How I Made a G&L Rampage Under $400
Let's face it, finding a G&L Rampage on Ebay is becoming harder and harder. I won a Rampage on Ebay about 6 years ago because the winning bidder didnt pay and i was quick to hunt down the seller and make an offer....$350 shipped. What a steal! I have since sold that guitar. Now I'm lucky to see a Rampage on ebay for under $1,000. Well guess what, I wanted that guitar back but can't shell out that much money since I now have to worry about bills, groceries, etc. and not just guitars anymore. If you are looking for a much cheaper way to own a Rampage style guitar then read on!
This is the guitar all of us Jerry fans want...
This guitar is so rare nowadays not every Jerry fan can own one. But every Jerry fan can build one. I find that building guitars is addicting. Once I built a Cantrell style guitar I built an Eddie Van Halen guitar which you can see in the EVH section. I find that buidling your own replica of someone's guitar is satisfying. It's like their's but its your own too because no one else has something exactly like it. It's not some mass produced guitar any bum can go pick up at guitar center. It's something you can be proud of. Now lets get down to business.
The body is the single most important aspect of this project. Why? Well it needs to be equipped with only ONE humbucker. After searching and searching on ebay i found ebay seller "jcguitars-on-the-web" had exactly what i was looking for. These guys sell mighty mite fender bodies that have, you guessed it, one humbucker spot. Their guitar bodies are beautiful and that is why I purchased mine from them for about $200. This was the most expensive item in the project. The body itself was pre painted/laquered and has a flame style. You could easily find an unfinished body that you could paint yourself if you refine your ebay search. At the time the only unfinished one humbucker body i could find was the Eddie Van Halen 5150 Kramer style but it had drilled holes for a floyd trem and people were snatching 'em up for hundreds of dollars.
I already had a spare neck for this project so I chose to use it to save a few bucks until I was ready to upgrade. It is not slotted for a locking nut but that is ok. The ebay seller I mentioned above also carries mighty mite necks that can have a regular nut or can come slotted for a floyd locking nut. The neck will run you between 100-150 bucks. This is the neck I'm currently using:
The guitar does have a tremolo but after weeks of tweeking it I can go nuts on the whammy and this thing comes back to just about perfect tuning without having a locking nut. The trick was something I saw from Eddie Van Halen. I picked up the trem from "ezra-music" on ebay for under 40 dollars and it is pretty damn good. The springs on the trem are configured like this:
Here is a pic of the trem, pickup and volume knob:
If you have more money to put in I recommend going for the Kahler Trem which are now being produced again and these can be found on ebay for around 150 brand new. The Kahler Trem is what Jerry is using now and has used on his G&L's since the beginning. Jerry is currently using 2300 and 2320 models.
For the rest of the pieces on the body I bought the black dome knob, strap locks, jack plate, wiring kit, humbucker cover, neck plate, black screws,and trem cavity cover from stewmac.com for around 50 dollars. I bought a plastic humbucker cover since it was far cheaper than a metal one. But you can always upgrade in the future.
As you would expect the pickup is a seymour duncan JB SH-4 that I purchased from musiciansfriend.com for 70 dollars. You can find the wiring diagram for one volume one humbucker on the seymour duncan website.
The tuners were also purchased from "ezra-music" on ebay for about 20 dollars. The tuning pegs themselves are the round style. The holes on the back are from the old tuning machines.
The assembly itself was easy and everything fit perfectly. When buying the tuning pegs make sure you buy the right size for the holes drilled in your headstock.
If I ever have some extra money I will upgrade the neck to a floyd nut style and slap a Kahler Trem on the body. Hopefully this guide inspires you to get out and build your own if ya don't already own a G&L Rampage. And for those of you that are lucky enough to own the real deal why not build another!
As always, contact me at vanhalensucks@hotmail.com if you want to submit your tips on this topic.
