b1g

This was one of the things I was considering doing, there are reasonably priced kits for a 335, but I'm a bit worried about hit/miss quality of the wood, I just haven't checked to see if it measures the specs for the stuff I bought (it probably does). I've also been wanting a tele, and that's something that's much more available than 335 kits. But yeah, finishing was a pain in the ass, looking back I should have gone with stain instead of paint. Honestly, that's probably not a bad idea. If it's a good kit, I can put my hardware on it and throw the cheap hardware on other things I've got that need a little love. If it's not nice enough to put money into, I still know a few people that would be interested in it when I finish as long as it works.

A big part of starting the build was really wanting to make something unique, at least as far as the electronics go that's something that's something I can definitely do. I just need a body that has a respectably quality and that seems to be something that's not easily found for a reasonable price, at least as far as semi-hollows go. At the same time, I can just buy an Ibanez and strip it down, I'll at least know the body is reasonably well-crafted, then I could strip and refinish as I see fit.

Hey guys, I've been around for a bit but I'm new to the forum. Anyway, I've been working on building a custom semi-hollow guitar. I wanted something that I could really feel was mine, and I had just graduated college and I do a lot of electronics work, so I figured I could do something really cool. Went with Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded Humbuckers for pickups, Gotoh locking tunders and a Gotoh tune-o-matic bridge, a Bigsby B70 tremolo, as well as other minor choices. I was going to go for kind of a gold hardware on dark-greyish for color. When I realized I screwed up was I completely overestimated my woodworking ability for the body. I went through Guitar Fetish twice for the body, the first set I had was a 335 and it was alright. The neck was a disaster, but the body was okay. Anyway, I set the neck wrong and screwed up painting and well yeah it was unsalvageable. So I decided I'd just get another and learn from my mistakes. This time the neck was actually very nice when I got it, but the body was very poorly made. I set it right this time and after several hours of sanding and filling holes between the binding and the wood, I managed to get it looking okay enough to paint. The current paintjob I've got on it is acrylic lacquer auto paint and it just doesn't feel right for what I was going for. Getting the colors I wanted has turned out to be a bit harder than I expected. I could always strip it and refinish it, I was thinking something like this http://www.samash.com/limited-run-government-series-es-335-semi-hollow-body-electric-guitar-72-of-300-sn-g72of300x-p or maybe a little darker with a pattern for character http://www.woodbrass.com/images/woodbrass/ARISTIDES+020+GREY-2.JPG would have been great. Anyway, when I realized I really screwed up is that I don't have the right tools to do a good job drilling the holes I need for the bridge. I'm also terrible at things like this. Basically, between my combined incompetence and the questionable quality of what I had to begin with, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to either get something cheap like an Ibanez AM73 that's known for quality that I could just strip down and replace, or I'd also like input on any custom shops people know of that could do a reasonable job on the body for a good price (I'd really like to spend <$300). At this point I'm kind of considering selfing it until I can afford something a bit more professional, because I really want it to be done right (and I've already got too many other guitars that play well). Anybody here that is an experienced builder? I could use some definitely use some input at this point because it's apparent to me I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing now.