Semi-Scratch Toronado Thing

I’ m narrowing in on finishing my 1st and 2nd PB builds, a black and gold 335 so it is only good and just that I start planning the next one.

Doing something semi-scratch. Planning to build the body out of laminated timber salvaged from some hardwood pallets and use a fancy top, in a style similar to a Fender Toronado. As the rest of my guitars are kind of vintagey spec, the idea/justification to myself is for this to be designed for high performance, basically for when I feel like learning classical pieces and enough output for when The rare desire to play megadeth riffs comes on.

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Going to take the general Body shape, but no arm carve, keep the belly cut and carve the neck joint.

I just bought the top. Love it. Got it for a great price too. Got a nice 5mm to it too.

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For finish, I’m thinking the top will stay natural with tru oil, the back and sides maybe a dark oak and tru oil or natural if they look nice. Going to keep the sides of the top natural as a natural binding.

Trying a music man style kmise maple neck for now, which I’ll strip and refin with tru oil and wax, may stain too.
For tuners maybe something small and locking. And cheap. Any one got recommendations?

All my other pickups are low output sweet single coils, so I want to go something higher output here. Want something clear and distinct for hugh soeed cleans and distortions. Open for recommendations there too.

No pickguard and humbuckers direct mounted. Cut the controls to a volume knob and toggle switch
I think I’ll do it string through body with some kind of fenderish bridge with modern saddles.

Nice looking piece of wood there!

Almost any humbucker will have a higher output than a single coil, even the cleaner PAF style ones. So it's really a question of how much output you want and what your budget is (personally I like lower output so I can still do fairly clean and then use pedals for more drive). I'd suggest maybe going for some lower budget options and slightly hotter pickups to start with, say Tonerider Rocksongs, and see what you think in terms of output. If you like them, then stick with them, if not, get something else and sell them or use them in another guitar.

Awesome. Look forward to following the build.

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That top looks great.

Looking forward to seeing this one progress. I'm a bit keen on the Toronado-style.

Cheers all. Looking forward to getting into it.

That's a killer piece of timber

I think I’ve officially started.

First step was to build some simple bar clamps so that I can join the boards that will form the bulk of the body. Pretty damn pleased with them, they’re just two planks with holes in them, dowels to join them, and wedges to tension it.

My woodworking is pretty nascent, but this was easy, relatively quick, effective, built from scrap, and saved me like 80 bucks or so for pipe or bar clamps.

Next was just cutting the boards (pretty roughly) to size. Roughing up the bits to be glued together and then clamping it up.

Gonna have to get around to printing out some templates and building one out of ply soon.

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Actually, the real first step,would have been building the work bench (outgrown working on our desk in the bedroom) which I knocked up a few days back out of an old pallet. I love old pallets. Building some shelves, a chicken coop, a bed and a headbord next...or randomly when I feel like it).

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