[Counterstriker]

Well my sister's friend makes custom guitars and I was talking to him and he says he thinks he could make a guitar for me (I've seen one of his guitars and it was really nice, and he's an electrical engineer). I want to design it after Cripes Eagle , which was most likely Garcia's next guitar.

http://www.cripeguitars.com/eagle.html

I liked the design and the fact it was semi hollow. But I have some questions since I do not know that much about guitars and he asked me to make a list of what I wanted on it. So what kind of wood should be used on the body of the guitar? I want a warm sounding guitar but still can cut through the other intruments. I can't get real exotic wood unless someone gives me a website that sells it..

I will have many more questions to come but I'm tired right now and forget most of them.

[jackr]

When building a custom guitar it can easily get overwhelming with the amount of choices.

You have to chose scale length, pickups, tuners, bridge, all your woods. Since it is a semi hollow body, will you have a solid block going though it and that will help with sustain or if there is no block is more hollow and may give you a fatter jazzier sound.

I would suggest that you go down to a guitar center and start playing the higher end Gibosn 335, 359 and others, PRS semi hollow bodies, Gretsch. Ask about all the woods and how they are made.

That eagle looks amazing.

Anyway take a look at other sites of people that use semi hollow bodys and see what they are using.

For example look at treys guitar. I am not sure what it is made from but I know that he tried a lot of different woods, koa, spruce etc.
http://www.phish.net/faq/guitar.html
http://www.languedocguitars.com/

Johnny A uses a mohogony body with maple top and mahogany neck. (that is an amazing guitar)
http://www.johnnya.com/sig_flash.htm

You have a lot of homework to do. The internet is a great place for it but there is so much information you can go into overload very quickly.

One other thing to do is go to your sister's friend and if he has one that he built, play it ( and not for a minute or two) spend an hour or more with it and play everything you can. The amp can make a big difference too so either bring your amp or make sure you are playing though something very nice.

[Mandoborg]

There are entirely waaaay too many variables to take into consideration when choosing wood to build a guitar. Do your homeowrk in relation to what you want to achive.
While expensive, all good wood is nowadays, check these cats out when your ready to order....... there are many others as well, but Gilmer is a 'one stop' set-up as opposed to ordering from 5 differant places. It saves on shipping, and beleive me, shipping can get VERY expensive with exotic woods.


http://www.gilmerwood.com/

[Counterstriker]

Ok guys I talked to him and everything is good to go! now I have to wait 4 months... since he's working on one which will take about 2 more months.

So far this is what;s going on.

Wood Work
-Shape of "Eagle" (built by Stephen Cripe, but not semi hollow)
-Body woods
-Flame Maple core with Rosewood veneers (slightly thicker than normal) on front and back
-Neck woods
-Maple neck with ebony fretboard

-Volume control
-2 tone controls 1 controls both the bridge and neck and 1 just for the middle (Yes i stole that from jerry)
-3 harmonic design Z90 pickup
-Unity Gain buffer
-Piezo Bridge

I'm gonna have 2 9v batteries in this thing!

It's going to be a bolt on which is the only upset.

[Mandoborg]

PLEASE, i beg of you, if your going to use those woods, don't make a bolt-on.......... that would just be a shame ! Why not go the deep tenon or even neck-through ?
Sounds like a good guitar in the making. Scrap the bolt on neck though, go deep tenon, you will not regret it, but it's a good possiblity you'll regret the bolt on after you see how nice all those woods are together !

Jim Combra

[Counterstriker]

Yea man I want it that way too - The guy's only made I think 2 other neck thru's. I'll try to talk to him and see how comfortable he is doing it. Can I get some Negatives of Bolt ons besides the ugliness of it, And some positives on a Neck through.

What about set in?