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Need help with DIY


Bitterguy

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I Need help with D-I-Y with guitar and pedals. And i had some questions.

 

Can anyone link me to a good DIY guitar kit under/around $150 USD.

 

I will need help soldering if i can find a good DIY kit tutorials if you don't mind.

 

Do you think mcdonalds or some other low-rate job would higher me for as much as a 14 year old could work for so i can get money for this stuff.

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I don't think you'll find a decent kit for $150, and you will end up spending money to get the right tools and supplies to finish and assemble. I think you are better off looking for a used guitar. Also, Rondo Music has some SX guitars for $80-120 that get good reviews. You might also check out Guitar Fetish (Xaviere) guitars, but they are a little more expensive.

 

If you can save up $300, you will have better options, I believe.

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I think that's about right. You'll need to drop as much money on tools as the parts. And if you're learning on the go, you'll probably make a few screw ups on the way, which will cost some more.

 

Building your own guitar doesn't save money as a one-off. If you're into modding / building, it's a fun hobby, and a great way of getting exactly what you want, but it's not cheap. Maybe if you're already a guy who solders and does electrical stuff and works wood, then yeah. But apart from that, not really.

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More positively: instead of starting with a kit or parts, which will have a steep learning curve, get yourself a cheap guitar and mod it over time, learning as you go.

 

Just replacing pickups will teach you a lot about soldering and electrics. And just replacing saddles will teach you a lot about setup and intonation.

 

You can spread these things out according to your finances, and slowly turn a pretty good cheap guitar into an awesome guitar. And then eventually, you'll know enough that could probably do a from-scratch build that will be even better.

 

Go find yourself a cheap Squier or something. The parts that will make it better are, surprisingly, often the cheapest bits. Better pots, better switches, better jack, it all makes a difference.

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Yeah, building your own in not going to save you much.

 

I say look on your local craigslist for a used, but in like new condition Yamaha pacifica 112j. They actually are a very nice guitar stock, if you have it set up properly.

 

That is a big catch. Any guitar needs to be set up, and that just takes time to learn how to do. Even a $2000 Gibson is going to play like a turd if it is not set up (hello every guitar in guitar center).

 

A basic set up is to,

have the neck relief set,

have the action set,

have the intonation set,

and also have the pickup heights set, usually this means raising the pickups a little closer to the strings, but your ear should be the judge.

 

A used pac112j should run you about $125 to $145. Sometimes you see them for $100. Make sure you get the 112j and not the 012 if you do end up getting a Pacifica.

 

That's my advice anyway.

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+1 on a used yamaha pacifica and tools


If you wanted a DIY to learn and get into modding/building/setup. Take the guitar you get apart down to the last screw and put it back together.

 

 

I have a guitar to do this with but my mom does not want me messing with it. In fear that i won't know how to put it back together or dog will come in and step on pickups or something

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Mod this guitar? ,http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Rogue-Rocketeer-HSS-Electric-Guitar-Value-Pack?sku=582903 It isn't the best reviewed but I could start modding and painting and eventually put all this good stuff on it and have a guitar that i bought for $99 that sounds like $600 guitar (with just new pups and neck and stuff)

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Get some books first. Borders has some exellent books on guitar repair or if you want, building one from scratch. Educate yourself before you spend any money or possibly do something you might regret to your guitar. If you learn how to do that all now, you might be able to pick up a little money on the side down the road fixing other peoples stuff :)

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A big part of what I consider to be good bones is,

 

A solid neck, a solid body, and technically sound construction.

 

 

So you can mod a guitar that does not feel good all day long, and you still will have a guitar that does not feel good at the end of the day. That is a waste of money.

 

That is a catch with a lot of cheep guitars. The tuners will be very cheap and need to be replaced. The fret work on the neck will be very poor and this makes any guitar miserable to play, no matter how good all the other parts are. If the body is made of a glued up piece of cheep wood (generalization) it is never going to sound as good a solid piece of wood will. A cheep nut, and nut job, will zap the fun right out of any guitar as well. The body and neck finish are a big deal too.

 

These are all part of the reason that I recomended to Pac112j. The bones are very good. Great fret work on these guitars, the tuners are rock solid, the body is a 3 peice alder. You also get the tonal veriety out of an SSH pickup configuration. The catch for you I suppose is, that it really does not need to be modded, except for perhaps the trem block and string tree. You could always paint it though.

 

Modding is a great hobby. Maybe get one of the GFS kits and give it a whorl even. But if you are looking to take are really cheap guitar and turn it into something, you better start with really quality bones, and then you get out of cheap guitar territory pretty quick.

 

IMO modding is done best with a mid range guitar, you mod it to suit your needs with the pickup swap. But to think you are going to turn a cheep guitar into a real sweet axe, is more of a waste of money.

 

Some of the higher end Made in Mexico Strats come to mind. So of the GFS guitars will do. Maybe Rondo.

Mod a good guitar to suit your needs, not to try to polish a turd.

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A big part of what I consider to be good bones is,

 

A solid neck, a solid body, and technically sound construction.

 

 

So you can mod a guitar that does not feel good all day long, and you still will have a guitar that does not feel good at the end of the day. That is a waste of money.

 

That is a catch with a lot of cheep guitars. The tuners will be very cheap and need to be replaced. The fret work on the neck will be very poor and this makes any guitar miserable to play, no matter how good all the other parts are. If the body is made of a glued up piece of cheep wood (generalization) it is never going to sound as good a solid piece of wood will. A cheep nut, and nut job, will zap the fun right out of any guitar as well. The body and neck finish are a big deal too.

 

These are all part of the reason that I recomended to Pac112j. The bones are very good. Great fret work on these guitars, the tuners are rock solid, the body is a 3 peice alder. You also get the tonal veriety out of an SSH pickup configuration. The catch for you I suppose is, that it really does not need to be modded, except for perhaps the trem block and string tree. You could always paint it though.

 

Modding is a great hobby. Maybe get one of the GFS kits and give it a whorl even. But if you are looking to take are really cheap guitar and turn it into something, you better start with really quality bones, and then you get out of cheap guitar territory pretty quick.

 

IMO modding is done best with a mid range guitar, you mod it to suit your needs with the pickup swap. But to think you are going to turn a cheep guitar into a real sweet axe, is more of a waste of money.

 

Some of the higher end Made in Mexico Strats come to mind. So of the GFS guitars will do. Maybe Rondo.

Mod a good guitar to suit your needs, not to try to polish a turd.

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A big part of what I consider to be good bones is,


A solid neck, a solid body, and technically sound construction.



So you can mod a guitar that does not feel good all day long, and you still will have a guitar that does not feel good at the end of the day. That is a waste of money.


That is a catch with a lot of cheep guitars. The tuners will be very cheap and need to be replaced. The fret work on the neck will be very poor and this makes any guitar miserable to play, no matter how good all the other parts are. If the body is made of a glued up piece of cheep wood (generalization) it is never going to sound as good a solid piece of wood will. A cheep nut, and nut job, will zap the fun right out of any guitar as well. The body and neck finish are a big deal too.


These are all part of the reason that I recomended to Pac112j. The bones are very good. Great fret work on these guitars, the tuners are rock solid, the body is a 3 peice alder. You also get the tonal veriety out of an SSH pickup configuration. The catch for you I suppose is, that it really does not need to be modded, except for perhaps the trem block and string tree. You could always paint it though.


Modding is a great hobby. Maybe get one of the GFS kits and give it a whorl even. But if you are looking to take are really cheap guitar and turn it into something, you better start with really quality bones, and then you get out of cheap guitar territory pretty quick.


IMO modding is done best with a mid range guitar, you mod it to suit your needs with the pickup swap. But to think you are going to turn a cheep guitar into a real sweet axe, is more of a waste of money.


Some of the higher end Made in Mexico Strats come to mind. So of the GFS guitars will do. Maybe Rondo.

Mod a good guitar to suit your needs, not to try to polish a turd.

 

 

I actually disagree with this somewhat, though you make several sound points.

 

Guitars are very modular in design, and if you're on a tight budget, you've got to start from somewhere, right? So {censored} it,l if you can only afford to start with something cheap, then go for it. Don't not do it because of money. In the long run, you might swap everything out, and up with a completely different guitar. But in the medium term, you're improving it all the time, at the rate you can afford, and you're learning loads.

 

As long as you avoid absolute garbage guitars at the outset, you can get a hell of a lot of improvement out of fairly cheap tweaks. I've got a thread over on 2.0 about my Squier Affinity Tele, that I've modded into a fairly majestic state.

 

Thing about that guitar is, it's so basic, that yeah, sure it's cheap out of the box, but it's also pretty nice. They've scrimped a lot on the electrics, and the wiring scheme was, um, unorthodox, to say the least. But the body and neck are fine. And you know, one of the things that made a massive improvement were new pots and caps, and that cost me less than a tenner.

 

If you know what you're looking for, cheap modding platforms aren't hard to find. Other people have mentioned the Pacifica, and that's a great tip too. Nothing fundamentally wrong with those guitars, physically speaking.

 

My Tele is never going to be a PRS; I mean, of course it's not. But it's ended being a long way better than any guitar I could have got for the amount I've spent on it overall.

 

That's the key difference between building and modding; the former will never really save you money, but the latter really can.

 

Plus which, if you're going to be playing guitar for life, knowing how to do some basic soldering and setup stuff is fantastically useful and will save you a {censored}load in the longer run.

 

Bottom line - a kit build will generally be way more expensive than buying a cheapo and modding it, but a kit build will get you closer to your dream guitar, if you do it right. Myself, I'd say if you're on a tight budget, and can't afford to do a build, mod a cheapo rather than do nothing. It's fun, it's interesting, you'll learn a lot of stuff, and you still come out the other end with a custom guitar. Which is way cool, right?

 

The true Jedi must learn to build his own lightsaber.

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I'll tell you what though, look at this thread. A load of old GAS addicts schooling a 14 year old on how to build up a nasty guitar habit. I swear, there are probably laws against this. :lol:

 

Run, Bitterguy, while you still can!

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I actually disagree with this somewhat, though you make several sound points.


Guitars are very modular in design, and if you're on a tight budget, you've got to start from somewhere, right? So {censored} it,l if you can only afford to start with something cheap, then go for it. Don't
not
do it because of money. In the long run, you might swap
everything
out, and up with a completely different guitar. But in the medium term, you're improving it all the time, at the rate you can afford, and you're learning loads.


As long as you avoid absolute garbage guitars at the outset, you can get a hell of a lot of improvement out of fairly cheap tweaks. I've got a thread over on 2.0 about my Squier Affinity Tele, that I've modded into a fairly majestic state.


Thing about that guitar is, it's so basic, that yeah, sure it's cheap out of the box, but it's also pretty nice. They've scrimped a lot on the electrics, and the wiring scheme was, um,
unorthodox
, to say the least. But the body and neck are fine. And you know, one of the things that made a massive improvement were new pots and caps, and that cost me less than a tenner.


If you know what you're looking for, cheap modding platforms aren't hard to find. Other people have mentioned the Pacifica, and that's a great tip too. Nothing fundamentally wrong with those guitars, physically speaking.


My Tele is never going to be a PRS; I mean, of course it's not. But it's ended being a long way better than any guitar I could have got for the amount I've spent on it overall.


That's the key difference between building and modding; the former will never really save you money, but the latter really can.


Plus which, if you're going to be playing guitar for life, knowing how to do some basic soldering and setup stuff is fantastically useful and will save you a {censored}load in the longer run.


Bottom line - a kit build will generally be way more expensive than buying a cheapo and modding it, but a kit build will get you closer to your dream guitar, if you do it right. Myself, I'd say if you're on a tight budget, and can't afford to do a build, mod a cheapo rather than do nothing. It's fun, it's interesting, you'll learn a lot of stuff, and you still come out the other end with a custom guitar. Which is way cool, right?


The true Jedi must learn to build his own lightsaber.

 

Thank you for the advice. I think i'm going to go with http://www.rondomusic.com/product2004.html (I love myself a flying V) but I have a question this guitar comes with 2 volume and 1 tone (@$$ backwards imo :cop: ) I've heard of taking out one of the tones and making it a killswitch but is it okay to take out on of the volumes? If so how do i wire 2 once separately controlled pickups to 1 volume ?

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I'll tell you what though, look at this thread. A load of old GAS addicts schooling a 14 year old on how to build up a nasty guitar habit. I swear, there are probably laws against this.
:lol:

Run, Bitterguy, while you still can!

 

Sry for noob question i understand what Gas is but not what it stands for

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Can you do it? is it OK? Yes, the only thing you loose is the ability to balance the output of the two pickups, without touching the volume knob while playing. Don't mean to generalize, but you are 14, and buying a V. So if you are anything like my 14 y.o. with a V, you probably won't ever play the neck pickup.

 

In a guitar with two volume controls, the wiring goes:

 

pickups - volume/tone - selector switch - output jack.

 

If you only have one volume control, you just need to put it after the switch, instead of before it.

 

As far as the guitar you picked, for something to learn modding on, it would be silly to not buy it.:thu:

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Can you do it? is it OK? Yes, the only thing you loose is the ability to balance the output of the two pickups, without touching the volume knob while playing. Don't mean to generalize, but you are 14, and buying a V. So if you are anything like my 14 y.o. with a V, you probably won't ever play the neck pickup.


In a guitar with two volume controls, the wiring goes:


pickups - volume/tone - selector switch - output jack.


If you only have one volume control, you just need to put it after the switch, instead of before it.


As far as the guitar you picked, for something to learn modding on, it would be silly to not buy it.
:thu:

 

So all i would need to do is rearange the wires so it goes from the pickups, to the selector switch, to the volume/tone, to the jack?

 

and as far as the neck pickup goes i like for its kinds metal / heavy sound, bot it all depends on what i feel like doing

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Yes, that's all you need to do. Probably do it while you are changing/ getting rid of the stock pickups.

 

I :love: SGs too. A Gibson SG is way over my budget. So for me, the Epiphone G400 would be the benchmark. MF, Music123, everybody sells them for $350 everyday. I would think you could call, and get one for $300. So I'm thinking a used G400 would be right around the price of that kit. Different strokes for different folks, but I'd take a red one, and never dream of painting it. Too damned perfect like that. :) Anyways, I have no idea what the value/ quality of the parts of the GFS kit is vs a G400. My gut guess is the G400 would be better, but I've been wrong before.

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http://store.guitarfetish.com/somasgkicowi.html
=
:love:
sg guitars, plus i won't have to strip it to repaint
:D
.

 

That would be fun. You might ask around about how the necks are on those kits, but from the looks of things, you could end up with a really nice guitar, and learn a lot.

 

My only advice for a project like that is to take your time. When you start to rush any part of the process, you make your mistake.

 

You might want to look into http://www.reranch.com/ too. They have lots of good info on their site, plus some really nice refinishing products.

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