Attemping my first 'build' - Dean Boca 6 String

[heyitst0m]

Hey ya'll - I'm new here. Guy at my local guitar shop told me to check it out here after I went in to talk about my winter project.

Never done anything like this before. No clue what I'm doing, but want to do my best to try and upgrade the first electric guitar I ever bought. I got a Dean Boca 6 string 21 years ago when I was 15 for 200 bucks. Made in Korea. It's not a terrible guitar. I always used a G&L legacy as my gigging guitar and this one is nostalgic and kinda unique and fun to play. There's decently rare and I have never seen a custom build of this guitar anywhere.

I would like to turn it into something that is a little bit less of a POS. Can't polish a turd, so I don't want to throw a ton of money into it but i would like to replace the neck and pickups, at least. I don't know how to solder or how to size up an approprate neck i.e. radius, scale length, and all that stuff that Warmoth let's you customize.

It's very neck heavy, but I love the action, shape, and playability. I just want it to be lighter. Here's what I'm thinking:

Meadhowhawk neck - roasted maplewood, ebony fingerboard
Duncan SH-16 '59/Custom Hybrid at the bridge - nickel cover
Duncan Seth Lover at the neck - nickel cover
different knobs / possible coil tap

Curious what ya'll would do? I have a lot to learn here!

 

[Hodgo]

You’ll need to confirm the neck pocket dimensions and scale before you can consider a Warmoth neck a 1:1 swap (unless someone here already knows better).

I’d leave it. If the neck isn’t twisted and the truss rod functions, it just needs a little love to be a proper player. And if you can’t solder, trying to do a pickup swap on a semi hollow with no rear access cover is like jumping into the deep end of the pool with bricks on your feet.

Putting a $200+ Warmoth neck onto a guitar worth $200 today will still result in a guitar worth $200.

 

[jhamnett]

I'm curious what you think about this approach before you dive into buying a neck and pickups:

• Buy some fret tools and try your hand at working on those frets - level, crown, polish. StewMac, Philadelphia Lutiher, and MusicNomad have some good tools. Maybe you don't even need a new neck after doing a bit of work. Set the relief correctly and do a proper setup.
• Buy a simple boost pedal kit and try to build that to practice soldering skills. It should give you the basics of soldering on a very simple circuit. Take your time, and look at some of the existing advice on how to solder.
• Agree with Hodgo that putting new electronics in a semi-hollow with no rear access is difficult if you're not practiced. If the CTS push-pull pots can fit depth-wise, that should be able to help a bit. Get a good wiring diagram ahead of time and follow it exactly. Also, best to mock up the controls on a piece of cardboard and wire it up on that (basically, create your own harness) then transfer to the guitar.

 

[heyitst0m]

You’ll need to confirm the neck pocket dimensions and scale before you can consider a Warmoth neck a 1:1 swap (unless someone here already knows better).

I’d leave it. If the neck isn’t twisted and the truss rod functions, it just needs a little love to be a proper player. And if you can’t solder, trying to do a pickup swap on a semi hollow with no rear access cover is like jumping into the deep end of the pool with bricks on your feet.

Putting a $200+ Warmoth neck onto a guitar worth $200 today will still result in a guitar worth $200.

The neck has a ton of divots. The guitar shop told me to do a full setup and repair the divots would be about 200 bucks... just thought it would be a fun winter project to to rebuild and learn a few things.

 

[Hodgo]

The neck has a ton of divots. The guitar shop told me to do a full setup and repair the divots would be about 200 bucks... just thought it would be a fun winter project to to rebuild and learn a few things.

Oh it’s definitely fun, just not as simple as say, a Tele. You’re in $200 either way, and unless you are certain the neck pocket is located such that a Fender neck is a direct swap you could be in trouble - that tuneomatic gives you very little wiggle room for intonation problems, and you might end up needing to shim a replacement neck to get the geometry right.

Bear in mind that while a Warmoth neck is certainly playable out of the box, they’re better when you finish the fretwork (level/crown) that Warmoth doesn’t do. You can DIY but you’ll need a few tools (levelling beam, files) to do that that will add to the cost of your project.

 

[jjwu]

The easiest mod to lighten the neck a bit would be to change the tuner buttons from metal to plastic or wood. Pearloid plastic or ebony wood would look nice. Might need to try a few brands to fit. They look like Grovers.

 

[Hodgo]

If I had this guitar in my hands what I would do:

1. Check every moving component for functionality - tuners, intonation screws, pots, jack, truss rod. Replace what’s needed. If the bridge is cheapo, plenty of great import bridge replacement options like Faber.
2. Check the starting setup - what do I like, what don’t I like? Is the nut cut to the right height and are the slots smooth with some extra room at the back for angle induced by the 3x3 configuration? Is my bridge sitting at the bottom/top of its adjustment range up and down? Do I have enough break over to the tailpiece?
3. If the neck<>body geometry is out of whack, that gets fixed first with a shim. Then the neck gets loved on with either a level and crown or a refret, the RW gets oiled, and a the nut is adjusted for the new fret height as needed.
4. If the tuners are crapped out meaning there is unacceptable levels of gear lash (play) then new tuners would go on, otherwise maybe just some lubrication and a little spin time with a drill.
5. Deoxit in the pots if they’re gritty or crackly.
6. Set the whole thing up again and adjust pickup heights until it sounds right.

 

[rockandroller]

You've had this 21 years, you enjoy playing it, and now you want to improve it? Get some fretwork done, set it up to taste, maybe upgrade pickups or hardware a bit ( or not!!) but replacing the neck is basically destroying the instrument's identity... You will likely regret that in another decade or two.

Heck, get it plek'd or refretted if need be, and do all necessary maintenance... But there are lots of better 'project' choices than butchering one of your oldest (possibly first?) electric guitars... That's a cool guitar and deserves to be preserved, IMHO. Speaking as someone who has owned a few hundred instruments over the kast 50 years ...

 

[TBurst Std]

The main concern in the initial post is that it is neck heavy. Start there. Get some LW locking tuners. Hipshot makes some great ones. That's an easy to do thing for a beginner using Hipshot's UMP system.

 

[heyitst0m]

You've had this 21 years, you enjoy playing it, and now you want to improve it? Get some fretwork done, set it up to taste, maybe upgrade pickups or hardware a bit ( or not!!) but replacing the neck is basically destroying the instrument's identity... You will likely regret that in another decade or two.

Heck, get it plek'd or refretted if need be, and do all necessary maintenance... But there are lots of better 'project' choices than butchering one of your oldest (possibly first?) electric guitars... That's a cool guitar and deserves to be preserved, IMHO. Speaking as someone who has owned a few hundred instruments over the kast 50 years ...

yes i've had it 21 years and now want to improve it. It's been collecting dust for a decade. I don't see the neck as its identity. I see the body as its identity. Even more so, I want to give it an identity that is uniquely me.

I want to take a guitar that has some sentimental value, and turn it into a one of a kind boutique build that nothing else on the market can give me. I know people think cheap guitars aren't worth upgrading. But I'm not looking for resale value here, just trying to be creative and do something that is unique to/for me.

I just don't know where to start and was hoping to get some direction because I have never done anything like this before.