Maplecaster

[FIXXXER]

with the help of my uncle i am building my first "all maple" experimental
guitar and i want to share the first results with you guys!

the guitar is almost finished, i just need to put everything together
and decide if i want an oil, shellac or all natural wood finish
(no finish at all, which will make the guitar turn rancid very
quick...well, it may look interesting )

i didn't dare to build a neck for my first project so i just bought one!

there will be no pots, switches etc. on this one, just the humbucker
soldered directly to the jack...rock 'n roll baby!!!

i fucked up the humbucker routing as i wanted an passive EMG in this one.
the EMG does not fit the regular humbucker dimensions so i had to re-route
everything, which is almost impossible if routing was done before.

now i have to make a custom pickup frame (out of maple of course! )
to cover the oversized and fucked up routing.

the body is an one piece!

the wood is bosnian "mountain maple"
(i do not know the exact term for this)

all i know is, that this type of wood is very popular and very often used
for violins...

cheers
S.

 

[FIXXXER]

 

[FIXXXER]

 

[FIXXXER]

 

[FIXXXER]

 

[006]

Coming along great, awesome work. Would like to see it with that bridge installed, haven't seen many with it. Will you be doing the forearm contour?

 

[KeithTidd]

i bet that thing weighs a ton.

 

[FIXXXER]

@006
not 100% sure yet but i think i won't do any contouring, i want that typical flat tele look on this one.
i'll post more pics soon, i hope the bridge and everything else fits. thanks!

@KeithTidd
it does!
i'll be using it for recording and playing @home only, so the weight does not really matter.
not sure how or if it will affect the sound. thanks!

cheers
S.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

it'll sound stipudly bright, I wouldn't really go with an EMG for that, would definitely choose something darker I think

 

[FIXXXER]

it's an passive EMG HZ, it's not as "clear" as the 81 IIRC, so it may fit.

any suggestions for a darker pickup?
the construction is very simple so it shouldn't be a problem to switch out/try different pickups!

cheers
S.

 

[FIXXXER]

one layer of shellac later...

 

[ex-250]

Looks great. Might I suggest a Duncan JB. A lot of people have a lot of gripes about this pickup...except when its in a maple body. Apparently that is its true home.

 

[FIXXXER]

thanks man!

i had a SH-4 in my mayones and it sounded horrible, kinda muddy but with annoying hi peaks.
i do not know the JB (which model do you mean exactly?) i wil take a closer look at this one.

cheers
S.

 

[ex-250]

Haha, SH-4 = JB. People that hate the JB in other woods love it in maple, so I figured it was worth a suggestion.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

you should have stained it black (like this

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/666440-new-guitar-project-day.html

 

[John_C]

I'm intrigued as to how this will sound. I have a half finished guitar project at home from years ago, It's essentially 100% maple as well but i never finished it.

 

[FIXXXER]

@ex-250
haha, ok, i knew there was a connection
well i can't say that i do not like this pickup in general,
i just did not liked it my mayo.

@Lasse
actually i wanted to do exactly this but as this is my first project
i thought that there is a big chance that i could ruin the nice piece of wood.

i'll be doing a tele with similar specs, as my second project, then i will definitely go for a stained black look

@John_C
i think that it will sound bright, glassy but with a good low end, a bit scooped, could be good for dirty blues rock stuff.

i'll post sound clips when it's finished of course!

cheers
S.

 

[FIXXXER]

need to solder the jack, when the jack plate arrives and i have
to drill some holes for the jack plate and the pickup frame.

basically everything is done unfortunately the bridge didn't turn out perfectly.
when you take a close look at the full stringed guitar pic,
the deep E dtring is more to the center of the fretboard.
it's not a big thing, it just does not look that good.

i'll be posting clips when it's 100% done!

cheers
S.

 

[FIXXXER]

ok, i had to rework this. the shellack finish looked really stupid so i just removed everything!
body wood is completely untreated now, it will get green and grey for sure, rock 'n rut!

 

[StefTD]

samples or it didn't happen