: I dont know anything about wiring\capacitators or any of that stuff. (On a side note: I dont trust myself to put this guitar together so if anybody knows a tech\luthier in Victoria who can put a Warmoth together for me: That'd be appreciated).

However: I went through the Warmoth site and put together a hypothetical order for what I think I need to work out a rough estimate of how much it would cost. I want this guitar to be as close to a PRS CE22 as possible (including the neck, but I'm not aware of the measurements). Here's what I worked out:

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$365.00 - Mahogany VIP Body with Quilt Maple Top
$ 90.00 - White Binding
$229.00 - Mahogany Neck with Ebony Fretboard
$110.00 - White Neck Binding
$ 95.00 - Neck Finish
$220.00 - Dyed Finish
$240.00 - PRS Pickups (Taken from the PRS Website)
$ 89.00 - Tremelo
$ 25.50 - Tuners
$  8.50 - Mounting Rings
$ 10.00 - Jack
$  6.00 - Knobs
$  4.50 - Neck Plate
$ 22.00 - Pots
$  3.00 - Strap Screws
$  4.75 - Nut
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$1521.75
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I was hoping somebody could help me fill the gaps in the order so that I could get a Luthier\Tech to build this guitar from scratch. Any other information that somebody who knows nothing about building a guitar should know would be appreciated.

Thanks for the help

 

[jackthehack]

You forgot neck screws, capacitor(s); and if you want to wire it like a CE Mapletop you need a 5 way rotary switch.

I would recommend having Warmoth install either a corian or graphite nut at the factory, cost with install is $25/30 respectively

 

[Alfang]

Hey One,  welcome aboard.

Dont be afraid to build a Warnoth Guitar.  As fancy as they look here, and as much praise as we throw arround to each other about their build.

It really is or can be very simple to put together.  

For an absolute beginner i would recomend buying pre finnished neck and body from the showcase.

all of the hardware is fairly simple to bolt on or screw on.  You can buy a pickguard that is already prewired with pickups.

each step of the process is simple and can be learned online, and in fact, once the parts are in front of you, much of it will be common sense.

Once together, you need to set action and intonation, again, there's a buttload of info on how to do it.

heres the bad part, once you build the first one and see how easy it is and how good the guitar plays and feels, you will be just like the rest of us here and want to do another.
your second effort you may wanna do the finnish and wire the pick guard yourself.

Good luck, keep us all updated whatever you do                       HAPPY 21st  m8     g'day

 

[One]

I'll definately keep you all updated. Dont worry

My 21st isn't until November, but that's exam time so I'm shopping in my holidays now.

In regards to the Capacitators and Neck screws: Which one should I buy?
In regards to the Rotary Switch: I definately want one of them, but I didn't see an option. Mind pointing it out to me?
In regards to the Pickguard: I'm going without one and I'm getting PRS Dragon II Pickups put in which I'll order from PRS. I was gonna get the tech to wire it up since I've never done anything with electronics.

I probably COULD do this all myself, however: Since this is supposed to be my dream guitar: I'd hate to muck something up and only have myself to blame for it . I may be decent at guitar: But I seriously do suck at putting things together. I even struggle with stuff from Ikea. Since wiring pickups and stuff would be a bit fiddly, as will intonation\action etc: I'd rather trust somebody else to do it.

Besides: The people who I'm going to ask are REALLY good at what they do and they'd put it together so well that it'd put any effort I'd do to shame. Thanks for the encouragement though.

Now then: I'm a bit hazy about which neck to order. As I said: I'm going for a VIP Mahogany Body so I want a Mahogany Neck with an Ebony Fretboard (22 Frets). Can somebody please explain how to choose what fretwire\scale length and stuff I should choose? There were a lot of options on the neck and it did kinda overwhelm me, mostly because I thought the only factors for a neck were Frets, Wood and Binding.  :dontknow:

 

[jackthehack]

I don't think Warmoth offers 5 way rotary switches; here's a wiring diagram and a place you can pick them up:

http://guitarelectronics.com/product/WDUHH5R1101

The PRS body comes with a contoured heel, so you need to order appropriate neck screws, they're on the Warmoth site here:

http://www.warmoth.com/hardware/parts/parts.cfm?fuseaction=include_screws

As to PRS pickups, I was going top order a set for a current project, but they aren't on the PRS website in the US any more, post the link where you found them?

As to the neck; PRS necks are a unique 25 inch scale, Warmoth offers the VIP neck in a 25.5 scale, you might not be able to tell the difference there. If you're trying to emulate a CE22 neck, order the VIP with standard thin profile, 6105 frets, and add the $35 charge to do a straight 10 degree radius (std. VIP neck is 10-16 compound). Since you're going to be custom ordering the neck, consider adding Quilt Maple peghead veneer finished to match body, that's another add-on, but think of all themoney you've already saved!!!

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I did the exact same thing you did here about 5 months ago on the old forum.  Put down every little thing i wanted and its price and added it up. haha.
What a great place to go with your questions though, everyone here is so eager to help out.

Just make sure you order the right sized tuning holes in the headstock for the tuners you're going to use.

I used grovers in mine and i found 3 different measurements on various websites the only one of which i payed attention to was from grover itself (even warmoth got it wrong) So double and triple check taht you' ve got those ordered for the right size.  if its too small thats easy enough to fix but if you order them too large than you've got to redowel the holes and drill them again.. not something id want to do.

Last piece of advice would be once you make the phone call.. forget that you ever did.  Because the suspense of waiting for it is killer.  I ordered mine 4 months ago, Bob randolph said that it should be ready and shipped by this monday (3 days ago) So right now im tearing my hair out.

Good luck with it. I hope you love it as much as i know im gonna love mine (hopefully in less than a week or so)

 

[m4rk0]

Hey Welcome to the board!
looks like a great project!
one hint... if you want to recreate one of the higher end PRS's go for a  rosewood neck.. (keep de ebony fb)
it feels better, and it doesn't cost much more (if any) since you don't have to get the 90$ finish.

A lot of forum members here (including me) like the stainless steel fretwire.. more durable and feels great.. especially for bending.

I am not too sure what fret size/nut width/neck profile/radius is that PRS uses. (I know they use terms like wide/fat and wide/thin, etc, but I couldn't tell you the measurements) it depends on what you are already used to.

 

[One]

Thanks alot indeed for all the replies! This has been very helpful and I have since found a place where they'll put the guitar together for me. On the plus side: They've apparantly had a lot of experience with putting together Warmoth's before so I'm in luck.

Firstly: Here's the PRS site to order pickups:
http://www.prsguitars.com/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TAS&Category_Code=PU

Secondly: Just to make sure I've got the right idea: You think it should be this neck: http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=warmoth_warmothpro

- Right Handed (I'm a right handed player so that's just a rough guess )
- Rosewood or Mahogany (I'll look into this)
- Nut Width (I'll measure my own guitar, however: If you know what it is on a CE: Let me know)
- Thin Profile
- 6105 Frets
- Grover 11/32" Tuning Holes (Does anybody know the size needed for SG38s?)
- Graphtec Graphite Nut
- White Neck Binding
- 10" Fretboard Radius

I'll pass on the Veneer for the neck. I intend to have a dark red\black finish, so a plain black headstock wont look bad. A finish on it I think personally would just look a little over-the-top.

Thirdly: The people who will put the guitar together for me can supply some things. I'll ask if they can do me a rotary switch.

Fourthly: I'll go for the S7 Neck Screws (Silver and meant for Countered Heels) as well as the S10 for the Pickup screws, S16 for the Mounting Rings, S19 for the Height Adjustment and S31 for the Trem Bridge.

Speaking of Trems; I was going to go for a Wilkinson Trem. Is that the same kind on a CE22? I know very little about trems.

I think the only thing I need clearing up is what type of Jack I should go for. I'm not clear on what's best for this type of guitar. Any recommendations?

Thanks again for all your answers!