Something Offset 2: Electric Boogaloo
Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 8:53 pm
Hey all.
So I’ve started another project with my local luthier that I’m pretty excited to share with you guys. It’s still in the early stages, but I think it’s gonna turn out pretty sweet and really improve on my past projects.
Here’s a brief rundown:
-Laminated neck thru design
-Same headstock design as my offset acoustic
-Locking string clipping tuners
-22 Fanned frets (25.5-27 inch scale)
-Heavily chambered wings
-Figured maple top
-3 pickups (Curtis Novak)
-Independent volume and tone for each
-blade style selector switch
Now for a more detailed explanation...
So, let’s start with the idea behind the design itself.
A lot of you probably already know this since I’ve mentioned it a couple times, but I have a condition called spastic triplegia (both legs + right arm) due to cerebral palsy. As a result my fretting arm and hand are affected to the point that only the first two fingers and thumb of my fretting hand are useable. To get around this I came up with a special tuning (CGCEG#B) that enables me to make chords easily with my available digits.
Unfortunately my current electric guitar doesn’t really work well for this tuning, and has a couple other issues that I didn’t really think about at the time that I was putting it together. To be honest I really didn’t know what I was doing at the time, so I’ve set out to design something that works a bit better for what I’m doing now and really take my time to make sure everything works well for me.
The first thing I wanted to do was make sure I’d be able to use my tuning with this one. To do that I’m gonna do a variable scale like I went for on my offset acoustic. This time going for more of a baritone scale on the low strings. My luthier and I struggled to find a variable scale bridge that looked nice for quite awhile, but eventually I came up with the idea to take a right handed 6 saddle tele bridge, flip it, (I’m a lefty) and vary the lengths of the saddle screws to accommodate the scale length. Like this:
(Not set up for the scale yet, just wanted to give you an idea what I’m talking about. We’ve checked, and this will in fact work)
With that out of the way the next issue was the headstock and tuners. I have a lot of difficulty getting the strings in the small holes and cutting them due to my condition. To alleviate this on my offset acoustic my luthier designed this slotted headstock you may have seen on my offset acoustic guitar:
Which we’re going to use again here with the same tuners. The tuners are planet waves locking auto trim tuners. Basically they’re locking tuners that also clip the string for you as you turn them. Thus alleviating both my issues.
Next thing was fret access. My current electric is a bolt on neck with quite a big heel, and it makes me less able to get to higher frets. I wanted to be able to get up to at least the 16th fret so that I could capo up a couple steps and still play the same way. So given that the headstock design already requires a laminate neck, I’ve decided to make it a neck thru for the better accessibility.
It’ll be a laminate of maple, purpleheart and mahogany. The wings will be a more figured mahogany that’ll be heavily chambered to reduce weight as much as possible, since that was another problem I have with my current electric. This will all be topped with a flat figured maple top, and the headstock veneer plate will be from the same top.
Last thing is the electronics. My current electric guitar was designed with a single volume and tone, and a rotary switch. I’ve found that I don’t really like the rotary switch, even though it looks cool. So I’ve decided to opt for a blade switch this time around which will have all standard strat positions plus neck and bridge together.
Each pickup will have its own concentric pot with volume and tone. We’re still fiddling with layouts but right now we’re thinking of doing it similar to a strat with the 3 knobs in a slanted line and the blade switch underneath.
As for pickups, I found that my current electric, which has two humbuckers (creamery baby 71) and a p90, is a bit too humbuckery for my taste. So I’ve decided to go with something different.
To that end I went to Curtis Novak and got the following:
-Tele Fat bridge pickup
-Lipstick pickup middle (medium output, strat size)
-Firebird neck pickup
I’m hoping that the Firebird pickup l will play nice with the tele bridge. Never used a lipstick before but I figured that it’d be something interesting to put in the middle and it fits the look I’m going for in the end.
Okay, okay. With all that out of the way I think I’ve talked enough. Here’s the shape:
What do you guys think? I’ll have more info and pictures for you as things progress. Things should be happening a bit more rapidly than with my previous project if all goes well.
So I’ve started another project with my local luthier that I’m pretty excited to share with you guys. It’s still in the early stages, but I think it’s gonna turn out pretty sweet and really improve on my past projects.
Here’s a brief rundown:
-Laminated neck thru design
-Same headstock design as my offset acoustic
-Locking string clipping tuners
-22 Fanned frets (25.5-27 inch scale)
-Heavily chambered wings
-Figured maple top
-3 pickups (Curtis Novak)
-Independent volume and tone for each
-blade style selector switch
Now for a more detailed explanation...
So, let’s start with the idea behind the design itself.
A lot of you probably already know this since I’ve mentioned it a couple times, but I have a condition called spastic triplegia (both legs + right arm) due to cerebral palsy. As a result my fretting arm and hand are affected to the point that only the first two fingers and thumb of my fretting hand are useable. To get around this I came up with a special tuning (CGCEG#B) that enables me to make chords easily with my available digits.
Unfortunately my current electric guitar doesn’t really work well for this tuning, and has a couple other issues that I didn’t really think about at the time that I was putting it together. To be honest I really didn’t know what I was doing at the time, so I’ve set out to design something that works a bit better for what I’m doing now and really take my time to make sure everything works well for me.
The first thing I wanted to do was make sure I’d be able to use my tuning with this one. To do that I’m gonna do a variable scale like I went for on my offset acoustic. This time going for more of a baritone scale on the low strings. My luthier and I struggled to find a variable scale bridge that looked nice for quite awhile, but eventually I came up with the idea to take a right handed 6 saddle tele bridge, flip it, (I’m a lefty) and vary the lengths of the saddle screws to accommodate the scale length. Like this:
(Not set up for the scale yet, just wanted to give you an idea what I’m talking about. We’ve checked, and this will in fact work)
With that out of the way the next issue was the headstock and tuners. I have a lot of difficulty getting the strings in the small holes and cutting them due to my condition. To alleviate this on my offset acoustic my luthier designed this slotted headstock you may have seen on my offset acoustic guitar:
Which we’re going to use again here with the same tuners. The tuners are planet waves locking auto trim tuners. Basically they’re locking tuners that also clip the string for you as you turn them. Thus alleviating both my issues.
Next thing was fret access. My current electric is a bolt on neck with quite a big heel, and it makes me less able to get to higher frets. I wanted to be able to get up to at least the 16th fret so that I could capo up a couple steps and still play the same way. So given that the headstock design already requires a laminate neck, I’ve decided to make it a neck thru for the better accessibility.
It’ll be a laminate of maple, purpleheart and mahogany. The wings will be a more figured mahogany that’ll be heavily chambered to reduce weight as much as possible, since that was another problem I have with my current electric. This will all be topped with a flat figured maple top, and the headstock veneer plate will be from the same top.
Last thing is the electronics. My current electric guitar was designed with a single volume and tone, and a rotary switch. I’ve found that I don’t really like the rotary switch, even though it looks cool. So I’ve decided to opt for a blade switch this time around which will have all standard strat positions plus neck and bridge together.
Each pickup will have its own concentric pot with volume and tone. We’re still fiddling with layouts but right now we’re thinking of doing it similar to a strat with the 3 knobs in a slanted line and the blade switch underneath.
As for pickups, I found that my current electric, which has two humbuckers (creamery baby 71) and a p90, is a bit too humbuckery for my taste. So I’ve decided to go with something different.
To that end I went to Curtis Novak and got the following:
-Tele Fat bridge pickup
-Lipstick pickup middle (medium output, strat size)
-Firebird neck pickup
I’m hoping that the Firebird pickup l will play nice with the tele bridge. Never used a lipstick before but I figured that it’d be something interesting to put in the middle and it fits the look I’m going for in the end.
Okay, okay. With all that out of the way I think I’ve talked enough. Here’s the shape:
What do you guys think? I’ll have more info and pictures for you as things progress. Things should be happening a bit more rapidly than with my previous project if all goes well.