Need Help/Suggestions for First Guitar Project

.ro

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Hey everyone, as you can see, I'm brand new here. My plan is to make some sort of shreddy but also versatile guitar. So here's my blueprint

1. WGD Body on Basswood with contoured heel/comfort contour (blue dye finish).
2. Birds-Eye Maple neck (wizard profile) with Ebony fretboard (satin finish)
      - 24 fret extension
      - 12-24 frets scalloped
3. Gotoh Wilkinson Tremelo
4. locking tuners
5. jumbo frets
6. DiMarzio Evolution (Steve Vai) pickups.

Let me know what you guys think! Any suggestions at all are very welcome! Thanks!
   
 
Sounds shreddy, all right - what do you mean by versatile? Also, any questions for us?
Good luck and welcome, btw.
Must post pics when finished - I don't recall ever seeing an actual WGD body.
 
I think dyed finishes are only done on figured maple tops. Maybe transluscent blue on basswood.  :dontknow:

BTW why basswood?
 
"BTW why basswood?"

I would guess that as many "shredder" guitars use basswood, that's what he's thinking.

Dye finishes are available on figured (Wild/Flamed/Quilted) maple ONLY, so you'd need to order the WGD body with a laminate maple top if you wanted that finish. If you don't want a figured top, the next closed thing would be transparent blue. Look under the "Paint" tab on the website for examples.
 
I always thought that basswood was used for cheap guitars because it''s a cheap soft wood, if I'm right I wouldn't want to use that on a custom guitar. Also have you played the evolution pickups I had one in the neck of my jackson dinky before I sold it and I thought it was way too bassy and unusable could just be me though.
 
Lots of early Charvels were Basswood. So were Tom Andersons and to this day you can still buy Andersons made of Basswood. I think even ESP and Kramer used it at one point and the OP is right, lots of 'shredding machines' were made of Basswood. Other popular choices were Alder and Maple (all the Lynch models are maple for example).
 
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using basswood for a build.  It sounds incredibly close to mahogany (especially with lots of distortion) in tone, and it is VERY lightweight which is a good thing if you have a bad back/shoulders.  The 2nd guitarist in my band broke his left collar bone doing something or another and ever since then, he has been unable to play heavy guitars.  All of his guitars are made of basswood because it's so light and doesn't hurt his shoulder as much, but he still has to sit down towards the end of a long set.

To Gtrplr92, what pickup did you have in the bridge position?  If you have a neck pickup that is significantly hotter than the bridge pickup, it will sound too bassy when you have your amp dialed in for the bridge pickup.  When you have a set of pickups that are calibrated and/or closer to the same output, you can dial out the extra bass response without making the other pickup sound bad.
 
dudesweet157 said:
(especially with lots of distortion)

Dude, I always like your post, but this time I must say:
With lots of distortion, is not THAT possible to hear difference between much things.... And I'm usually called a "metal man" by the greatest part of the world....
 
One of the Parker Fly models has a basswood NECK and spruce body.
But there are lots of stories going on inside a Fly! (hmm, double entendre)
 
NonsenseTele said:
dudesweet157 said:
(especially with lots of distortion)

Dude, I always like your post, but this time I must say:
With lots of distortion, is not THAT possible to hear difference between much things.... And I'm usually called a "metal man" by the greatest part of the world....

Hey Nonsense, it was a sort of tongue in cheek phrase on my part.  Sorry for any confusion.  The big picture is that basswood isn't an inferior wood for building solid body guitars by any means.  It has a nice, balanced tone that doesn't have any spiked frequencies.  It sounds good with most any pickups and is very lightweight.  The only downsides I see to it is the fact that it is very soft and doesn't have a very attractive grain.
 
I have a basswood "star" shape guitar that is so neck heavy it's pretty much unusable standing up. I've tried all sorts of different postitions for the strap pegs but no joy. I'm planing to turn it into a swamp ash explorer.

The basswood body is very resonant though. It's quite loud when not plugged in.
 
I personally don't like Basswood.  I've had a few and got rid of them, pretty much straight away.  I'd suggest Alder or Mahogany.
I love the Evolutions.  Love the neck pickup, too.
Do Warmoth scallop the extra frets?
Also, beware of the extra frets when ordering the rout of the neck humbucker -- the frets will overhang.
Good luck!
Jule.
 
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