So I am wanting to build a guitar but I have a question and I can’t seem to find an answer.
What I want is to build a star body (think Dimebag from Pantera) with a double octave neck.
All the plans/kits have 22 fret necks. What I am not sure of is what putting on a double octave neck will do to the geometry. My thinking is that as long as the distance between the 12th fret matches the distance between the 12th and the nut, all will be cool. So I should be able push the bridge back a bit and all will be cool. However I seem to be confusing the hell out of myself.
I am not a guitar builder, but I do most of my own set-up and repairs.
You shouldn’t have to move the bridge or change the scale of the guitar as long as the neck is the same scale. You will have to have a longer fretboard for the 24-fret version. Some pre-made builders (like warmoth) make necks where the fretboard over hangs the end of the neck, so the neck/body proportions would remain the same.
I am not a luthier, but I’d thought that 24 fret necks weren’t actually any longer than 22 fret necks. The fingerboard merely extends from the neck pocket a little over the guitar body toward the bridge to add those extra two frets. The other 22 frets end up in the same place.
I’ll agree with scabpicker, too. I’ve built two Tele’s; one long/Fender scale and one short/Gibson scale. Both standard - 21 frets? The parts all fit for standard-spec parts, i.e., built on the Fender platform. The 24-fretter will have an extended fingerboard.
Oh, duh: you’ll need the neck pickup a tad lower - either pick a rout that accommodates that or specify a Swimming Pool rout with a big hole for flexibility. The bridge and tP stay the same, but the neck pickup has to allow for the extra frettage…
If you don’t extend the fretboard, you’ll have lots of tricky adjustments and compensations to make.
That is, if you just have a long enough fretboard to fit the standard frets at the standard scale, plus two, you’re golden. All you need is the dimensions for the last two frets. (The last one will be halfway from octave to bridge, so you don’t really even need a number for that.)
But if you’re planning to take a neck with a standard-length (22-fret) fretboard, without frets, and turn it into a 24-fret neck, you’ll have to
(a) move the bridge forward (closer to the neck)
(b) do the math to figure out where all those frets go, for your new nonstandard (shorter) scale length, rather than using a standard scale fret template.
So, it’s obviously a lot simpler to extend the fretboard (assuming it won’t bump into the neck pup) than to use a standard fretboard.
Of course, since you’re making this from scratch, if it would bump into the neck pup, you can plan to move that back enough so that it clears.
Ah: after looking at a google image, I see you will have to move the neck pup, since it’s nearly flush with the end of the neck. This will change how the guitar sounds, though not necessarily in a bad way. Also, since the cutaway doesn’t go deep and since it’s rather sharp, it’ll be difficult to actually fret those notes. You may end up doing less good than harm, adding those extra frets.
Now I know how I was confusing myself. I was thinking that the extra two frets would push the headstock out. Not sure how I came up with that. I’ll blame it on a long week.
Pushing the neck pup in a bit isn’t a big deal. I will probably do the neck cut a bit deeper to accomodate the upper frets. I usually don’t use the neck pup alone, I generally use a mix of bridge/neck for upper end soloing. It’ll have a 25.5 scale. I love my Paul but want something with a bit more defined low end response. I also want it hard tail. I am not a whammy kind of guy. It’ll also have dual volume/tone controls.
I am not planning on building the body from scratch. I don’t have the tools or the experience yet. Sadly, all the pre-built bodies I have found don’t really match what I want.
I did run across this. But it is routed for a whammy…
Take a look. They offer the ability to order a body routed to handle an extended 24-fret neck. I would order from one do these reputable makers or monitor eBay for 24-fret ready bodies…
Good luck and keep us posted! Now that you know the body type and pickup layout you want, do look around. There’s a bunch of parts makers out there besides Warmoth (but they are great) and lots of stuff on eBay. Do you know how much you want the guitar to weigh or the wood type/tonal response you’re after? That stuff matters.
squeegee? Anything to say? (to be clear, I really don’t care; but geekery is geekery…)
I am thinking mahogany. Being a metal head I want the tone to rip your throat out. Then stomp on you a bit. Then point at you and call you a wimp. And laugh.
But I am not set on that. Maybe with a maple top.
The neck will have a rosewood finger board.
I also want the switching set up a bit weird. Usually the switch does bridge/bridge and neck/ neck. I want it bridge/neck/bridge and neck. I rarely use just the neck pup. For riffing it is always bridge, for solos I swap between bridge for low end stuff and bridge/neck for high end stuff. The problem with normal toggles is that I usually blow by bridge/neck by hitting it too hard. So the simple way to fix that is to change the toggle instead of learning to do it right.
But right now I am just planning it out and may change my mind.
I think that’s actually pretty trivial to do. Your average 3-position switch allows the middle connection to be split in the wiring, but most wiring connects the middle position to the outside 2 positions. I’m not sure how to explain it without a circuit diagram, but you could connect the middle connection to one side or the other and get what you’re describing. I think?
Hmm, I can’t offer a strong recommendation simply because I am not a metal guy. I have heard that basswood with maple cap yields a body that is light and has a great tone - and you can get a top with flames or other cool maple grain on it I would strongly recommend hanging out on The Gear Page or other metal-oriented message boards where folks build guitars from parts and do a search or start a thread to ask.
As for switching and stuff like that, I leave it to squeegee and other circuit heads. I barely know which end of the soldering iron gets hot.
Actually, Dopers like BigShooter and Shakester know that stuff, too - BigShooter builds guitars a lot, so may know have a recommendation for the body. Haven’t seen either in a bit, but you could try contacting them…and River Hippie has built a couple of Strats, but I don’t think he plays any metal either…
(to be clear, I really don’t care; but geekery is geekery…)
