That Dream Guitar

Greetings.  My name is Nicholas Greenwood.  Welcome to my nerdy blog wherein I will document my journey to build my dream electric guitar made of custom ordered parts from Warmoth.  I expect this to be a year-long project.

My first guitar was a Squier Affinity Stratocaster which my grandparents gave me for my fifteenth birthday (I was a freshman in high school).  That moment of arrest when I first laid eyes on it is forever seared into my memory.  I knew then that something amazing had just been added to my life.  In those first couple of years of playing, I adored everything Fender, and looked forward to the day when I might own a real Fender, not just a Squier.

Free, er, I mean, Fender love!

But Fenders are really hit-or-miss for me, or rather, occasionally-hit-and-mostly-miss.  I like the curves of a Stratocaster but just can't get over the clack and noise of single-coil pickups.  I get annoyed when Telecaster owners brag about some purported legendary twang; I tend to hear more plink.  The strings seem to sag when they ring out.  The attack on a typical Strat or Tele just isn't quick enough to take the kind of fast and heavy-handed palm muting that has become my primary approach to the instrument.  Every now and then a Fender comes along that has some serious mojo, you know, that one, but then I go home knowing that within a month it will be swiped from the guitar shop it rests in before I can get to it.

And so, for years, I gave up on Fender (though I do like their designs) and focused on brands like Gibson and Jackson as my playing style gravitated toward hardcore and metal.  Heavier, more beefy, more sustain, able to take a beating.  I now own my second Gibson Explorer and have had a Flying V.  I own my second Jackson SL2H Soloist, which over the past couple of years has become my main axe; it has the fastest attack and most sustain of any guitar I've owned.  Jackson's compound-radius, quartersawn maple neck-through just takes anything you can give it and dishes it back.  I love it and will refer to it often in this blog.

I just won't let go of my beloved humbuckers and now feel comfortable enough and even excited to do what I previously though was a waste: have them in a bolt-on guitar.  The draw for a Stratocaster has come full circle.  But Fender just isn't going to put in all of the features I want, and so I have chosen to turn my back on them.  Charvel's recent Pro-Mod So Cal models look promising, but I came to a conclusion that I could get a lot more of the features I want for only a little raise in price, plus the DIY aspect makes the idea resonate more in my mind.  My friend Michael Adams over at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar recently built a Rivers Cuomo replica Strat with pieces ordered from Warmoth...  Bingo.

I don't agree that every guitar needs a name, but this one does.  Guitarists have a weird corner on attributing exotic feminine themes to their instruments, looking wistfully away as they whisper the name of their muse: Charlene.  Luciana.  Daphne.  Ramona...

What?  This is rock and roll.  How about naming a guitar Star Destroyer?  Or some other rad name like Kid Monster, Jabberwocky, Cloaking Device, Trident, Particle Beam, Mystery Rune, Fire Smash, Pillar of Smoke, Synesthesia, or None More Black?

The moniker that's sticking in my mind at this time is Big Riff.  It seems a little too simple, and I'm not married to it, but it is the name of a Cave In song and a suitable suggestion for the sound I'm going for.  Big Riff will come together in pieces and hopefully see the light of day just before my thirtieth birthday next year, which marks the moment where I've been playing guitar for half of my life.  Ambitious?  Sure.

The intent is to balance all of the things I've been excited about with electric guitar design, past and present:
-Strat body with some funky surf color.
-Dual humbuckers, effectively making this a double fat Strat.
-Maple neck and fretboard because I've not yet had that on a guitar.
-Floyd Rose tremolo.
-Customizable for future pickup or electrical configurations (Duncan Liberator pickup selector, Fernandes Sustainer, etc.).
-Bright, fast attack, and built for shredding.

Early research to ensue on:
-Body tonewoods: Will a maple body be overkill on the highs?
-Circuit board size and power requirements for a Fernandes Sustainer system and/or active pickups.  This will affect internal routing of the body.
-Routing for recessed Floyd Rose trem—I want a floating bridge rather than a fixed one, but will it also accept an EVH D-tuna mod?

Going back over all of this, I seem a little scatterbrained, but I'm definitely excited.  I'll unpack these details and many more in future installments.  Time to fly to Jupiter: