Going to do a Crimson Guitars building course

longshins

So I’m going to make a dream come true and build a guitar from scratch. I’ll be doing the 5 day flat top guitar course and was wondering if anyone could help with some cool ideas bearing in mind I can’t make anything too crazy and have no woodworking skills really.

The obvious choice is a tele but it does seem a bit boring… I’m lucky enough to have owned loads of guitars over the years so there’s not really an itch that needs to be scratched. I’ll ramble a bit now about things I like and it’d be cool if you could help me distill it into something a bit more concrete that’s achievable.

First thing is I’m a big tall guy so I don’t want a design that’ll make the instrument look like a ukulele, yet comfortable enough to sit and play for long periods, I work as a full time guitar teacher so it’ll need to balance nicely on my lap and not feel too cumbersome. Shape wise I dig the old Hayman, Shergold and Rick 360.

Scale length I like 24.75 and I reckon a 6 a side headstock should work to stop it looking too ‘stubby’. I’d like narrow tall frets and to scallop from the 15th fret up or maybe from where the body meets neck. 

Now this is where I start to struggle a bit regarding pickups and the bridge. First criteria is the pickups needs to be hum cancelling as noise does my head in when recording etc. I quite fancy a left handed tele bridge to get twangier bass strings and thicker treble, but then again Schaller make some tasty looking offerings. So if I do the tele bridge I’d probably go for a blade type thing, if a normal bridge I love filtertons but heard they don’t align with the strings very well in the back position. To wrap this bit up, essentially I like a scoopy bridge tone and a thick neck tone, but I also like a stratty ‘quack’ option too.

I’ll shut up now, if you want to chuck some ideas/warnings at me go for it! Thanks!

crunchman

I did a Crimson course 5 years ago.  It was a good experience, but the English Ash from their wood store that I used from the body was very heavy.  I also got some fret sprout the following winter, so I don't know how well seasoned the fingerboard wood was.

If I was going again, I'd source my own wood from someone like David Dyke.

longshins

Top tip thanks!

pt22

I’d be trying to build an explorer-like shape. Straight lines, easier to shape, and great for a big guy. Not sure about sitting through. 

TTony

@guitargeek62 ... has recently been there, done that, so might have some general suggestions.

longshins

pt22 said:

I’d be trying to build an explorer-like shape. Straight lines, easier to shape, and great for a big guy. Not sure about sitting through. 

Nice, it’s going to be a bolt on though, I had an Ibanez Fireman Paul Gilbert guitar once, that was a cool shape thinking about it.

guitargeek62

longshins said:

pt22 said:

I’d be trying to build an explorer-like shape. Straight lines, easier to shape, and great for a big guy. Not sure about sitting through. 

Nice, it’s going to be a bolt on though, I had an Ibanez Fireman Paul Gilbert guitar once, that was a cool shape thinking about it.

You could still do a bolt-on Explorer


On a 5-day course I expect they’ll ask you to stick to something from their (extensive) collection of templates, unless you’re able to supply your own of something more out there. I would highly recommend the 6-day course if you can, as that extra time will be a big boon if you’re going in with zero experience. 

This is the blog thread of my course last year, I had a great time there and couldn’t recommend them highly enough. I do echo what @Crunchman said about sourcing your own timbers in advance if you’re particularly fussed about weights etc, though be aware that they were planning to introduce a requirement for the timbers to be sent through in advance of the course for preparation (thicknessing, joining, etc.) so as not to lose much time on that during the course itself.

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/239375/2023-challenge-crimson-guitars-course-x-jr-build-build-diary-added-on-pg-3/

longshins

That’s an incredibly helpful thread thanks! Very cool guitar you made too! 

I’ve done a bit of perusing the tonewood supplier websites and the body blanks all seem to be sized to tightly fit strats or telecasters. Am I being thick?

guitargeek62

Nope, they’re usually those sizes just for general sales volume. Bass blanks get you longer lengths, but I would call them up (or ideally, visit) and see what they have in versus what you’re after