# Serratus's 2016 Home Depot Challenge Build



## Serratus (Jan 24, 2016)

This is my plan:

7-string Les Paul junior style guitar, loosely based on a Huber Krautster.
Pine 4-piece body (pine bought from my local home improvement store), bound in cream plastic (binding left over from a previous build), stained brown with a brown burst on the front. Sprayed with amber nitro  thin coat because I only have a tiny bit left! 

Set neck, also 4-piece pine, I think stained brown and oiled with the headstock front lacquered. Mahogany fretboard, which I fabricated from an old leftover piece a while back. 25.5 scale, 22-fret, jumbo fretwire. Mahogany veneer on front of headstock (from a free sample pack of veneers that I've had for years). Dot inlays rescued from an old fingerboard I replaced. Brass nut which I'm going to make from a piece of brass bar I had left over from some previous project.

I'm going to attempt to make a wraparound bridge from a tailpiece that I've had left over in a box for years (from an old build when I bought a bridge and tailpiece combo but just used the bridge with string-through-body ferrules, leaving the tailpiece left over). I want to insert some brass in the top of the tailpiece for the strings to go over, and I'm going to insert a mahogany offcut into the body for the bridge posts to locate into as I think the pine might be a bit soft.

Black Ibanez tuners that I removed from a second-hand RG7321 neck when I replaced them with gold ones. They're 7-in-line whereas the head is going to be 4+3 so I might have to angle them or the headstock a bit to get it to look ok. We'll see.

Single bridge P-90 pickup, which is a pickup I built about ten years ago. This was back when 7-string parts where more difficult to find, so I built this P-90 from plastic, and a brass baseplate from a knackered Schaller Hot Stuff. I then sent it to Tim Mills (Bareknuckle boss!) who wound and potted it for me. It sounds great (although I've only had it in the neck position before), but looks a bit rough, but it fits under a dog-ear six string P-90 cover, so I'm going to use a cream one over it.

Volume and tone controls using old pots/knobs I have sat in my parts box, and a scratchplate and cavity cover made from some old cream plastic. Jack plug on plate on the edge of the guitar.

So far allowing for all the second hand parts, etc (the wood is the only thing I need to buy!), total cost comes to £70 ($99).

Pics to come of some of the bits, obviously I'm not starting the build until the 1st Feb as per the rules!


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## Hywel (Jan 24, 2016)

Great, now I've got GAS for a guitar that doesn't even exist yet. 

Sounds like a great plan. Can't wait for some build photos!


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## CaptainD00M (Jan 24, 2016)

Ok I'm super interested in this because I want to build a 7 String LP with very similar spec's only with NZ native woods.

Looking forward to this man


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## Serratus (Jan 26, 2016)

I've drawn out the plan for it


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## Serratus (Jan 28, 2016)

Just a few more pics before I start the build:

This is the pickup that I made a while ago - as I said, it sounds great but looks a bit ropey, so I'm gonna put it under the cream cover (I might make some fake pole-pieces in the cover to make it look better too).




The piece of mahogany I rescued that I'm using for the fingerboard. The usual advice is that mahogany is too soft to hold frets properly, but I'm hoping that with some superglue they'll stay in ok.




And the tail-piece with some of my planning on the top for where the brass will be inserted to make it a wraparound:


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## Serratus (Feb 8, 2016)

Weekend update number one! 

First, the pile of pine:






Body wood cut to lengths and dowelled ready for joining:





Body blank after glueing:





Neck woods clamped:





And after glueing:





Slots cut into the top of the tailpiece ready to take the brass inserts (to make it a wraparound bridge):





And after I'd glued the brass in, re-sprayed it and filed the tops of the brass saddles. I realise I might have to angle the tops of the saddles differently to this to get the intonation right, but there should be enough meat left in the brass to allow me to do that later:





I also made some fake pole-pieces in the pickup cover. The pickup itself has the pole pieces glued in as the pickup was coming apart when it was potted, but I didn't really like the look of the no-hole cover, so I drilled 7 holes in the cover and filled them with black epoxy just to give the look of pole-pieces:





More to come next week!


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## Crimsonghost (Feb 9, 2016)

That body is totally doing it for me.


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## Serratus (Feb 15, 2016)

Weekend update number two:

Routed the truss rod channel (forgot to take pics of that), and cut the headstock to rough thickness:





Glueing the wings for the headstock width:





Slotting the fretboard:





Slotted:





Stuck the mahogany veneer onto the headstock (the marks are just some glue):





Cut the headstock roughly to shape:





Sticking the fingerboard on:


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## CaptainD00M (Feb 18, 2016)

This looks amazing man!

How did you do the headstock shape and is there a template you used that perhaps you might be willing to share?


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## jwade (Feb 18, 2016)

The sap deposits almost make the pine look like an ultra pale black limba


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## Serratus (Feb 19, 2016)

CaptainD00M said:


> This looks amazing man!
> 
> How did you do the headstock shape and is there a template you used that perhaps you might be willing to share?



I've only got it drawn on paper I'm afraid - I traced it initially from a Les Paul plan and then widened it by about 10mm because of the extra string. I just drew it on the head and then cut it out with a jigsaw.


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## Serratus (Feb 19, 2016)

I've decided to go for no dot inlays on the front of the fingerboard - I always prefer having no inlays because I always think it makes a guitar look 'pro' somehow. But for this one I was going to do normal dots because I thought it went better with the LP junior style, but after thinking about it I'm going to return to my usual no inlay style. I think it'll still fit with the 'no-frills' style


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## Serratus (Feb 20, 2016)

Some progress on the neck. Got it roughly cut down to size (although it's still a bit over size), the side dots in, nut shelf cut and the board radius'd.


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## mnemonic (Feb 20, 2016)

I really like this build, love LP juniors, and love seven strings. 

Can't wait to see it done.


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## Serratus (Feb 22, 2016)

Holes for the tuners drilled and tested for fitting





Fretted!









Lovely rounded fret ends!


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## KR250 (Feb 22, 2016)

Awesome fret work! Care to share any tips on rounding the ends so nicely?


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## mnemonic (Feb 22, 2016)

Damn dude, look at those frets. Nice.


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## austink (Feb 22, 2016)

This is a killer build! I love the simple look of lp Jr's. That fretwork is very impressive.


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## Serratus (Feb 23, 2016)

KR250 said:


> Awesome fret work! Care to share any tips on rounding the ends so nicely?



I round off each fret individually before I push them in, so they can be rounded to a half dome at each end, filed, sanded and polished before fitting. It's very time consuming buy they feel lovely


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## CapnForsaggio (Feb 23, 2016)

After you flat sand and recrown the frets, do you find that you have to go back and touch up the dome end on the high frets?

I use a similar method, but find I must reshape 1 or two frets (the highest ones that get the most flattening) after leveling and crowning. Nice work.


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## Serratus (Feb 23, 2016)

Yes, occasionally a little bit of TLC is needed on the ends after fret levelling. If the board is really level and all the frets go in properly then it's usually ok though


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## CapnForsaggio (Feb 23, 2016)

Thanks, and again, great fret work.


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## MikeNeal (Feb 23, 2016)

frets look amazing.

cant wait to get cracking on mine. i'm falling behind now


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## MoshJosh (Feb 23, 2016)

Very cool build so far!


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## Serratus (Feb 24, 2016)

Basic neck shaping done:






And you can really see now how I laid out the four parts of wood - makes some nice grain patterns!









Might do a bit more shaping later, but I'm going to start on the body next.


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## weirdoku (Feb 24, 2016)

Looking at your photos I wonder what's the minimal amount of tools I need to make myself a neck. Seems pretty simple!


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## jwade (Feb 24, 2016)

That's one of the prettiest back of headstock shots I've ever seen. Dang.


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## BlackMastodon (Feb 25, 2016)

jwade said:


> That's one of the prettiest back of headstock shots I've ever seen. Dang.


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## Serratus (Feb 25, 2016)

I know! Pine FTW, who'd've thought it!!lol


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## Serratus (Feb 27, 2016)

Just a little bit more progress - made the nut. Made from an offcut of brass, it's in two parts. The bottom plate will be screwed down and the nut itself bolts onto it. This means that I can adjust the overall height of the nut by putting shims in between the plate and the nut, like you can with a locking nut. I wanted to try this because I often find that I cut the odd slot a touch too deep and therefore have to raise and re-cut the nut. So with this design it's easy to do. You could also have a ready made shim to put in there if you wanted to raise the action for slide guitar use 
Obviously it will need a bit more work but I'll leave that until it's ready to string-up.


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## Serratus (Mar 7, 2016)

More progress!

Got the routing done on the body and the body basically cut to size. Still lots of sanding to do and some filling where I had a little bit of tear-out with the router.









This shows the ash block that I'm inserting into the body to take the bridge posts.


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## Spicypickles (Mar 7, 2016)

Serratus said:


> Just a little bit more progress - made the nut. Made from an offcut of brass, it's in two parts. The bottom plate will be screwed down and the nut itself bolts onto it. This means that I can adjust the overall height of the nut by putting shims in between the plate and the nut, like you can with a locking nut. I wanted to try this because I often find that I cut the odd slot a touch too deep and therefore have to raise and re-cut the nut. So with this design it's easy to do. You could also have a ready made shim to put in there if you wanted to raise the action for slide guitar use
> Obviously it will need a bit more work but I'll leave that until it's ready to string-up.



The third one from the right looks a bit crooked!


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## Serratus (Mar 7, 2016)

Spicypickles said:


> The third one from the right looks a bit crooked!



The two screws are just sat in there fairly loose - they're countersunk into the bottom piece of brass and are staying in place because the other piece is bolted on. So they can go straight once I've drilled holes in the neck for them  Having said that, the bolts aren't exactly in the same place on each side; they're close but not perfect! It's hard making stuff like that by hand!!lol


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## Spicypickles (Mar 7, 2016)

Serratus said:


> The two screws are just sat in there fairly loose - they're countersunk into the bottom piece of brass and are staying in place because the other piece is bolted on. So they can go straight once I've drilled holes in the neck for them  Having said that, the bolts aren't exactly in the same place on each side; they're close but not perfect! It's hard making stuff like that by hand!!lol





I don't doubt it! I'm amazed at some of the milling you guys put out. Far beyond any skill I have.


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## Hywel (Mar 7, 2016)

The body and neck look great! Some clean work. 

Great idea with the ash insert. I'd wondered how well pine would hold up to a TOM bridge and that solves the problem nicely.


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## skeels (Mar 7, 2016)

skeels likes this


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## pettymusic (Mar 8, 2016)

Amazing work, Serratus! Nice looking grain pattern arrangements for sure!!


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## Serratus (Mar 14, 2016)

Binding:









Testing the neck joint with no glue or anything - nice tight fit!





Making some plates:





Recessed the jack plate - needs a touch more cleaning up yet though:





Gluing the neck on!


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## mnemonic (Mar 14, 2016)

Nice. 

Are you gonna leave the neck joint sticking up, or sand it flat?


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## Serratus (Mar 14, 2016)

mnemonic said:


> Nice.
> 
> Are you gonna leave the neck joint sticking up, or sand it flat?



I'm going to use my router to take it down to level with the front, then the scratchplate will cover it


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## Serratus (Mar 19, 2016)

A little bit more progress!

Neck glued on:






Routed the front of the neck level with the body front:





Should make a comfy neck joint, still needs cleaning up yet:





Made the scratchplate, so I did a quick mock-up:


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## Serratus (Mar 21, 2016)

More done!

Stuck my logo on the headstock and sprayed the front with nitro:





Got a layer of stain on the front of the body - it's not perfect around the outer edges but that doesn't matter because it's going to get a black burst:





Oiled the neck and board:





After some sanding sealer was applied to the body:









Next is to sand the sealer and clean up the binding, etc, before spraying the burst


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## mnemonic (Mar 21, 2016)

Yessss, I was hoping you would do a burst. Juniors look so good with a burst. And it would be a shame to hide the grain.


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## CaptainD00M (Mar 21, 2016)

Ah Serratus! Now I know why you work looks so professional!

I was looking at your old company to order a custom from when I was still in the UK but I think you'd stopped being a company in an official capacity.

Anyway man the LP looks good!


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## capnutslot (Mar 21, 2016)

Man alive! Awesome build!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Mar 21, 2016)

Spicypickles said:


> The third one from the right looks a bit crooked!



I think he meant the string slots in the nut. I think they are done that way purposely because of the angle the strings take to go from the nut to the tuners right?


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## Serratus (Mar 22, 2016)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> I think he meant the string slots in the nut. I think they are done that way purposely because of the angle the strings take to go from the nut to the tuners right?



Oh yeah, lol, it never even crossed my mind that that was what he meant! And yes, that's the reason


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## Serratus (Mar 26, 2016)

Had a big change of heart on colour!
I sprayed the burst but I wasn't happy with it; not smooth enough, and it covered too much of the grain. And in the end I felt like I'd rather have the front looking like pine (as that's what it is!!). So I stripped the front again and I'm spraying it with amber nitro, no stain, no burst, just a dark brown back and amber front. Pics to come later


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## Serratus (Mar 29, 2016)

Some rubbish pictures, but gives you an idea of the finish. Now drying before sanding and polishing.


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## mnemonic (Mar 29, 2016)

Looking good!

I still think it would look cooler with a burst though


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## Serratus (Mar 31, 2016)

mnemonic said:


> Looking good!
> 
> I still think it would look cooler with a burst though



Yeah maybe, I'm happy with it like this though, for a few reasons (with the stain it was all a bit too 'brown' for me, also I wanted it to look like pine, and I wasn't sure that a dark burst would work with the cream plastic whereas the honey colour should fit better). You still might be right though!!lol


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## mnemonic (Mar 31, 2016)

Don't get me wrong, it still looks great. I'm glad you put some stain on it though, instead of just oiling it. Just plain oiled pine probably would have looked pretty bland. 

I just have a thing for old, classic-looking juniors. Burst or TV yellow look the best, imo. And TV yellow would have been a waste of that wood grain.


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## DandHcostoms (Mar 31, 2016)

welp I think I know who I'm voting for already that thing looks killer man!


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## Serratus (Apr 2, 2016)

So I found some old pickup pole piece screws at the bottom of my parts box, so I redid the pickup cover with the tops of the screws glued in place - looks pretty authentic I think!! (for those who didn't read the first page, the 7-string P90 I made had to be glued together, so the pole pieces aren't adjustable. So it'll just sit underneath this cover)


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## jarnozz (Apr 2, 2016)

damn that looks nice! great job!


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## Serratus (Apr 9, 2016)

Getting there!
I've still got to polish the body, but today I levelled the frets and did a few little jobs like checking the plates still fitted okay after lacquering, etc. Couldn't resist putting the scratchplate and pickup cover on to take a quick picture


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## Hywel (Apr 9, 2016)

That looks great with the scratch plate. It's really not helping the LPJ GAS.


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## MoonJelly (Apr 11, 2016)

This looks great. Makes me want to mod my cheapo AXL les paul.


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## Serratus (Apr 21, 2016)

So, it's basically finished!
Plays really nicely, intonates perfectly which was what I was most worried about with that wraparound bridge! Good to know my measuring and planning worked  Action is nice and low with no buzzes, it just needs a bit of fiddling with setup, ie, the nut is a bit sticky, and I will put some tiny slots in the brass saddles to keep the strings located in the bridge. Once that's all done I'll do lots of pics and a vid or two! I've only tested the sound through a little practice amp so far, so I'll know more when I try it properly, but so far that 11.5k P90 seems very nice!!lol


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## Serratus (May 24, 2016)

Did a few quick vids of it


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## Hywel (May 24, 2016)

Man that looks great and sounds even better. Great build!


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## mnemonic (May 24, 2016)

As if my GAS for a wraptail LP junior wasn't high enough. 

I did just find the top of a super old mahogany desk in the back of my garage left over from the previous owners though... I'd have to pancake the body, but it would be mahogany thats probably 50+ years old...


Hell of a competition this year for the home depot build, theres a few builds I really like, but I still think this is my favorite. It just hits on too many things that I like.


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## MikeNeal (May 24, 2016)

looks fantastic. would never know its made of pine


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## neun Arme (May 25, 2016)

Sounds great, dude!


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## jarnozz (May 25, 2016)

you've NAILED this challenge!


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## MoonJelly (May 25, 2016)

Man, I don't know to vote for you or Hywel (or some mysterious dark horse yet to show himself?) 

Well done, sir. Great playing as well.


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## Serratus (May 26, 2016)

Hehe, thanks all!


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## Serratus (Jun 10, 2016)

I finally got round to recording a proper demo for it (ie, on my DAW rather than just recording on my phone in the room!!) - should be able to get it onto youtube over the weekend


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## Serratus (Jun 11, 2016)

Here you go


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## neun Arme (Jun 12, 2016)

Sounds good, man.


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## CaptainD00M (Jun 14, 2016)

That thing sounds awesome man! good shout.


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## Serratus (Jul 22, 2016)

So it's been 3 months since I set this up for the first time, it's still rock solid (action etc hasn't moved at all despite some really high temperatures lately for the UK!). I'm still in love with the sound too, great bite and rasp with plenty of balls and bottom end from that relatively high output P90. Absolutely nothing I'd want to change about it, which is pretty amazing considering the cost; definitely the greatest bang-for-buck build I've ever done!! lol (still hasn't turned me off of wenge/limba/maple, etc though!!)


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## Serratus (Nov 6, 2016)

Hi all, just a quick update - after gigging this guitar I decided that I really need a neck pickup. It seemed crazy to buy a pickup that might cost more than the rest of the whole guitar so I decided to wind one myself.
I had an old Ibanez pickup (from an RG7420 or something), so I took that to bits and cut all the wire off it, and I had some Stewmac wire left over from when I wound a pickup about 10 years ago. I bought an AlnicoII magnet from eBay which cost about £4 (the only money I spent!!). Then I built a winder from technical lego and wound the coils. The total resistance of the humbucker is about 7.5k, and I didn't pot it because I wanted to try a low power unpotted AlnicoII neck pickup 
The switch was one I had that had fallen apart as soon as I bought it (the shop sent a replacement) so I glued it back together with JB weld which is rock solid. Then I just had to cut the scratchplate to fit and rout the body.
I am so happy with it - the pickup sounds great with loads of vintage character which was exactly what I was looking for. Now I just have to hope that it doesn't scream too much at gig volume due to being unpotted


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## thinkpad20 (Nov 6, 2016)

Hahaha, love that you used legos to build a winder. Is that a thing? Anyway, this guitar looks and sounds gorgeous


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## BigBadAl (Nov 8, 2016)

OMG I need the plans for that winder ! So much awesomeness !
would love to see a vid of the winding process.

Maybe Lego can create a custom set for all us guitar geeks


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## Electrotimber (Nov 8, 2016)

Serratus said:


> Weekend update number one!
> 
> First, the pile of pine:
> 
> ...


Hi one question : wich glue you have used to attach the brass seddle on the teilpiece? thank in advance!


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## Electrotimber (Nov 8, 2016)

Hi and I have another question if you let me know!! How did you route the pick up slot with the mounted neck? May be you build a template that lay just in place with the board? Hope I write well my question . Ciao!


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## Hywel (Nov 8, 2016)

That winder is fantastic! Still love this build and it keeps getting better


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## Pikka Bird (Nov 8, 2016)

Electrotimber said:


> Hi and I have another question if you let me know!! How did you route the pick up slot with the mounted neck? May be you build a template that lay just in place with the board? Hope I write well my question . Ciao!



I'd say if the routing template is just thick enough to clear the frets then all you need is a router bit that'll let you plunge deep enough.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Nov 8, 2016)

All-pine. What is this going to weigh, like 4 pounds?


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## Serratus (Nov 9, 2016)

Electrotimber said:


> Hi and I have another question if you let me know!! How did you route the pick up slot with the mounted neck? May be you build a template that lay just in place with the board? Hope I write well my question . Ciao!



I made a template and stuck it down with double-sided tape! And for the bridge I think I used a product called JBweld, which I think is a form of epoxy - it'll glue anything and goes absolutely solid!


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## Serratus (Nov 9, 2016)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> All-pine. What is this going to weigh, like 4 pounds?



No it's not that light - it's not a heavy guitar but feels like a proper electric (I must weigh it sometime and see what it is), but I did pick out some fairly solid and straight pieces of pine.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Nov 9, 2016)

Serratus said:


> No it's not that light - it's not a heavy guitar but feels like a proper electric (I must weigh it sometime and see what it is), but I did pick out some fairly solid and straight pieces of pine.



Very cool. Excited to see how this comes out. I've been thinking about trying to build a super lightweight pine guitar.


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## Serratus (Nov 9, 2016)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> Very cool. Excited to see how this comes out. I've been thinking about trying to build a super lightweight pine guitar.



You do realise it's finished? Look on page three of the thread you'll see the pics!


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## LiveOVErdrive (Nov 10, 2016)

Serratus said:


> You do realise it's finished? Look on page three of the thread you'll see the pics!



Haah. I did not. Serves me right for skimming threads. Carry on!


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## BlackMastodon (Nov 11, 2016)

Greatest pickup winder ever!


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