Cactus Jack
Senior Member
- Messages
- 484
With my Aquamaster build on permanent hiatus, my daughter asked if we could build her a new guitar. I said sure, assuming it would be a simple build, boy was I wrong. She knew exactly what she wanted and like me, checks out Warmoth daily and had her body already picked out. She didn't like the Jazzmaster body and encouraged me to return it, now I know why. This was a total setup.
Below is the body she picked out. Chambered Black Korina, Black to Clear burst, in an HSH configuration. I'm going to use the neck and parts from my the Aquamaster build. The neck is a bit beefy for her, but she loves it, she especially loves the Moonglow side dots. I swear she's had this plan in place for a while .
I've never had an HSH guitar so we had some fun looking up electronics and pickups. I'm putting in my Suhr Thronbuckers, but currently have no idea for the middle pickup. That's where you come in, but first I need to explain the electronics a bit.
We are going to use Seymour Duncan Triple Shot rings for each humbucker. We both love toggles and switches so this seemed like an easy mod and something to make her first build super unique. However, it doesn't stop there. For controls, we are going to attempt a Brent Mason setup. Basically, traditional Tele controls with an added blender pot that controls the middle pickup. Similar to 7 way switching you can have all pickup combos but can dial in the middle pickup as desired...pretty cool. Not only that, the middle pickup pot is a push/pull to engage series/parallel for the middle pickup only. I'm up in the air about the push-pull, but if we're doing this, we might as well do it all the way. This is pretty ambitious for a rookie and 13-year-old, but it's gonna be fun.
OK, now to the middle pickup question. For series/parallel to work I'll need either a stacked single-coil or single-coil sized humbucker. I've been reading up on the Seymour Duncan site, but I'm not sure what would be a good fit with the Thornbuckers. For reference, the neck Thornbucker is Alnico V with a DC rating of 7.3, and the bridge is Alinco IV rated at 9.1. I know ratings are a single variable but for balance, I think an Alnico V pickup in the 7.5-8.5 rating range might be a good fit. Duncans have the same polarity as Suhrs so they seem like an easy (cheap) go-to for this build. Any suggestions on what I should check out? Let me know what you think...kinda leaning towards a Classic Stack or Vintage Rail...Brent Mason uses an 80's Hot Stack in his Tele. I'm open to anything, but the cheaper the better.
Here is the body she picked out (should arrive late next week):
Here is an example of the Brent Mason Controls:
Here is a link to my Aquamaster build with tons of pics of the neck:
https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=31308.msg440257#msg440257
Like I said in the Aquamaster build thread...onward and upward. So excited to spend time with my daughter, build a cool guitar, and if we get it right hopefully she'll pass it down to her kids one day. Gonna be great!
Below is the body she picked out. Chambered Black Korina, Black to Clear burst, in an HSH configuration. I'm going to use the neck and parts from my the Aquamaster build. The neck is a bit beefy for her, but she loves it, she especially loves the Moonglow side dots. I swear she's had this plan in place for a while .
I've never had an HSH guitar so we had some fun looking up electronics and pickups. I'm putting in my Suhr Thronbuckers, but currently have no idea for the middle pickup. That's where you come in, but first I need to explain the electronics a bit.
We are going to use Seymour Duncan Triple Shot rings for each humbucker. We both love toggles and switches so this seemed like an easy mod and something to make her first build super unique. However, it doesn't stop there. For controls, we are going to attempt a Brent Mason setup. Basically, traditional Tele controls with an added blender pot that controls the middle pickup. Similar to 7 way switching you can have all pickup combos but can dial in the middle pickup as desired...pretty cool. Not only that, the middle pickup pot is a push/pull to engage series/parallel for the middle pickup only. I'm up in the air about the push-pull, but if we're doing this, we might as well do it all the way. This is pretty ambitious for a rookie and 13-year-old, but it's gonna be fun.
OK, now to the middle pickup question. For series/parallel to work I'll need either a stacked single-coil or single-coil sized humbucker. I've been reading up on the Seymour Duncan site, but I'm not sure what would be a good fit with the Thornbuckers. For reference, the neck Thornbucker is Alnico V with a DC rating of 7.3, and the bridge is Alinco IV rated at 9.1. I know ratings are a single variable but for balance, I think an Alnico V pickup in the 7.5-8.5 rating range might be a good fit. Duncans have the same polarity as Suhrs so they seem like an easy (cheap) go-to for this build. Any suggestions on what I should check out? Let me know what you think...kinda leaning towards a Classic Stack or Vintage Rail...Brent Mason uses an 80's Hot Stack in his Tele. I'm open to anything, but the cheaper the better.
Here is the body she picked out (should arrive late next week):
Here is an example of the Brent Mason Controls:
Here is a link to my Aquamaster build with tons of pics of the neck:
https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=31308.msg440257#msg440257
Like I said in the Aquamaster build thread...onward and upward. So excited to spend time with my daughter, build a cool guitar, and if we get it right hopefully she'll pass it down to her kids one day. Gonna be great!