First builds (two of them)

windknot

Newbie
Messages
3
My son and I have been talking about building a guitar together for a few years but are finally doing it.  After much consideration, we decided to each build our own.  That way, I could get the experience while working on mine and could provide guidance for him, allowing him to do all the work on his guitar himself.  (That's how I sold it to my wife anyway  :laughing11: )

We wanted these guitars to be special and knew that we needed to let the finish on the guitars be done by a professional so we let Warmoth handle that for us.  We used the guitar builder on the Warmoth website to try different options to get an idea of what we were looking for and then picked bodies and necks from the showcase.

Mine is a Swamp Ash body with a vintage tint and parchment pickguard. It's got a Birdseye Maple Vintage Modern neck with a beautiful Bocote fretboard, SS6105 frets and a satin vintage tint finish. I'm putting Rio Grande Dirty Harry pickups in it so the sound will be like a cross between a Vintage Strat and P-90s.

His is a Quilted Maple over Swamp Ash chambered body with a contoured heel, Honey Burst finish and White Pearl pickguard. His neck is solid Birdseye Maple Vintage Modern, SS6105 frets and a clear glossy finish. He's got the Rio Grande Dual-Calibrated pickup set.

Both guitars are getting Schaller locking tuning keys, GraphTech White TUSQ nuts, Wilkinson VS100 tremolos, and wired using the Eric Johnson wiring schematic.

Here's a few pics taken during the build so far.  The color on my camera phone is not accurate but I'll post better pics when they're done.

Mine straight out of the box.  Just the body, neck and pickguard. It's hard to see but I really love the grain on the bocote fingerboard.
2013-12-19+22.52.56.jpg


My son soldering the wiring on his pickguard.  You can see my finished pickguard assembly on the right.  For reference, we used Youtube videos, the wiring schematic in the foreground (Eric Johnson wiring diagram), and my Fender American Series Strat that you can see in the back.  We put Emerson .047 PIO caps in both. I know there are differing opinions about whether there's a really a difference between film caps and PIO caps but what can I say, this is my first build so I bought into the mojo.
2013-12-29+11.33.02.jpg


Installing the Wilkinson bridge
2014-01-03+18.07.27.jpg


Both guitars after installing Schaller locking tuning keys on the necks
2014-01-11+17.38.16.jpg


The only things we have left to do are to apply the custom headstock logo that we are making and do the setup.  We'll probably get with a guitar tech later to do a professional setup once we've given it our best efforts.

I think that the only thing that I would go back and change if I could would be to get a swimming pool route instead of the S-S-S route.  These pickups are so tall that I will be unable to take the pickguard off without removing the neck first because the pickups don't have enough clearance.

I'm disappointed in the color accuracy of the pictures from my phone so I'll post better pics of the completed guitars soon.

What do you guys think?
 
Welcome aboard to you and your son.
Looks like you're going to have 2 great guitars.
Please remember that updates are mandatory.

:rock-on:
 
Great project.  I did a project over the holidays with my little guy who is 6.  It is always a win-win when you get them interested in stuff you like.
 
Great choices all around, and good execution. Beautiful guitars that I'm sure you'll get a lotta enjoyment from.
 
Back
Top