# First Build  Walnut, Sycamore and a P90!



## Hywel (Jan 5, 2015)

So I&#8217;ve been following this forum for a few years and got the urge to do some building. Originally I was a bit scared of doing a full build myself so I built a couple of guitars from parts, starting with a relic strat kit and moving up to a semi-custom HH tele. While that&#8217;s all been fun I&#8217;ve started to get the urge to do a full build from scratch so I&#8217;ve been doing some planning, reading and buying and I&#8217;ve ended up with the specs below!

Regius like body shape, own 2x4 headstock
6 strings, 25.5&#8221; scale, 24 frets
5 ply sycamore/walnut neck, Ebony fretboard
2 piece black walnut solid body with walnut crotch figured veneer top (0.6mm)
Bound body and headstock, luminlay/glowing inlay
Hipshot bridge, Humbucker bridge, P90 neck

While in the planning stages I made a few mock-ups which led up to&#8230;







Which is all well and good except what I actually have is... 






And a distinct lack of skill (in either lutherie or photography!). 

But anyway, I glued the body blank with a large number of what may be the world&#8217;s smallest sash clamps and sanded it down in preparation for the veneer. I cheated a bit in that the neck blank came already laminated from eBay but If I build any more I'll be doing them from scratch. 






Sadly this came rolled up in a tube so I had to spend ages softening it and flattening it. As a result, it also developed a few cracks but I can probably fix those later on.

In the mean time, I sized up an approximation of a Regius-ish body template and cut it out of 15mm MDF on my new hobby bandsaw (hooray for the Axminster Christmas sale!) and finished the edges off with a file. Which leaves me at this point&#8230;






Next step &#8211; Veneering the body blank and cutting it out&#8230; 

Speaking of which, anyone got any advice on which way up to attach the veneer? The figure is raised from the surface and I don't want to lose it to sanding! Basically, glued with raised figure (A) or sunken figure (B) uppermost?

A -





B -


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## CD1221 (Jan 5, 2015)

Rolled up in a tube ?!?!?!

Solid plans, good luck.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jan 5, 2015)

Welcome to this weird obsession!!! I like it! looks like it'll be a fun build. I kinda went the same way and built a fairly simple 6 string based off blackmachine with a custom 4-2 headstock for my first build. It is certainly a fun hobby, I'm a little way into my second build now, 28" baritone 6 string. 

But I'm curious, are you going with a straight headstock or angled? Its just that the blank looks like it could easily be cut for a straight headstock...


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## KnightroExpress (Jan 5, 2015)

Looks nice! I like your headstock


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## immortalx (Jan 6, 2015)

I dig the headstock too and overall looks like a very nice plan! 
You'd probably want to grain fill that veneer and sand it with care. These are really thin and it doesn't take much to sand through it. Good luck mate!


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## DredFul (Jan 6, 2015)

This seems interesting! Good luck and have a good time!


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## Pikka Bird (Jan 6, 2015)

I'd feel most comfortable with the sunken figure facing outwards. In case it doesn't get taken care of in gluing (which it might) then you should get better results with sanding sealer that way.

Are you gonna radius the top at all?


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## Hywel (Jan 6, 2015)

Thanks guys, glad the headstock gets some approval!



CD1221 said:


> Rolled up in a tube ?!?!?!



I know right! Luckily my usual veneer softener mixture (Water, Glycerin, Alcohol) got it flat and I could have probably avoided the crack if I'd been a bit more patient unrolling it.



DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> But I'm curious, are you going with a straight headstock or angled? Its just that the blank looks like it could easily be cut for a straight headstock...



Planning on a 10-12° scarf joint. I prefer the look of an angled headstock and the lack of string trees. I think I'll make one of those router planing jigs everyone seems to use to clean it up. 



immortalx said:


> You'd probably want to grain fill that veneer and sand it with care.



I'm finishing this with Tru-oil one the front and oil/wax on the back. Would light wetsanding with the tru-oil do the job or should I find a clear/similar color grain filler?



Pikka Bird said:


> Are you gonna radius the top at all?



Flat top this time. I might put a BM style forarm bevel on if I can't get on with the sharp corners.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, it's very much appreciated!


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## immortalx (Jan 6, 2015)

Don't take my word for it but I'd prefer a clear epoxy filler instead of sanding with tru-oil. I'm a bit afraid cause i've sanded through some veneers myself.


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## Hywel (Jan 6, 2015)

immortalx said:


> Don't take my word for it but I'd prefer a clear epoxy filler instead of sanding with tru-oil. I'm a bit afraid cause i've sanded through some veneers myself.



I'll save some off cuts and give that a try. 

Blank is now veneered!






Took way longer than expected, mainly due to the cracks, but they are reduced as much as possible and filled with glue/dust anywhere else. Also, the grain/figure was really annoying to center and I think I've got it a little bit too far over so I might cut the blank off center to compensate. Depends if I prefer the glue line at the back or the top to be out 

Still, kinda expected this sort of thing to happen 

Next time - Jigs and things with scarf joints (maybe)...


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## CD1221 (Jan 10, 2015)

Concentrate on the front, let the back take care of itself.


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## Hywel (Jan 11, 2015)

CD1221 said:


> Concentrate on the front, let the back take care of itself.



That does sound like the best plan 

So I haven't made a huge amount of progress on the actual build as I've been building some jigs and practicing with tools I haven't used before on some long planks of oak. Made a vast amount of sawdust, got loads of small cuts and scrapes etc... but now I think I've vaguely got the hang of my arsenal of rasps, spokeshaves, scrapers and the like! 






So I've built a fret bender, router scarf planing jig and a binding jig (which is basically a rip off of stew-macs much more advanced TrueChannel jig and not really for this build but useful for something else I have in mind)

You may also notice I had some fun on Vistaprint and got a rubber stamp with my name in a fancy signature font made. I'll be using it to stamp the headstock in metallic silver when the build's complete (and anything else I fancy in the meantime, including these jigs  )

Also, if for any reason anyone wants to see any photos from this build in full 14mp res then there's an imgur album link here --> http://imgur.com/a/ZTmDl/all


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## Hywel (Jan 17, 2015)

Sorry for the slow updates, it's been a busy week and had some exams but it's a free weekend so I've made a little progress.

I started by making a practice neck from cheap oak so I could improve my scarf joint and truss rod installing skills. The scarf joint took a bit effort as I wasn't sure what measurements to use to get the angles and everything in the right place but with a bit of experimentation and some mock-ups on Adobe Illustrator I found the correct position for everything.

I marked the joint using a pencil down the edge of the router jig so the cut would be exactly the same same angle as the planing that followed. I then cut the scarf with my 250mm Ryoba saw and used some MDF blocks to try and get the cut as straight as possible






I then cleaned up and glued the joint used masking tape to hold it together while it dried (from this blog - Luthier than thou » Blog Archive » Simplifying scarf joints&#8230;)






I'm kinda happy with the results but it's not the cleanest scarf ever. It didn't help the oak is slightly cupped and lacking a planer/thicknesser I just carried on with it like that. Pic is after I cut the truss rod channel but gives you an idea.






I moved onto the truss rod channel and I used an edge guide to line the router up and put a pencil in the collet to mark where it was going to gut. I lined it all up with the center line and changed the bit to a 1/4 inch straight and cut the channel in about 3 passes. I switched to a round 1/2 inch bit for the nut end and did a test fit.






It seems to have worked! 

EDIT : So I had a go at shaping and carving the practice neck with no planning or profile in mind just to see what would happen and got it to a reasonable shape (kinda an asymmetrical shallow C). There's a few tool marks and I royally screwed up the volute area but since it's a practice neck I'm OK with that! Used the carve at 1st and 12th-ish with a rasp and connect with a spokeshave method and it wasn't anywhere near as daunting as I thought it would be (obviously it will be on the real thing but I'm very glad I did a practice run first.)










Next time - The real neck!


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## Hywel (Jan 27, 2015)

Ok, I lied. I was planning on doing the neck but the blank had developed a twist so I had to spend time setting up a planer jig for my router to flatten it out again. 

Instead I decided to press on with the body. I rough sawed the blank on the bandsaw and set up the template and router table to bring it down to the correct size. 






It went pretty well except for a good chunk of tearout on the upper horn 






So since a patch wasn't going to work with an oil finish I thinned out the upper horn on the template and re-routed until the tearout was much less noticable. I filled it with dust and CA glue to finish off the patch job. Once the edges had been sanded I had a pretty reasonable lump of wood (although the upper horn is a bit thinner than I would have liked)






I then set about the control cavity and pickup routes. Again nothing works quite how you expect it to and I again managed to take lumps of wood out from where I needed them but a quick repositon of the template or patch job with offcuts and titebond sorted those out. Made a cover from some 5mm walnut and installed some magnets to hold it on. I sanded a radius into the top edge of the cover so to open the cavity you press on the top edge firmly and the bottom pops out, allowing you to lift it out.











So now i'm up to this point...


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## ohoolahan (Jan 28, 2015)

uh yeah! p90, baby!


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## electriceye (Jan 29, 2015)

Very nice! 

You mentioned screwing up the volute. You don't need that with a scarf joint.

How heavy is the body, out of curiosity?


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## dankarghh (Jan 30, 2015)

Looking great. I'd never thought about using magnets for the control cover, where did you get them?


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## JuliusJahn (Jan 30, 2015)

dankarghh said:


> Looking great. I'd never thought about using magnets for the control cover, where did you get them?



I use em for everything. Cavity covers, truss rod covers, holding the drill chuck, drill bits, dremel key, files, etc etc.

Rare-Earth Circular Magnets - Lee Valley Tools


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## Hywel (Jan 30, 2015)

electriceye said:


> Very nice!
> 
> You mentioned screwing up the volute. You don't need that with a scarf joint.
> 
> How heavy is the body, out of curiosity?



I just like the look of a volute but due to having to plane the twist out of the blank I don't think there's really enough thickness to do it now. At least I wasn't relying on it! The body is around 2.3kg (just over 5lbs) at the moment but I still have the neck pocket to cut so it'll drop a little bit. 



dankarghh said:


> Looking great. I'd never thought about using magnets for the control cover, where did you get them?



Thanks! I got mine from eBay. ~£3.50 for 100 4mmx1mm neodymium discs which are plenty strong enough for cavity covers. Going to use them on the truss rod cover as well. Link to the eBay seller I got them from - Here

Tonight I rounded over the body edge and carved a bit out from behind the lower cut out






I also cut the scarf into the neck blank on the worlds wobbliest worktable (hence why I'm shoving it against the shelves with my foot in the photo)






And then tried to plane it on the router jig that worked on the practice neck but for some reason it was planing a massive angle/twist onto the face of the blank. 

After wasting about 10mm of wood trying to get it level I gave up and switched to my hand plane and sandpaper on glass which worked well. I then tried to glue it but encountered loads of movement when I clamped the joint resulting in the laminates not lining up so I pulled it apart and tried again with 6mm dowels to hold it in position and as far as I know it seems to have worked so far...










Hoping to cut the truss rod channel tomorrow but afterwards, should I glue the fretboard onto the neck then cut it to shape with the bandsaw/router or should I cut the neck out first then attach the fretboard and trim it flush?

Thanks guys!


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## dankarghh (Jan 30, 2015)

I always roughcut the blank with the jigsaw then clamp the fretboard in place and use the router to trim it all flush. Works for me at least.


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## Hywel (Feb 2, 2015)

So it's been a busy weekend. Kicked it off with cleaning up the freshly dried scarf joint and cutting a few mm off the back of the headstock to bring it to ~14mm thick in total to allow the tuners to reach through. This also gave me a tiny volute type of thing (although whether it turns out to look any good I won't know until I carve the neck  ). I cut the rough shape on the band saw and made it flush with the template on the router table. Unfortunately the bit/bearing moved in a couple of places and as usual took some wood out that it wasn't supposed to. Nothing major, but the neck is a little thinner near the heel and nut/headstock than planned.












Cut the truss rod channel and access and installed some t-nuts. Seeing how the t-nuts came out, I think I might invest in a proper drill press if I do this again!











Next I veneered and cut binding channels on the headstock face and body





















While I was waiting for the neck stuff to dry I took some tools to the back of the body and rasped out a belly cut
















Finally, I had a go at cutting the neck pocket which was by far the scariest part of the build so far. Cutting the scarf and getting it flat was pretty bad but at least I had some spare room on the blank to cover mistakes. The neck seems to line up but I'm not looking forward to bridge placement time.











Oh, and I glued on some binding...






Hopefully finishing off the body and starting on the fretboard next time!


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## immortalx (Feb 2, 2015)

This is an ultra-clean build! The fact that it's your first one makes it even more awesome!


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## CircuitalPlacidity (Feb 2, 2015)

Great build man. Am I the only one who is loving that little knot in the headstock veneer? Pretty ....ing classy so far. Keep up the good work.


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## Hywel (Feb 4, 2015)

immortalx said:


> This is an ultra-clean build! The fact that it's your first one makes it even more awesome!



Thanks! I love your builds so that means a lot to me. I'm making a few mistakes as I'm going along and learning loads from them so the second build should be even better hopefully. 



CircuitalPlacidity said:


> Great build man. Am I the only one who is loving that little knot in the headstock veneer? Pretty ....ing classy so far. Keep up the good work.



The knot was kind of an accident when I wrecked the original bit I was going to use but it's grown on me and I love it now!

So the binding seems to have worked and I spent a bit of time scraping it all flush. The headstock was fairly easy as it was all 1 colour but the body had some spots where the channel wasn't perfect for some reason and when I scraped it flush the white middle layer showed a bit. Nothing too bad but something to learn for next time. Filled in any gaps with thin CA glue.











I had a go at shaping the heel with no real shape in mind and just kinda went with what seemed right at the time. I like the end result and while it is a little bulkier than some, the contours of the cutaway and roundness of the heel make the upper fret access pretty comfortable (not that I can play up there very well!). I recessed the bolt heads and installed some 9mm M4 washers for a bit of added strength.





















Finally, I rough shaped the fretboard and used a couple of veneer pins to center it on the neck. I covered the neck in glue and clamped it down with everything I had. 











Hopefully it'll all be in line when I take them all off again... 

Edit - So I'm not 100% happy with the binding so I'm going to re-cut the channel at some point and re-do it on the body only (or do a forearm bevel that cuts away the bit that's annoying me). It looks OK if you don't look closely but I know it's not right and that's gonna annoy me later on


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## DredFul (Feb 4, 2015)

Hywel said:


> Edit - So I'm not 100% happy with the binding so I'm going to re-cut the channel at some point and re-do it on the body only (or do a forearm bevel that cuts away the bit that's annoying me). It looks OK if you don't look closely but I know it's not right and that's gonna annoy me later on



That's the spirit! 

Really enjoying this build  keep up the good work!


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## Renkenstein (Feb 4, 2015)

I flippin love that headstock. Great design.


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## Pikka Bird (Feb 5, 2015)

Hywel said:


> Edit - So I'm not 100% happy with the binding so I'm going to re-cut the channel at some point and re-do it on the body only (or do a forearm bevel that cuts away the bit that's annoying me). It looks OK if you don't look closely but I know it's not right and that's gonna annoy me later on



How bad is it? Can we see? I would like it a lot if you didn't cut a contour that goes all the way through the binding, because that's one of the things I really can't stand on Blackmachines.

It's looking very awesome at this point, TBH.


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## Hywel (Feb 5, 2015)

Pikka Bird said:


> How bad is it? Can we see? I would like it a lot if you didn't cut a contour that goes all the way through the binding, because that's one of the things I really can't stand on Blackmachines.



Honestly, it's not that bad but I know I can do better. If this was a custom I put up as a NGD, SSO would probably tell me to send it back or demand a partial refund so I'll give it another go. 

I'm just going to replace it as is and not do a contour. I don't think a contour would work well with a veneer and the flat top is more comfortable than I expected since the belly carve allows the body to angle in (I almost always play sitting down) and that keeps the edge from digging into my arm.




Pikka Bird said:


> It's looking very awesome at this point, TBH.



Cheers! 

EDIT - Binding channel re-cut (much more accurately this time) and ready for binding on Monday. Luminlay side dots installed on the neck.


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## Hywel (Feb 9, 2015)

Top inlay installed and fretboard radiused.











It glows! Green on top, blue on the side.






Neck profile is a bit thick and the shoulders are a bit "Roter-esq" so the Shinto and Microplane rasps get stuck in











Success! Ended up a bit thinner near at the 12th fret than I wanted but it's ok at [email protected] and [email protected] Profile in the pics below.











Stick it all together and you end up with this.






Next time I'm planning on doing the fret work, bridge placement and string through holes


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## guidothepimmp (Feb 9, 2015)

Thats great work! Neck carve looks so clean.. very classy


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## KnightroExpress (Feb 9, 2015)

Very nice!


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## immortalx (Feb 9, 2015)

Excellent work man  I love those flecks in the neck and I often wonder why sycamore isn't used as much as maple in guitar construction. It's a fantastic wood.


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## Hywel (Feb 16, 2015)

immortalx said:


> I love those flecks in the neck and I often wonder why sycamore isn't used as much as maple in guitar construction. It's a fantastic wood.



They look great, sadly a lot of them disappeared with the neck carve, but there's still plenty on the central stripe and headstock. Hopefully I won't find out if there's a reason it's not used more commonly 

Progress has been a bit slow recently as exam revision is getting in the way but I still found a couple of hours here and there to do a bit more work on the project. 

Started putting in the Dutch made 2.7mm nickel frets with titebond in the slots to fill the space. I much preferred using titebond over CA glue as it's much easier to clean up and fills the gaps seemingly just as well. Used CA glue and ebony dust to fill in any small gaps at the edges though.






There was a high spot around 2-4 so I leveled them off and polished them up a bit











Not the best fretwork in the world but they are level and less sharp now so that's something!

Used the "2 tuners, outside strings and a ruler" method of bridge placement and drilled the mounting and grounding holes











I'll get round to drilling the string through holes soonish and since they won't be straight, I'm going to make a ferrule block out of either aluminium or african blackwood and inlay that with a router instead. I had bought a new router (a Triton MOF001) but it was DOA from Amazon so that's slowed things down a bit 

Also, I'm finding the fretboard/neck is a bit high off the body for the 0.125" Hipshot so I think I'll sand the neck a bit to bring it a bit more in line. I think it's probably a bit safer than way than making the neck pocket deeper.

BONUS EDIT - String through holes are drilled. Didn't come out too bad for a hand drill but they're not properly in line so I'll still be making a ferrule block out of the blackwood in the picture


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Feb 16, 2015)

Nice work so far!


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## TauSigmaNova (Feb 16, 2015)

Looking beautiful. Keep it up.


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## Hywel (Feb 19, 2015)

So I had a think about finishes and did some research and I think this time I'll stick with the tru-oil, mainly just because it's so forgiving and easy to apply. I put some on the headstock to see what happened and it popped the grain nicely.






The pickups for this build are both from Axesrus, with the neck P90 being a "Late 50's" model with 7.8k resistance and the bridge humbucker being a "Hot Iron" model with 14.6k. 











I was planning on brushing the covers but in removing the pole screws I slipped and put a big gouge in the P90 cover . So, I've ordered a set of raw nickle covers to replace the scratched one and used the old ones for practice.

Finally, I made the ferrule block and it came out OK. The radius on the ends isn't great but it's not too far off.






However, I tried making the cavity in some spare wood and I struggled to get a straight or neat cut. Eventually my router bit blunted to the point it doesn't really work anymore (it was cheap and came with the router) and I realized making a 16mm deep cavity was very different than the ~5mm deep one for the Schaller Hannes bar I'd done previously. 






So, in light of that I think this time I'll change my plan and go with the ferrules I've already drilled for. While they aren't perfect, I think attempting to inlay the block with my current gear/experience is going to end badly. I'll save the block for another time.

So hopefully next time it'll be finishing the neck and body (Tru-oil everything. Gloss headstock, matte back of the neck. Gloss top, Satin-ish back/sides on the body with Wax).


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## Pikka Bird (Feb 19, 2015)

^Your existing ferrule holes are _very_ close to being straight (I held a ruler across the screen). I really don't think anybody will ever notice that


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## Hywel (Feb 19, 2015)

Pikka Bird said:


> ^Your existing ferrule holes are _very_ close to being straight (I held a ruler across the screen). I really don't think anybody will ever notice that



Thanks! Hopefully they'll be too distracted by the front


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## S-O (Feb 19, 2015)

This is looking great so far!


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## Hywel (Feb 19, 2015)

So I tried to do some more revision for my exams and this happened...


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## Pikka Bird (Feb 20, 2015)

Ha ha, oops. 

...missed a spot on the ass, what kind of guy are you?!


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## Neilzord (Feb 20, 2015)

Best revision ever. 

Looking awesome!


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## haieb (Feb 20, 2015)

This top looks awesome! :O


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## Hywel (Feb 20, 2015)

Just a small update tonight (waiting on finish to dry, especially that spot on the butt )

Received my new raw nickel covers in the post today along with a load of wax. I used sehnomatic's great guide to brush the covers (and his guide for bridge placement, cheers for writing those up!) and swapped them with old ones before soldering them on and re-potting them with wax


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## BlackMastodon (Feb 20, 2015)

Damn, those are classy.


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## BurlNCurl (Feb 20, 2015)

Whoa! That's an awesome job on those pickups.


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## DredFul (Feb 20, 2015)

Damn did the figure pop! It's going to look awesome.


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## Hywel (Feb 24, 2015)

Again, a small update as exams are getting in the way and the finishing process is taking ages.

Now the back of the body and neck went OK, came out nice and glossy with a couple of coats of Tru-oil...






But the veneer is a different matter. Because of the way it grew to give that figure, large patches of it are end grain so just Tru-oil by itself produces a mix of gloss and matte finish on the same surface. Took me longer than it should have to work out what was going on but I bought some Birchwood Casey Sealer/Filler to give the Tru-oil something flat and non-porous to stick to and its worked well (on the headstock at least, body is still WIP).






While I'm waiting for everything to dry between coats I thought I'd do some soldering. I saw a thread somewhere in the pickup subforum saying how amazing the difference between having a tone pot or not was. Since all my guitars have tone pots I wanted to give this a try but couldn't be arsed de-soldering stuff or buying no-load pots so instead I soldered a SPST switch in the circuit to cut out the tone pot/cap reversibly. I've put the wiring diagram below and I've no idea if it works yet but I'm looking forward to finding out


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## Hywel (Feb 24, 2015)

This is an example of the issues I was having with the grain in the veneer. Another coat of the sealer/filler will sort it out but it took me a while to find one that was suitable. Almost spent £30 on Aqua Coat before I found the Birchwood Casey one 






Also, 100th post!


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## S-O (Feb 24, 2015)

I have never worked with veneers, but could you have wet sanded the veneer a bit to raise and sand the grain so it is all flush?


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## Hywel (Feb 25, 2015)

S-O said:


> I have never worked with veneers, but could you have wet sanded the veneer a bit to raise and sand the grain so it is all flush?



I did give that a bit of a try but it didn't seem to have much effect (It does work well sometimes though so definitely worth trying ). I also tried wet sanding with boiled linseed oil to try and fill the grain with an oil/dust mix which helped but didn't solve it completely.

Luckily the sealer/filler has worked well and the coats of Tru-oil are drying nicely now. Hopefully I'll be on to shielding and installing the hardware by tomorrow, ready to play by Friday 

EDIT - Nothing works quite how you plan, hence will likely be ready early next week instead


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## Solodini (Feb 26, 2015)

Clean soldering!


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## Hywel (Mar 3, 2015)

The sealer/filler solved the veneer issue and gave me a nice flat surface to oil. 






It was time to tru-oil the front again. It was more fiddly than I remember but after a few false starts I managed to get a decent finish out of it. After that had dried, I shielded the cavities with graphite/carbon paint and copper foil.











I made some extra space in the pickup cavities while I was routing/drilling them to allow all the wiring to run though without interfering with the pickup height. 






I hate wood screws for direct mounting pickups as I hate drilling pickup tabs and the stiffness of the adjustments once their mounted. I started to look for brass inserts but I couldn't find any for a reasonable price so I bought an M2x0.4 tap set from eBay for ~£4 and a long 1.6mm drill bit.






The bottom screw is a normal 3-48 for comparison to the M2 above.

I drilled holes in the cavities to about 15mm deep and tapped them to add the M2x0.4 thread. I also put a bit of thin CA glue in the hole and ran a screw though it to harden the threads. 











M2 machine screws fit through the pickup tabs without any modification and turn smoothly in the threaded holes without danger of coming out the back or stripping the screw head. They are plenty strong enough (I tested with pliers and they weren't coming out without unscrewing them) and if they ever do strip or fail you can just drill and dowel since it's only wood.

Since all that was done I added some hardware to the body and neck. Hopefully I can get this finished tomorrow evening!


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## Pikka Bird (Mar 3, 2015)

Splendid progress! Getting close... Seems like those threaded holes are a lot stronger than I thought they could be. I'd be tempted to run some thin CA into the holes and re-tap, but your test probably confirms the strength just fine.


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## Overtone (Mar 3, 2015)

I hear that sycamore has a lot of soul.


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## Hywel (Mar 3, 2015)

Pikka Bird said:


> Splendid progress! Getting close... Seems like those threaded holes are a lot stronger than I thought they could be. I'd be tempted to run some thin CA into the holes and re-tap, but your test probably confirms the strength just fine.



They have a little bit of CA in just in case. I might do a proper test at some point to see how much they can take before stripping but I'm pretty sure its more than the humbucker springs/tone-foam can ever exert!



Overtone said:


> I hear that sycamore has a lot of soul.



I'm looking forward to hearing what it sounds like when it's finally stung up. I'm guessing close to maple for the neck but the walnut is a bit of a mystery. It's not massively heavy but is fairly solid so I'm expecting it to be quite bright. As long at it works, I'll be fairly happy. Soul is a bonus


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## Solodini (Mar 4, 2015)

What a beauty. Good work.


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## Hywel (Mar 5, 2015)

Time for finishing touches. Wiring done, truss rod cover made from ebony and magnets and hardware added it was time to put it all together and see if it worked.











And it does! It even intonates 














































Overall I'm very happy with how it came out. I'll try and get a sound clip up at some point but it sounds very bright and clear. I've learnt loads making this and any following builds will hopefully go much smoother as a result. 

Thanks for following my thread everyone, It's been great seeing your responses and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.


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## Solodini (Mar 6, 2015)

Congrats, dude! Looking forward to hearing it!


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## Simic (Mar 6, 2015)

Fantastic build, she looks great! Love walnut top guitars


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## neotronic (Mar 6, 2015)

splendid!


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## neun Arme (Mar 6, 2015)

this guitar looks awesome.


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## Renkenstein (Mar 6, 2015)

Good job, man! Finish looks great. Neck looks slick and comfy.


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## Might-is-Right (Mar 9, 2015)

Wow, very impressive. Bravo sir


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## Hywel (Mar 9, 2015)

Thanks everyone!

Some sound clips here ---> Neck P90 and Middle position (P90 and Humbucker in parallel) 

They are a bit sloppy and noisy (my computer emits interference like no-ones business) but they give you an idea.

I've already planned the next build. Going for a black limba/koa 7 string, bound in solid black, probably with a rosewood/wenge neck. 26.5" scale with an Air Norton neck and D-Sonic bridge 







It should be a similar build to this one but with a 3x4 headstock, bigger roundover on the back, thinner heel and more carving on the back of the upper horn 





EDIT - Took this build outside for some grassy shots. Here for the sake of completeness really


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## CaptainD00M (Mar 10, 2015)

P90's = Win.

I really like how classy your guitar looks man, its 'mature' if that makes any sense.

With those wood combos have you ever thought about doing a semi-hollow? 
Or even a semi-hollow 7 with that new 7 string P90 that Bare knuckles do?

I think that would be slick. But maybe I'm projecting 

I'd love a more jazzy semi-hollow/thin-line 7 one day haha.


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## Hywel (Mar 10, 2015)

CaptainD00M said:


> P90's = Win.
> 
> I really like how classy your guitar looks man, its 'mature' if that makes any sense.
> 
> ...



Thanks!

I hadn't thought about doing a semi-hollow but I was thinking of acquiring one in the future so it might be build 3. Maybe a single cut variation on the Mayones offset style I've been using perhaps? Still haven't found an F hole design I really like though so that'll be a project for me.


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## Solodini (Mar 10, 2015)

I usually think F holes which follow the curve of the body look great. Nice and thin around the waist of the guitar, steady increase in width to the thickest point of the body then quickly thin out to a point around a halfway between the width and centre of the body. Simple and minimal. Dividing it into smaller ports, either by length or width, could possibly look cool, too.


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## immortalx (Mar 10, 2015)

Oh man, you really raised the game for first time builders! Hats off to you for that awesome build!


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## CaptainD00M (Mar 10, 2015)

Hywel said:


> Thanks!
> 
> I hadn't thought about doing a semi-hollow but I was thinking of acquiring one in the future so it might be build 3. Maybe a single cut variation on the Mayones offset style I've been using perhaps? Still haven't found an F hole design I really like though so that'll be a project for me.



Well if you ever feel inspired to do a single cut semi-hollow 7 string 26.5 inch scale which may or may not resemble a tele caster, and for some bizarre reason decided to give/sell it too me then I would be compelled as a British gentleman to accept your kind offer 

Kidding well not really.

But seriously thought I think you could probably do that nicely. You have mad build skills, I really like the aesthetic. Keep rocking man


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