First Build Complete (Chambered Ash & Mahogany Electric)
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 1:08 pm
Hi all,
I've had quite a bit of spare time over the last 3 weeks and so within that timeframe i've designed and completed my first build. Being my first attempt, and having very high standards (i.e. not wanting to end up with a mediocre guitar) I decided to buy a warmoth neck and just concentrate on the body. The way I saw it, so long as I got the neck pocket and bridge done perfectly, everything else I might screw up is aesthetic and will not really affect the overall playability or tone of the instrument.
Rather than painstakingly resize all of my pics to meet the requirements of this board, I'll just link to my facebook album which should be viewable to anyone regardless of whether they use facebook: There's 50 pics on this link detailing the build in chronological order. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 90ff06531d
Specs are:
Warmoth neck - mahogany/ebony. scalloped frets from 12th up. medium jumbo frets. 10-16 compound radius. 25.5" scale
2 piece bookmatched swamp ash top, a good 20mm thick
1 piece genuine honduran mahogany back, 35mm thick
ebony binding on outer edge and f-hole
extensivey chambered, with a slight inner contouring to the chambering to match that on the top
wilkinson/gotoh trem with vintage style bent steel saddles
locking sperzel tuners
bareknucke pickups irish tour neck pup
suhr landau model middle pickup
seymour duncan antiquity bridge pickup
CTS pots
Tru-oil finish, about 8 coats i think
It sounds absolutely awesome and i'm very happy with the results. I was intending to use a humbucker in the neck but the irish tour sounded much better hence the little wooden pickup surround. Mahogany is notoriously thick sounding, and ash is often described as quite bright, although to me its not so much bright as full of harmonics, i.e. very stringly and clear. The combination of the 2 woods is fantastic and i'm not sure why it's not seen more often.
any comments/questions very welcome!
I've had quite a bit of spare time over the last 3 weeks and so within that timeframe i've designed and completed my first build. Being my first attempt, and having very high standards (i.e. not wanting to end up with a mediocre guitar) I decided to buy a warmoth neck and just concentrate on the body. The way I saw it, so long as I got the neck pocket and bridge done perfectly, everything else I might screw up is aesthetic and will not really affect the overall playability or tone of the instrument.
Rather than painstakingly resize all of my pics to meet the requirements of this board, I'll just link to my facebook album which should be viewable to anyone regardless of whether they use facebook: There's 50 pics on this link detailing the build in chronological order. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 90ff06531d
Specs are:
Warmoth neck - mahogany/ebony. scalloped frets from 12th up. medium jumbo frets. 10-16 compound radius. 25.5" scale
2 piece bookmatched swamp ash top, a good 20mm thick
1 piece genuine honduran mahogany back, 35mm thick
ebony binding on outer edge and f-hole
extensivey chambered, with a slight inner contouring to the chambering to match that on the top
wilkinson/gotoh trem with vintage style bent steel saddles
locking sperzel tuners
bareknucke pickups irish tour neck pup
suhr landau model middle pickup
seymour duncan antiquity bridge pickup
CTS pots
Tru-oil finish, about 8 coats i think
It sounds absolutely awesome and i'm very happy with the results. I was intending to use a humbucker in the neck but the irish tour sounded much better hence the little wooden pickup surround. Mahogany is notoriously thick sounding, and ash is often described as quite bright, although to me its not so much bright as full of harmonics, i.e. very stringly and clear. The combination of the 2 woods is fantastic and i'm not sure why it's not seen more often.
any comments/questions very welcome!