New Guitar Idea... Input appreciated.

[Guitarmattms]

Hey everyone.

I'm going to be going to Red Wing next year to learn guitar repair. One of the projects is to build your own electric guitar. So, here's what I have in mind as of right now. I'm just trying to figure everything out so that when it comes time to the project. I don't need to stress over that.

So, I would like a basic rg/strat style design.


Wood - Basswood, Alder or Maple.

Finish - Red wine or Candy Apple red color but would like it to be transparent so that you can see the wood grains underneath...

Tremolo - LR Baggs X-vintage tremolo (Piezo)

HH configuration - Dimarzio Air Norton in Neck and Dimarzio Breed in Bridge.
Not sure about how many ohms I would need. thinking 500k and a 5 way should be just fine.

Am I forgetting anything else? Thanks.

P.S.
Here's a rough idea of what I had in mind.

[courtney2018]

If you want that figuring on top with a trans-red finish you're going to want to use either curly or quilted maple. Mostly it's done with the figured maple top laminated with some other wood. If you're going to go that route I'd choose something other than basswood or alder. Maybe a mahogany? You could also use the figured maple soley. That way you'd have the figuring on the back as well.

[Ironbird]

you're missing an edge tremelo ..

Just trickin'

I think a boost switch would be cool. A 25 db one

[skins345669]

Yeah, mahogany with a maple cap should balance well in terms of tone. Maybe a few more tone controls. Push/pulls for coil splits? Maybe a killswitch?

[Guitarmattms]

cool thanks guys.. About the wood combination ... i know the peavey wolfgangs have a maple top bounded to a basswood body and I thought about something like that but I never tried mahogany. I'm not trying to do anything to wild with electronics since this will be my first guitar. But I looked into getting a ofr with piezo from graphtech but too expensive!!

[skins345669]

Coil splits should be nice and easy. Just have a look at the Seymour Duncan website for wiring diagrams. Kill switches are easy as anything. Just run the live tip to ground on the jack, and put an on/off in the way. It will create a short circuit, hence 'kill' switch.

[Guitarmattms]

I'm aware what a killswitch does... :-) Well, like I said this is going to be my first guitar and it's going to be for class. I'm not exactly sure how much I can put into this bad boy but I have some great ideas now!!

Okay, Here's a neck question.

My very first guitar I own was a Washburn Shadow series guitar. The neck seems to be a cross between a Ibanez Rg neck and a Fender Strat neck. I really like how this neck feels and I would like to use as a template for this custom rg... The washburn neck is only twenty one frets though and would love to have the rg be a twenty-four fret neck. How hard would it be for me to make the copy into a twenty-four fret neck and also what about the neck pocket? Would his affect the overall look and design of the guitar? Any idea what the easiest way for me to do this?


Thanks.

[Brosa]

According to John Suhr: Basswood body & a maple top is a great tone choice!