Mini Guitar Project (My First Project; Please Help!!)

[rhargis14]

So I was at my bud's house last night and I found this lil' guy:
http://imgur.com/a/UbEhv

As you can see, the thing is a piece of crap, but I've been wanting to get into doing projects, and I figured this was as good of a jumping off point as any.

What I'm thinking I want to do with it is replace the crappy pickup with a single coil sized p90 or hum bucker, replace the neck all together (which would take care of the nut, crappy/missing tuners, and bent frets in one swoop), and switching out the bridge (which is basically falling apart) with a PRS-style stop tail bridge. So basically keeping the body and that's about it.

The biggest set back for me is that I have no clue where to start or what to do, so here I am, asking for guidance from the masters

Here are some questions that I've been thinking about also:
Should I go for something like a tele neck, rather than searching for another mini guitar's neck? (I know that it might look a little ridiculous with that long of a neck on such a small body, but I'm wondering if it will make it more playable.)
How can i add a tone knob to this guy, or would that be impossible with how small the electronics hole is?

Any and all advice is appreciated, and I do know that you can only polish a piece of crap so much, but i mostly want to work on this guitar to give me some experience with doing this kind of thing.

I'll also keep the imgur updated with pics as they come. And I'll also post measurements of the guitar once I find some time.

Here we go...

[doommeow]

If this is a) your first project and b) the neck is likely not made to standard dimensions and c) you don't have the tools and or skills to be reshaping neck pockets, I'd say leave the neck as is and turn the thing into a lap steel....

Replace and/or raise the nut and bridge, put in a decent single coil, maybe put in a concentric pot for vol/tone, and call it a day....

(But I'm also admittedly a steel nut and wish more people were...)

[Swordfishtrombone]

Yeah, I agree with doommeow. Going for the lapsteel route seems like your best bet here.

Another thing to consider is that it doesn't look like there's gonna be enough room to relocate the bridge for a full sized neck on this (along with what doom said about neck dimensions + reshaping neck pocket).

Maybe if you really want to make this into something playable (and not going the lapsteel route) you can make it into an electric mandolin/mandola? You'd learn a bit of fretwork in the process (along with some other stuff) and it would be much less of a hassle than what you're talking about doing.

[Decibill]

I would start with a full/standard size project. Choosing something like this will be a lot harder for a first project.

[AxAxSxS]

Sourcing a neck that would be the appropriate length will be problematic at best.

So working with this-


Here's what you could do,
Replace tuners,
Make a new nut. ( I like Brass)
Nicer pickup, route a larger cavity and get used to doing that.
Repaint it. tons of stuff to learn just to do that.
Refret it. All kinds or issues there. bending the fret wire to the correct radius, pulling the old wire without dammaging the fret board, fret level and crown etc.
Install a tremolo, YAY MORE ROUTING!
shim the neck for more correct action.
electronics.

[Swordfishtrombone]

Make a new nut. ( I like Brass)

How hard is this to do? I mean specifically with brass. Cus I'd like to try out brass nuts + become more handy with doing my own guitar tech shit and it's always been pretty intimidating for me (says the person that has no problem hacking up a guitar with a fucking chisel in a sleep deprived + caffeine fueled state...).

[AxAxSxS]

not that bad, some needle files, a dremmel tool, I have some rods that are specific to gauges, very fine sand paper and brass polish. The thing is to measure VERY carefully and start slow. It's easy to miss where you want the string to be and score the wrong spot.
Brass is fairly soft and I find it easy to work with.

[Swordfishtrombone]

ooh alright. Glad to hear that it's not bad to work with. After I make some other purchases + mods to my tele I think I'll be trying this. Considering making it into a nine string too, so that might give me the perfect excuse to actually try this out.

[rhargis14]

Thanks for all of your input guys!

I think I'm going to do most of the stuff that AxAxSxS suggested, because I neither play lap steel nor mandolin.

I don't think putting in a trem would feasible with this guitar, since the body is so thin and I'm not sure how much room I'll have left after routing for the tone control. Also, I've never done routing and putting in a trem seems pretty advanced.

Also, I don't think I'll be refinishing it because I actually like the color a lot. Thinking about trying to make myself a pick guard, though. But that's the lowest on my list of priorities.

Do any of you guys have any links or advice on how to start doing this? Obviously, I'm going to start by gutting it and such, but I'm pretty lost after that.

[AxAxSxS]

http://www.projectguitar.com/index

Poke around in there, read the FAQ's, check out the links. Do all this before posting. A lot of the guys in there are into some next level shit. tons of good info though.

[rhargis14]

Awesome, thanks man. I'll check it out!