Official Luthiers Forum!

Well, hello everyone.
I'm new here, but so far I really like it, and everyone seems to know what they're talking about.

I'll jump right to it then...I'm in the early stages of building my own electric guitar.
It is going to be influenced by the Ibanez Jem 10th guitar (super-strat style), because that aesthetic I find appealing, and I like the playability of that guitar style.

However it's not going to be a straight copy...like, I want a 25" scale length, not 25.5" (don't have huge fingers), it will have a body of honduras mahogany (because I've allready got the one piece body shaped, 2 1/4 inches thick...I got that blank for £25 from a luhier I was doing an evening class with!! Will try and get a picture somehow, it's a lovely piece of wood) Neck wood...still to be decided on...but I don't really want a bolt on OR MAPLE neck, because I don't like the way they feel, and I'm after a more les paul, or PRS type tone from this...less of the tinny harshness associated with this type of guitar. So, I think I want a deep set neck as that will give a lot of tone and sustain, not to mention I'll be able to carve the heel down a LOT more than a bolt on, making it more comfortable.

So, I guess the general question I'm asking is, does anyone have any experience building this style of guitar (super-strat, locking trem and nut, etc) and could anyone offer any advice on the construction, design, pitfalls, and anything really essential that needs to be thought of, like, I dunno, neck angle at the body joint, fitting a locking trem, etc.

Specifically there are two things I wanted advice on at this stage...as I'll be using a floating/locking trem in this thing...can these be installed on deep set neck style guitars? As the wood goes through most of the top of the body, you'd have to drill a hole all the way through to fit...is that a problem?

Also, can anyone offer advice on alternatives to maple for a neck wood? As said before, I don't want to use it, and as it's a deep set in neck, it will affect the tone more han a bolt on, and I don't want that harsh maple like tone. I want a wood that will complement the mahogany body nicely with a bit more brightness and sweetness, and some more mids to it. Should Iconsider maple, or will that be too harsh sounding for what I'm after?

Ok everyone, sorry for the long essay, thanks for reading and any help would be REALLY appreciated...I wana get started on this, it's exciting!

Hi there!

Im in a similar position to you; i will be starting my first build shortly after christmas... i also live in the midwest!

anyhoo, to answer your questions, yes, you can fit a floating trem to a set neck guitar. it wont matter if its a deep set neck and you mount it in the neck wood (if anything that will give you more sustain)

and as for neck woods, you could try using mahogany ala Gibson but if your going with a les paul type tone you might want to consider maple (les pauls are made from mahogany and maple glued together. since you wont have a maple top, perhaps using a maple neck will make up for it?) but as long as you use humbuckers, it will sound close to a les paul.

also, on a LP the neck angle at the body is 4 degrees but strats and superstrats are joined with no angle because of the thinner bridges these guitars have. because of this, strats with floyds have to either have the bridge set into the body or the neck shimmed to create an angle.

hope that helps somewhat

You CAN use pretty much any stable hardwood for a neck.

I've used mahogany, maple, walnut, and oak.

Splitty's right about the rest too......

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