Pickups and parts for a Crimson build

darius

Booked on with Crimson to build a strat (hard tail but as close to a superstrat as I can get) in May. My first from scratch and I don’t have anything for it yet. 

I’m researching hardware…

Before I start buying new stuff does anyone have
- any recommendations for any of the basics (tuners bridge etc). Crimson have Gotoh and Schaller available so was going to go with one of them.
And any stuff for sale?

- any bridge and neck humbucker pickups.
I’m liking an EVH Frankenstein bridge, it’s what I know from my actual EVHFrankie, and I think Seymour Duncan make them. Alnico2.

I’m stuck for what to put at the neck. And no idea how to choose. 

TTony

For a 6-string hardtail bridge, check Grainger Guitar Parts.  I've found them to be top quality.

For pickups - you won't go far wrong with Oil City ... 

crunchman

I went to Crimson and built a guitar.  The Gotoh and Schaller stuff they use is good, and they don't put a massive markup on them so they are reasonable prices.

The one thing I would say is that that the ash they gave me for the body was very heavy.  It's got a 5mm maple cap on it, so I chambered it under the cap, which makes the guitar a reasonable weight, but if I'd gone fully solid, it would have been very heavy.  If I was going again I'd source my own wood from someone like David Dyke.

darius

crunchman said:

I went to Crimson and built a guitar.  The Gotoh and Schaller stuff they use is good, and they don't put a massive markup on them so they are reasonable prices.

The one thing I would say is that that the ash they gave me for the body was very heavy.  It's got a 5mm maple cap on it, so I chambered it under the cap, which makes the guitar a reasonable weight, but if I'd gone fully solid, it would have been very heavy.  If I was going again I'd source my own wood from someone like David Dyke.

Because ash can be lighter or do you mean source a lighter wood like Swamp Ash? which is apparently very impossible to get.

crunchman

darius said:

crunchman said:

I went to Crimson and built a guitar.  The Gotoh and Schaller stuff they use is good, and they don't put a massive markup on them so they are reasonable prices.

The one thing I would say is that that the ash they gave me for the body was very heavy.  It's got a 5mm maple cap on it, so I chambered it under the cap, which makes the guitar a reasonable weight, but if I'd gone fully solid, it would have been very heavy.  If I was going again I'd source my own wood from someone like David Dyke.

Because ash can be lighter or do you mean source a lighter wood like Swamp Ash? which is apparently very impossible to get.

I think they use English ash, which is often very heavy.

If depends on what you want to build, but I was going for something Tele'ish.

elstoof

Swamp ash is still available, David Dyke stocks 1,2 & 3 piece blanks. Fender only use it for Custom Shop now, an invasive beetle has put the future of American ash in a precarious situation

WezV

At one time it would be much lighter than a normal guitar blank. I remember tossing my mate a 1 piece body blank when I first went wood shopping for guitars 20+ years ago... it didn't feel like real wood.

These days the good swamp ash is comparable in weight to those other woods.  Still light for ash, but rarely truly lightweight for a guitar

Expect anything sold as Ash, English or not, to make a very heavy guitar.  Expect anything sold as Swamp Ash to be a more reasonable weight, but not always lightweight.

remember the swamp/punk ash was rejected for all other wood working situations where you would chose Ash.

GSPBASSES

darius said:

crunchman said:

I went to Crimson and built a guitar.  The Gotoh and Schaller stuff they use is good, and they don't put a massive markup on them so they are reasonable prices.

The one thing I would say is that that the ash they gave me for the body was very heavy.  It's got a 5mm maple cap on it, so I chambered it under the cap, which makes the guitar a reasonable weight, but if I'd gone fully solid, it would have been very heavy.  If I was going again I'd source my own wood from someone like David Dyke.

Because ash can be lighter or do you mean source a lighter wood like Swamp Ash? which is apparently very impossible to get.

David Dyke has plenty of Swamp Ash, see photo below, although really light weight Swamp Ash is not so easy to fined these days. Also Swamp Ash nearly doubled in price over the last year.

This is just some of the stock that David has, inside there are lots of Swamp Ash, one piece and multi piece pre-joined bodies blanks.