Custom Sound and Design
Guitars for Sale: The JS5
I am building guitars of my own design. I wanted to build a guitar based on a less traditional shape – but that had good balance, is fairly light weight, and is stable in both standing and traditional sitting positions. I also wanted the guitar to be stable in an upright position – classical guitar style - that makes it easier to play big stretches and challenging chords. I built 4 preliminary prototypes that either didn’t balance or felt uncomfortable – but Version 5 is just right!. The working prototype JS5 is in the gallery below. It is fitted with P-90 style pickups – optimally positioned using my placement jig. It has master tone and volume controls and a toggle selector switch. It balances, sounds great, and feels good to play.
I have several of these JS5 guitars available for sale now, of differing electronic and wood configurations. Details can be found in Guitars for Sale.
 My custom design, the JS5 |  Prototype for the JS5 |  Gluing up the cherry body blank |
|---|---|---|
 The cherry body cut out and routed to accept a standard strat neck |  Guitar body with a neck mounted, and a hard tail bridge |  Guitar body with P-90s in my guitar vice, with a shop built jig for positioning pickups |
 Guitar body routed out pickup and control cavities |  The complete prototype |  Sapele for JS5 sales modelsThe first JS5s will be made in Sapele – photo 10 shows the first blanks glued up and ready to go. |
 Finished JS5 |
Renovation
If you have a guitar that you like, but think can be improved, a renovation might be in order. Renovations may include pickup and electronic replacement, cavity routing, neck resetting and installation of threaded inserts/machine screws, refretting, fingerboard shaping, and nut and bridge replacement. Frequently a renovation starts with the complete dismantling and inspection of the guitar and of course an “expanded guitar” photo for the owner. At that point we will discuss what can and should be done. After the renovation is complete, you will get the guitar, plus all the original parts, along with a digital copy of my notes, photos, and a wiring diagram (as built). The invoice will have an installed parts list and full accounting.
Customize
Rebuild
This is a First Act guitar I bought at a pawn shop, just to play with. It was a customization project, but when I bought it the tuners weren’t working properly. I had some small pieces of very dramatic claro walnut in my shop, so I cut a veneer and glued it to the headstock face. Also, since I couldn’t quite match the tuners, I decided to veneer the back of the headstock with some small pieces of birdseye maple to hide the old tuner holes and scars. After trimming and sanding, I blended the maple to the neck with a little tinted shellac. Then I drilled out the holes. While I was working on the headstock, I decided to make a matching pickguard out of the same claro walnut. I made a plywood template using the old pickguard, then trimmed, beveled and drilled a piece of walnut to match the original pickguard.
Note that I prefer the “Kirchen” mod on the tele controls – putting the volume closest to the pick hand, and the selector switch at the back out of the way.
 1 - Original GuitarHere's the original guitar that I bought at a pawn shop |  2 - close up of original guitar |  3 - broken tuners on original guitar |
|---|---|---|
 4- dramatic claro walnut for veneer |  6 - birdseye maple veneer the back of the headstock to hide the old tuner holes and scars |  7 - blended maple to neck with tinted shellac |
 8 - unfinished face |  9 - handmade matching claro walnut pick guard |  12 - matching claro walnut headstock and pick guard |
 18 - holes for tuners |  19 - assembling tuners |  20 - tuners installed |
 23 - installing tuners |  24 - installed pick guard |  customize 25.jpg |
 26 - completed head stock |  27 - completed rennovation |
Electronics customization
I like quiet guitars (when they aren’t being played) – therefore I shield all electronic cavities and pickup routs with copper tape.
I also like guitars that still sound bright when the volume is down – hence a standard feature of my guitars is a bleed circuit on the volume pot.
A couple other things I do – I always make both a mechanical connection between the wire and switch/potentiometer post prior to soldering, then flow the solder into the joint. This ensures perfect conductivity and mechanical integrity. For grounding I start by soldering a ring lug onto the pot body, then all the ground wires are attached to the lug using the same procedure.
When I wire or rewire a guitar I provide the owner with a hand drawn wiring diagram. This particular diagram is for a “studio” guitar named Katrina. It’s a 3 pickup (HSS) guitar, with a coil split on the Humbucker controlled by a push push switch on the tone pot. The wiring enables many possible pickup combinations, some preset tones, and it’s a very versatile guitar. But it’s complicated to play…
 Wiring for a couple strat-like guitars that have been modifiedAs I mentioned, I like shielding with copper tape. A couple other things I do – I always make both a mechanical connection with the wire and switch/potentiometer post prior to soldering, then flow the solder into the joint. This ensures perfect conductivity and mechanical integrity. For grounding I start by soldering a simple ring lug onto the pot body, then all the ground wires are attached to the lug using the same procedure. I like quiet guitars (when they aren’t being played). |  Guitar wiring diagram for "Katrina"When I rewire a guitar I provide the owner with a hand drawn wiring diagram as in Photo 4. This particular diagram is for a “studio” guitar named Katrina. It’s a 3 pickup (HSS) guitar, with a coil split on the Humbucker controlled by a push push switch on the tone. The neck and middle pickups are wired to a Oak Grigsby 4 way switch, giving either pickup singly or the combo in parallel or in series. Series position puts the two pickups into a humbucking configuration – a high output, darker sound. The middle pot on the guitar is a blend pot that mixes the output of the OG switch with the output of the bridge Humbucker. The tone circuit is a “grease bucket” tone mod. Then there is an additional knob – which is a rotary switch with 6 discreet tone positions. Volume has a treble bleed circuit – keeping the tone the same, when reducing the volume rather than killing all the highs first. The wiring makes for all possible pickup combinations, and a very versatile guitar. But its complicated… |  Wiring in a strat-like guitar |
|---|
Cavity Route
Sometimes desired modifications just don’t quite fit. In this case, the new bridge pickup was slightly deeper than the original Fender pickup. Unfortunately, I discovered this after I had already shielded the cavity. To solve this I routed out an additional 3/32” of depth into the pickup cavity and wire channel. As a rule, I like to shield all cavities with copper tape – I like the way it looks better than conductive paints.
 1 - The original shielded cavity |  2 - the cavity after the shielding was removed, and I routed out an additional 3/32” depthinto the p |  3 - final result (yes, the pickup fit nicely!) |
|---|
Knobs
When the guitar is suited to it, I like to make custom knobs out of wood. Generally I make the knob out of solid wood, then drill out the center and epoxy in a nylon sleeve to cushion and grip the potentiometer shaft. Then I polish the knobs through 6000 grit on the drill press. The gallery below showcases custom “Texas Ebony” and “blood wood” knobs I’ve made for previous renovations.
 My go-to knob designknob out of solid wood, then drill out the center and epoxy in a nylon sleeve to cushion and grip the potentiometer shaft |  "Texas Ebony" knobsA set of knobs I made out of “Texas Ebony” for "Katrina" |  Installed knobs"Texas ebony" knobs installed on "Katrina" |
|---|---|---|
 Custom blood wood knobs |  Custom blood wood knobs and switch “hat” installedNote – the pickguard is also shop-made for this guitar. |
Neck Inserts
As I outlined above, mechanical integrity in the string-bridge-body-neck-nut system is the starting point in making a great sounding guitar. The body-neck joint is key. I don’t like wood screws and shims – too often when I remove a neck from a guitar I find small burrs and chips prevent perfect neck/body contact. The solution is to embed threaded inserts in the neck and replace the wood screws with machine screws. The first step is to very precisely drill out the wood screw holes in the neck. I start with a drill bit, then “flush” the bottom of the hole with a router bit. I then use a 3/8 tap and thread the hole. After hardening the threads with superglue, I screw in threaded inserts with 10-24 machine screw threads. I superglue them in place. Now I have a burr-free surface to mate with the guitar body, and you can exert a lot of bonding force on the machine screws without ever worrying about stripping. This mod has a big positive impact on the sustain of the guitar.
 Original neck from the factory |  Fixing the holes pt. 1After I “flushed” the bottom of the hole with a router bit |  Fixing the holes pt. 2Holes after 3/8 tap and threading |
|---|---|---|
 Completed holes with insertsCompleted, burr free surface to mate with the guitar body |
Pickup Rings
Pickup rings are another custom item I like to make to dress up a guitar. The gallery below shows my process of replacing humbucker pickup rings. Rather than replace the pickup rings with new plastic ones, I decided to make some out of a piece of Wenge I had in the shop.
 Humbucker pickup rings (and pickups) that have definitely seen better days |  Humbucker pickup rings (and pickups) that have definitely seen better days |  Handmade pick up rings from Wenge (before sanding) |
|---|---|---|
 Installed custom pickup rings |  Installed custom pickup rings on guitar |
Refit and Re-route
This guitar was bought for my son when I was living in China. As shown in the gallery below, lowering the action to a reasonable level caused the strings to interfere with the pickups (and the bridge wouldn’t go low enough anyway). When I tried to set it up with the action at a reasonable level, I realized that the set neck was actually set too low to the body and at an insufficient angle. Unfortunately this guitar body was made of MDF, so trying to steam off the neck was a non-starter. The solution? Route a recess to enable the bridge to be lowered, and route out cavities for the pickup rings to recess. Unfortunately the thick finish on this guitar was very chip prone, so after routing I sanded the entire face, and shot it with matte black lacquer . The finished product had action set to .006 at the 18th fret.
 From the factoryNeck set too low for pickups |  After routing cavities |  Refinished |
|---|---|---|
 Reassembled |  Ready to play! |
Refret
I do like to refret guitars, and while I am at it I usually try to improve the look of the fingerboard. The gallery below shows two re-fret jobs. One is a refret job in Stainless (my preferred refret material). I removed the frets, leveled, shaped, and oiled the neck. Then I refretted with jumbo stainless frets. Slick and the sound is great. The other job was with a different neck, and I stained the neck and fingerboard. Note that the dots really pop with the darker board.
 Ready for frettingThe neck with the frets removed, but not yet leveled, shaped and oiled |  RefrettedAfter refretting with jumbo stainless frets |  After reshapingA different neck before staining |
|---|---|---|
 RefinishedDifferent neck after staining |