What would I need to buy to fix this so it works (everything in the pic works) and about how much would it cost?
Guitar gear question
- Thread starter BulletRider
- Start date
What would I need to buy to fix this so it works (everything in the pic works) and about how much would it cost?
Bryant
Mr. Sleepy
This guitar looks Floyd Rose ready. You will need a Floyd Rose style tremola, a neck, tuning gear and the hardware to mount the neck and FLoyd. Other than that, it looks ready to rock. There is no dollar amount I can give. I would say between $150 and $400 to get it going. The $150 would be happening accross a complete guitar in a pawn shop with a nice neck (with the same bolt pattern as your guitar) and Floyd but with a hand-painted or beat-up body (it's not rare.) The $400 estimate would be what you would pay for pretty good quality parts from all=parts etc.
Bryant
Bryant
This may sound stupid, but what is a Floyd Rose style tremola? Sorry, I play guitar, but don't know all the parts of it. That part sounds important.
Sunbane
Metalistic Madman
This is not as easy as it looks, but I'll try to answer your Floyd question first:
Bryant was referring to the Floyd Rose tremolo system.
It's basically a fancy tremolo bridge (you know, they have this whammy bar that you use for applying tremolo). It sits balanced on two studs in the guitar, has locking mechanisms for the strings etc.
The neck is a much more complicated issue. You will need to know what type of neck was on the guitar previously, so I recommend you try to find out what guitar this is. You see, if this guitar used to have a 22-fret neck, you will need to get one of those - or if it had a 24-fret neck, get one of those. This is important, because if you put the wrong type of neck on the guitar, you end up with a scale length that is off and the guitar would be impossible to get to intonate properly. I would guess from the pickup spacing in the picture that this guitar used to have a 22-fret neck, but I can't say for sure.
Secondly, the neck must have space for a locking nut. Since the guitar was built for a Floyd system, you will need the locking nut to keep it in tune while doing whammy bar acrobatics. An ordinary nut will work as long as you keep off the whammy bar though, but the guitar won't be "complete" without the locking nut.
Thirdly, having a neck that fits well with the neck pocket in the guitar body is instrumental for getting a nice sound. The more snug fit it is, the better. This is maybe the most problematic part of finding a good replacement neck.
Finally, I need to ask - what type of wood is the guitar body built from? If it's just a chunk of plywood, it will hardly be worth the effort or the costs.
'bane
Bryant was referring to the Floyd Rose tremolo system.
It's basically a fancy tremolo bridge (you know, they have this whammy bar that you use for applying tremolo). It sits balanced on two studs in the guitar, has locking mechanisms for the strings etc.The neck is a much more complicated issue. You will need to know what type of neck was on the guitar previously, so I recommend you try to find out what guitar this is. You see, if this guitar used to have a 22-fret neck, you will need to get one of those - or if it had a 24-fret neck, get one of those. This is important, because if you put the wrong type of neck on the guitar, you end up with a scale length that is off and the guitar would be impossible to get to intonate properly. I would guess from the pickup spacing in the picture that this guitar used to have a 22-fret neck, but I can't say for sure.
Secondly, the neck must have space for a locking nut. Since the guitar was built for a Floyd system, you will need the locking nut to keep it in tune while doing whammy bar acrobatics. An ordinary nut will work as long as you keep off the whammy bar though, but the guitar won't be "complete" without the locking nut.
Thirdly, having a neck that fits well with the neck pocket in the guitar body is instrumental for getting a nice sound. The more snug fit it is, the better. This is maybe the most problematic part of finding a good replacement neck.
Finally, I need to ask - what type of wood is the guitar body built from? If it's just a chunk of plywood, it will hardly be worth the effort or the costs.
'bane
Sunbane
Metalistic Madman
Ok, some quick investigation reveals that the Kramer Voyager has a 22 fret neck. If you go for this, I would suggest you try to aquire another old kramer with a 22 fret neck and a Floyd tremolo bridge. Then you can move the floyd and the neck to the Voyager body. It's not guaranteed to be a perfect match, but I think it would be the best bet.
I know Kramer has built a few plywood guitars. I had an ST-100 once that had a plywood body (although with a remarkably good sound for being plywood). I don't know if this is the case with the Voyager.
'bane
I know Kramer has built a few plywood guitars. I had an ST-100 once that had a plywood body (although with a remarkably good sound for being plywood). I don't know if this is the case with the Voyager.
'bane
Silverhaze
Little Piggy Slasher
I think you'll end up putting more into it than you can buy a complete one for - but I'm not totally against that if building it is part of your pleasure. I see that the body your looking at is going for $109, but there is a complete black voyager with a hardshell case at $149 right now with 21hrs to go. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2540979058&category=41438
It will probably go up since I just advertised it though!
Plus, I'm sure the snipers will hit it too before it's over.
I'd watch that one and see what it goes for (or buy it instead), and then decide how much you are willing to spend to complete that body. Projects can be fun if you take the time to do it right and it really doesn't matter how much $$ you put into it if you end up with a killer axe that you're happy with - as long as you don't plan on selling it and recouping your costs.
Wonder if you're going to want to replace those stock pickups?
It will probably go up since I just advertised it though!
Plus, I'm sure the snipers will hit it too before it's over.
I'd watch that one and see what it goes for (or buy it instead), and then decide how much you are willing to spend to complete that body. Projects can be fun if you take the time to do it right and it really doesn't matter how much $$ you put into it if you end up with a killer axe that you're happy with - as long as you don't plan on selling it and recouping your costs.
Wonder if you're going to want to replace those stock pickups?
xenophobe
Active Member
You're looking at about another $175-$300 to get that guitar back to speed, seeing that there aren't any problems that need to be corrected...
Bryant
Mr. Sleepy
Doh !! Sunbane is soo right about neck length. I can't believe it didn't "pop" into my mind. Some guitars have longer necks than others "often referred to as 'scale' especially by bassists as bass guitars often differ greatly in neck lengths.
If you do not get the right "scale" neck length, your guitar will get out of tune more and more as you play up towards the body of the guitar. Fortunately, the tremola you buy will have adjustments for "intonation" (You move the position where the string rests on the back of the tremola) so it doesn't have to be perfect, but it needs to be pretty close.
Bryant
If you do not get the right "scale" neck length, your guitar will get out of tune more and more as you play up towards the body of the guitar. Fortunately, the tremola you buy will have adjustments for "intonation" (You move the position where the string rests on the back of the tremola) so it doesn't have to be perfect, but it needs to be pretty close.
Bryant
Similar threads
