As the semester comes to a close, I have found myself with a fair bit of free time and I took some of that time today to sit down and really focus on what was going to happen with this project.

I’m going to stick with this body (as horrible as it is), so that I can do a custom paint job and not feel bad about it. I am looking into buying a new neck, although I’m just going to wait and see what can be done to the current one. As for a bridge, I’m looking at an Ibanez tremolo bridge because I have heard they are awesome. When I first screwed in the tremolo bar into this bridge, it practically lifted it right off the body; definitely not what I was expecting. Overall, most of the hardware on this guitar needs to be upgrade, so that will likely get done.

Pickup-wise, I have every intention of trying to build my own; most likely customizing and modifying these ones. However if I’m going to use this as a legit guitar, I will likely look into new pickups. My main goal from this project is to figure out pickups and guitar electronics (well at least with this guitar) and so that will be done. My ideal pickups are (and likely always will be) EMGs, though I may try out Seymour Duncan or Dimarzio pickups this time around.

That’s that for now; just a short update due to some free time (shocking, with exams less than two weeks away).

P.S. I had my LTD on Kijiji, but when it came down to it and I really thought it through, I just couldn’t do it and had to take the ad down.

So I haven’t done much in ways of recreating this guitar yet. I’m mostly waiting for school to finish and for me to go home where working on it will be much easier. And I’m still trying to understand this circuit set up, which is proving to be fairly complex.

I have, however, found myself playing my non-destroyed guitar a lot more as of late. I play an LTD EX-400BD, which I love but am also looking at replacing. The EMGs give a great sound and the neck is incredibly fast, however the explorer shape is just not what I’m looking for at the moment. The Strat style guitar is also not what I’m looking for; however as a first guitar project, I had no intentions of taking apart a guitar of real value.

And though not entirely surprised by this outcome, I have noticed an extreme difference in how well each guitar plays. Of course, the craftsmanship of the LTD is expected to be greater than the JT, but the playing ability of the LTD stands out far more than the JT; and they’re hardly comparable. Along with its superior craftsmanship, the LTD also seems to give me a confidence that isn’t felt when playing the JT. Just the known difference in value is enough to cause great discrepancy in playing ability. It is often said that “it’s not the guitar, but the guitarist”, however this guitar proves that there is an extent to which this phrase is not entirely true. Alas, I practice daily with my lovely LTD.

Currently, I am trying to learn a collection of songs by Protest the Hero, a five-person group of drunkards that will melt your face off with insane guitar licks, bass riffs, drum beats, and vocal mastery. Their latest album, Fortress, has been a guideline for what I am attempting to learn. I have so far worked my way through Bloodmeat and The Dissentience (the first two tracks), neither of which I can perfectly master yet. But I continue to practice daily, hoping that one day, I will get better.

-- Mike

I disassembled the guitar today and boy was it a trip. After about 2 hours of unscrewing what seemed to be an excessive amount of screws, I finally had all of the pieces apart. The guitar is a complete mess; the construction is pretty bad and the paint job is horrible, though it generally goes unnoticed with the pickguard. It really did make me appreciate the work that goes the making of a guitar, even though this one was made very poorly.

I was really uneasy when it came time to take it all apart. I’ve always been very cautious around guitars and had never even thought about taking one apart before. So when it came down to the initial de-stringing of the guitar, it was very nerve-racking. Once I was about halfway through the process though, it was much easier and almost fun to do. This has the potential of becoming a very addicting project; I guess I’ve got to watch out.

I’ve been studying this circuit as much as possible since taking it out. It’s really confusing, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to figure it out soon.

I’ve also got a plan of how I’m going to rebuild this guitar; what pieces I will need and how I will do it.

-          New bridge
-          New machine heads
-          New pickups: purchased, modified, or made
-          New paint job (Email me for pictures)
-          And obviously, new strings

Steps on how I disassembled my guitar:

-          You will need a few screwdrivers of different sizes, pliers, and wire cutters
-          Remove strings; detune low enough so strings are loose and easily removed
-          Remove back plate
-          Remove bridge
-          Take off control knobs and switch cap
-          Remove pickguard
-          Remove circuits/wiring from body
-          Unscrew the neck
-          Remove machine heads
-          Organize pieces so you don’t lose the screws!

There you have it, the first guitar I have disassembled is ready to be recreated!

So I have just begun on my new adventure of learning the wonders of a guitar. I have been playing guitar for about 4 years now and have finally begun exploring the inside of what has been my passion over those years. I just began a Bachelor of Engineering degree at Dalhousie University with an electrical engineering discipline. The study of circuits, electricity, and magnetism has greatly influenced this new, sudden adventure I find myself on right now.

My goals for this project:
-          Study and understand the circuits involved in the pickups, control knobs, and switches
-          Modify the electronics in order to maximize the potential of the guitar
-          Break down and reassemble the guitar in order to build myself a custom guitar

After being unsatisfied in my search for a new guitar, I decided it would be awesome to build my own guitar. This way, I would have to be satisfied with whatever I could create. However, in order to do that, I needed to know what it takes to build a guitar. So here I am, practicing on two Strat copies of little value and thus begins my adventure. I just purchased a cheap Jay Turser Strat which I plan on taking apart soon.
Some facts on the guitar:
-   fairly solid for a no-namer guitar, but definitely not something you’d want as a main guitar
-   single coil neck, single coil mid, and humbucker bridge pickups; they look fairly cheap and they sound even worse
-   5-way switch
-   very heavy; shockingly comparable to my big LTD EX400
-   again, decent neck for being basically nothing
-   strings came with guitar are brutal, specifically the high E string, which has seemingly deteriorated at the 5th fret.

I plugged it in for the first time today and it went a little better than expected. Mind you, a Strat is very different from my Explorer-shaped LTD and compared to the EMGs in that guitar, the pickups on the Turser are brutal. I tried all five combinations of pickup usage:

-          Bridge humbuckers were decent, however there was a lot of feedback and way too much background buzz
-          The middle pickup is very quiet. Little background noise, but that’s probably because there is little noise in general.
-          The neck pickups are just bad. Lots of buzz and little tone. They need work.

So that’s it for now; tear down day is approaching and I am getting more and more excited. Keep posted!

-- Mike