Geist wrote:paddybrown wrote:Right. I remember a while back half the Pit turned out to be guitarists, and I thought I'd solicit a bit of discussion. Don't worry, I'm not going to restart the "thumb-over-neck" wars that some people probably have PTSD from.
I'm due to inherit some money from my mum, and one of the things I'd like to do with it is get myself a really good electric guitar. I thought about buying a strat, and looked at all the options and models that are available. And then I thought - why not make one? There are places online where you can buy bodies and necks and electronics and everything else. I can customise it just like I want.
Shape-wise, it's going to be a strat. It's a classic shape, it's comfortable and balances well on a strap. The Les Paul looks very pretty, but it's very heavy and doesn't balance so well. Finish-wise, I reckon natural wood. Walnut looks nice. You can get wooden scratch plates as well, maybe get a darker wood like mahogany for that. Get my cousin, who's brilliant at woodworking and things like that, to recess it into the body so it's flush, that might be cool. Brass knobs and stuff. I think that'd look great.
Sound-wise I'm less sure what to do. I want to be able to approximate that thin, conversational tone you can get with a strat, but also the big thick opera-singer bellow of a Les Paul. What occurs to me is I could buy some Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails pickups, which are noise-cancelling like humbuckers but supposedly still thin and strat-sounding, and a midrange-boosting active tone control that I could turn up when I wanted to roar. Anybody have any idea if that would work?
Reasons not to make your own:
1. The resale value will be almost nothing. The pickups maybe.
2. Making a guitar requires a bunch of skills that don't come under ordinary woodworking. You need to be decent with electronics (particularly for anything active) for one thing, but you also need to be able to handle a bunch of specific engineering problems that
only matter for a musical instrument. Situations where something being a fraction of a millimeter "off" can result in significant problems with playability or tone. I am not saying it is impossibly hard to make a playable instrument, more that you are unlikely to end up with a guitar that is superior to a basic Yamaha Pacifica.
3. Because small variations in the parts and construction make such a major difference, even mass-produced instruments will be wildly variable. If you go to a guitar store and play a dozen "identical" stratocasters they will all feel different (and this is even after they have gone through quality control etc), building a one-off gives you just one shot at getting something you like.
Reasons to make your own:
1. You don't care about making a great instrument, but want the experience of making one yourself.
2. You have very specific needs that will only be met this way.
My recommendation would be to see if there are any second-hand instruments you like the look of, and that play right for you. I'm not sure whether you are thinking of this as a "legacy" thing, but a guitar which is old and cool now is probably going to be something really special by the time you kick the bucket. Some vintage guitars are very expensive, but most of them aren't (older Japanese guitars are supposed to be fantastic and don't have the ridiculous price inflation that American ones do).
Also if you're looking for something that looks like a Les Paul but feels more like a Stratocaster, try a Gibson Nighthawk.