Build your Own Guitar
EYB Sitar Bridge – Custom Made Electric Guitar Sitar
EYB Sitar Bridge – The Only Adjustable Sitar Bridge for Guitar
EYB Sitar Bridge is the only adjustable sitar bridge available for guitar.
If you know my work, I am interested in building all the possible guitars you can think of. After these days, I think I made about 24 different custom guitars that I am using daily in my studio to record my music, or for licensing music production.
I was wondering about guitar sitar since a while. I knew about the Danelectro model, and I was trying to put my hand on a secondhand one. But, I decided a long ago to only play with instruments I make. Except for an acoustic guitar, a 6 strings bass, and a nylon guitar, all the guitars I have are my creation.
I was clueless about how those guitars were made. I knew some people were doing some low-grade mods on their guitar to transform a regular guitar into a sitar. But first they sounded bad, and secondly, they sounded… Continue reading
Artec Electronics Active EQ & Booster on a 24 Frets Custom Guitar – Artec MP3 & Artec QTB
Artec Electronics Onboard Equalizer and Booster
Artec Electronic offers a great alternative to customize a guitar for a low price with high-quality components. The only hassle is to find or create a place to put the battery. Most of the passive electric guitars do not have such free spot, and on a Stratocaster type of instrument, it can be a PITA.
I have built this guitar using a kit from Aliexpress. I paid it 161$ shipping included. It’s a 24 frets hollow-body guitar that looks like a sort of PRS. I don’t know what the model of that guitar is. Normally, with kits, it’s always a copy of a known instrument such as; SG, Telecaster, Les Paul, etc…
This one I have no clue… But it’s a fantastic kit.
As I say in the video, I changed the hardware completely. I only kept the tuners, selector and jack plate. Everything else is new. The hardware included in any kit is first price quality.
If you only build a kit using… Continue reading
Modified Electronic on a Harley Benton Custom Line ResoKing
Harley Benton Custom Line ResoKing – Turn a first price resonator into a beast
Harley Benton Custom Line ResoKing. I bought this guitar at Thomann website for the low price of 198€, shipping included.
The guitar in its original version was ok. The action is set low, and the neck plays fast. But the electronic was really poor.
Neck Pickup
The original mini humbucker didn’t sound too good, and it was a two wires pup that I had to modify into a four wires pickup to split coil it.
I already had Belcat mini humbuckers I already changed into 4 wires, so I switched pickups for the best. Belcat is an excellent brand even if yo can get them incredibly cheap compared to superstars established brands like Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio.
Series/parallel switch
I installed a series/parallel switch on the neck volume pot. Every time I work on a humbucker I install a three position toggle switch to have series/split/parallel. When I lack room to had an extra switch, and… Continue reading
Tony Iommi Pickups Magnum 4 and hyperflux 5 & Guitar Roller Nut – Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway Kit Update
Tony Iommi Pickups by John Birch – Amazing Upgrade
Tony Iommi Pickups were one of the few pickup’s types missing to my arsenal of guitars. If you remember my previous article about my last build, I had installed Tonerider Rebel 90 pickups on it.
Everything was fine, and the beauty just sounded perfect. The only problem was, my SG equipped with neodymium Entwistle pickups have the same sound when set to split mode. Considering the SG has a Gibson scale and sports the same tremolo, it was a duplicate.
Why upgrading a brand new built?
Even if I look like a crazy shopaholic guitar collector, I’m not. I know I have way too many guitars, but still, each and every one of them is unique and sounds different from the other 19. I spend my time trying new mods on my test strat to make them as different as possible. I had probably rebuilt each of them 3 or 4 times already.
The Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway Kit was,… Continue reading
Electric Guitar Kit – Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway Kit – Tonerider Rebel 90 pickups & Artec BCU
Electric Guitar Kit
This article is about my latest build. A Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway Kit featuring two ToneRider Rebel 90 pickups and an Artec BCU.
The BCU is a Band Control Unit onboard frequency booster that I already reviewed on two different guitars in this article. Check it out if you want to have a deeper test of this unit.
The Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway Kit
I bought this kit on AliExpress for the small price of $179, shipping included.
The regular Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway Kit features only one P90 pickup routing, an Adjustable Wraparound Bridge, and a tiny cavity for two potentiometers only. A Volume and a Tone pot.
I knew before ordering that I’d be installing a Stetsbar tremolo that requires a Tune-o-Matic support (4 holes), two humbuckers and a four potentiometer electronic with a 3 position Metric Toggle Switch.
So, before ordering, I contacted the seller to know if he could do those mods for me and at what cost.
About AliExpress… Continue reading
Advanced Jimmy Page Wiring with Entwistle HVN Humbucker Pickup – DIY SG Kit Part 5
This article covers the advanced Jimmy Page wiring
I made this custom electronic for the SG kit project using Entwistle HVN Vintage Humbucker Pickups.
This article is the fifth and last one of the SG Kit Project series
- In the first video, I glued the neck and painted the guitar.
- In the second video, I applied nitrocellulose varnish.
- In the third video, I created and implemented a waterslide decal logo.
- In the fourth video, I set the neck, the stetsbar tremolo, and the guitar intonation.
A quick update concerning the issue I had with the intonation setting in the previews video.
I had to reverse the saddles of the low E string and the G and B strings. The issue was certainly due because the kit wasn’t well made. When you buy a DIY guitar pack, a number must be penciled on the neck and in the neck slot, to prove that both pieces have been made to fit together. It was not the case with that one.
Also, the… Continue reading
Stetsbar Tremolo Setup & Guitar Intonation – DIY SG Kit Part 4
Setting up Stetsbar Tremolo and guitar’s intonation
This article is the fourth one of the series “how to build your guitar kit”.
A stetsbar tremolo is one of the two systems available for a tune-o-matic guitar type. The other one being a Bigsby. The Stetsbar is simple to install. It needs no modification and delivers more advanced performance than a Bigsby.
Bigsby tremolo is a thing of the past. Some people are hooked on vintage gears due to nostalgia or fame. Because that gear was used by superstars, and became a myth over time. Most of the vintage parts are just old, ineffective, unprecise and noisy. They are nowhere near today’s gears. Hendrix and alike would have been baffled by today’s instruments. They would have thrown out of the window their vintage material to grab the ones of today in a blink of an eye.
A stetsbar tremolo is simple to install. You only have to remove the tune-o-matic bridge and place the Stetsbar block on the four washers. You… Continue reading
Custom Waterslide Decal Headstock – DIY SG Kit Part 3
Create and Apply Custom Waterslide Decal – Build your Own Guitar Kit
This post is going to show you how to design a Custom Waterslide Decal and paste it on your guitar headstock. This is the third article in the series dedicated on “how to Build your Own Guitar Kit”.
The Custom Waterslide Decal process should typically happen before applying the varnish. First, the guitar was entirely painted in a dark brown color. It was impossible to add a Waterslide Decal on the headstock because the background was too dark. I knew it was going to happen, but I expected a better outcome.
There’s no white ink in printers. Thus, all colors using white pigments are altered when printed on a transparent support. Because of that, the actual background color replaces the white coloring.
One of the solutions is to use a white transfer paper. The other solution is to change the color of the headstock for a paler coloring.
My first reaction was to keep the guitar logo free.… Continue reading
Guitar Finish – Nitrocellulose Lacquer Spray – DIY SG Kit Part 2
How to Apply nitrocellulose lacquer spray
This post is going to show you how to finish a guitar kit using a nitrocellulose lacquer spray can.
This is the second article in the series dedicated on how to Build your Own Guitar Kit the right way. In the first post, I was explaining how to clue the set-in neck and how to paint the guitar using a nitrocellulose spray paint.
Actually, the nitrocellulose spray paint I used in the first video includes the paint and the varnish. The extra coat of nitrocellulose lacquer I’m going to add in this video wasn’t needed. You can actually skip that part depending on your budget or the model of guitar kit you are working on.
Here is why:
I decided to apply an extra coat of varnish because the SG guitar has a set neck painted with the same color as the body. Nitrocellulose paint is perfectly fine for a body surface, but for the neck, I wanted a smoother finish. Like a pro… Continue reading
Build your Own Guitar – Gluing Set Neck & Painting – DIY SG Kit Part 1
Build Your Own SG Guitar Kit The Right Way
I’m starting a series of article on how to build your own guitar kit the right way. This particular project features an SG guitar package. Each post is going to feature a video detailing every step needed to achieve an astonishing looking guitar and listing all the tools required to perform the task ideally.
The SG kit I am going to setup is not recommended for a starter kit. The reason is the set-in neck. Set necks are not that difficult to install, but if you fail, it’s tough to correct yourself.
The idea to make your guitar using kits is to avoid the cost of a luthier. Having to pay one at the first step of your first kit is not wise. That’s why I advise you to start with a bolt-on neck type and to go to a more advanced plan after having gained some experience on easier models.
If you are used to woodwork, you can start right… Continue reading
