Building a new guitar
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:02 pm
I've had this idea rolling around in my head for quite some time. I put together a guitar several years ago, but I didn't like the body and the pickups that I used. I ended up keeping the neck and selling the rest of it.
I've had this idea for several years. As many of you know, I owned Chet's Peaver guitar that Paul Yandell built for him. I had the guitar for 6 or 7 years, it spent most of the time that I owned it in a display case on the wall. I liked the sound of the guitar, but the way that I play, most things sound better on a Country Gentleman. So I sold it a while back, but I was always thinking, wouldn't it be great to have a guitar that gets the Peaver sound and also the sound similar to a Country Gentleman? So I've finally decided to build one. ( Okay, before everyone jumps on me and says: It won't sound 100% like the Peaver or Country Gentleman, I know that. But, I think it will be a very versatile guitar that will get the basic sounds that I'm after in one guitar.)
Here's what I'm doing: I have a Carvin maple neck with a ebony fretboard that is 1 3/4" at the nut. ( I had "Schwickerath" inlayed on the headstock in pearl several years ago.) I bought a Fender licensed Mighty Mite Stratocaster body for it. I'm puting the "Peaver" electronics circuit in it exactly like Paul had in the Peaver. (I documented the Peaver guitar when I owned it.) It will have the EMG active pickups in the middle and bridge position. For the neck position I ordered a Supertron from T.V. Jones with the solid bars like the Country Gentleman has, only in a black "soapbar" case so it will match the EMG pickups. You run into some problems when you try to mix active electronics and passive electronics. So, I figured out by using stacked pots, one value for the active circuit and a different value for the passive circuit I can make it work with the standard Strat control layout. It will have a 3 position lever switch (3 position like the Peaver) instead of the 5 position like a Strat has. It will also have a 2 position mini toggle switch to switch between the Peaver setup and the neck Country Gentleman pickup. You won't be able to mix the two sounds, because of the "active" and "passive" circuit differences. So, you can have the basic "Peaver" sound and the basic "Country Gentleman neck pickup" sound in the same guitar. The guitar body is routed for a tremolo, but I ordered a hardtail bridge for it. (A Kahler 7330c non-tremolo bridge with fine tuners.) I plan on installing a fliptop battery box in the tremolo cavity thru the tremolo cover on the back of the guitar. This will power the active EMG-S pickups. I have most of the parts ordered.
I'm excited about building this guitar and I had to tell someone about it. If anyone is interested, I'll update you on the progress here on the Chetboard. I think this will make a very versatile guitar with the basic Peaver/Country Gentleman sounds. No, it won't replace my Country Gentleman, but I think it will be a fun guitar.
I've had this idea for several years. As many of you know, I owned Chet's Peaver guitar that Paul Yandell built for him. I had the guitar for 6 or 7 years, it spent most of the time that I owned it in a display case on the wall. I liked the sound of the guitar, but the way that I play, most things sound better on a Country Gentleman. So I sold it a while back, but I was always thinking, wouldn't it be great to have a guitar that gets the Peaver sound and also the sound similar to a Country Gentleman? So I've finally decided to build one. ( Okay, before everyone jumps on me and says: It won't sound 100% like the Peaver or Country Gentleman, I know that. But, I think it will be a very versatile guitar that will get the basic sounds that I'm after in one guitar.)
Here's what I'm doing: I have a Carvin maple neck with a ebony fretboard that is 1 3/4" at the nut. ( I had "Schwickerath" inlayed on the headstock in pearl several years ago.) I bought a Fender licensed Mighty Mite Stratocaster body for it. I'm puting the "Peaver" electronics circuit in it exactly like Paul had in the Peaver. (I documented the Peaver guitar when I owned it.) It will have the EMG active pickups in the middle and bridge position. For the neck position I ordered a Supertron from T.V. Jones with the solid bars like the Country Gentleman has, only in a black "soapbar" case so it will match the EMG pickups. You run into some problems when you try to mix active electronics and passive electronics. So, I figured out by using stacked pots, one value for the active circuit and a different value for the passive circuit I can make it work with the standard Strat control layout. It will have a 3 position lever switch (3 position like the Peaver) instead of the 5 position like a Strat has. It will also have a 2 position mini toggle switch to switch between the Peaver setup and the neck Country Gentleman pickup. You won't be able to mix the two sounds, because of the "active" and "passive" circuit differences. So, you can have the basic "Peaver" sound and the basic "Country Gentleman neck pickup" sound in the same guitar. The guitar body is routed for a tremolo, but I ordered a hardtail bridge for it. (A Kahler 7330c non-tremolo bridge with fine tuners.) I plan on installing a fliptop battery box in the tremolo cavity thru the tremolo cover on the back of the guitar. This will power the active EMG-S pickups. I have most of the parts ordered.
I'm excited about building this guitar and I had to tell someone about it. If anyone is interested, I'll update you on the progress here on the Chetboard. I think this will make a very versatile guitar with the basic Peaver/Country Gentleman sounds. No, it won't replace my Country Gentleman, but I think it will be a fun guitar.