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  #1  
Old 09-14-2020, 09:37 PM
Jimi2 Jimi2 is online now
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Default Frankenstein guitar - bridge question

I recently reacquired my very first electric guitar - an early 90s Peavey Predator strat clone from a friend. It’s still in decent shape, but the neck is thin and narrow and the pickups don’t sound great. Given that it’s almost worthless, i thought it wouldn’t hurt to work on it a bit, so I’m thinking of replacing the pickups, getting a wider (hopefully 1 3/4”) and fatter neck. But string spacing at the bridge is only 2 and 1/8”, which could negate that the benefit of the wider neck. Is it feasible to replace the bridge too? What about the tremolo system? Should I maybe just get a fixed bridge with wider string spacing? I’m new this type of work, so forgive my ignorance.
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Old 09-15-2020, 03:44 AM
guitararmy guitararmy is offline
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I found several Peavey Predators for sale on Reverb for $300 or more, so it may not be as worthless as you think.
You might do better selling it and building a partsocaster from the ground up...
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Old 09-15-2020, 11:32 AM
Takzula Takzula is offline
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Consider building a Telecaster or Stratocaster.
Parts from AliExpress are cheap as chips.
I've made several guitars for my son's friends.
If you can do Lego..
You will have to learn how to level frets and file a nut, but I've seen stock Gibsons with worse.
Easy.
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Old 09-15-2020, 11:39 AM
Takzula Takzula is offline
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Guitararmy beat me to it
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Old 09-15-2020, 11:56 AM
Jimi2 Jimi2 is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitararmy View Post
I found several Peavey Predators for sale on Reverb for $300 or more, so it may not be as worthless as you think.
You might do better selling it and building a partsocaster from the ground up...
Hmm. I hadn’t considered that. Everything works, but the body is pretty dinged up and has a bunch of old stickers on it that might not come off cleanly. Also, it does have sentimental value to me, so overall I doubt I’d get $300 for it and it may not be worth selling.
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Old 09-15-2020, 11:59 AM
Jimi2 Jimi2 is online now
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When I said it’s in decent shape, I meant functionally, not cosmetically. I guess a wider neck would cause problems both with the bridge, and with the join to the body right? Maybe just a beefier but not wider neck would help. Then maybe a prewired pickguard/pickup setup would do.
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Old 09-15-2020, 12:00 PM
Jimi2 Jimi2 is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Takzula View Post
Consider building a Telecaster or Stratocaster.
Parts from AliExpress are cheap as chips.
I've made several guitars for my son's friends.
If you can do Lego..
You will have to learn how to level frets and file a nut, but I've seen stock Gibsons with worse.
Easy.
Thanks. What’s the overall cost like? I was thinking of getting a neck from warmoth- are aliexpress ones decent quality?
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Old 09-15-2020, 01:15 PM
Dru Edwards Dru Edwards is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimi2 View Post
When I said it’s in decent shape, I meant functionally, not cosmetically. I guess a wider neck would cause problems both with the bridge, and with the join to the body right? Maybe just a beefier but not wider neck would help. Then maybe a prewired pickguard/pickup setup would do.
You're right - you would need to make sure that the replacement neck can fit in the neck pocket. The scale length would need to match too.
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Old 09-15-2020, 04:08 PM
Jimi2 Jimi2 is online now
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Well, I’d love to build a parts telecaster as I don’t have a tele, but right now it’s probably not feasible. My girlfriend would likely kill me if I spent a bunch of money on a new guitar, but I can probably get away with fixing up an old one. Looks like a fatter neck would be $160 from warmoth, then I should be able to get a Seymour Duncan pickup for the neck for around $60. Any recommendations for a neck pup? Cheap is good, hence the Seymour Duncan idea. I think I’ll hold off on replacing the others for now.
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Old 09-17-2020, 10:17 AM
Takzula Takzula is offline
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Jimi. If you're not confident about ordering all the parts you need, you should buy a Thomann Telecaster kit:

https://www.thomann.de/fi/harley_ben...kit_tstyle.htm

Mate. It's freaking amazing and you'll have a blast building it. Sure, you need some woodwork, practicality skill. So if baking cakes is the best you can do...

Yes, the frets and nut do need dressing, but so does every Gibson and Fender I've ever held.

I recommend you get the Tele, not the Strat. I have no idea why the Strat model is 10€ cheaper.

Get on with it.
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  #11  
Old 09-17-2020, 10:26 AM
Takzula Takzula is offline
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Those Seymour Duncans. You're wasting your money.
You're buying the biggest surfboard in the shop.
They ain't even that good.

Last edited by Takzula; 09-17-2020 at 12:27 PM.
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  #12  
Old 09-17-2020, 10:31 AM
Takzula Takzula is offline
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You can get a pair of Probuckers on Ali for 30 bucks
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3297...61c351e9bh0DZX

Last edited by Takzula; 09-17-2020 at 12:26 PM.
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