New to forum, new to building, loads of questions

[Southpaw Soldier]

Hi all; new to forum, new to building, and new(ish) to guitar in general.

Being a lefty, I've had hard a hard time finding exactly what I want in a guitar, though I also have issue with *knowing* exactly what I want as well.

At first, I wanted a hollow body baritone, which got me started down the road of a Mooncaster body with baritone neck. But the baritone scale length on offer is a bit longer than I was wanting; I was leaning closer to a 27" scale, since I have short, thick, sausage fingers, but the only option on offer is a 28 5/8". Also not a huge fan of Mooncaster control layout.

Then I got to talking with some folks and hit on the idea of a Strat conversion body with reversed Tele controls, putting the volume knob closer to picking area for easier swells; conventional neck (maybe a Gibson scale conversion?).

Yesterday in a shop the tech showed me an interesting Tele he was working on, with a additional 3 way that changed the neck humbucker from series, parallel, and single coil wiring. INTERESTING stuff.

What I do know is that I have a ton to learn. I have vague Ideas of what I want, but some of the details are beyond my knowledge at this point.

Excited to tap into the knowledge on offer here. "Stop learning, start dying" is a motto of mine; life is about growth, not stagnation.

 

[Rick]

What books do you have about guitars and guitar building? Having a couple of those will uild up your knowledge and confidence.... also hanging out here. If you have none we love giving suggestions.

 

[teleme01]

I don't own a mooncaster, but what I like about the mooncaster over a 335 is the rear cavity access. I think a mooncaster with a tele bridge would be killer

 

[stratamania]

Welcome to the forum, make a start by looking at that thread linked in my signature, which in turn has many other links to check out.

(Have requested this thread to be moved to "General Discussion" as "Tech Talk" is for more specific discussion. )

 

[rauchman]

Greetings!

Like just about everyone else on this forum, everyone was a noobie at some point in this endeavor. When I got into this, I had asked many of the same questions. Ask many questions in the subforums of this site. There are some greatly knowledgeable great people on this forum who are eager to help. So.....

Pick what you want to build - Go Simple. I had this advice thrown my way when I started asking about relatively esoteric possibilities. I ultimately went with a Tele. Relatively simple with 2 pups, a switch for those pups, 1 vol and 1 tone. I built 2 more W partscasters and those became more intricate in the switching options.

How far do you want to go? - Are you looking to put prefinished parts together or buy unfinished bodies/necks and do them yourself?

Do you do your setups? - Will you be "putting it all together", or hiring someone to do it for you? Do you do your neck setups, someone else, do you plan to learn how?

Spec'ing parts - You can easily get lost in the sauce when picking woods, frets, profiles, etc. Keep it simple to start.

 

[Southpaw Soldier]

What books do you have about guitars and guitar building? Having a couple of those will uild up your knowledge and confidence.... also hanging out here. If you have none we love giving suggestions.

Tech at GC recommended Guitar Player’s Repair Guide; it’s in my Amazon cart now.

(Have requested this thread to be moved to "General Discussion" as "Tech Talk" is for more specific discussion. )

Started as a post asking for term recs, but I rambled a bit. Agree it’s more general of a topic now

 

[Rick]

Indeed .... Scroll thru Stratamania's welcome post. Lot's of good things in there including a book list.

Welcome to the Forum

Welcome to the forum... Here you will find a list of useful links if you are getting started building parts casters and are looking for information and guidance that you may find useful.

unofficialwarmoth.com

 

[Southpaw Soldier]

Already learning a ton; never even heard of "Neck Dive" until I saw it in a post here. Now I'm wondering if a chambered basswood body is going to be too light.

Current deep dive topic is pickup wiring; thinking a humbucker at the neck, with a spare switch to toggle series/parallel wiring (maybe a 3 way, for splitting too?).

Choosing Warmoth because of options for lefties, but sad to see some options are still righty only.

 

[Hodgo]

Already learning a ton; never even heard of "Neck Dive" until I saw it in a post here. Now I'm wondering if a chambered basswood body is going to be too light.

A leather or suede strap will cure neck dive, it just needs to be something with a little grip. Honestly I never heard of neck dive until I got on forums either, and I feel it is greatly exaggerated.

 

[supertruper1988]

Already learning a ton; never even heard of "Neck Dive" until I saw it in a post here. Now I'm wondering if a chambered basswood body is going to be too light.

Current deep dive topic is pickup wiring; thinking a humbucker at the neck, with a spare switch to toggle series/parallel wiring (maybe a 3 way, for splitting too?).

Choosing Warmoth because of options for lefties, but sad to see some options are still righty only.

Some options may not be in the online builder for southpaws but an email to Warmoth can confirm that.

Neck dive is not typically an issue for Fender style instruments.

You may run into issues with it for teles and other single cuts with chambering and heavy locking tuners or a baritone neck.

I have a chambered Basswood Jazzmaster body and it doesnt have any neck dive issues.

 

[Southpaw Soldier]

Some options may not be in the online builder for southpaws but an email to Warmoth can confirm that.

It's more specific hardwdare; certain bridges, nuts, etc are only made for righties.

 

[sdeeg]

Tech at GC recommended Guitar Player’s Repair Guide; it’s in my Amazon cart now.

Great book. StewMac also produces a lot of helpful videos. I just recently watched a good one on fret dressing. They also create and sell a lot of helpful tools. Get ready to open the wallet to that pandoras box as well!

 

[NedRyerson]

Neck dive is all about physics. I had a big, long missive here but the more I went down the rabbit hole, the more I sounded like I was BSing even though I know what I was talking about

 

[sdeeg]

Neck dive is all about physics. I had a big, long missive here but the more I went down the rabbit hole, the more I sounded like I was BSing even though I know what I was talking about

I'd be interested in your thoughts as I'm working on a balance (neck dive) issue with a Tele Thinline. Do you know where that post is?

 

[NedRyerson]

I wrote it all out then deleted it. I always have to remind myself that as soon as I start looking for citations to include, that's when it's time to quit writing a post on a message board! Usually, it takes about the 3rd or 4th source with links and then revising grammar and reordering sentences, checking for redundancies, and so on that it dawns on me that I'm writing too much. It's a forum, not a research paper!

For a Tele shape, it's tough because the tendency is to place the strap button at that top hump. I haven't found a good way to overcome it by design alone on my own Tele. That's where the strap providing friction against your shoulder would come into play, as mentioned above. I don't gig out anywhere, so whenever I play my Tele, it's in my lap.

 

[teleme01]

I don't gig out anywhere, so whenever I play my Tele, it's in my lap.

I play out maybe 6x per year and am sitting with a music stand, most of my builds don't have strap buttons installed, if ever I need it, I will put them on but that's probably never

 

[sdeeg]

I wrote it all out then deleted it. ... It's a forum, not a research paper!

LOL! Wisdom

For a Tele shape, it's tough because the tendency is to place the strap button at that top hump. I haven't found a good way to overcome it by design alone on my own Tele. That's where the strap providing friction against your shoulder would come into play, as mentioned above. I don't gig out anywhere, so whenever I play my Tele, it's in my lap.

I generally played sitting, but I've recently started going to a musicians workshop where we play for 3hrs in a band setting (there's a pro bass player, guitar player, and drummer to help us amateurs) and that means standing. I've tried putting the strap button at the neck plate like an SG, but that changes the vertical angle of the instrument. Well, maybe it's just a feature of Tele's. I suppose I could try putting a Bigsby on it to see if the weight shifts the balance. I've always wanted to try a Bigsby.

 

[Spud]

It may not look as cool, but also try raising the guitar up higher like Roy Buchannon, not way low like Jimmy Page. I dunno how he even plays like that.

 

[sdeeg]

It may not look as cool, but also try raising the guitar up higher like Roy Buchannon, not way low like Jimmy Page. I dunno how he even plays like that.

It's certainly worth a try. I tend to position the guitar so it feels natural with my arms, which are slightly longish, but they're not way down Jimmy Page style.