First build: Short scale mahogany Paulcaster

[Picklemitts]

Hello,

First post, first build.  I have all the parts (minus pickups) in the shopping cart, waiting for my tax return so I can go ahead and order it!

I already have a MIA Telecaster, MIM Stratocaster, and Les Paul Studio Deluxe.  I prefer the feel of the Gibson 24 3/4" scale but like the snappy sound of Fender's 25.5" scale better.  It's a tough choice to make, but I went with the Gibson scale at the end of the day.

So far, I have:

*Unfinished mahogany Tele Deluxe body
*Unfinished 24 3/4" maple conversion neck with rosewood fingerboad, 5150 frets and white Tusq XL nut, drilled for vintage Gotoh tuners.  1 11/16" nut spacing
*Vintage Gotoh chrome tuners
*(2) American strat style string trees (have them laying around the house somewhere already)
*Strat flat mount chrome (modern spacing), grommets for back of guitar string holes
*Black/white/black pickguard (I might change this to vintage pearloid).  Routed for Gibson-sized pickups
*(4) 500k pots for tone/volume
*(2) caps for tone controls (I forget the capacitance value)
*(4) witch-hat style knobs with silver tone/volume inlays
*Gibson style pickup selector switch (straight)

So far, the entire package, minus pickups, is under $600.  Pickups should be around $150-200 and I'm thinking of just doing a simple tru-oil finish which should be dirt cheap.  There is only one finished body in stock, but it has the vintage spacing bridge holes, is made of Alder, and is more than $100 more expensive.  I had a sonic blue one in my cart, but some mother effer (probably one of you people) beat me to it and bought it up!  :binkybaby: 

The idea here is to get something that sounds something like a Gibson but handles something like a Fender (and looks like a Fender....).  I still haven't decided on the headstock logo -  I might use a real Fender or Gibson logo, or maybe Ferden/Fibson.  I'm leaning toward a "Fibson" logo if I can get one with a Fender "F" easily enough.

Any suggestions?  What am I missing here?

 

[swarfrat]

I really like my stainless frets, and so do a lot of people here. Was 5150 a freudian slip or typo? The rest of the guitar doesn't sound too Van Halenish so I'm guessing typo.

I just built something with a similar goal in mind. I too like longer scale lengths, but if you want something to cover the Gibsonish tone in your stable, I think the scale length is one of the critical parts of it.  I'd also encourage you to consider Goncalo Alves/Wenge/Korina or Mahogany for the neck if you're shooting for Gibsonish. The former two do not require a finish, the latter two do (as does Maple).

 

[Cagey]

What Swarfrat said, but unless you're the finishing guru of doom, I wouldn't buy an unfinished Maple neck. For what Warmoth charges, and for as good a job as they do, it's foolish to pass up a factory finish. You have to finish Maple - just bite the bullet.

 

[Picklemitts]

I really like my stainless frets, and so do a lot of people here. Was 5150 a freudian slip or typo? The rest of the guitar doesn't sound too Van Halenish so I'm guessing typo.

I just built something with a similar goal in mind. I too like longer scale lengths, but if you want something to cover the Gibsonish tone in your stable, I think the scale length is one of the critical parts of it.  I'd also encourage you to consider Goncalo Alves/Wenge/Korina or Mahogany for the neck if you're shooting for Gibsonish. The former two do not require a finish, the latter two do (as does Maple).

Yeah, typo.  I think I meant to type 6150.

I'm really having second thoughts about the mahogany body.  I might decide on regular old swamp ash or alder, as I believe the scale length has MUCH more influence on tone than wood density/type.  Besides, I save almost $50 right there to put toward pickups, and the wood grain is more attractive than mahogany IMO.  Decisions, decisions....

 

[swarfrat]

There is a commonly held opinion on the boards that the neck wood matters more than the body wood. I personally like mahogany, even plain, but it's your guitar after all. (Although I am glad I let other people influence my opinion, because I'm loving the piezos, and that was not one of my original design points. Now if I can just get MIDI working...)

All that to say - if you PREFER alder, then by all means do it. If you're trying to save $50 now, don't. Also, pickups are as replaceable as underwear for guitar players. It costs a lot more and is more heartache later on to replace the body down the road, than it is the pickups.

 

[pabloman]

Noooooooo! Don't skimpy now. You can't change body wood. If you want to save a buck buy used pups or get some GFS. You might like em and keep em. TruOiled mahogany is a thing of beauty. Far more attractive than alder or ash. Hit with some satin deft and its a love story.

 

[Picklemitts]

What Swarfrat said, but unless you're the finishing guru of doom, I wouldn't buy an unfinished Maple neck. For what Warmoth charges, and for as good a job as they do, it's foolish to pass up a factory finish. You have to finish Maple - just bite the bullet.

Go figure.... I assumed that maple was one of those woods that was so dense that it would do just fine "in the raw" or with an oil finish.

As it turns out, Warmoth only charges $75 for a clear satin finish, so I went ahead and modified the order.  Thanks for the heads up!

I decided to go with an Alder body instead, partly to save a few bucks, and partly because I prefer the look of the wood grain to mahogany for a "naked" guitar with an oil finish.  Total cost is now $626 (plus whatever the pickups wind up costing me).

And I'm off to set my credit card on fire!  Thanks for the help fellas... I will post pics when it all arrives!

 

[Picklemitts]

Noooooooo! Don't skimpy now. You can't change body wood. If you want to save a buck buy used pups or get some GFS. You might like em and keep em. TruOiled mahogany is a thing of beauty. Far more attractive than alder or ash. Hit with some satin deft and its a love story.

Damn you!  Now I have to flip a coin!

 

[AutoBat]

I'm going to chime in on getting stainless frets and would further suggest locking modern tuners like Schaller.

 

[Picklemitts]

OK -

The order is placed.  Almost exactly $666 with shipping included.  Now I have to sleep on my belly so my wife doesn't cut my pecker off while I sleep! :help:

I went with the mahogany body after all.  Did away with the fancy nut and got just a regular corian nut.  No locking tuners, as this is a hardtail.  No stainless frets either.

Warmoth gave no indication of *when* they would charge my credit card.  They only said that the order should take 4-6 weeks to ship.  What has been the general experience with this among board members?

 

[swarfrat]

There's lots of threads about locking tuners as well. I was uncertain about putting a trem on this guitar, but decided that 1) I hadn't had a trem in 20 years, and 2) a showcase body overcame my resolve, and it had a trem route. After playing around with it, I feel pretty confident my next guitar will not have a trem, but in the future ALL of my guitars will have locking tuners. Even hardtails and 12 strings. Especially 12 strings.

 

[Picklemitts]

There's lots of threads about locking tuners as well. I was uncertain about putting a trem on this guitar, but decided that 1) I hadn't had a trem in 20 years, and 2) a showcase body overcame my resolve, and it had a trem route. After playing around with it, I feel pretty confident my next guitar will not have a trem, but in the future ALL of my guitars will have locking tuners. Even hardtails and 12 strings. Especially 12 strings.

Yeah, I'm *VERY* impressed with the Schaller (the knockoff made in Korea OEM on Fenders) locking tuners that I installed on my MIM strat.  I can dive bomb the tremolo recklessly and it always returns to perfect pitch, every time.  I mean, you can actually use the trem bar with these things!  What a concept!

They would be handy to have on any guitar, but I can't justify the extra expense on a hardtail bridge.

 

[Cagey]

I put lockers on everything, whether there's a vibrato installed or not. If nothing else, they're just easier to deal with. But, even on a hardtail, you have backlash issues on your tuners that are exacerbated by having multiple winds on them. A set of lockers prevents that.

 

[swarfrat]

I have GFS locking tuners on mine, and no problems so far. Since this is a 24 fret neck on a top routed guitar - they sure came in handy while I ironed out electronics gremlins. I just wish I had a source for oval headed gold machine screws, and I'd put inserts in.

 

[Cagey]

The oval head screws I use are a satin finish stainless, so they pretty much match anything. You almost don't notice them on the gold or chrome plates, and they're a nice contrast on the black plates. In all cases, they match up with the engraving, so it's all good. They never stand out or look misplaced.

 

[Picklemitts]

So... I called the good people at Warmoth up to modify my original order.  Since I placed the original order, a finished (gloss black) showcase body appeared - so I decided to just go with that instead of dealing with the hassle of finishing a raw body.  Since the original pickguard was black, I changed that to "vintage pearl".  Changed the bridge to vintage style with humbucker spacing.

Pickups are on order - a set of JB/Jazz from Seymour Duncan.  It was a tough choice between those and Duncan PAF clones, but I went with the herd on this decision.

I can't wait to get the package in the mail and post pics!!!!

 

[Cagey]

All good decisions, if you ask me.

 

[Picklemitts]

All good decisions, if you ask me.

Yeah, the showcase body is alder, so this will be that much less a "paulcaster".  But I believe that the short scale length will make a much larger difference than any body wood could.  I would like to learn how to finish a body someday but this is my first build and I want to keep things simple.

 

[Cagey]

All good decisions, if you ask me.

Yeah, the showcase body is alder, so this will be that much less a "paulcaster".  But I believe that the short scale length will make a much larger difference than any body wood could. 

I agree.

I would like to learn how to finish a body someday but this is my first build and I want to keep things simple.

Finishing is a big step. But, it's easier than it used to be. A decent HVLP system can be had for $300-$400 or so that will return excellent results, and their use, care & feeding is simpler than the traditional high pressure designs. Still, you're not done just buying a sprayer - you have to get into the whole process and prep work isn't trivial. In fact, it's most of the battle, really. Then you need a buffer, and they don't give those babies away. But, you can probably break even cost-wise at about 4 bodies. After that, the out-of-pocket cost savings start getting big. But, the labor goes way up so you have to consider what your time is worth.

 

[Picklemitts]

WooHoo!!!! Got the UPS notification... Everything should be here on 3/19!

Now I have to get to work on a headstock decal.  Fender decals are almost impossibke to get (good ones, anyway).  I'm considering maybe a Squier decal and a "made in China" sticker.  :icon_biggrin: