Custom electric guitar project

I'm currently developing a project for building my own self-designed guitar (solid-body electric).

I wonder if any members have experience in guitar building so we could share some knowledge.

Cheers!

Gerard

Yes I knew about your custom Hugh Manson bass, which looks terrific!

And those Giffin guitars look very very nice too!

I want my own self-designed body and my own self-decided specs, so I discard a "kit build". The guitar will be built from scratch.

I own a '93 Carvin DC-135 which is a pretty good guitar, so my custom guitar needs to be as good as, or hopefully better than, the Carvin. So it's got to be a really high quality guitar, as you can see in the specs below I am choosing top quality components.

This is my design, I'm talking to luthiers to actually build it and it may still get some small modifications but I believe it's already pretty close to final design stage.

I'm calling my custom guitar the "GB Cygnus X-1". Cygnus X-1 is the first black hole discovered and I like physics and astronomy so it fits. It's also a song by Rush, one of my favourite bands, so it fits too. And since it's going to be my first guitar design, X-1 fits too. So triple fit with this name 

The specs so far are:

- Neck-through construction

- 25.00" scale

- 24 frets, in principle in stainless steel

- Fender LSR roller nut

- Neck-through wood: tbc, but in principle maple or walnut

- Body wings wood: tbc

- Fretboard wood: tbc, in principle ebony

- Fretboard radius: 12"

- Dual-Action truss-rod

- Titanium or carbon neck stiffener rods

- 3+3 headstock, straight nut to machine heads strings path

- Sperzel Trim-Lok machine heads

- Original Floyd Rose tremolo bridge

- Pickups: I'm still considering 2 options, HSH passive or HSH active. 

   In case of passive: Bridge: DiMarzio Evolution Bridge, Middle: DiMarzio SDS-1, Neck: DiMarzio Evolution Neck

   In case of active: Bridge: EMG 57 TW, Middle: EMG SA, Neck: EMG 66 TW

- In case of active pickups, integrated "Lo-Bat" low-battery indicator

- Controls: 3 mini-toggle switches, one for each pickup. Bridge: 3-position Off / Single-Coil / Humbucker; Middle: 2-position Off / On; Neck: 3-position Off / Single-Coil / Humbucker

   1 master volume + 1 master tone. Position markers on body.

- Colour: translucent grey including neck and headstock. All hardware in black.

- Finish gloss: Polyurethane

Now I'm at the stage of visiting luthiers, I do not dare trying to build it myself, the risk is too high plus I don't have a workshop space, in live in a small flat in the big city of Barcelona.

I will keep posting any news about the project,

Cheers!

Gerard

The neck-through is 3-piece laminated maple, and the body wings are mahogany

The fretboard is already machined, it's ebony

That's something i've always wanted to do. One of my favorite guitarists, Bumblefoot, has made his own guitars with his own hands. His Swiss Cheese guitar is now legendary.

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I trust the luthier who is actually building it, he seems to know well his trade. 

In terms of playability it should feel very similar to my Carvin DC-135 since we are copying its neck shape. But the pickups are very different so it should sound different, I have never played EMG active pickups so it's a bit of a gamble but I trust that it will be a good choice.

 

I was an early adopter of Carvin, buying a 1976 DC 150!  Odd instrument - VERY short scale length, heavy as heck (solid maple body), but a favorite of mine.  Back in those days, Frank Zappa endorsed Carvin pickups, and a few other rockers endorsed guitars, basses & amps.