Yosh
Newbie
- Messages
- 5
Hey Everybody,
First, let me say what a great forum this is. I’ve learned a ton reading through it and was able to answer most of my questions. This whole process of designing my own guitar has been awesome in helping me to really think about how I interact with the instrument.
So, for my first custom guitar:
Neck
Shaft: Roasted Maple (I’ll burnish it)
Finger Board: Indian Rosewood Dark
Nut width: 1 11/16th (have this on my Epi’s and MIM strat, and while I like the 1 5/8ths on my G&Ls I do occasionally fall of the fingerboard w/ high e)
Nut material: Graphtech earvana (I can’t find any negatives to this, other than price, and thought it might help me like the sound of open chords more)
Neck Profile: Wolfgang (I move back and forth between thumb over the top and thumb in the middle frequently, and often wished my modern Cs had a bit more meat for my whole hand, but especially for thumb up top)
Frets: SS6115 (Cagey got me close to 6100s, but all my guitars have medium jumbos and I wussed out. Main reason I feel like I’d prefer the slightly narrower profile of the 6115s, especially in the higher frets).
Body:
Soloist
Wood: Hard Maple
Bridge: Tune-o-matic (I find this much more comfortable for my right hand than fender style bridges, tonepro)
Pickups: two P90s (leaning toward Bare Knuckle Supermassives)
Contoured heal
So, there are a couple things I’m still unsure about and would love to hear what you all think.
1. Controls. I don’t love the placement of the volume knob on my strat (I’ve largely gotten used to this but…). So my first thought was to simply admit the control 1 hole, use control 2 hole as master volume, control 3 as a master tone, then a 3 way blade switch.
However, I got to thinking that the added height from the TOM might mean the volume switch is less annoying, so then I thought maybe control 1 volume, control 2, tone, control 3 three way toggle pick up selector. Then omit the blade switch slot (or get it and then I have an open control I can use for…well, I don’t know, I’m open to suggestions).
2. Angled Neck pocket gap. With the rear rout, no pick guard there would be a slight gap between the neck and body. Looking at pictures it wouldn’t bother me; however, would it be more pronounced of a gap than w/ a non-angled neck pocket, and if so how much more pronounced?
3. Maple body. I’m not really worried about it being too bright, but I do have some slight concerns that I’ve grossly misestimated the weight. There were no soloist bodies in the show room but from what I’ve read they weigh somewhere between a strat body and a velocity body. There was an unrouted velocity maple body that weighed 4.5 pounds, so I’m guessing a soloist would be about 5? Ideally I’m looking for something slightly lighter than my Les Paul, somewhere in the 8-9 pound range. Is this realistic?
Anything else I may have forgotten to consider (I know I might need file the saddles in the bridge if I find the slight radius differences uncomfortable)?
Thanks for all your help,
Y
First, let me say what a great forum this is. I’ve learned a ton reading through it and was able to answer most of my questions. This whole process of designing my own guitar has been awesome in helping me to really think about how I interact with the instrument.
So, for my first custom guitar:
Neck
Shaft: Roasted Maple (I’ll burnish it)
Finger Board: Indian Rosewood Dark
Nut width: 1 11/16th (have this on my Epi’s and MIM strat, and while I like the 1 5/8ths on my G&Ls I do occasionally fall of the fingerboard w/ high e)
Nut material: Graphtech earvana (I can’t find any negatives to this, other than price, and thought it might help me like the sound of open chords more)
Neck Profile: Wolfgang (I move back and forth between thumb over the top and thumb in the middle frequently, and often wished my modern Cs had a bit more meat for my whole hand, but especially for thumb up top)
Frets: SS6115 (Cagey got me close to 6100s, but all my guitars have medium jumbos and I wussed out. Main reason I feel like I’d prefer the slightly narrower profile of the 6115s, especially in the higher frets).
Body:
Soloist
Wood: Hard Maple
Bridge: Tune-o-matic (I find this much more comfortable for my right hand than fender style bridges, tonepro)
Pickups: two P90s (leaning toward Bare Knuckle Supermassives)
Contoured heal
So, there are a couple things I’m still unsure about and would love to hear what you all think.
1. Controls. I don’t love the placement of the volume knob on my strat (I’ve largely gotten used to this but…). So my first thought was to simply admit the control 1 hole, use control 2 hole as master volume, control 3 as a master tone, then a 3 way blade switch.
However, I got to thinking that the added height from the TOM might mean the volume switch is less annoying, so then I thought maybe control 1 volume, control 2, tone, control 3 three way toggle pick up selector. Then omit the blade switch slot (or get it and then I have an open control I can use for…well, I don’t know, I’m open to suggestions).
2. Angled Neck pocket gap. With the rear rout, no pick guard there would be a slight gap between the neck and body. Looking at pictures it wouldn’t bother me; however, would it be more pronounced of a gap than w/ a non-angled neck pocket, and if so how much more pronounced?
3. Maple body. I’m not really worried about it being too bright, but I do have some slight concerns that I’ve grossly misestimated the weight. There were no soloist bodies in the show room but from what I’ve read they weigh somewhere between a strat body and a velocity body. There was an unrouted velocity maple body that weighed 4.5 pounds, so I’m guessing a soloist would be about 5? Ideally I’m looking for something slightly lighter than my Les Paul, somewhere in the 8-9 pound range. Is this realistic?
Anything else I may have forgotten to consider (I know I might need file the saddles in the bridge if I find the slight radius differences uncomfortable)?
Thanks for all your help,
Y
