Suggestions please: Building a warmoth axe

[shagga]

So Guys & Gals,

as is promised in my first post, here comes my setup / wishlist for my dream guitar, fresh of the shelf (which is my head):

1. The Body:

Woods: Light Mahogany with either a (Flamed) Koa OR Flamed Maple Top
OR
Woods: Black Korina with one of the above Tops..
Style: VW Carved Top
Body options:
- Hollow VW Body Cut-away
- The VW Contoured Heel Option
- Natural binding


2. The Neck:

Woods: Wenge Back and Pau Ferro Fretboard
Style: Either a CBS or Tele 25 1/2" Scale Warmoth Pro
Neck options:
- Reverse orientation!
- Custom Neck Back contour: „Wolfgang“
(I absolutely love the necks of those old Musicmans..)
- Nut Width: 1-11/16" (42.85mm)
- Fret Wire: SS6105 (Stainless Steel)
- maybe 24-Fret option, if it doesn't interfere with optimal neck pup position!
- Earvana Compensating Guitar Nut with neck fitting

Don't know about the radius and the other stuff..

This Guitar is going to get equipped with a fixed bridge (Schaller 456 Fine Tuning Stud Mount Bridge)

pup-wise, i was thinking of getting Rio Grandes, either a crunchbox or the BBQ for the bridge position, and the halfbreed or tallbucker for the neck position.

My soundly wishes:

I play mainly rock-music, and i want this guitar to shine in this area!
so i want the phat, warm sound of a good les paul - type guitar, but i also want to be able to let it scream, so it shouldn't be too dark or muddy..
would this be possible with the woods i selected?
and would it be possible to have a little bit of a sparkling sound, when the humbuckers are split to singlecoils with that?

well, what do you guys think?

i am very keen on hearing your opinions...

(hoping to hear from the warmoth-guys too, i sent them an inquiry last week..)

thanx and take care,
shagga

 

[jackthehack]

Dass klangt gut aus; wie machst Du die Verdrahtung an? Spaltespulen lassen die meisten Tonwahlen zu, Ich denke...

 

[CD]

The darker sounding body wood with the brighter sounding neck would probably sound like what you are looking for. I'm sure everyone else will have a more knowledgable opinion than I have.

 

[-CB-]

i want the phat, warm sound of a good les paul - type guitar, but i also want to be able to let it scream, so it shouldn't be too dark or muddy..

Mahogany, medium weight, with maple top, mahogany neck, gibson burstbucker pro #1 and #2... and make sure the neck neck isn't too thin either.

 

[Nando Vallart]

I have never played with a guitar made from Korina, but everybody says: It's Mahogany's fat sound with a little more bright....

 

[shagga]

thanx for the replys so far!

jackthehack: hehe, nice! you are not a native speaker, right?  :icon_thumright:
i guess you meant to say that you kind of like my combination so far, and are asking on how am i going to wire the electronics?
well, i don't know! i plan on getting all the parts and then have a local luthier put them together for me..  :glasses9:

CD: you think the neck will be more on the bright side? i thought, that this combination of woods would rather be not-so-bright, tending to be more midrangey.. from the wenge mainly? compared to, say, a pure maple neck?

-CB-: ah, those Gibson Burstbuckers.. i heard many a good word about those.. do you know if they are splittable too?

NonsenseTele: right, that's what i heard.. black korina should be my wood of choice then.. but still, all those "classics" had the mahogany.. anyone actually compared those two woods?

ccasion14:

 

[jackthehack]

Vielleicht meine Deutsch ist ein bissen schlect gegangen; Ich habe meistens keine Moeglichkiet es zu benutzen seit achtzehn Jahren? Ich habe vorher fast dreizehn Jahren in Deutschland gewohnt, und war bei KoncertBuero Stuttgart mitarbeiter und Rock Fotograf:

http://amberjackmusic.com/rocknroll.html

Du bist richtig, but I knew I'd fudge up "coil splitting", an online German-English dictionary came up with "Spaltespulen", looked feasible, what does that really mean?

At any rate, for the best range of sounds from the setup, use a 5-way megaswitch or a PRS style rotary and split the humbuckers to single coils for the switch options, should sound great with any of the pickups you're considering, except the Burstbickers, which don't come in a four lead model for spltting. The Rio Grande models come in two and four conductor models for all humbuckers, I think you just need to order the PUs appropriately.

 

[shagga]

oh, i surely didn't mean to harm you!
the posting just read quite funny and was obviously translated by googles tool or something similar..  :icon_jokercolor:

and to be honest: your german seems to be quite good, for not using such a rather difficult language for a long time!
really nice, that you do!
so you lived in stuttgart ("stuggi-town"), nice place to live!

oh well, the dictionary came quite close literally with "Spaltenspulen"..
it's like "splits coils"

i rambled on in figuring out my dream combination, and right now i think i'll go for the black korina as bodywood!
what kind of top wood would you suggest to go with that?
finish-wise, i'll have more options if i take a maple-top, but isn't a koa-top to be preferred tone-wise?


i ordered me one those mighty fine harmonic design z-90 pickups for the neck pup position today!
i think i'll go with this one first!

so what bridge pup is more recommended? (will be made splittable)
i really like the crunchbox, but maybe it is a little too "crunchy"?

anyone plays one of the following rio grandes:
crunchbox, muy grande, bbq?

once again: thanx for taking the time and reading my thoughts and making up your own about it!  ccasion14:

 

[jackthehack]

Actually, with the exception of "Spaltenspulen", it's just my own bad Deutsch; I used make all my German friends roll on the floor and laugh all the time with my German, (well, in many instances they may have been smoking hashish...) because if I didn't know a word, I'd make one up, like "Zahnputzgerate" (literally Tooth Cleaning Apparatus) for toothbrush.

Gregg's probably got more guitars with Rio Grandes than anybody else on the board...Gregg?

 

[m4rk0]

Ich habe das BBQbucker in mein egitarre. Es ist ja sehr toll und geil und ich mache viel spass.
ok, so far for the worst german you have ever heard.. it has been over 20 years since my last lesson.
I love the BBQ bucker and have it in 2 of my guitars (one alder/maple and the other Korina/Rosewood) it sounds really nice. warm and fat. like a good old fashioned Humbucker but a bit hotter.
mein moped ist Schmutzig

 

[jackthehack]

Der Hund ist los!!!

 

[simple]

Gregg's probably got more guitars with Rio Grandes than anybody else on the board...Gregg?

I'm avoiding this thread. If you guys want to switch to pig latin I can probably keep up better.

I haven't split a Rio Grande humbucker so I have no real word experience with what kind of tone is produced. But for a full on humbucker, I highly recommend them. I remember talking to the Rio Grande designer and he said that their humbuckers were especially good for splitting but like I said, I've never wired them up that way to have a listen.

 

[Alfang]

I can Speak French        "we surrender"

 

[-CB-]

-CB-: ah, those Gibson Burstbuckers.. i heard many a good word about those.. do you know if they are splittable too?

All humbuckers are splittable, given a soldering iron, and a delicate touch.  Gibson BB's come with braided one conductor wire.  Therefore you'd have to do a little surgery.  Not the worst surgery in the world.  Easier than ... say... removing a cancerous gall bladder.

 

[shagga]

well, i'd rather remove a cancerous gall bladder than split a humbucker with a soldering iron..

that said, let's stop talking in and of piggy languages and get back to the topic please, will ya?
i don't want experienced people like gregg avoiding this thread because of such nonsense..  :icon_jokercolor:
just joking ...

but: i want to build a guitar, and so far my choice has become the following:

VW carved top black korina body with flamed maple top
either a strat or tele style wenge neck with pau ferro fretboard in reverse orientation

what do you guys think of this combination?
i think it should sound great, well i hope, as i am not an experienced woodworker..

the neck pickup is going to be a harmonicdesign Z-90 (Hot P-90 style),
the bridge humbucker is going to be one of them rio grandes.. (crunchbox, muy grande and tallboy are up for discussion)

thanx for staying with me!! very much!  ccasion14:

 

[Kostas]

VW carved top black korina body with flamed maple top
either a strat or tele style wenge neck with pau ferro fretboard in reverse orientation

what do you guys think of this combination?
i think it should sound great, well i hope, as i am not an experienced woodworker..

I love the VW carved top, nice choice. I suggest the hollow option too. So far I have thought this body only with EB or Warmoth headstock. If you are going with Warmoth Pro construction,  why not choose between those two? From strat or tele i choose the tele as more curvy... but not in a reverse orientation. Are you sure you 'd like this?

 

[Nando Vallart]

I don't want experienced people like gregg avoiding this thread because of such nonsense..  :icon_jokercolor:

Have you called me? :icon_biggrin:

 

[m4rk0]

that said, let's stop talking in and of piggy languages and get back to the topic please, will ya?
i don't want experienced people like gregg avoiding this thread because of such nonsense..  :icon_jokercolor:
just joking ...

Hey, I talk piggy wheneve I feel like it..
actually, piggy languages is all I know anyway

 

[shagga]

i did it!

i ordered my first warmoth parts for building me a mighty fine custom guitar!  :guitarplayer2:
awaiting the friendly guy in his big brown truck in around 10 weeks from now on!

here's what i ordered finally:
VW carved top body with hollow option and contoured heel
black korina bodywood with flamed maple top
color will be black dye with lipover natural binding and clear gloss back

the neck is a warmoth pro CBS with reversed headstock for a heavy custom look
wood is wenge with a pau ferro fretboard, no dots, 24 fret option, wolfgang back contour and no finish at all
Stainless Steel 6105 frets
i read so many good opinions about wenge necks, i really think this one will be a tonemonster!

my pickup setup will feature one bareknuckle nailbomb humbucker with aged nickel cover at the bridge, and one harmonicdesign Z90 (humbuckersized P90) with white pearl cover at the neck position! awesome tones to be produced by these mighty pups and versatile too!
i was thinking about mounting them on black mounting rings, but i think it will look so much cooler with cream or better aged white mounting rings.. are such ones available anyway!?

i am now planning how to setup my controls for this beast..

was thinking of going to use two tone controls and two volums controls, so i can adjust each pup individually..
got my nailbomb as 4 conductor, so i will either split it to singlecoil-mode, or switch from parallel to series or something.. i am really undecided on that one.. maybe one other mini-switch for out-of-phase sounds of both pups?
one volume pot is a 500k push-push (for the nailbomb), the other is standard 500k. 250k for both tone-pots.
i think this will fit the pups, or any other suggestions?
so far, my only rout is in the upper horn for the LP-type pickup-selector, all other positions / options are to be laid out by myself..
look-wise, i think i'd love aged-white fender-style knobs on the black dye, but i can not yet imagine it completely.. suggestions?
another option would be those black lp barrel knobs..

oh man, i am so excited about the outcome of this project!!  :headbang: