My Project Arrived

SteveD

Newbie
Messages
5
Hello everyone. This is my first post and first build. I am a novice player who, having a mid-life crisis, has decided to build my own guitar.  I am installing a Benedetto B-6 as well as a L.R. Baggs T-Bridge. I am studying the schematics and trying to determine the best route. Fortunately I had worked as an tech years ago through college and this is the easy part for me. For me the hardest part will be the finish.  I am attaching a picture of the body, it is a beauty. Warmoth did a super job.
 
Welcome!  Very cool!  Tell us about the neck...

Are you going to use an LR Baggs Control-X?
 
The neck is Mahogany/Brazilian Rosewood. It is a beautiful neck from the showcase. Yes, I am considering using the Control-X, but am still wondering if it wouldn't "clutter" the face seeing I do want to put the coil splitter switch in. I am still looking at the schematics from LR Baggs site trying to determine if I will ever want to blend the 2 in mono.  One last picture. I am still researching finishing it, but I believe I will go with a red mahogany for the back and neck, while going with an antique amber for the face.
 
Welcome the the boards! 

Nice choice in projects, take lots of pics please!  :icon_biggrin:
 
Welcome.  That should be a nice jazzy player when completed.  I like the Warmoth headstock with that body.
 
I'm thinking that's more of a rocker, since it's got no neck pickup route. Why was that left out? Just curious.
 
I was thinking that the guitar would be more jazzy/rockabilly. Originally I was adding a rhythm pick up as well, but when I decided on the Baggs T-Bridge, I figured I had that covered. 
 
Hi SteveD

Will be following this project with great interest.

I have in mind for the future (when money and exchange rates are more favourable), an L5S Jazzer using a piezo bridge.

But I was going to try a Johnny Smith style attached mini hum, off the end of the fretboard, and go with no pickups routed on the face of the guitar.

However, there's a snag with that idea. The machinery at Warmoth uses reference spots that are put on the face, one of them where normally the bridge pickup would be routed. If I decide to leave the pickups off the face of the guitar (and only go with the fretboard mini hum and a bridge piezo, that reference spot would be there on the front. :sad:

I'd be interested in the schematic you end up using to mix the bridge pickup and the piezo.

Looking good so far though. Your choice on red mahogany back and antique amber front sounds a good match.
 
Sweet looking project.  I am going with the t-bridge in my WGD project along with the control-x and two dimarzio humbuckers.  I will wire in an effects loop  also.  Good looking guitar.  Gonna be an awesome jazz instrument when it is done.  Keep the pictures coming.  Finishing your guitar will be easy if you are patient........
 
dbw said:
klanch, why on earth are you putting an effects loop in your guitar?

DBW  Ok you're the first person to ask that to me (except for the guys I play with I just showed them)  A couple of reasons.  1st being that I am a HUGE Jerry Garcia fan all of his custom guitars had one.  All I do is add a TRS jack (Stereo) BEFORE the volume control, completely bypassable via a switch or a push pull pot.  What it does is gives me control of my signal before or after the effects.  With the loop on, the signal from my pickups goes from the tone controls to the tip of the stereo cord, out to my effects, then at the end of my effects, the signal goes back into the guitar via the ring on the stereo jack and on to the volume controls then out to the amp via another jack.  What this does for me is gives me total control of my sound.  Ever daisy chain a bunch of stomp boxes together and notice that your tone controls and volume don't have much effect on your sound anymore?  Well adding the extra jack and cord does fix this problem.  Jerry used a "unity gain buffer" which I have not sourced yet, nor do I need.  It made the signal low-impedience and helped with signal loss with long cable runs.  Although I have found that by turning the gain up on the pedals a little helps with the signal loss.  I really like the setup, I have it on all of my guitars so the other reason for the effects loop is that my rig is set up for it.  I mean I could go with a single output, but I like this system a lot.  I can also split my signal at the guitar to two amps if I choose as the FX loop sees the signal regardless of where its switch is.  So I can send the signal to a PA and to my amp if I want.  I was reading on Jerry's guitars a long time ago and tried this setup in my cheapie bass and loved it with a wah pedal so much I decided to incorporate into all of my guitars I build.  It's a really simple mod if you want total control of your tone.  Just another tool in the tone arsenal that is all.........
 
Klatch, you surpassed me when it comes to setups. I ave purchased the control-x, but an still studying it.  I definately will be posting my Q's here  :toothy10:
 
Very classy SteveD, go for the red all round... :headbang1:
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Klatch, I gotta quote Scotty (you know, from Star Trek) here:  "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog the drain".  I considered doing what you describe after reading this about Jerry Garcia's guitars.  I too am a Deadhead, I tend to favor their '70s material.  Now, I never got around to it, but I did use a few different effects loops, I was up to Three guitar amps, two overflowing pedalboards and a few extra pedals to the side of the boards before I decided that it was insane.  In the end, I found that I used the extra effects once per set and just sat on one amp and the bridge pickup for 90% of my tones and just rolled the tone & vol. knobs up and down to change sound.  And don't get me started on what happens if a patch cable shorts, battery dies, or something accidentally unplugs....  not to highjack the thread, but dang, how did Jerry handle it?  In listening to them, he really didnt stray from the neck single coil that often, loud clean fender & a compressor thats all my ears detect for almost everything other than Estimated Prophet's envelope filter.

But back to the main topic...  I love that single pickup L5S...  I'm copying it in my long list of "Dream Builds if I Win the Lottery"., 

 
Vol. Knob said:
Klatch, I gotta quote Scotty (you know, from Star Trek) here:  "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog the drain".  I considered doing what you describe after reading this about Jerry Garcia's guitars.  I too am a Deadhead, I tend to favor their '70s material.  Now, I never got around to it, but I did use a few different effects loops, I was up to Three guitar amps, two overflowing pedalboards and a few extra pedals to the side of the boards before I decided that it was insane.  In the end, I found that I used the extra effects once per set and just sat on one amp and the bridge pickup for 90% of my tones and just rolled the tone & vol. knobs up and down to change sound.  And don't get me started on what happens if a patch cable shorts, battery dies, or something accidentally unplugs....  not to highjack the thread, but dang, how did Jerry handle it?  In listening to them, he really didnt stray from the neck single coil that often, loud clean fender & a compressor thats all my ears detect for almost everything other than Estimated Prophet's envelope filter.

But back to the main topic...  I love that single pickup L5S...  I'm copying it in my long list of "Dream Builds if I Win the Lottery".,  

Vol Knob you are right about the plumbing.  I guess I got into these effects loops a while back and now my setup almost requires them.  I mean I could go back to mono output and the daisy chain, but I do think there is a cool factor to the setup.  "Why you got 2 cords for your guitar there Klanch?"  I guess that is part of the reason.  Also it is so damn easy to wire, I figure why not.  Also it is there for future use if I ever plug into some crazy setup or something.  I guess I put them in there as a homage to Jer and the conversation, not to mention the absolute control over the tone that I get.  I know about the problems with cords batteries and general stomp box tomfoolery, so the FX loop serves another function, that is when something goes wrong (thanks there Murphy) all I have to do is hit the switch and I have the signal going straight to the amp, so I can figure out what went wrong when I get a chance.  Jerry had it lucky, he had all those people that ran around behind the amps and drummers to figure out his problems for him.  All he had to do was smoke his china white and play his guitar, everything else in his life was done for him.  Read Rock Skully's book Living with the Dead, it'll give you some insight on how Jerry lived on tour........

Also guys my name is Klanch, not Klatch, or Klutch, or Krutch or Krank, I get it all the time so no sweat, you should hear telemarketers butcher my name, but I haven't got Klatch in a while........

Back to the thread sorry for the temporary hijack..........  that is a really nice guitar,  I am finding that I like everything I see on here.  I wonder what the turtle would charge me for "one of everything left- handed?"  So I'm gonna keep playing the lottery and praying that I win.  First order of business after I win will be the new Corvette, then the new Harley then the one of everything left handed from warmoth.
 
Klanch, I've read Rock Skully's book.  And it sounds to me like Rock was an enabler and a addict himself.  I love the passage where they're at the German Naional Museum and Jerry dissapears, later to be found in front of the worlds largest cocaine crystal, grown by Hitler's scientists.  He's trying to figure out a way to steal it.  I think that Rock Skully's book is a little romantacised and pandering to the druggie side of the Deadhead community (a very big side).  Not that I'm a goodie two shoes, but I'm clean living in this phase of my life, were I to do anything it'd show up in my pee and piss off my probation officer and cost me some time and money (never EVER argue with the police!  they've got laws you've never heard about and will pile them on if they can, who knew that city hall was a business out to turn a profit!?!?!?!).  I think the book overlooks other things it could have focused on.  But, then again, it was Rock's job to make sure Jerry had drugs, so what else is his book gonna be about?  I also got the distinct impression that Rock wasnt fond of the other members, and them not of him.

But I think that Jerry could have played extremely well regardless of what he was plugged into.  HIs tone always sounded to me like he was playing a strat, neck pickup, through a loud clean Fender amp.  I wonder what Jerry would have played on a Warmoth L5S with just a single humbucker?  That would have been cool.

I had a vision last night as I was falling asleep.  A single 'bucker L5S with a bigsby......

I need an L5S.
 
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