officially introducing myself

teleme01

Senior Member
Messages
836
for starters, i never seem to capitalize or end sentences...  . I am that newbie guy,  I first took guitar lessons in 1975,  went to college and studied music theory from 78-83,  played in the "B" band,  not the A band, played in a jazz trio in 2012 until they kicked me out  :headbanging:

my 1st build was in 2018 maybe,  fretwire  semi hollow lp kit,  threw glitter on the paint job, replaced all the hardware,  had PRails with triple threat mounts, etc etc ... its ok for a $169 kit guitar but nothing like warmoth parts.  total buiid cost around $850

2nd build was a stewmac 335 kit,  again replaced all hardware, etc.  glued the neck on with a couple of bad angles,  string ran off fret and had no neck angle.  Stewmac sent a replacement kit and let me keep the one i had,  took the neck off and reglued,  looks ugly but plays great,  put pearly gates with page wiring.  great axe for a $299 kit guitar,  total cost around 900

3rd build was a BYO solid maple top lp,  again replaced all hardware with stewmac parts and i had  seth lovers with page wiring installed.  probably wrong pickups for guitar,  will probably pull those pickups and put them on the 4th build. 

4th build was the replacement 335 kit from stewmac,  again swapped all hardware etc etc etc , stained and put wipe on poly,  put a trapeze bridge and did i mention that i changed the nuts on all of them,  at one point having zero fret, bone, tusq and supplied plastic.  will eventually put the seth lovers on this guitar,  but in no hurry.  ps... i love stewmac

5th build was my 1st warmoth and my 1st fenderesq guitar to own.  i built a roasted ash strat, wilkinson bridge, fralin split blade blues loaded pickguard, ebony on ebony neck with corian earvana nut and klusson locking tuners.  on this one i actually soldered the output jack onto the pickguard assembly myself :headbang:  the total build cost around $1500 i guess,  saw the difference between the other necks and the warmoth neck...

with each adventure,  i learn more about the process from my mistakes,  and am seeing better builders who are offering finished guitars cheaper than i can build them,  but,  its a fun hobby...  when i mess them up with a blemish,  they are my blemishes  :glasses9:

my next build is on order,  walnut thinline with 2 p90s, rear routed strat controls, 510 tremolo... the neck is shipped, roasted maple with bucote, ss6105 frets and tusq earvana nut.  This nut is 1 mm smaller than 1 11/16 and 1 mm larger than 1 5/8 nut ... never had experience with that nut size before ... didnt even know they made that many nut sizes ... plan on putting a varitone on this build.

long story short,  i live in the woods,  70 miles from nearest guitar store,  my hobby is playing and building guitars,  i am a newbie and i ask dumb questions.  over 60, ocd, shaky hands,  curious.  Should not be building expensive guitars but im gonna do it anyway.  :rock-on:
 

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Some nice guitars!  Looking forward to you sharing your experiences with all of us here.
 
Welcome to the asylum! I like your attitude of building your own guitars, and your love of semi-hollows. I would check out the mooncaster if you like semis, they are awesome and I love mine. Though I am also thinking about a tele next - a carved-top semi-hollow with rear routing and a nice blue quilted maple top.  :laughing11:
 
I like your approach.  It sounds like you learned a lot with each successive build, and you are enjoying the journey.

I look forward to see your thinline P90 build.  The Seth Lover pickups should be nice once you match them with the right project.
 
thanks for all the kind words,  i have learned a lot and i guess it worked out well that i started with cheapest and cheaper kits,  i have learned that the difference in finished cost is probably $400 between a cheap kit and a custom warmoth.  all the other components cost the same.

again,  being that guy,  i cant tell if the warmoth neck needs fret dressing,  i didnt realize the diffence in necks until i had accumulated a few,  then i got the warmoth ebony on ebony and saw what a real really really good neck looked and felt like.  if inflicted by a guitar addiction,  my addiction is to the necks, with all them pretty choices,  want to get a padouk and a wenge,  or a wenge with a padouk fretboard if possible,  but not now,  broke again for a while.

none of my finish jobs are acceptable, but it makes it easy to convince people i built it myselt,  this time around i am going to invest in a drill buffer, 
 
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