Pickups and stuff

I´m now constructing(?)(trying to) an SG model but i´m only thinking of materials. I´m in the drawing step now and not sure about the wood type (i wnat the guitar to be "one piece") and the middle pickup. For the neck position i´ll use a benedetto and for the bridge a '57 classic. Any sugestions???

depends on what sound you want out of it. you can't really go wrong with Alder, unless you are into heavy metal, in which case check out Basswood (ie Ibanez).

It also depends on how much money you plan on spending...i mean are you having everything built at Warmoth or some other place and your just putting it together? thats the smartest thing to do, quality is much better.

Mahoghany is the classic SG wood, Korina is supposedly the king of tone woods. I'm interested in your preference for a one piece body, SG's are imfamous for a weak neck/body joint, a neck-thru body design would eliminate that and in theory sustain is better with bridge, p/u's, nut and tuners all on the same piece of wood, I'd like to hear your thoughts,ideas and musings on your design, etc, I love this kind of stuff..............

Since you're designing a neck-thru-body guitar, I recommend using maple. You could laminate a slab of mahogany on top (a la Les Paul), if you think it might be too bright, but since I found an old all-maple, neck-thru-body Odyssey V, I have come to question that assumption. I find that the thick, dark sound associated with mahogany is as close as the Tone knob. And I can still get as sharp and trebly as the pickups will allow.

First of all I may appologise for the bad english and thank you all for the advices.
Incidents: I´m doing it myself....
For the pickup i just decided the p-90, but i still in doubt about the wood... my project is not a neck thru body, but really one piece guitar. I thank about the possibility of a neck thru but i discarded it... The sound i´m looking for is something clear, very clear. I´m trying to find a kind of wood that i can build the guitar and make it´s sound (the vibration of the wood - sorry, i´m not too comfortable with the english. does anyone speak portuguese?) 100% or something like that. Let me try it in other way.pstring, maybe it´s what you wanted to know: the body will be in SG shape. The tuners will be Sperzel Satin Gold, the fretboard must have at least 24 frets (jumbo), the bridge will be T-O-M Piezo with 335-Style Trapeze Tailpiece. The pickups from neck to bridge are Benedetto humbucker gold, P-90 black and '57 classic gold. The truss rod will be a two way one, the nut´ll be made with the wood, but with a metal supportafter it(that´s my guarantee that the wood will be kept in a perfect condition. What I want exactly is to have the best quality and sound and everething in 100% that every part of the hardware can do for me(i think that´s it). Thanks a lot
pstring, do you have yahoo messenger?

Originally posted by HTF
... The sound i´m looking for is something clear, very clear. I´m trying to find a kind of wood that i can build the guitar and make it´s sound (the vibration of the ...

So, I am even more sure that maple is a good choice. With the pickup combination you have selected, I think alder would sound too 'thin'. Also, if you mean what I think you mean by the phrase 'one piece guitar', you will need the structural properties of maple for the neck.

Sorry, I don't do Messengers of any type, and no need to apologize for your English, mine isn't so great either. I take it that by one piece guitar, that your mean the body, neck and headstock will all be cut from the same block of wood, one unit, although that will require a very large piece of wood, it really wouldn't be more difficult than a neck-thru design. Do you have any diagrams or measured drawings of a SG? The angle of the neck is very important to the playing action and for the TOM style bridge, also the angle of the headstock is very important. This is a very ambitious project, I would say that you have much research to do, if you haven't done so already, Good Luck,
....... Are you from Portugal, Brazil or the Azore's ?
BTW, I agree with Lordathestrings, Maple would be a very good choice of wood, a very clear sound and your design will require a very strong wood..........

[Edited by pstring on 08-26-2002 at 10:58 PM]

Hey, how'd you guess he's Portuguese?

Maybe he's from Medeira Island, owned by the Medeira family....

He could be a mob henchman who plays guitar on the side when he's not extorting money from shopkeepers!


(sorry, I just watched the Godfather pt. II yesterday. But the Medeira island stuff is the truth!)

Lord, i´ll try your suggestion, thanks a lot! By the way, where i can get the structural properties of maple for the neck (yes, i´ve used Ctrl+C Ctrl+V)?? And I think you´ve understood the way i wanted, as shown by pstring, Body, neck and headstock cut from the same piece of wood...
pstring, i´m from Brazil (here´s your answer eggman... sorry to disapoint you, but i´m only an ordinary citizen(?)). The diagram i have is my friend´s gibson´s... I´m gonna take the neck agle(if i´d used the word angulation would it be ok?) from this guitar. In other ocasion you´ve proposed the korina and mentioned the word "king of tone woods". I´m convinced for now that the best wood is maple, but can you tell me more about that one??

[Edited by HTF on 08-27-2002 at 11:02 AM]

I suspect that a lot of this reputation is based on some mythology involving 'exotic' (from far away) hardwoods. In Brazil, a guitar made of Canadian maple would certainly qualify. I bow to your ambition concerning the one-piece nature of your design. This will, indeed, be a formidable project. I wish you the very best of luck. Please keep us up-to-date on your progress.

Thanks again man... I´ll certainly keep you updated and in the future, when i get it concluded i´ll send a picture of her for you. i´ll try to find samples of both wood to make my choice and start saving money again, cause i just had to buy an amp (unfortunatelly those things break...). That´s it!






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