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View Full Version : NGD - well half a guitar. DON'T look if you love Squires.



deeaa
June 11th, 2010, 09:50 AM
I kinda noticed I had this Squier strat lying around doing nothing...and I had a few hours to kill...so I picked up this electric saw and cut the size down a little...sanded some roughest edges off, but I figure I'll leave it like it is...

Then I just ripped out the pickguard and the original electronics and tossed them in the bin, rummaged my parts boxes and found an EMG 85 - perfect, then some old parts for other electrics and even a handy battery box. Didn't want to ruin the picguard and too much work to dismantle it anyhow, so I just used whatever I came accross to screw in the parts.

And lo and behold, what a rockin' axe it is! Now all I need is an excellent neck and another great guitar is born out of what used to be a cheap Squire!

http://deeaa.pp.fi/clips/simple.jpg

Katastrophe
June 11th, 2010, 10:35 AM
You could call it "The DEE-constructor" guitar.

It's certainly interesting, and I would say cool in its own way.

deeaa
June 11th, 2010, 10:41 AM
Heh, I like that idea. Dee-constructed :-)

bigoldron
June 11th, 2010, 12:49 PM
Or "DEE-lightful".... Looks pretty cool to me...

poodlesrule
June 11th, 2010, 01:12 PM
Are you going to put a pickguard on, or keep it with the surgery staples showing...?

marnold
June 11th, 2010, 01:33 PM
You could throw it out the window and it would be DEE-fenestrated.

bigoldron
June 11th, 2010, 02:05 PM
Of course a true Squire fan might find it "DEE-spicable" or "DEE-testible", but I think it's "DEE" coolest..... LOL

deeaa
June 11th, 2010, 02:23 PM
I think I will leave it like this, no pickguard...maybe it'll gather some stickers or something along the way...but yeah, like this. I have nice Ibanez neck in sights for it now...

ZMAN
June 13th, 2010, 06:55 AM
It has already been done. Les paul did it many years ago with the "log".
Since then guitars have become somwhat more "refined". I bet it would only play heavy metal music. Also you could probably only play it with construction gloves.

deeaa
June 13th, 2010, 07:36 AM
It has already been done. Les paul did it many years ago with the "log".
Since then guitars have become somwhat more "refined". I bet it would only play heavy metal music. Also you could probably only play it with construction gloves.

Yes, refined...but, really, why are all those parts on a guitar? Methinks they are purely for looks.

When have I last really used a neck pickup? When recording something, maybe. Live, hardly ever. On many guitars I have it on with the bridge at all times, but not on the axe I have used of late. When have I used a volume knob? Pretty much never either. But I had to leave it on because I didn't know how to hook the wires without one. Same for tone knob - I can't EVER in over 25 years needing that beside experimenting something.

What's a pickguard for, except holding the pickups and/or shielding paint? Completely unnecessary. Then when you don't need those switches you can use the cavity for a battery box so no need to carve a hole for it.

It may look like you could hurt your hand on it, but that isn't the case. How often do you actually hit the pickguard area with fingers when you play? Never. So some sharpish edges don't matter either.

One of these days I'll build a guitar completely out of old car parts or something...well the neck has to be good, so that will be wood most likely...but other than the neck & anything directly to do with strings such as bridges etc. it really has no significant role to how an electric sounds anyway.

Mike S.
June 13th, 2010, 10:14 AM
Hey, whatever floats your boat.

Eric
June 13th, 2010, 11:33 AM
That's pretty cool. I really like the idea of deconstructing things and seeing what still matters at the end of the day, and this is kind of the guitar version of that.

Post some pics/clips when you do find a neck.

deeaa
June 13th, 2010, 11:59 AM
Sure, Eric...I actually jutted an old Flying-V neck on it today BUT even with woodworking and destroying the neck completely it would be impossible to intonate - just too short a neck. But it looked funky with the 'spade' headstock.

deeaa
June 16th, 2010, 04:33 AM
Update:

This is how it looked originally BTW:

http://www.agileguitarforum.com/uploader/files/1240618008-mercknobs3.jpg

(not my guitar but the same, except mine had normal knobs. Just a regular Squier Classic Vibe Stratocaster.)

I now decided to put the original maple neck in it...it's not half bad after all. Actually rather good. I'm expecting this guitar to become a good player now that I've improved it with some power sawing and funkier electronics ;-)

deeaa
June 17th, 2010, 09:21 AM
http://deeaa.pp.fi/clips/IMAG0250.jpg

SO glad I decided to put in the Classic Player 1-piece neck. It plays VERY well and sounds great acoustically too. I'm actually quite surprised how good it turned out. Even found my region's emblem sticker to put on it to hide the biggest hole :-)

Been playing it a while now as I'm watching the kids & adjusting as I go...but I do believe this will be at least as good as my other strat! And I love the slick slightly V shaped maple lacquered neck. The Classic Player seems way better quality than the cheaper Squire necks, this is perfectly straight and doesn't have those thin weak-looking frets.

Rockermann
June 17th, 2010, 11:40 AM
That certainly has an 'industrial' look to it. And... If you need spare parts, erector sets are readily available. :)

deeaa
June 17th, 2010, 02:31 PM
Heh, yeah :-) although it's that HEVAC stuff for hanging/holding pipes...

sunvalleylaw
June 17th, 2010, 11:19 PM
Needs more duct tape. ;-)

I like it!

syo
June 18th, 2010, 07:29 PM
I love it. Goes great with the Spookbox T as well!

poodlesrule
June 23rd, 2010, 10:50 AM
deeaa, the pin-end of your strap looks like a dog leash snap closure...

Local product?

(I wrote earlier about it being an item from your dog's stuff, but on second look, it does look like a strap, not a dog leash -funny given the context!)

deeaa
June 23rd, 2010, 12:14 PM
Heh, it's actually the strap from my laptop's soft case which I don't use.

I've also used guitar bag straps (Rockbag) because they come with dual straps and I never need two. They also have the same kind of ends...work well for guitar & no need for locks. (I never take straps off guitars anyway, often I just duct tape them there fast.)