Things you'd never do on a guitar build...

[Graffiti62]

I'm curious to find out if there's anything you deem "guitar building blasphemy," such as putting a 3+3 headstock on a Strat, putting a Floyd on a carved top guitar, or anything else out there. I'm curious to find out what you think should never be done.

 

[pabloman]

Build a Tele!! :guitarplayer2:

 

[Mor Paul]

Build a Tele!! :guitarplayer2:

Yeah, that.

Also, 90% of the time, I wouldn't use open-face pickups.

 

[elfro89]

yeah 3x3 necks on strats. I'm a total snob.  :doh:

 

[pabloman]

Or let some guy in California paint it in his garage and let it dry in his driveway huh. :icon_jokercolor:

 

[jay4321]

Also, 90% of the time, I wouldn't use open-face pickups.

That's weird, I'm just the opposite. I just removed my very last set of covered pickups.

 

[AutoBat]

Have your former art major friend paint the binding & fender script on your 12 coat finished wenge neck.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Not on a build, but on my '91 PRS CE-3 Bolt On, I had a Floyd installed.  I didn't do it myself, wasn't tooled for it.  Same guy who handbuilt my TFS6 did it for me, and cursed me the entire way.  It was the first time he had installed a Floyd on an already carved top body.  Afterwards he said it was best to do the route while the top is still flat, especially the plunge route, instead of as an aftermarket retro.

I was the only guy in the Bay Area apparently that had a Floyded PRS, and the snobs sure let me know about it.

That was about a year after I had him replace the stock PRS fretwire with 6100's.

 

[tfarny]

not grain fill on swamp ash. seems like a cool idea, and looks cool from some angles, but from most angles it just looks like crap.
I'd never use kluson tuners, never build another guitar with Fender "wide" vintage string spacing.

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I'm curious to find out if there's anything you deem "guitar building blasphemy," such as putting a 3+3 headstock on a Strat, putting a Floyd on a carved top guitar, or anything else out there. I'm curious to find out what you think should never be done.

I fail.  :sad:


:icon_jokercolor:

 

[mayfly]

Have your former art major friend paint the binding & fender script on your 12 coat finished wenge neck.

This  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Jusatele]

yea Art Majors are high on the list, but then Ebay cures that.

My personal nono would be to buy cheap wood just to save money, I have seen some of those kit guitars and wow is that an incentive to buy the turtle.

 

[MSP]

Combine really expensive and really cheap parts.  It just averages out the guitar.  Build a cheap banger or a work of art, but anything else just wastes money.  I've seen amazing wood coupled with hardware that was a small step up from tinfoil and pickups with the fidelity of a cheap radio under a blanket.  I've done it the other way around: expensive pickups and cheap everything else.  The guitars still sounded cheap. 

 

[SlartiBartfast]

yeah 3x3 necks on strats. I'm a total snob.  :doh:

Haha, my "Strat" has a Warmoth 3 x 3 headstock. One of the reasons I'm building a "Strat" through Warmoth is because I hate the traditional 6-in-line Fender headstock. To each their own, right?  ccasion14:

 

[SlartiBartfast]

Oh, I didn't answer the question this thread is asking... Oops!

I would never put a pickguard on a guitar. Ever. For any reason. I just don't get why people want a huge hunk of plastic on top of a beautiful piece of wood. But that's just my own neurosis!  :tard:

 

[line6man]

Build a Tele!! :guitarplayer2:

Yeah, that.

Also, 90% of the time, I wouldn't use open-face pickups.

And I'd never do a guitar with chrome covered humbuckers. Humbuckers should always have exposed coils.
Chrome covers are like watching porn where the women never take their bras off.  :dontknow:

I agree with the grainfilling Swamp Ash comment. Most very open grained woods look terrible with any finish that has a bit of reflectivity to it, if they are not filled. Look at it from the right angle, and you get a sea of tiny pits and voids. That being said, you can get away with it on certain woods. I decided not to grainfill my first Walnut body, and it turned out ok.

I'd never do a Fender logo on anything not made by Fender. I'd probably never order plastic binding, either. I'm also not fond of wraparound bridges, or anything with compensated saddles. FWIW, I swore I'd never own a hardtail, but I'm building something now, and I want to keep things very simple.  :doh:

 

[stubhead]

1) Crooked string pull, i.e. a wide 3X3 like a Gretsch or Gibson, or a bananahead 6-in-line; UNLESS it had a locking nut.
2) A locking nut guitar.
3) Wizard or standard thin neck.
4) Six-screw whammy, sheetmetal tuners, non-intonatable bridge, or any other "vintage" foolishness. I don't ride a mule or use a scatterwound computer either.

 

[SlartiBartfast]

Build a Tele!! :guitarplayer2:

Yeah, that.

Also, 90% of the time, I wouldn't use open-face pickups.

I'd never do a Fender logo on anything not made by Fender. I'd probably never order plastic binding, either. I'm also not fond of wraparound bridges, or anything with compensated saddles. FWIW, I swore I'd never own a hardtail, but I'm building something now, and I want to keep things very simple.  :doh:

Amen to the Fender logo thing. I have a Fender hardshell case, and I even want to pry the Fender logo off of that.

 

[Just Another Smith]

Oh, I didn't answer the question this thread is asking... Oops!

I would never put a pickguard on a guitar. Ever. For any reason. I just don't get why people want a huge hunk of plastic on top of a beautiful piece of wood. But that's just my own neurosis!  :tard:

I agree with no pickguard except in the case of a tele, for some reason I like it on a tele  :dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

Well, you're probably not going to believe this, but I consider using "vintage" hardware on a guitar to be a fundamental mistake.