My First Project

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
Post Reply
User avatar
strasurf
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:45 am
Location: Italy

My First Project

Post by strasurf » Tue Sep 14, 2021 11:45 pm

I want to share here my first project, a guitar I designed taking inspiration from the glorious 60s offset guitars with many pickups, expecially Italian (Galanti, Eko, etc) and Japanese. Also, I love 60s music (surf, garage, rock&roll, etc), so I've had in mind an axe that evokes 60s vibes, both in look and sound.

Once I defined all the specifications, the guitar has been built by Daniele Accardo, a guitar builder near Milan (Italy) who now make drums (Respighi Drums).

I've always found Jazzmaster body shape a bit uncomfortable when sitting down, so for this guitar I've come up with a more ergonomic shape that is more "centered" to the player's body, like a Strat o a Tele.
Plus, this body is a bit smaller than a Jazzmaster, to limit the weight to only 3,5Kg (7.7lbs)

Scale is 25,5'', swamp ash body, quartersawn maple neck, and for pickups I've chosen minihumbuckers (without poles) as I was inspired by the 60s Italian "Galanti Gran Prix" guitars.
Since I didn't feel like spending almost 400€ for top-brand pickups, I opted for cheap ones (two SnakeOil from www.cbgitty.com and two from www.eyguitarmusic.com). I can't tell if they are good or not since it would be necessary an A/B test with the more expensive ones (Seymour Duncan, Di Marzio, etc) however, I can say the sound is on the bright side, good dynamic response and moderate output. One thing I noticed is that, if I get close with a screw, the magnetic pull is quite weak: I don't know if that is normal due to the lack of poles or if these particular brands use weak magnets. I'm curious to know if the magnetic pull of more expensive ones is similar or not...

Pics:
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Some quick sound samples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q26PO0WEC5w
Last edited by strasurf on Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
epizootics
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 719
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2017 10:29 pm
Location: Lyon, France

Re: My First Project

Post by epizootics » Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:06 am

Wow. That is incredibly sweet! You really kept the Italian vibes going in there with the golden hardware, pickguard and fret markers, with the elongated / sharp outline of the body definitely screams 60's Japan, with the added benefit of having a guitar that is actually playable on top of looking cool.

The low magnetic pull is normal for mini-humbuckers, those have a smaller alnico magnet at the bottom. And generally speaking, the pull is always going to feel weaker with PAF-type pickups than with 6-alnico poles. Those don't seem to sound bad at all from your video, they have the typical voicing you'd expect from mini-hbs. It's obviously always hard to tell with recordings.

Cool design and a very cool guitar!

User avatar
CorporateDisguise
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 777
Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:56 am
Location: NY

Re: My First Project

Post by CorporateDisguise » Wed Sep 15, 2021 3:25 am

Nice! The shape is reminiscent of a Univox UC3. Really cool.

There seems to be a lack of switches, so I’m curious how you switch between the pickups? Do they eqch have their own volume control?

User avatar
strasurf
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:45 am
Location: Italy

Re: My First Project

Post by strasurf » Wed Sep 15, 2021 3:31 am

CorporateDisguise wrote:
Wed Sep 15, 2021 3:25 am
Nice! The shape is reminiscent of a Univox UC3. Really cool.

There seems to be a lack of switches, so I’m curious how you switch between the pickups? Do they eqch have their own volume control?
Everyone of the two knobs is a 5way rotary switch that handles each couple of pickups.
Then, the two rotary switches are wired togheter with a series/parallel switch.

Volume and tone have been implemented with Jazzmaster-style slider switches.

Post Reply