Building my "loaded" body for when the neck arrives

[B3Guy]

hey, all! my neck is ordered, so I need something to put it on. I'm looking for help and advice on how to tackle this. I have $400 max to burn on a complete guitar (minus neck with tuners). I can get a p-rails set for $170, which is really tempting, but I don't know if I can pull of a fully loaded body with what would be left over. I need the basics (start body, pick guard, jack, bridge (wilky I hope), neck plate, knobs, pots, strap buttons, wire and necessary screws for all). If I could have it my way, I'd do 3 mini-togs with the p-rails, one to switch/combine the two pickups, the other two to split/combine each pickup's coils. Then I'd do a TBX tone control for each, and a basic volume knob.

What do you think? can I pull this off for $400? I don't want to start in buying stuff for this setup, then find I can't afford the actual body, or whatever. Anybody willing to pass on any basic parts on the cheap? I've never done this or priced this type of thing out before. are there places with really low prices on any of this?

Thanks

 

[pabloman]

What color hardware and plastics?

 

[B3Guy]

standard fare chrome and probably creamish plastic stuff, whatever I can get cheapest.  :icon_thumright:

 

[B3Guy]

If you got stuff to pass on for cheaps, I honestly don't care. I'll take it if it works, whatever color scheme  :icon_thumright:

people can point an laugh at my mismatched guitar, but they'll shut up when they hear/play it.

 

[pabloman]

I have a bunch of nickel hardware and cream and black knobs. Let me do an inventory and get back with ya.

 

[B3Guy]

hey, thanks  ccasion14:

 

[Cagey]

hey, all! my neck is ordered, so I need something to put it on. I'm looking for help and advice on how to tackle this. I have $400 max to burn on a complete guitar (minus neck with tuners). I can get a p-rails set for $170, which is really tempting, but I don't know if I can pull of a fully loaded body with what would be left over. I need the basics (start body, pick guard, jack, bridge (wilky I hope), neck plate, knobs, pots, strap buttons, wire and necessary screws for all). If I could have it my way, I'd do 3 mini-togs with the p-rails, one to switch/combine the two pickups, the other two to split/combine each pickup's coils. Then I'd do a TBX tone control for each, and a basic volume knob.

What do you think? can I pull this off for $400? I don't want to start in buying stuff for this setup, then find I can't afford the actual body, or whatever. Anybody willing to pass on any basic parts on the cheap? I've never done this or priced this type of thing out before. are there places with really low prices on any of this?

Thanks

You want a good bridge, and those can cost real money. You also want good tuners; same thing. The rest of it you can compromise a bit and gradually replace as needed without having to sell stuff off or anything. If it was me, I'd skip the P-Rails for now, because that's an over-sized stack of money you don't need to spend immediately. Get some GFS pickups. They're painless to buy, and they're remarkably good parts. Probably save you $100, which is a pretty good-sized chunk when you're on a tight budget. For instance, a pair of these will only run you ~$70 after shipping. You can still coil-cut them if you want to, so the switches you might install to isolate the single coils would be immediately useful and then already installed when you moved to the P-Rails.

 

[B3Guy]

Well I know you, Cagey, and you're already gonna kick me 'cause I bought the $30 Gotoh vintage style tuners when I ordered the neck, but for me that's what I needed cosmetically, and I can't imagine the locking versions being a whole lot of an improvement for their price difference.

My main thing with wanting to go with the PRails straight off is they're what I want in the end, and I don't want to be that guy that chases his tone with a new $150 set of pickups every 4 months. I'd rather get the rails and stick with them, rather than start standard and work my way thru a bunch of expensive convolutions. They essentially do what I want . . . P90 REALLY well, Strat quite well, and hum buckers but not all muddy (how they should be anyway). I know I can pick up something other than the p90s for less, but I'm asking if you think I can swing this for $400. do I get the sense that you think I'll be cutting it close?  :dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

Myself, I spent too much of my life fighting junk tuners; I'm not going to do it again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. In my defense, I didn't have much choice until about 25 years ago. But, you might want to climb that learning curve on your own. That's fine. Some lessons come hard and/or don't sink in right away.

As for the pickups, I understand what you're saying. There's little sense in buying them twice. It usually only costs a little more to go first class, and you're rarely sorry. But, in this case, the first go-round would be very inexpensive, while what you want is very expensive. It's not a "little more" we're talking about, and you've got a tight budget. Take cost out of the picture, and pickups are easy to replace, while tuners and bridges aren't. So, that's why in your place I'd do the better hardware and relax on the electricals until I could see my way clear.

As for whether it'll still fit in $400, I don't know. If things were that tight, I'd be putting together a spreadsheet and playing "what-if" games until the wee hours. You know what you've got, you know what you need, you know what you're willing to spend - do some shopping and let the computer play the numbers games. That's what they're good at.

 

[pabloman]

B3, PM me some shipping info!

 

[B3Guy]

I'm actually coming to just under $350 with all the hardware stuffs and pickups, etc. . . . . just with out the actual hunk of wood that is the body. I guess it comes down to how shyttey of a piece of wood can I get away with . . .

 

[B3Guy]

here's another question, I could go with a 3-way toggle for switching between the two pickups, or I could do a concentric stacked pot in the volume position with a volume for each. what would the difference be? andy suggestions?

 

[Damon]

I've got an old set of fully-fucntional, vintage-output, nickel-covered humbuckers out of an Epi Les Paul sitting in my spare parts box doing nothing. They're not great pickups, but they're not bad, either. Just not the right ones for my own sound. I have no plans for them until my daughter's old enough to want to build a guitar that I don't want to drop a lot of money on, and she's only two right now so that's several years away. You can borrow them if you want. Put the $170 from the pickups towards a good body and play it with the buckers for now. Then once you can buy the P-Rails, send the buckers back to me. And if something happens and I never get them back, I'll be okay without them. Just let me know.

As for your question about using two volumes with no pickup selector, don't do it. You'll regret it. In my experience, most people who aren't playing a traditional Strat tend to play on only one pickup at a time and rolling the volume down on one and up on the other is neither expedient nor convenient. If you want to keep it simple and know you won't use both pups at once in any formation, use a push-pull pot as a pickup selector. Otherwise, stick with a switch. Just my $.02.

 

[line6man]

here's another question, I could go with a 3-way toggle for switching between the two pickups, or I could do a concentric stacked pot in the volume position with a volume for each. what would the difference be? andy suggestions?

Functionally: Having two volumes and no switch means fiddling with knobs constantly, which slows you down when you want to switch between pickups quickly.

Theoretically: Having two volumes and no switch means that the wiper terminals of the volume pots must be used as inputs, placing a variable impedance load on the pickups when adjusted. Depending on personal preference, this can be irritating and undesirable.

 

[B3Guy]

ok, so in looking for a term, what's the difference between the vs100 and the vs50?

 

[Cagey]

I looked up the drawings/specs, and can't see any differences worth talking about. I'm not sure what's going on there.

 

[B3Guy]

from what I read, the vs100 is stainless saddles and lock screws, and the 50 is something else (zinc I think?)

 

[Cagey]

I read a number of times that they both have stainless saddles and hardened base plates. I did find one site that said the VS-50 had zinc saddles and pivot posts, but that seems unlikely. It's too soft. The bridge would not only sound dead, it would wear out so fast it would be criminal.

I don't know. I always use the VS-100. If somebody could make the case that the VS-50 was better, I might change my mind.

 

[B3Guy]

the numbers almost exactly reflect the price, and for all intents and purposes, they seem functionally identical, so I'll pick up a VS50.

 

[bagman67]

Let me ask you this:  How do you feel about gold hardware?  Because I just came into possession of a bunch of it.