Guitar I built

[Intehdarkct110]

Heres a neck thru strat I just finished last night. 2 pc Maple neck. Alder body. Hand wound pickups by yours truly, with brass covers. The tone knob pops up and offers even more tones. The pickgaurd was custom made. Wilkinson tremolo. Glad i finally got it finished.

Thought you guys might like it

[KEZHEAD]

Very nice man!
I like the turtle ashtray also

[Intehdarkct110]

HAHA ! I just noticed that got in the picture. My mom gave that to me for X-Mas about 20 years ago.

[hoffmanmr]

Very nice. How does it sound and play?

[Intehdarkct110]

I spent a LONG time with the frets. Leveling, Crowning and polishing and it paid off. It plays amazing, easy note bending and the intonation is damn near perfect everywhere on the neck. For a NON Plekd neck it doesnt get much better. The sound is 70s Garcia/Making Movies Knopfler. But it sounds great for doing Pink Floyd too, I was jamming to Pigs 3 Diff ones this AM with it. Stays intune very very well even with crazy whammy dives. The bridge floats, but it cant go backwards (a little mod i did and do to all my trem guitars). Also when you bend a string the trem does not pull up. Everyone should do my secret mod to their trem equipped guitars.

The pickups are wound very very hot and the magnets I used (Alnico 3 and 5) work very well together. Very even pickups. The way its wired is how every strat should be imho. Thats one of the reasons I dont own or play Fender guitars, they are built like they were back in the day. Well guitars back in the day had issues, other companies have solved those issues. Why Fender still builds a guitar with problems just to market it as a "50s strat". Ask anyone who owns a vintage Fender guitar and they will tell you: if ya pickup and play 10 1960s Fenders, you may find 1 or 2 that are indeed amazing guitars. That proves my point. 8 of those guitars have issues and may even be unplayable. But its a "Vintage Strat!". Haha. Im glad I build my own and if I really want to play the ultimate "strat" style guitar, ill pickup one of my G&L guitars. Leo perfected his Strat and Tele designs when he started G&L, so if ya want a perfect strat without the vintage problems get a G&L. The G stands for George and the L stands for Leo.

[hoffmanmr]

Speaking of pickups:

I grew up in Central California. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was a guitar player. He heard about this guy in Santa Barbara who made custom pickups and called him to find out if he'd make some form him. So, I rode with my buddy to Santa Barbara one afternoon to meet with the guy at his workshop. It was this little garage in a mostly residential area with a single workbench. When we got there, the guy was sitting on a stool behind the bench in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Nobody else there. He got up and introduced himself to us:

"Hi, I'm Seymour Duncan."

[denaz]

nice work

[wonderhide]

Great job ITD. A beauty!

[Intehdarkct110]

Speaking of pickups:

I grew up in Central California. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was a guitar player. He heard about this guy in Santa Barbara who made custom pickups and called him to find out if he'd make some form him. So, I rode with my buddy to Santa Barbara one afternoon to meet with the guy at his workshop. It was this little garage in a mostly residential area with a single workbench. When we got there, the guy was sitting on a stool behind the bench in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Nobody else there. He got up and introduced himself to us:

"Hi, I'm Seymour Duncan."

^Thats crazy !

Thanks everyone. I have a few more im finishing up ill post pics of. Also am adding silver parts to one of my Wolf guitars, so its a little different. No brass parts hehe

[KEZHEAD]

HAHA ! I just noticed that got in the picture. My mom gave that to me for X-Mas about 20 years ago.

Here….. smoke up Johnny
The Breakfast Club

Seriously though, looks mighty fine

[Jack O. Hartz]

Speaking of pickups:

I grew up in Central California. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was a guitar player. He heard about this guy in Santa Barbara who made custom pickups and called him to find out if he'd make some form him. So, I rode with my buddy to Santa Barbara one afternoon to meet with the guy at his workshop. It was this little garage in a mostly residential area with a single workbench. When we got there, the guy was sitting on a stool behind the bench in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Nobody else there. He got up and introduced himself to us:

"Hi, I'm Seymour Duncan."

Who is Seymour Duncan?

[Intehdarkct110]

Seymour Duncan is an American company best known for manufacturing guitar and bass pickups. They also manufacture effects pedals which are designed and assembled in America. Guitarist and luthier Seymour W. Duncan and Cathy Carter Duncan founded the company in 1976, in Santa Barbara, California. Dena Sklar was one of the original employees.

Duncan became interested in guitars at a young age. After lending his guitar to a friend who accidentally broke the pickup, he decided to re-wind the pickup using a record player turntable to hold the pickup in place and rotate it while spooling wire around the pickup bobbin. Seymour was then inspired by how the guitar's tone improved, inspiring him to learn more about pickups from Les Paul - guitarist/inventor - and later mentor, Seth Lover: inventor of the humbucker. After developing considerable skill working on guitars, Duncan gained employment at London’s Fender Soundhouse.

After moving to California he met and married Cathy Carter and decided to start a pickup rewinding service. With demand for his services growing, Duncan and Carter started offering custom Stratocaster, Telecaster, and humbucking pickups. Within two decades they were manufacturing an assortment of electric, bass, and acoustic guitar pickups; as well as electric guitar accessories. In 2012, Seymour Duncan was inducted into the Vintage Guitar Hall of Fame for contributions to the music industry.

From the 1980s until 2013, Seymour Duncan made bass pickups under the Basslines brand name, before rebranding them under Seymour Duncan; without redesigning the pickups.[1]

Seymour continues to create pickups in Seymour Duncan's Santa Barbara factory in California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Duncan
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Basically in the guitar pickup world of replacement pickups you have, Duncan, Dimarzio, Fishman and EMG. Theres TONs of other companies out there, but id say the 4 i mentioned are the biggest sellers.

See, a post about building guitars has turned into a lesson in the history of said "guitars" heheh. Learn something new everyday as my dad would say.

[hoffmanmr]

The list of guitarists and bassists he's provided pickups for is pretty stunning.

[Lhmwrench]

Built to Last...

[Beyond Description]

Nice color!

[Jjarvis3]

Beautiful work! Would love to hear it sing.

[stellablue72]

Very cool!

[Subwoofer]

Right on, dude

[bdog1963]

So is that neck completely from scratch or did you the good finish on the frets?

[Intehdarkct110]

^ From scratch. Neck is maple with a 2nd piece of maple on top for the fretboard. The Truss rod was prob the most difficult part for me this time around. The Frets I cut and installed onto the neck myself and then I leveled, crowned and polished them. The neck was attached to the body and glued in and held in place with clamps. I really took my time and allowed proper drying of the glue etc. I used Tru-Oil for the finish on the neck. The nut is a bone nut... i think thats about it. The neck is a little thicker than a standard strat style guitar. Its not as thick as a 50s Gibson, but its def not thin either. I have long fingers and I do NOT like thin necks, my joints bother me. The fatter the neck the easier and pain free it is to play for me.