DeeringAmps
I think Spacey misunderstood the dimensions of the "blank" to be split.
A 2" x 7" billet is cut, then edge glued, to make a 1" x 14" body; I don't think anyone splits a 1x14 block.
Of course two separate 1x7's can (are) used as well; depends on the source material.
I also "beg to differ" in regards to finish on a solid body vs hollow body.
Vibration matters! End of discussion.
If a solid body sounds "bad" acoustically, it will sound bad electrified.
No pickup can fix that.
You can't make a silk purse from a sows ear; simple as that.
Just my nickel98 (although you can, and should, "take it to the bank")
 
Tom

I didn't misunderstand anything about this. I know what one-piece body blanks, multi piece body blanks and billets are and I keep them in my shop for builds. I also know that only a fool would buy a one-piece body blank, split it and then glue it back together. Which is what the OP was asking about. Absolutely no good reason to do it. Hell, buy one that's already a 2 piece -save some money and save yourself the work.
 
"I don't think anyone splits a 1 x 14 block"....if you had not messed that up and said, " I don't think anyone splits a 1.75" x 14" x 20" one-piece body blank" then we could agree.
 
 
It's obvious that the problems with a thread like this is that people talk about stuff they don't know much about.
 
There are plenty of places on the internet to talk with people that do know and are very willing to share their information and opinions based on many years of experience.
 
Now people want to debate the finishes too?
 
Well here's what a 63 year old guy that spent his life doing has to say about it...debate with him.
 
Here is what Mark Kendrick who has worked at Fender for years has to say about it.

Pardon my typos. I've lost alot of brain cells in my day. Could it be the 'Nitro'.

The first Fender lap steel was finished in black enamel. When Doc Kauffman and Leo formed K&F guitars in 1945, their original instruments, including the amplifiers, were finished in a lead based, wrinkle coat enamel. A nice shade of Battleship Grey. That was the only color available. After expermenting with different woods other than pine for guitars, they began using nitrocellulose lacquer. They used what was available to the furniture trade at the time.
The original colors were blonde, sunburst, etc... just like your Grandmas coffee table.

Custom colors were introduced in 1955. Once again they were enamel. The same material they used in the auto industry. The enamel would not adhere to the stearate based nitocellulose sanding sealer. Acrylic lacquers were then developed by Dupont to be sprayed on material other than metal. "Duco colors". In order for the paint to adhere, Fender began using a Sherwin Williams product called Homoclad. It was a penetrating, heavy solid, oil based sealer used as a barrier coat to to provide better adhesion for their guitars with custom colors. It was applied by dipping the guitar bodies directly into a 55 gallon drum, filled with the product. ALL Fender guitars produced after 1955 used this product until 1967, when Fender began experimenting with polyesters an undercoat.

By 1968, virtually all Fender guitar products used polyester as an undercoat, including necks. It's a two part product using Methyl Ethyl Ketone(MEK) as a catalyst. The reason the face of the pegheads were not sealed with polyester, is because type 'C' decals (under the finish) would not adhere to the product. While it is true a few guitars may have squeaked by with homoclad, when homoclad wasn't available, they used a Fuller O'Brian product called Ful-O-Plast. PLASTIC!!! It's obvious to me that those necks or bodies were stragglers, having to be reworked for some reason or another and not shipped after the change.

I'd like to make one thing clear... ALL FENDER GUITARS PRODUCED AFTER 1968 HAD A POLYESTER UNDERCOAT WITH A LACQUER TOPCOAT!!! There is no specific ratio. Enough poly was, and is sprayed to properly fill the grain while preventig a burn through while sanding.

In 1983, Fender began using polyuerthane as a topcoat. It cured quicker. It had better clarity. It had more depth and gloss, and didn't melt when you accidently spilled 151 on it. Fender then discontinued the use of polyester on the necks. Polyurethane is a 2 part product using a catalyst.

Fender has continued to use polyester, polyurethane, nitro, homoclad, and Ful-O-Plast.

Nitro is not a superior finish. An electric guitar doesn't 'breathe' at 120 db.

My first year at Fender I personally painted approximately 46,000 guitars. I like polyester. I like Nitro colors too. But maybe I'll let the players that use poly (ester or urethane) speak for themselves...

Billy Gibbons, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Joe Perry, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Roccco Prestia, Jimmie Vaughn, Nils Lofgren, Vince Gill, Chet Atkins, Tom Hamilton, Lenny Kravitz, Merle Haggard, Don Rich, Darryl Jones, Mike Stern, Larry Carlton, Peter Frampton, Sting, Marty Stuart, just to name a few. More are available upon request.

Hope this helps,

Mark K.
 
 
 
I do thank you DeeringAmps.  Another great reminder of why I decided not to waste my time with forums and wished I'd just sent a PM to Beep and not have let Mesh get to me. ( I forgive you both....it's my fault but I've got it squared away now)
 

at this point,
i think roasting wood (both neck and body) has a more positive influence on the sound properties of wood,
than any finish does.....

ston
Blimey what did I start? :-)
 
Hmm, well I'm not all that much wiser, although to promote body rigidity (prevent warping) seems like the best argument offered to cut & glue. That and being able to present the 'book matched' pattern, which is quite attractive when the wood is nicely stained. Plenty of guitars are still one piece of wood, my SG is for sure. In fact, I think the SG was hewn out of a block of wood with a small axe.
 
I did notice that this thread teetered dangerously close to the edge of the infinite pit of the argument as to whether 'tone woods' make any difference to the sound of an electric guitar. I did write a whole bunch of stuff about this initially, but if I've learnt anything about this argument, it's that no amount of clear rational presentation of hard scientific facts will sway a tone wood evangelist from his or her beliefs.
 
Suffice to say that my JS-1000, made out of the 'non tone wood, basewood' does not care about such arguments and sounds bloody amazing, even with my slightly parasitic DIY modification of swapping out the pup switch for a blend pot.

If you really want to know an answer about electric guitar construction you must first know the question and ask the right people.
 
Since you obviously know very little if anything about building electric guitars and are inquiring about something you saw then it would probably be best to post the video or a link and then you could simply ask; "what is that luthier doing and why?" thus avoiding any confusion.
  
I'm certain that if you ask the question correctly and you ask people that build guitars- which have no problem sharing info- then you may get a little wiser.
Here is a place I frequent and know for a fact that there are many there that can answer you. http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/
 
I also suggest you keep your questions of electric guitar construction limited to one area at a time. There are many "areas" and it's obvious by the results of this thread that it can get to muddy to see the picture clearly.
 
At this point, since you finally chimed in, you have been supplied the answer to your question IF you asked it correctly and you have also been supplied a link to have experts answer that and any other questions you may have.
 
 

Beepster
So I have 3 things I'd maybe like to try on my own...
 
1) Wire a single pup (4 wire) directly to input jack. No pots, no toggle, no nothing. Just all on all the time. It's a studio guit anyway and I'd be using it full tilt at all times. Is it possible to wire a 4 wire pickup directly to the input in this way? If so where could I reasearch this? I know different manufacturers/pickups have different wiring/color code schemes (well I think they do) so I may need to hunt that info down as well.

 
With a HB you have two coils each with two wires. For standard series humbucking the minus of the 1st coil is wired to the plus of the 2nd and the remaining wires would just go to tip (+) and sleeve (ground/-) of the jack in this place.
 
As noted, which color wire is which varies by PU manufacturer so you have to either look that up or figure it out yourself.
 

 
2) Install 1 pickup (4 wire) with one of the pots I have but maybe properly if possible to reduce volume completely.
 

 
For non-active PU's most pots are between 250k and 500k ohm, though there are exceptions. Traditionally, 250k is used for SC and 500k for HB's because you lose a little of a SC's ample high end with the 250k ones, but many of us just use 500k on everything. Note that anyone making a huge deal over one vs. the other probably doesn't understand basic electronics - there is no "wrong", it's just tradition/preference.
 
For active PU's 25k is generally used. If you use one of the higher values, it's going to work like an on/off switch instead of a pot. If you use 25k with passive PU's you're not going to be happy with the result.
 
If a volume doesn't turn down the signal completely, the most likely cause is the ground connection on the volume pot is missing/bad. Do you have (access to) a multimeter?
 

3) Install both (bridge/neck) with no toggle. Just to the two pots as volume controls to blend.

If you connect the middle lugs (which are the ones usually wired to the output) of two pots together and turn one pot down it affects the other PU as well - i.e. on an LP with the switch set in the middle position, if you turn one PU all the way down you get no sound from the other PU either. There are various workarounds, but they are not "perfect" either.

I just want to know if I can still blame my mediocre playing abilities on my guitar... 

@Drew... If I can get this guit cranky at full capacity I'll be a happy Beep. It's an ancient Ibanez I've had since I was 15 and plays great for metal but the wiring has been a complete joke since I first bought it. The pups would cut out and I'd have to literally punch them to get them to work. I had it rewired at least 3 times and still the same damned thing. Once I finally got the balls to rip it apart myself I realized the idiots were using the same stock multi switch/push pull pots/toggle that came with the thing which was just coated with solder and had almost a dozen pins on the thing. Ridiculous! So I ripped out the custom 4 wire pickup (something apparently called a Power Whammy or some such 90's metal silliness) and wired up one of the stock 2 wire pups to the bridge position with the pots I bought at the local electronics shop. Certainly made it not cut out anymore but the pickups suck (80's bottom scale Ibanez tech... not the "good" Gemstar shiz). That was okay in a pinch for live sauced with distortion and some lunatics screaming up front (and the whole audience drunk of their arse). Not so great under the microscope of studio gear.
 
So if I can get that "Power Whammy" hooked up again (I recorded a full studio album through it when I was 17 and it is a very nice pickup) or the Dimarzio a buddy traded me for some drum hardware a while back (the one I will likely try first because it has the wiring color code sheet) and it sounds good... then I've got my trusty old metal axe back in play.
 
Just something about the fretboard that lends itself to the genre. My current axe is a Yamaha Pacifica that HEAVILY mimics a "Hot" Strat which is great for most applications but just kind of barely sucks out when I want to go into full on metal mode. Just to wishy washy and I need to dig WAY to hard for the needed definition and speed the material requires.
 
Of course a new Ibanez or Jackson or ESP or whatever would be ideal but I can't shart out the 2 Gs or so required to acquire such a beast so this is my ghetto solution.
 
Heheh.
 
Cheers and thanks a million!

Moshkito

spacey
If you really want to know an answer about electric guitar construction you must first know the question and ask the right people.
...

There went the definition of music for everyone! And "progressive" just took it to the toilet!
 

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