I've had some extra time this week and starting messing around with a guitar design that I will be building soon. I always liked the Fender Strat body but I hate trems. I like the stop bar and tun-o-matic from Gibson and the 2 humbuckers as on a Les Paul. I will be using a 5 way to tap into all the Fender and Gibson sounds. I will be losing the tone knobs as I never use ithem and it doesn't really go anything good to your tone just makes it bassy and lame sounding.

I included a photo I did on a image program.. Real Draw 4.0.. Awesome program by the way.

Wood choice is very important. I will be using a solid Mohogany body, Gocalo Avles neck and Pau ferro as the fretboard wood.

Most exotic woods don't need to be finished and I hate a solid body guitar with a bunch of paint and clear on it. Most likley I will be using tung oil on the body to give a sweet look and it won't kill the vibrations of the wood. Basically it will allow it to breathe which is a good thing.

Anyone have any drawing of designs they plan on building?

Here's the pic.. Simple but effective!

What would you do different...



[Edited on 7/30/2006 by brian]

here's the same layout with a Spalted Maple body wood or I guess just a laminated top over Mahogany.

Oh yeah pickups... If you guys haven't tried the Dimarzio Tone Zone you gotta.. I use the Tone Zone in all my guitars for about 10 years now. Not sure about the neck pickup yet... maybe a Seymour Duncan Jazz or Dimarzio Air Norton or a Blues Bucker.

Looks cool, I like the mixture of Fender,Gibson. It's pretty musch a Gibson with a Fender Body. I like to see the pics of the finished build.

That looks cool Brian.
I don't really draw plans for my guitars, I just have an idea in my head and do it.
Just finishing this off

Nice Telefreak.. I like the P90 in the neck position... good idea. I was actually thinking about using a tele body at first but I always go back to the strat beacuse I'm so used it.

I was also thinking about adding a Tele style electronics plate on the strat to make it look very different. Les Paul,Strat and Tele mixed.


[Edited on 8/2/2006 by brian]

That sounds really cool, you could also try a mustang or jaguar controll plate, could be interesting

yeah I would like to see that

Hey Brian that looks pretty good!
Why don't you try to add an acustic pick-up in the bridge.
I'd really like to hear a strat with an acustic bridge pick-up.
Good luck!

Good idea, but it would proberly sound warmer in the neck position. You could always add a on/on toogle to switch from a humbucker to a acoustic pickup. Best of both worlds

Thanks guys I like the acoustic pickup idea I may try it out!

Telefreak, when you get your guitar done I like to see the final pics!

Any pics in the works yet

These guys must be hard at work I haven't heard a peep

Unfortunity I haven't had time to start this build. Hopefully I can start this project soon.

Check out our new guitar design online page!

It's very Beta but really cool so far...

http://www.theguitarfiles.com/guitardesign/

Brian,
How are you going to set the neck on you guitar? Bolt-on, set-neck, or thru- body?

[Edited on 11/7/2006 by ricoboc]

I'm thinking bolt on!