DIY gear

[Hambeast]

Anybody build their own stuff? Guitars, pedals, amps etc

I've recently finished building a guitar. Had an abandoned Ibanez RG neck with scalloped frets, so everything was built around it. Telecaster style body with a chinese Bigsby trem, coil split bridge pickup and a no-brand humbucker I had lying around in the neck. The whole thing was put together for under £100. Plays surprisingly well considering I had no idea what I was doing!

[Emphyrio]

Jaysus, fair play!

[KingBuddha]

Looks pretty sweet. I wouldn't mind trying something like this sometime, if I managed to get the resources to hand and found the time to invest.

[astfgyl]

I tried turning my old spanish guitar into a sort of bass by putting 4 low E strings on it and tuning them accordingly. My career ended there.

Nice moves, OP though

[liamish]

Iv built a few odds and ends. I use a diy acapulco gold clone and a diy optical compressor on my pedalboard. My most recent attempt was a ABY box but ill need to crack it open again soon and recheck all the solder joints since its not working right. And I have a fuzz face kit that Im planning to build soon.

[Juggz]

I built the two of these a few years ago for gigging. Warmoth necks (yellow has ebony fretboard, green ahs rosewood, both righty necks with reverse 50's headstock), XGP poplar hardtail bodies, Gotoh hardware and Seymour Duncan SH4, nice and simple but very, very reliable.



On the more complicated side, this is a MightyMite neck with a one-piece ash body. I installed 3 EMG pickups and an EMG EQ. The neck and middle pickups go into a mini three-way switch. The output of the switch and the bridge pickup go into a blend pot, so I can run any combination of the pickups handily enough. It has bass and treble cut and boost controls too.

[Hambeast]

Very nice. How'd you go about painting the body? I went with stain and an oil coat,  so I never had to deal with paint or a clear coat. Dip coating looks pretty interesting but quite expensive for the tiny pots of paint.

[Juggz]

Just spray cans. I've learned a lot since I built it and would have done it differently now but I was just experimenting when I built it. It's lovely to play though, even if it looks a bit shonky. I've worked with oils and wax on other instruments, usually restoring instruments which have been through the wringer.

This old Warwick was in a really sorry state when I picked it up. I completely stripped it, cleaned it and refinished it in wax which is nice but requires an annual top-up. Before and after.



This Ibanez was a similar story, just an oiled finish which never got looked after and 20 years later it looked like shit. Similar job done but had to use a grain filler for the padouk top before finishing in oil.



I replaced the neck on a bass a couple of years ago, ordered one from Warmoth. I gave it a poly finish to bring out the flame. Spray finishes are grand if you have a sterile, breeze free area to spray in and, since none of us have that, they're tough to get right. You've got to take it slow. Lots of thin coats rather than one thick one. I'm happy with how this turned out, though. I put less coats on the fretboard than the rest of the neck just to give it a bit of contrast. Every coat slightly darkens the wood.

[Pentagrimes]

Those are great Juggz. Did it cost much ordering bits from Warmoth?Like in terms of postage/customs costs?

[Juggz]

Cheers. The import duty wasn't too much, though it is all down to what you order. Shipping is usually around the $60 mark for a guitar neck and import duty is then about a quarter of the cost of your order. You can get some real bargains in their showcase, the pre-built stuff. Even with the custom made stuff, the fancier you go the more expensive it gets but even the less ornate necks are really high quality. I'd rate their necks as better quality than US Fender, comfortably. I can't remember the last time I had to adjust the truss rod in one of their necks after initial setup. Once you're happy doing things like fret dressing, finishing and installing hardware you can put together something really nice for not much money. I had quite a few parts for the yellow strat, like the neck, electrics and pickup but every part for the green one was ordered in and it came to about €450 for everything including all shipping fees and tax.

[Hambeast]

Found an old Behringer tube overdrive pedal in the back of the cupboard, but the switch is broken. Bought a few empty metal guitar pedal enclosures and I'm going to transplant the internals over into a nice sturdy case since I'll already be soldering a new switch onto it. I'll post the results if it goes well.