A New Guitar Project - Need Advice - Oh BOY!!!

[02R96]

Unfortunately my son has decided to stop playing guitar. I guess he just has other interests right now. Since I needed another project (ha), I bought his Peavey Raptor-1 from him. Its in decent shape considering it was used when he bought it. Heres the run down

 

Its a black Strat copy with a whammy bar and a rosewood neck. The body is in great shape with a few scratches on the bottom edge, but no gouges, cracks or damage. The neck is in excellent shape: clean and straight. The frets are dull, but not worn at all; just a few slide marks where he was bending strings. The fingerboard (though dry looking) is not cracked or damaged; just a tiny gouge under the D string by the nut. The tuners are another story. Cheap and loose they definitely will be replaced. Heres my plan (with questions)

 

Budget: I dont want to spend a lot of money, but I do want a nice sounding GTR. Most of the budget will go into the pickups.

 

Im going to make it a hard tail, so Im wondering what to do with the cavity in the back. I can use the deep part to hold a battery for active pickups, but what about the area for the springs? Should I fill it in with some sort of material (like epoxy)? Or should I just leave it alone because it wont make much difference?

 

Im not looking for a particular sound, but I was never impressed with the pickups it came with. Cant explain it, they just suck. After taking it apart, I can see someone has hacked on it; crappy wiring job complete with cold solder joints. Ive been thinking about installing the Kirk Hammett EMG-KH20 Pickup System. No real reason other than it looks cool. Even though it was a SSS config, its routed for SSH so it should fit. Opinions and/or alternatives? Again, Im not looking for a certain tone or sound, just better than what it had. Since Im a hobby player, I dabble in everything (from metal to acoustic folk). Im open to all ideas!

 

What is the best way to rejuvenate the fingerboard and frets?

 

And finally: the tuners. The types I took off are rectangle shaped with a sort of X pattern on the top of the cover, and two diagonal mounting holes. I like to find a good quality replacement that uses the same mounting holes (fat chance?).

 

Thanks in advance. This is my first GTR rebuild so I'm actually excited about the possibilities.

 

BTW, my wife just smirked and said, So it takes a village to rebuild a guitar?

 

Well, maybe!

 

 

[Bluesape]

That's not a guitar I'd sink a lotta cash into.....it'll still be a used offshore Peavey in rough condition. Has a luthier or savvy bud peeked at it?

[The Geoff]

I got a decent working set of tuners from GFS - they are on my Frankenstrat & work fine - you might even find the same type.

 

www.guitarfetish.com

 

I'd also look at the loaded pickguards from the same company.

 

Tape off the wood & polish the frets with 000 steel wool.

 

Get a decent set up.

 

Good luck.

 

G.

[Terrell]

All my real advice would be to spend $1000 and countless hours. So, if your interested in that I can help...

 

Short of that:

Don't fill the body cavity unless you want to look at bare wood or are prepared to refinish the entire guitar. Estimated: 16 hours in prep, 40 hours if you paint it yourself which I steer you away from. $100 if you take it to a paint and body shop. Ask for 5 coats of clear with wet polish after each. The hard tail? Really? If it's a classic five screw, just tighten those pups to the body... If it's a floater, get a tremel-no.

 

I love Lace pickups and that's the way I would go. Selecting them is your job depending on your style of play. You sound adventurous, be adventurous... Stay away from active pickups especially if you don't play all the time. Batteries suck!

 

Whatever tuners you decide on, get the locking kind!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't worry about the tiny holes left by the old tuners, putty and 200 grid will fix that and quality tuners are a must IMO. You may want to measure the peg hole and base your selection on that. Warmoth has a great tuner selecting section that details the holes.

 

Fret dress: tape the board and polish them with some wool.

 

I can't help with the state of your marriage. My advice would cost you 1/2 of everything and countless hours of work...

 

 

 

 

[02R96]

GuitarFetish looks like the way to go for the pickups. $135.00 for a "good" basic set, with lots of options. I love options!

[Caevan O'Shite]

As for making it a hardtail, just block the trem; from the back, in that spring-cavity, put a couple of small wooden wedges- nothin' fancy, and I mean small- in-between the tail-block and the wood of the body, to block its upward and downward movement.

 

Do this only AFTER you've got the guitar properly set-up, and do it with the guitar tuned-up and with its intonation and action exactly where you want 'em; very carefully, gently tap the wedges into place with a very light little hammer, a very small ways at a time, so that you will have the bridge blocked but not moved one way or another.

 

Blocking it in this way will allow you to return it to whammy-operation in a flash, is CHEAP (perhaps FREE), and will retain the original tone of the springs ringing like a little mechanical reverb inside the guitar. (For example, Eric Clapton very deliberately and specifically uses trem-equipped Strats with blocked-in trem-bridges a lot like this for that very reason.)

 

If you do replace the pickguard, be sure that a standard Strat-style 'guard will retrofit; if it's a close enough match all-around, don't worry too much about minor differences in the location of the holes for the mounting-screws, they can be filled and re-drilled pretty easily. And keep the old 'guard and pickups, etc., on hand so that you can keep the new ones for another guitar-project should you decide to get rid of this Peavey. being able to save any pickup-loaded pickguard for a better guitar would make putting money into this more justifiable and cost-effective.

 

As for the pickups, try a variety of guitars out and make note of what types of pickups are in the ones that you like the sound of.

 

If you do want to go with active EMGs, because of your broadly varied musical mission-statement, I'd recommend that you go with their 85 humbucker and SA single-coil-sized pickups, and their SPC and EXG controls replacing the two tone-controls. These pickups have a warmer and more versatile tone than the ones in the Kirk Hammet rig, and these two EQ modules will let you sculpt the tone all kinds of ways. (I have owned this same set-up myself, and it's basically the same as what Pink Floyd's David Gilmour uses with the addition of the 85 hb at the bridge instead of the SA s-c that he uses.) Classic Rock, Metal, even Country or Jazz, if you like the active pickup sound, this combination will do 'em all and do 'em well with loads of sustain and clarity and no noise.

 

If you want an even more vintage-sounding single-coil type sound from the neck and middle pickups, go with their SV model; and if you want a dual-sound bridge-pickup that will give you a s-c sound and a full-on hb, similar to a coil-splitting hb, check out the EMG-89; effectively a switchable combination of their 85 hb and SA s-c sized pickups.

 

Here are some EMG links:

 

EMG Pro Series Custom preloaded pickguards

 

EMG 85 with sound-clips

 

EMG SA with sound-clips

 

EMG SV with sound-clips

 

EMG 89 "dual-sound"

 

EMG SPC "Strat Presence Control" EQ-module

 

EMG EXG "Guitar Expander" EQ-module

[02R96]

Thanks Caevan for the links. Im totally open to any type of setup. Since its an inexpensive guitar, I not afraid of ruining or devaluing it. This project is more about the fun of experimenting! And who knows, maybe it will re-spark my sons interest.

 

On another note, I was looking at the different types of hand-wired pickguard sets on www.guitarfetish.com and I saw the lipstick pickups. I remember seeing a member of the Greatful Dead playing a Strat that was loaded with these. Can some one please tell me about these (as in how do they sound, are they noisy, etc.). They look interesting.

 

Thank you again for the help.

 

[The Geoff]

The GFS lipsticks are more powerful (and a different size) from the originals.

 

They fit a Strat-sized pickguard-hole and sound more like a low-output Strat.

 

G.