Wave guitar build project

Megii · August 2013

Hi, I joined up on here a couple of weeks or so ago, so thought I'd better post something! Some amazing looking work shown here, quite intimidating lol. I do have a current guitar project on the go, and have built a tele and strat from parts before that, plus have developed a liking for guitar tinkering and modding in general. Well the current one was prompted by my having a spare neck from an Starfield Altair model from the early '90's. Embarassingly, I kind of knackered the body for this guitar once when trying to strip it down to bare wood and do a natural oil finish - it's a long story. But I have designed my own body shape to replace it, which has just been built from swamp ash by www.guitarbuild.co.uk . I'm currently eagerly awaiting delivery, which should be this coming Monday. I'll post a couple of pics so you can see what you think:

I have got a relatively cheap bridge to use:

which seems nice enough, and has a bit of mass to it, but I do wonder if I should upgrade to a Hipshot fixed bridge maybe - I don't know if anyone would like to comment on that, I'd be grateful for any thoughts. There is obviously more I could say about the project, but that would be going on a bit too much for one post. There is a blog I'm running on another forum here if you're interested. And sorry those pics are looking a bit huge, I'll watch out for that in future, but hope it's OK for now, cheers!

JookyChap · August 2013

That looks wicked - can't wait to see this one..

Shame about the Starfield, but the necks on those were lovely, so not a bad start

Looking forward to the build thread already

And welcome...

Megii · August 2013

Thanks for the welcome JC, appreciated. I am really struggling with the waiting at the moment, it's taken me 7 weeks to get from first ideas to guitarbuild having actually made the body. They tell me it is quite something, so Monday can't come quickly enough really. I do still feel bad about the Starfield, it's honestly not like me to ruin guitars - and as you say, they were decent quality instruments. Although somehow, there was just something not quite right about the one I had, the bass strings in particular had a dullish sound, and not a huge amount of sustain - maybe mine just happened to have some duff body wood or something. But the neck is a good 'un certainly - a 25" scale length, light oil finish, rosewood fretboard - and at least I've now done something to give it a new lease of life.

I did make an earlier plan of the guitar shape, which I photographed with the guitar neck and some parts to give an idea of the final instrument (apologies for my feet!):

JookyChap · August 2013

It looks good

Though maybe clip your nails

Megii · August 2013

Cheers! I have attended to my toe-nails since taking that pic lol $:\$ ">

Sporky · August 2013

As I was scrolling down the image, I did think "that lower horn is a bit hooky", but when you get to the cutout in the back of the body it makes sense. I quite like that.

Megii · August 2013

Sporky said:

As I was scrolling down the image, I did think "that lower horn is a bit hooky", but when you get to the cutout in the back of the body it makes sense. I quite like that.

Thanks Sporky, I would accept what you're saying re the lower horn - it is perhaps the one place where there was a conflict between aesthetics and practicality - and the aesthetics won that time. But I did at least make the cutaway quite wide and low, so I feel it's unlikely to cause me too much of an issue in reality - I do play up there sometimes, but probably won't be attempting any sweeping Steve Vai arpeggios with my fingers splayed over 10 frets, or anything, so I think I'll have enough room for my needs. The cutout in the base is where the jack socket will be btw, glad you like it!

Megii · August 2013

It seems a bit crazy perhaps, but Guitarbuild also did a short computer-generated 3D video of my guitar body design - it doesn't last very long at all, but does give some extra impression of the shape - I've put it up on YouTube here .

There's also a couple of 3D images, I've since changed the contouring on the back, but otherwise much the same, and you can see the jack socket placement going through to the control cavity, which I'm rather proud of.

JookyChap · August 2013

I really like that and the video is cheesy cool, love it

Megii · August 2013

The video certainly puts a smile on my face, I love the cheesy background music I have to say. I do wish it lasted a bit longer and took in some more angles, but I guess that would use an awful lot of computer processing. All the 3D stuff did actually help me to gain a good idea of what I was actually doing, and what I wanted to change, so useful stuff.

GuitarMonkey · August 2013

It's good to see an unusual design for a change.

I do think it needs to be painted though to show off its curves.

Megii · August 2013

GuitarMonkey said:

It's good to see an unusual design for a change.

I do think it needs to be painted though to show off its curves.

Thanks! I did surprise myself somewhat with the design, I'm normally a fairly reserved sort of chap, but somehow I seem to have let my wild, artistic side out a bit with this one. I'm afraid it's not going to be a painted finish though, I really like the natural wood look with guitars. Guitarbuild tell me they picked out a nice slab of swamp ash to use, with some nice grain pattern (one-piece) so in a way it would be a shame to cover that up. Plus I think I'd be rubbish at doing a good spray finish, but I can handle Tru-Oil OK, so I'm sticking with that. I hope the curves will be shown off reasonably well though all the same.

monquixote · August 2013

Ace to see a self build that isn't an S or T type.

Hope it goes well, looking forward to seeing more posts.

Megii · August 2013

monquixote said:

Ace to see a self build that isn't an S or T type.

Hope it goes well, looking forward to seeing more posts.

Cheers for that! I will be sure to post a few piccies when I get my greedy mits on the actual body on Monday. I must admit my previous two projects were a tele and then a strat lol.

OilCityPickups · August 2013

My custom built Manson in the seventies had a less extreme version of your lower cut away. it was great ... as it would stand up against an amp without falling over.

Megii · August 2013

TheGuitarWeasel said:

My custom built Manson in the seventies had a less extreme version of your lower cut away. it was great ... as it would stand up against an amp without falling over.

Cheers for that, I didn't realise the idea had been used as early as that, though I am well aware I'm not doing anything original. Do you still have that Manson btw, I'd be interested to see a pic. There was some British maker in the 80s I think - I remember seeing the guitars in Guitarist magazine, perhaps that was in my head. I was also thinking a bit along the ergo-guitar kind of thing at first, but did not want the huge upper bout they have - as the design took shape it kind of morphed into the result you see. I am planning to have 2 strap buttons, one each side of the cutaway, so the guitar will stand on those if lent against an amp or the wall.

Afraid I'm still waiting for the body to arrive today - it being a bank holiday Monday, no deliveries today, and the parcel was sent on Friday with next working day delivery - so that's tomorrow!

Jalapeno · August 2013

Very interesting - keep us posted.

Would like to hear how you got the shape, who did the drawings etc

DiscoStu · August 2013

Looks good to me. The cut out on the body reminds me of something else though and it's bugging me what it is!

Megii · August 2013

Jalapeno said:

Very interesting - keep us posted.

Would like to hear how you got the shape, who did the drawings etc

Thanks! The shape is basically my own work - I just started with a blank sheet of paper and started drawing lines on it, and with a collection of vague ideas in my head. The cutaway came in as a result of the shape of some of the ergonomic guitar designs I'd seen, and also the Ovation Breadwinner, which I'd looked at. But I really didn't want anything quite so radical, plus I had the idea the Guitar Weasel mentioned, that it could be a shape that stands up on it's own. At some point I hit on the "wave" theme - so the horns and cutaway/lower bout all form breaking wave shapes - or at least that's the idea. I can show you a picture of an earlier version, from which I then started to adjust and improve - one thing you can see is that the wave idea came in, and also the upper horn got a fair bit more radical. Plus I had to detail the front and rear contouring I wanted, the edge radius, control cavity placement, where the controls would go, pickup cavity size and placement etc. etc. It all took me about 7 weeks to get to a result I didn't want to change any more. Phil at www.guitarbuild.co.uk produced the nice images at the top of the thread after putting my plan drawing through a CAD process.

This pic shows an earlier effort, next to the final plan that I sent to Guitarbuild.co.uk (there were still some changes made after that, as a result of the CAD images Guitarbuild sent me, notably to the rear contouring):

Megii · August 2013

DiscoStu said:

Looks good to me. The cut out on the body reminds me of something else though and it's bugging me what it is!

Something good I hope, let me know if you remember!

DiscoStu · August 2013

Megii said:

DiscoStu said:

Looks good to me. The cut out on the body reminds me of something else though and it's bugging me what it is!

Something good I hope, let me know if you remember!

Got it! Tom Araya's old bass:

Megii · August 2013

DiscoStu said:

Megii said:

DiscoStu said:

Looks good to me. The cut out on the body reminds me of something else though and it's bugging me what it is!

Something good I hope, let me know if you remember!

Got it! Tom Araya's old bass:

Mines pretty much exactly that reversed isn't it? A complete coincidence though, ah well, there is nothing new under the sun it seems!

DiscoStu · August 2013

Megii said:

Mines pretty much exactly that reversed isn't it? A complete coincidence though, ah well, there is nothing new under the sun it seems!

You want the bad news? It's a BC Rich WAVE.

I always thought Tom + that bass looked killer. I didn't know they made a guitar version of it until now:

I don't like that much at all, whereas I think the bass looks great. I prefer your take on the design, Megii. Your 'standard' horns are far better aesthetically and the reversed wave works really well.

I'm not sure your design and name are necessarily 'coincidences', but your reworking of this design is a winner in my book and I look forward to seeing this one finished!

Megii · August 2013

Well, cheers for liking the design Stu! I promise you, hand on heart - the name and resemblance was indeed totally coincidental, I was absolutely unaware of the BC Rich Wave instruments until now. There were a number of influences at work in my head, but not that one. But as I say, nothing new under the sun, really all I hoped to achieve was something I liked, and I'm not terribly worried about how original it is or not, or that they used the "wave" name before me (as long as they don't sue me!). It is a good-looking bass I must say!

DiscoStu · August 2013

There are only so many things you can do with a guitar body before you end up in whackjob territory. As a complete design, I haven't seen yours before so hats off to you. There are certainly influences going on but the same can be said for music. There's only 12 notes! Of course some songs are going to sound the same and why there's so many G/C/D songs in the world but it's the extra subtleties on top that set them apart.

Now hurry up and get this built!

Megii · August 2013

I agree with you completely Stu - as you say, there are only so many sensible variations out there on the electric guitar design, and enough decades have passed now that they've all been done before, one way or another. I'll do my best to get going on the build as soon as I take delivery of the body (tomorrow - can't come quickly enough!), though I tend to go carefully and not rush with builds.

DiscoStu · August 2013

Megii said:

though I tend to go carefully and not rush with builds.

Tell me about it. I started my latest build last September and it's still in bits haha!

GuitarMonkey · August 2013

Megii said:

It is a good-looking bass I must say!

Yours looks better IMO

Megii · August 2013

DiscoStu said:

Megii said:

though I tend to go carefully and not rush with builds.

Tell me about it. I started my latest build last September and it's still in bits haha!

I guess I'm hoping I'll be there in about a month and a half's time, but quicker if I can - hope that's not to ambitious! What is you build that's taking so long may I ask?

Megii · August 2013

GuitarMonkey said:

Megii said:

It is a good-looking bass I must say!

Yours looks better IMO

Thanks GM, you are very kind!
$:\$ ">

DiscoStu · August 2013

I'm making a La Cabronita Telecaster but life shit has gotten in the way this year.

The body is cut but not routed. It wouldn't take much to get it finished but I haven't had the time or drive to get it done.

I've got enough other guitars I don't play anyway!

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Wave guitar build project

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