Types of Guitar Building

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Frank Pope of FBI Guitars and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village to talk to you guys about how to build your own guitar. Now I'm going to talk to you about the different types of guitars so you can make an informed decision about what type of guitar you might want to build. We are going to start with this one which is an acoustic guitar. That means it can be played without amplification obviously. This is a hybrid acoustic which means a couple of things. Number one it's thinner than a traditional acoustic guitar so you can play it comfortably in almost any position. Also it has a pick up under the bridge here so that you can plug this guitar into an amplifier. One of the benefits of this particular guitar is not very loud so you don't disturb everyone around you while you are playing it, but if you wanted to play a 10,000 seat stadium you could plug it into an amplifier PA system and play to the world. The next guitars we are going to talk about are electric guitars and I want to talk to you about several different types there are and how you can make and informed decision on which particular one you want to build. This is what is commonly referred to as a solid body bolt on neck. As you will see the neck actually is put on with four screws. It gives you a lot of versatility in that you can change necks, if you break the neck you can replace it without having to replace the entire guitar. It also has a varied array of pick ups that you can use based on the fact that it uses a pick guard so you're not set to you can change the layout of the pickups or the type of electronics that you have simply by changing this one piece even after the guitar has been completed for quite sometime. These guitars have maple necks usually. If you build one with a maple neck you should expect it to, should a little brighter, a little clearer, than a guitar with glued in neck, which will be the next guitars we will talk about. This is what’s commonly referred to as a glued in neck guitar. This is actually a carved top guitar. What that means is after the guitar is originally routed out into a flat shape through artistry, black magic and luck you hope to be able to carve the top so that it looks like this. Apply the stain. These necks are glued in. In other words this neck doesn't come out. The neck actually extends to underneath this pick up and there it is glued in. The benefits of these particular guitars are that a majority of them are constructed from mahogany which is a very warm wood. It has a very warm sound. It has a lot of sustain. A lot of heavy metal players prefer this type of wood if they are going to be playing rhythm. A lot of heavy metal players prefer the other style body because it has brightness for the leads or the real shredders. This is what’s commonly referred to as flame maple. You will notice it has straight stripes. The one that’s on the wall is what’s called quilted maple. It's the same type of guitar. It's what’s called a single cut away. You will notice it only has one horn the one on the wall. You will notice this is a double cut away it has two horns. The beauty of these guitars is that with certain electronic layouts you can not only get the warm sound of hum bucking pickups the double tie for pickups but you can also split the coils and get the sound of the other guitar, the strata caster guitar. These are the premier guitars if you are going to build one this is the final goal that you'll be aiming for to be able to construct one of these. Like I say you can build one of these for probably around $700. If you were to buy one of comparable value it would be somewhere between $3000-$5000."