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.

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!