# ESP LTD SC-607B Refinishing Project



## EpicFlail

Hey, all! I've been lurking here for almost a year with nothing to contribute.....until now!

Around a year ago I came across a used early model 607B for pretty cheap so I snagged that up. I've never been a huge fan of black guitars so I really wanted to strip it down, paint/stain/alter it. The problem was that was my only 7 string and I very well can't be guitar-less for the time it would take to finish it. A few weeks ago I found an RG1527 for a decent price, bought that, and now I'm here.

My original plan was to first sand down the paint and sealer to bare wood and paint it white. I've never had a white guitar and I think they look pretty slick. However, I'm a sucker for natural finishes (like most people on here), so that's always an option (depending on what the wood looks like--I'm not holding my breath). I want to put some black hardware on it if I do end up going with the white. If I go natural, I really don't know yet. We'll get to that later though.

I also want to replace the fretboard. One, the SRC inlay is ugly. Two, the SRC inlay is ugly. And three, the SRC inlay is UGLY! I can't stand that stupid smiley face staring at me while I play.

I'll go ahead and apologize in advance for the crappy iPhone pics. It's all I have right now.

I actually started this two nights ago at like 2 AM but I'm just now getting around to posting it. That being said, 

Say goodbye, hardware.






Goodbye, hardware!





I took everything off but the bridge bushings and the string ferrules and put them in a cigar box for safe keeping. I was considering leaving all the pressed in fittings in until I could find a way to safely remove them, but I got impatient and wanted them out now. I'd seen someone drop a broken drill bit in the bushing hole and screw the post in there to force it out, but alas, I didn't have anything that would fit in the hole. Not going to be done in by a little piece of metal, I went to brainstorming and this is what I came up with.















I threaded it in as far as it would go, took it out, rolled up more paper, jammed it down there again, and screwed it in again.

We have liftoff!





A couple more spirals of paper and viola!





I didn't take any pictures of removing the ferrules. I just cut a coat hanger and tapped them out. Not very interesting, I know.

Since I will be replacing the fretboard, I figured I should get rid of the binding. I took tons of pictures, but it was around 4 AM and the lighting sucked so none of them turned out that well. I had an X-Acto knife lying around so I just tried to get inside between the fretboard and binding. I started with the treble side. The first few frets and last few frets were the biggest pain in the ass. Everything in between was cake (once I figured out the best way to do it, haha).

Here you can see the treble side complete and my awesome paw print sweatpants. It's interesting to note that the slots were cut really deep. There's only around 1 mm of wood between the neck and the bottom of the fret slots. You're crazy if you think my phone would take a decent picture of that, but you can kind of see it here.





I moved on to the bass side, but encountered a problem with the side markers. They were glued through the binding and into the fretboard, so I kept breaking the binding off every two frets. Not so much a problem as it was annoying starting a new splice. As the sun was just beginning to rise, I decided I should get some sleep.

Today was my day off, so I woke up early (noon) and walked to the hardware store for some supplies. For some reason, LA decided to be a bitch and be cold all day. My first day off in a month and it's cold. Awesome....

My roommate told me to fix my car (hence why I walked to Home Depot) instead of work on this guitar today, but I'm sure of all people, you guys will agree with me that this must be done. Since my car is out of commission in the garage, the only logical choice is to do it inside.





This is actually Workshop Version 2. The first was a trash bag tossed under the chair I was sitting on. That got messy fast. I took my time to make clean up a little easier on me. As you can see, I started a bit on the body.

Safety first! The hat wasn't really necessary. The respirator....yes.





I got a ton of sandpaper. Some for this, and a bunch for other stuff around the house. I had a sanding block already, so I loaded it with a sheet of 80 grit and got to work.

Starting on the back:










Tummy bevel:










For some reason, I passed up a $30 orbital sander at HD today. "No, I can do it by hand!" I said. I'm still kicking myself. Although I probably wouldn't have been able to do it in my living room. Eh, can't win 'em all.

Starting on the front. I got all the binding off. One less thing to worry about.

























This is where I stopped. I didn't realize the time and had to cut it short there. I realize that I still haven't sanded through the sealer. I still have to sand the paint off the sides, neck, and headstock too, so I can wait on the sealer until I get all that done. I plan on regularly updating this as I make more progress. It's not going to be a super speedy refinish, but I promise I'll work on it in my free time and days off.


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## Mysticlamp

gonna look grreat man, keep it up


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## DropSplash

So far I think it looks freaking great without the black. Wayy better natural.


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## BlackMastodon

That is some surprisingly nice wood underneath there, at first I was hoping you would make it white but the natural look will look better I think. It's gonna be a huge pain in the ass for you to sand those inner horns though. Also, very ballsy move on swapping the fretboard, you're gonna have to exercise a lot of caution with that. Good luck man!


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## ASoC

looking good, if I were you I'd forget the natural look, fill the neck pickup route, and move it up closer to the end of the fretboard. The pickup position on that guitar kills me every time I see it.

But, hey its your guitar


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## ZXIIIT

Why are you sanding off the headstock? :/ and dude! cover up the fretboard with blue painters tape!

Have fun.


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## 7stringDemon

ZOMB13 said:


> Why are you sanding off the headstock? :/ *and dude! cover up the fretboard with blue painters tape!*
> 
> Have fun.


 
He's getting a new one since he hates the inlay.


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## EpicFlail

My first plan was to go white with all black hardware and an ebony fretboard to complete the whole black on white theme, but since the wood is actually pretty nice, it may as well be a naturalization.

I've been looking at all the different builds on SSO over the past 6 or 7 months and have branched out from the "EBONY IZ THA BEST FRETBRD EVAR!!!11!!1" argument. So, now I want your opinions on what to do for the fretboard. I have a nice, thick piece of heartwood/sapwood Cocobolo that I bought back in December, but it's all the way back in Oklahoma at my parents house from when I visited over Christmas. I'll be flying back in May, but I don't necessarily want to wait that long just for that.









That grey blotch.....

My only concern with Cocobolo is the ease of working with it. I've heard that it's really oily and you have to be very careful gluing it on. Not to mention the possibility of being allergic to it. I don't want to be allergic to my guitar.

What are your favorite fingerboard materials? I'm open to all suggestions, so don't hesitate to tell me your opinions!

If I remember correctly, I also have a slab of wenge, but I don't think it's long enough for a fretboard. I'll call my parents on my walk to work and have them do a quick measurement.


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## BlackMastodon

I think either one of those Cocobolo boards would be awesome! I love the look of fretboards that have heart and sapwood on them. As for the allergy thing, from my understanding it's the dust from Cocobolo that irritates the lungs/skin so just wear a mask, long sleeves, and gloves while working with it and you should be OK.


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## ZXIIIT

Ah, new fretboard, I missed that, awesome!


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## jordanky

This is going to turn out great, nice progress so far. By this time in stripping/refinishing I'm usually ready to kill myself and everyone that I love for even thinking it was a good idea to do a refinish.


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## EpicFlail

A little update tonight. Before I left for work I took a quick snapshot of the fret slots. I thought it was funny how deep they were. Little things like that bug me. What do you guys think?





At work, I showed my boss what I was doing. We're in the process of remodeling the store, and he told me that if I wanted to come in on a day off, I could use all the tools he has there to keep this thing moving along. 

I got off early so I could do some more sanding, but when I got home, we had company. I had to wait until about 11 to start, but I still got a fair bit done though.

I've decided to dedicate these pants to sanding.





It looks like a really pissed off lizard.





I took a quick break to have a midnight snack next: Vegan. Belgian. Waffles. Go ahead, be jealous.





Back to work:





I touched up the area around the fretboard with some sandpaper on the end of my thumbnail. It was quite relaxing and to my surprise I legitimately enjoyed it. My arms hurt, but it was enjoyable. If anybody wants a body sanded, hit me up. Haha. 

One more parting shot with less noise in the background.





I want to get the tone knob area and the sides sanded down by the next update. My arms are going to be ripped by the time I finish this....

This is the piece of wenge that's also back in Oklahoma. It's about two feet long. Enough for a fretboard. Or 4.


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## DropSplash

Please use that Cocobola. It looks absolutely awesome. And the gray spot? It's like a naturally grown inlay/fret marker 
I vote use the shit out of it. It'll look beautiful in contrast with the guitar now that the finish is gone.


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## Necky379

agreed on the cocobolo, i love everything about it, grey splotches and all.


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## EpicFlail

BlackMastodon said:


> ...It's gonna be a huge pain in the ass for you to sand those inner horns though...



You weren't kidding. That was brutal.



penny1 said:


> Please use that Cocobola. It looks absolutely awesome. And the gray spot? It's like a naturally grown inlay/fret marker
> I vote use the shit out of it. It'll look beautiful in contrast with the guitar now that the finish is gone.



That's not a bad idea.... I'd rather have a grey spot than that gaudy smiley face.  The pictures don't do it justice. It's absolutely gorgeous up close in the sunlight.

I got about an hour and a half of sanding done tonight. I finished up the sides and the tone knob area.

I absolutely HATED doing this part.









My inspiration and motivation for the night. I listened to the entire album. I noticed myself sanding to the beat. By the time I got to XIV/Behold, I was full on headbanging. 





PROGRESSSSS!!!













This was my favorite part of the night.





I'm still amazed by how good the wood looks. I went into this expecting the worst, but dammit, I'm excited! I guess I really lucked out.


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## DropSplash

Oh yeah totally. This is going to be super cool. Especially with that Cocobola. The sanding is looking nice. Good job so far.
And how is that album? Wonderful I'm assuming haha


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## Dan_Vacant

penny1 said:


> Oh yeah totally. This is going to be super cool. Especially with that Cocobola. The sanding is looking nice. Good job so far.
> And how is that album? Wonderful I'm assuming haha


I think it is the best Born of Osiris Album.
Now to the op:
Holy jesus lizard that thing is awesome looking.


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## ibanezcollector

awesome, subscribed..


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## EpicFlail

Dan_Vacant said:


> I think it is the best Born of Osiris Album.



Definitely. 10 steps forward since A Higher Place.


































I officially hate sealer. I hate it.





I slapped the original tuners back on it to see what it looks like. I wanted to go with black hardware, but the chrome looks pretty good. What do you think?





I was thinking some wooden tuner knobs would look pretty cool. Keeping with the wood idea, I cut a 6" long piece of that wenge and brought it back to California. I thought it would be neat to sand it down to use for the tone and volume knobs. I started one back in December for another project but forgot about it. I was rummaging through some boxes and found these three pieces. Jackpot! It's not done obviously, but still. JACKPOT!









Also, what should I do about the headstock binding? Ideally I would like to go all natural, but there's going to be that area routed out. It's not too noticeable. Should I just leave it there for now? If I could get away with it, I would bind it with something more wood-like.


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## TheSixthWheel

Hey man, this is really looking promising. I would never in a million years have replaced the fretboard because I, unlike yourself, do not have the balls (or tools/money) for a refret. I probably would have removed and filled the inlay while keeping the original fretwork, but I'm really glad you're doing what you chose to do, because it'll be a complete one-off and a half custom due to the interesting fretboard wood choices. Huge respect for doing what you're doing, I've been there before a few times - without the fretboard replacement. 
The only advice I can offer you regarding the headstock binding is reiterating what you've already suggested - Leave it there (because white binding on natural wood doesn't look bad if the wood is nice) or remove it and leave the route.
I'd recommend leaving the headstock binding until after you've replaced the whole fretboard, that way if you choose to add your own binding to the new fretboard, you'll still have the old headstock binding to use as a reference for where your new binding may continue. Maple looks really awesome with a thin black binding, IMO.

Either way, it's badass, you're badass, and I'm very interested to see what options you end up going with. Mockups might be a good idea?


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## EpicFlail

TheSixthWheel, your MH1000 thread is what prompted me to do this thing. I've read and re-read it quite a few times. Now get it done already!

A mockup is a stellar idea. That way I would have some kind of goal. So far, all I've done is act on impulse. I guess it's okay now--I'm only sanding. In fact, this project started on impulse. I was a little drunk one night and decided "I'm going to strip my guitar down. Hey look, sandpaper..." Let's just say that since I started the actual refinishing, I've done it sober. I'm not going to risk messing up all the work I've done so far.


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## sk3ks1s

Really diggin' this man. You're going above and beyond a refinish. 
Do the wenge knobs.
Have you given any thought to body/headstock modifications?


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## brynotherhino

This is going to be awesome!!


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## 7stringDemon

I love sanding headstocks. It's so fucking easy


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## otisct20

Mother of god.... now I want to do that to my MH-417


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## EpicFlail

No pictures, but I do have updates. I got all of the sealer off the back and some of the lower horn. That was horrible. Two and a half hours of solid sanding horrible. Now all I have left is the neck, headstock, and the rest of the front... It's not all bad though. My biceps are going to be huge by the end of this.


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## EpicFlail

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been super stressed. Working full time, personal crap, life in general, etc. It's been an asshole of a week to say the least. However, today was my first full day off in a while. That being said, I got a full three hours of sanding off the sealer. I've been officially barred from working in the house (I have the angry texts to prove it) so I worked outside on this for the first time. The weather was beautiful, birds chirping, sunshine everywhere--freaking awesome.

I don't have any pictures of the actual sanding. It's not that interesting. I will tell you what I did today though. I left off last week with the entire back, about a third of the sides, and the lower horn sanded down to bare wood. Today I got half of the front done and the some of the sides and back of the headstock. For as long as I worked, I didn't get that much accomplished.

While I was turning the guitar around to start sanding from another angle, I wasn't paying attention and hit the very tip of the headstock on the brick wall.  It's not as bad as it sounds. It crushed it in a tad and scratched it up some, but nothing irreparable. After I sanded it back, I also rounded it over some so it's not such a sharp angle.

Now, for some pictures! Just some random shots. I dampened a sock with alcohol and wiped it over the wood to have a better look at what I was working with. Enjoy.

Here's the headstock rounded some. I just got it smooth. I still want to shape it better.


















Half damp, half dry.





Color difference between sealer and bare wood. That shit's so thick...





And the top. A tri-color guitar.





I'm also bidding on a bunch of guitar/bass necks on "The Bay". I want something to practice on before I remove the fretboard. If I can get away with a couple project necks without putting too much damage on my bank account, I'll be happy. I've been reading up on fretboard removal in my limited spare time and it sounds like a lot of fun.

I got a promotion and a raise at work, so I'll have a little more money coming in every week. Pretty soon I can start ordering tools and hardware and be that much closer to getting this baby done!


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## ibanezcollector

the sanding sealer is like kryptonite huh hahaha hate that shit especially in the horns.


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## EpicFlail

Don't even get me started on that. I hate sealer more than wars, losing my keys, broken bones, allergies, thinking the fridge is full of food then checking and it being empty--the list goes on. I hate it. 'Nuff said.


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## ibanezcollector

hahahaha your preaching to the choir.


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## Danukenator

EpicFlail said:


> Don't even get me started on that. I hate sealer more than wars, losing my keys, broken bones, allergies, thinking the fridge is full of food then checking and it being empty--the list goes on. I hate it. 'Nuff said.



The worst part is that it seems to be immune to any stripper I can find. Acetone and Chemical Stripper were like throwing tooth picks at a tank.


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## iRaiseTheDead

So. Beautiful. :')


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## EpicFlail

Not really an update, but a few ideas.  I was thinking tonight at work how I never used the middle pickup. I played around with it, but I never thought it was necessary. I'm not into having the Deftones tone, so why even bother with it? I don't want to fill the middle pickup route, but I don't want it empty. I could just put the pickup in there and not wire it up, but that would be pointless (and a waste of possible space).

I've been GASing for a piezo system, and that would certainly open up the tonal capabilities with only one real pickup. I was thinking that I could cram all the piezo electronics in the pickup route and just cover it up with a pickup cover. I've been looking through the Graphtech Ghost piezo stuff for quite a while now and had a few questions. I saw an SSO post a while back with a custom 7-string TOM Ghost bridge and already sent an email to Graphtech for more information. This is more like an outloud brainstorming session, so anybody with piezo knowledge, please chime in.

1. Is there some sort of EMG style cover available somewhere so I can put all the piezo guts under there?

2. Would the acoustic preamp and stuff even fit in a pickup route?

3. Would it be possible to use my current three-way selector switch to switch between mag/acoustic settings? That would save me from drilling any unnecessary holes. (This is probably a better question for Graphtech themselves, but why not ask here too!)

4. What are your thoughts on a clear acrylic pickup cover to see all the electronics (should they fit in the route)? Personally, I think it would be kind of cool with the natural wood finish. Like a nature meets science vibe. Just a thought though...I'm trying to think outside the box.

I'm not dead set on a piezo retrofit. It's just a thought right now. I'm considering digging into my (at the moment quite substantial) "Buy Coachella ticket secondhand" fund and customizing the living piss out of this guitar.


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## TheSixthWheel

Piezos would be a good idea, though I'll be of little help regarding that. I think you should use the TOM for the piezos and instead of the middle EMG, use a fernandez sustainer in the middle position. Who wouldn't want an E-bow mounted in their guitar? I've been wanting a sustainer for ages and still haven't pulled the trigger on one, just because I want too many things all the time ...a cheap 6 string sustainer could be hidden under a 7 string EMG style cover. Just position under the 7th - 2nd strings for low end drone notes, AND still have room for piezos mounted in the bridge.


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## EpicFlail

The piezos would be in the TOM bridge. I was just suggesting putting the battery, preamp circuit, and other stuff in the pickup route. The sustainer idea sounds like a neat idea too. I'll have to think about it.

On an semi-related note, I bought new tuners and some fretting supplies. Now we play the waiting game. Then I have to figure out how to get that Cocobolo planed and cut to size without even being in the same state and either have it shipped to me or ship all my stuff to the middle of nowhere when I go on vacation. So many possibilities....

I've decided to go with gold hardware. I've ALWAYS hated gold, but doing a bit of cutting and pasting has yielded some nice results. I always thought gold was gaudy, but in moderation it can be really slick. We'll see how it turns out. If it's bad, then I may have some gold Hipshots for sale.


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## LaPerraLoca

Updates! updates!


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## Machva

updates needed !


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## EpicFlail

Alright, alright! I have all day off of work tomorrow. That should be the end of the sanding.

I called my parents and had my mom talk to this guy that rebuilt some furniture for us a while ago when I was living there. He said I could use his planer and other tools I don't own. Or he could do the work for me and ship the stuff to me. That means the fretboard will get planed and cut to size for me to fret and glue on myself. Stoked to the max.

Also, still waiting on tuners and fretting supplies in the mail, but once they come in, you'll be the first to know.

Also, also, Graphtech hasn't emailed me back yet about a piezo TOM 7 string bridge. I'll give them a few more days.

Also, also, also, im tirelessly searching "the bay" for broken necks to practice fretboard removal.

Also, also, also, also, I got some cocobolo binding for the headstock to match the fretboard.

Enough for now. Time for work. More updates and pictures tomorrow.


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## eddiewarlock

it would look very cool if you cover the middle pickup route...it´s something i´ve never liked about an otherwise, gorgeous guitar.

But that is just me, i love single humbucker guitars. Specially super strats

Removing a fretboard isn´t difficult, you would need a steam iron and some x acto knives...


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## EpicFlail

eddiewarlock said:


> Removing a fretboard isn´t difficult, you would need a steam iron and some x acto knives...



I've read about that method, but does anybody have anymore input on removing a fretboard? The neck is pretty thin as is. Is there a possibility of warping it with the steam method? I've read just about everything online about it, but does anybody have any first hand experience? I've heard that it's the hardest thing in the world from one source and that it's an hour out of your day from another. I'm doing it one way or the other, but any little tidbits of info or experiences, good or bad, would be awesome. I still would like to practice on at least one sacrificial neck though. Isn't it just a steam iron, a razor blade, and a bucket full of patience? If that's the case, I have all three. I have no doubts I could do it successfully, however I want to know everything about this (and have a little bit of experience under my belt) before I try anything.

And about the middle pickup: Yes, I want to cover it--never have been a fan of it, but I want to do this with a natural finish. If the wood was downright ugly, I'd sure as hell cover it and paint it white, but it's decent, so I can't justify painting it. Check back in a year. I may decide to refinish it _again_.  Hell, I could make this an annual thing. 2011 was black. 2012 is natural. 2013 is white? 2014 is ....? In fact, somebody remember this and PM me in a year and tell me to break out the sandpaper and get my ass in to gear.


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## EpicFlail

I came home from work to a package from Hipshot waiting for me.







I opened it up and...


















I was a bit skeptical about the gold, but I went for it. I'm glad I did. I think it looks awesome with the natural. These will be my first locking tuners ever. I'm pretty excited. Now, to finish this thing already.

Updates now: Yesterday I sanded some more of the sealer off. I got most of the sides done and a bit of the neck, but *dun dun dun* I got called into work. On my day off. Yeah, I know. It sucks. Whatever, though. It can't be helped. That means I'll just have to work harder and faster next time.  LMI also gave me a call. They said that the fretting system was out of stock so they would send me what they had and ship the other stuff when they received it. Really nice guys.


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## EpicFlail

Another package was waiting for me when I got off work. Nancy was interested.





Sid didn't give a shit.





Inside was a slotting miter box, saw, 27"/25.312" template, cocobolo binding, a random piece of purpleheart to keep the binding intact, a catalog, some sick-ass fretwire, and odd nuts and bolts for it all.





Match made in heaven.





LMI called me before it all shipped and told me the slotting system wouldn't be in stock for another two weeks. Buuut, it's here now. I can live with that. 

I also bought some busted necks on ebay over the past few days. Once they arrive, I'm breaking out the iron and all my razor blades and removing some fretboards. In the meantime, I have all day off tomorrow. More sanding it is!

Now all I need is some basic fretting tools. Since I don't have the fretboard right now, that can probably wait until after a few paychecks.

I would have posted more pictures, but I'm sure you don't want 200 pictures of cats playing in boxes.....or do you?


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## sk3ks1s

EpicFlail said:


> I would have posted more pictures, but I'm sure you don't want 200 pictures of cats playing in boxes.....or do you?



Stupidest question I've heard.
This is the internet. Cats doing things is the back bone of the information sector.
I personally don't know why you're posting all the guitar related pictures if you have cats. Seems pointless...


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## Scar Symmetry

Looks awesome so far!


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## Purelojik

this is looking great so far. moar updates plz


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## Mukersman

needs more cats.


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## EpicFlail

I went to Home Depot today for a few supplies. More sandpaper first, but while I was there, I decided to see if they had any pre-cut small boards to practice fret cutting on. I ended up buying a two foot long 1/4" x 2.5" piece of poplar and alder. They were in the "Hobby Board" section. They were like 2 or 3 bucks each, so it's not a big deal if I fuck them up.

Double stick tape on the bottom of the board.





I learned quickly that that was WAAYYYY too much tape. Or too sticky tape. It was a nightmare getting it off after I got done. Next time I'm going to try different tape.

A few slots in. This was the most enjoyable part of my day. The miter box works great. Anybody in the market for a slotting system should consider LMI. It's plastic, but it's really well made. Not trying to sound like some kind of fanboy, but it's honestly a great tool.





Here's the completed mock fretboard. 29 frets and a zero fret just for the hell of it. I'll probably end up turning this into a baritone cigar box guitar or something else semi-useful.





I cut a piece of the fretwire off to see how it fit.





I marred it pretty bad straightening it out with pliers.....and then again using the pliers to hammer it in. It was just to see how it fit in the slot. How did it fit, you ask? Well, it fit...


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## darren

Nice work! 

I'd recommend not putting the piezo preamp and battery in a pickup shell in the middle position. There's a trim pot on the preamp board that you're going to want to tweak a bit when you first set it up, and having to remove the strings to change the battery will suck. Besides, you can run the piezo preamp off the same battery that's powering the EMGs.

Also, a sustainer won't work in the middle position.


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## EpicFlail

darren said:


> Nice work!
> 
> I'd recommend not putting the piezo preamp and battery in a pickup shell in the middle position. There's a trim pot on the preamp board that you're going to want to tweak a bit when you first set it up, and having to remove the strings to change the battery will suck. Besides, you can run the piezo preamp off the same battery that's powering the EMGs.
> 
> Also, a sustainer won't work in the middle position.



Thanks for the input. I've never had a piezo system, so that's good to know. And to be honest, I completely forgot EMGs used batteries. I've gotten so used to passives. Also about the sustainer. Thanks for saving me from installing something useless. 

My housemate is leaving the city tomorrow morning for a few days, so you know what that means!!!!! I GET TO FINISH SANDING IN THE HOUSE!!!!! (Just don't tell her. She'll kick my ass.) Also, I'll be cranking my amp up to noise complaint levels. That'll be a nice change from playing unplugged for nearly 6 months.


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## EpicFlail

I haven't done any more sanding for a few reasons.

1. I've been working non-stop. It's been hell.
2. I ripped my finger open with an umbrella. Embarrassing story. It kind of hurts.
3. I've been so lethargic around the house when I'm not working.

I did do a little more slotting on the alder hobby board though.





I think I've got that part down.

I also got another package.

















That's about half the necks I ordered. They'll all have their fretboards (or what's left of them) removed in a few days time depending on how I feel. I'll try my damn hardest to do it soon.

Sorry I suck at updating, guys. It's been a rough week.


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## EpicFlail

While the rest of the country was busy sleeping, I was busy kicking ass. Like I mentioned previously, I was going to use those broken necks to practice taking off the fretboard. Here's a little pic story and a few words about how I'm doing mine.

We start with a cheap cracked neck (the one on the left in the bottom picture of my previous post). Using my lap as an ironing board, I set the iron to full steam as hot as it would go. Metal.





Then we slowly fanangle a razor blade in the crack. The guide I followed suggested trying to get between the glue and the fretboard so I went with that. Hell, I have three others (oh yeah, I got another one in the mail today and another in the mail currently) to mess with.





This took for-fucking-ever. I was steaming for 5 or 6 minutes, pushing the razor blade in for another 3 or 4 and then repeating.

Finally got it seated in the side. That only took half an hour.





At this point in time, my arm got tired from holding the iron with one hand and pushing down on the headstock with the other to keep it level so I improvised.





More fanangling.









I was going nowhere fast, so I double teamed it.









Now I'm starting to make decent progress.









Broke out the hammer and tapped that sucker in.





I finally got the scraper in there. It's on top of the razor blade if you look closely.





I made a workbench. It's like 4 AM at this point.





This is after two passes of steaming and "gently" tapping in the scraper.





This is me with a bear hat. Not relevant in any way at all, but amusing nonetheless.





More passes.









I had to turn the scraper and tap it in sideways after it hit the handle. I started at 1:30 and stopped halfway through the 14th fret at around 5:30. Over half the time spent was getting the razor started. It wasn't too difficult. It just took forever. I just put some music on, steamed for a song, did the razor blade thing for a song, and just kept alternating. I would have kept going, but the housemate wanted to go to bed. Actually, after I got the scraper thing in there, things went surprisingly fast. I just sat the iron on the neck, turned some music on, and waited. After doing it for almost three hours, you kind of get a sense for when to take the steam off and start hammering. Then once it gets stuck, do the same thing over and over and over again. It's obviously not done, but it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to finish. I'm anxious to see what the neck wood looks like. I held it up to the light to try to peek in there. It looks pretty clean inside, but we'll know for sure later.


----------



## BlackMastodon

Great idea buying broken necks to practice on, this isn't something you want to wing on the guitar you plan on refinishing. Shouldn't use your lap as a workbench though.


----------



## JamesM




----------



## Bigsby

you double teamed your wood with razorblades? fucking brutal


----------



## EpicFlail

BlackMastodon said:


> Great idea buying broken necks to practice on, this isn't something you want to wing on the guitar you plan on refinishing. Shouldn't use your lap as a workbench though.



If anything, I bought too many. 5 total.

It was late when I started. I obviously don't make the best decisions when I'm that tired. Haha. I didn't burn myself with the iron though. That's a plus. I did however keep grabbing the neck further up trying to get the razor seated. Those frets were freaking hot. 

It's not that hard to do (So far. I still have 14 frets left.), but one of my concerns is how deep the slots are cut on my LTD. I have no idea if that will make it harder to remove it. I have a worst case scenario going on in my head that I'll be breaking the frets off one by one and having to carefully scrape every bit of fretboard off the neck. I'm tweaking out hardcore right now thinking about it.


----------



## BlackMastodon

You could also try to remove the frets themselves and then go at the fretboard with a Scherzo-like router jig to kind of plane off the fretboard wood. That would also be another worst-case scenario, though, I would think.


----------



## EpicFlail

BlackMastodon said:


> You could also try to remove the frets themselves and then go at the fretboard with a Scherzo-like router jig to kind of plane off the fretboard wood. That would also be another worst-case scenario, though, I would think.



I'd like to try to stay away from doing that. The steam method seems to do wonders.

I worked another 3ish hours tonight. Steaming for a bit, hammering 1/4 - 1/2 inch at a time, repeating. Here's what I came up with. The pencil line between fret 13 and 14 is a reference for where I stopped last night.









I took those pictures about half an hour apart. It certainly felt like it went faster tonight.

The neck was cracked around the scarf joint on the bass side when I got it. The fretboard was cracked at the first fret too, so I didn't expect to get it all off in one piece. Turns out that was why there was tape on the fret. It was holding it in. 





Aside from being a little sticky from the glue and covered in cat hair, it couldn't have gone any better. It looks like there's a lot of fretboard wood by the heel and around the 2nd fret area, but I assure you it's not that bad. Probably a few minutes of sanding with fine sandpaper kind of fix. I'm going to try to get the last fret (first fret?) off tomorrow. This is just like my worst case scenario. I could fit a razor blade in on the treble side, so I have high hopes for this.


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## LetsMosey

so much win


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## EpicFlail

Lazy day today. I was in the mood for another fretboard removal. This one went 10 times faster. I wasn't planning on posting about this one, but it went so fast and came off so clean that I couldn't help it.

This is 20 minutes in. I got both razor blades seated within the first pass.





I hammered off the backs of the blades to get them further in without bending the fretboard.









This is half an hour after I started. Talk about stepping my game up.





Finally, 2 hours and 15 minutes later. Yes, TWO HOURS.





Why did this one go that much faster? Two hours versus eight? I have no idea. I honestly thought this one would take longer. Whatever the reason, I feel really confident about doing this for real.

I'll be flying to Oklahoma in about a month, so I'm going to wait to remove the fretboard until I'm there. I figure it would be safer in the mail with it on. Once I'm there, I can make the new fretboard, install it, install all the other hardware I've yet to purchase, oil it, and upload a billion pictures. Now, if only Graphtech would email me back about a piezo bridge....


----------



## implicit

this thread is full of win. my hat is off to you sir.


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## 7stringDemon

Sorry, I'm confused. I was only looking at the pictures so that's probably why but this thread went from SC607B to 3 crapped out necks.

Why?


----------



## ASoC

7stringDemon said:


> Sorry, I'm confused. I was only looking at the pictures so that's probably why but this thread went from SC607B to 3 crapped out necks.
> 
> Why?


 
He's practicing fretboard removal on the broken necks

Read the posts for details


----------



## EpicFlail

Sorry for straying from the real "meat" of the rebuild, but this directly relates to my refinish. Everywhere I've read has said that fretboard removal is crazy hard to do so I wanted to practice first and document what I learned. I haven't seen any detailed amateur fretboard removals on here and wanted to provide some insight on the process I used, answer any questions anybody might have about it, and just basically spread the wealth of knowledge I've learned over the past month. If I was a professional, I'd just do actual rebuild and have it done in a few days. But I'm not. I'm just a guy with a guitar that wants to get my hands dirty, make something cool, and have fun in the process. As much as this IS a refinish, it's also a learning experience. I've never done anything this in depth before--sand down my precious, rip out all the electronics, remove the fretboard, etc.... Everything I post is everything I'm thinking or doing. Even some of the more stupid ideas. I want this to be something that anybody can learn from. Believe me, without watching all the stuff that you guys are doing on this forum, I never would have started this. You all inspired me to do this. Maybe I just might inspire somebody to do the same. That's it, guys. Learn from my mistakes (and occasionally my wins).  Please forgive the long mess of words above, but that's just it. Thank you all for inspiring me.

The good news is that I'm confident in my fretboard removal skills now, so the next fretboard removal you guys will see is going to be the real thing. (That's not to say I won't remove the rest for fun, but I won't bore you with irrelevant posts.)

Actual updates now: I guess my email to Graphtech didn't send properly so I emailed them again last night. They responded this morning saying if I got a TOM bridge, they could provide the seven piezo saddles for it. Upon reading that, I immediately bought a new bridge online. I also ordered some basic fretting supplies last night.


----------



## EpicFlail

Hardware update: The new bridge came in today. Same thing I had before except gold. I was dry fitting it all together and I learned that the new anchors are smaller than the old ones.














The new ones are way too small. They just rest in there all the way in.

At this point, it looks like I have one of three options listed in order of difficulty:


Use the old anchors.
Try to find new gold anchors.
Go a little overboard and plug the holes with dowels and re-drill.

I'm leaning towards number 3. I'm eventually going to have to take a drill to it whenever I install the piezo stuff, so why not?


----------



## BlackMastodon

Doweling the holes shouldn't be too bad. Also the size of the anchor should cover up the dowel so it won't look too bad.


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## TheBigGroove

First of all this is some pretty awesome stuff dude! Definitely going about as far as you could with this refinish. I was just wondering (and sorry if this was addressed before, I didn't see any comments on this) how you were planning on getting under the board on a neckthru guitar? Would the same point-of-entry as those bolt on necks work on the 607b?


----------



## EpicFlail

TheBigGroove said:


> First of all this is some pretty awesome stuff dude! Definitely going about as far as you could with this refinish. I was just wondering (and sorry if this was addressed before, I didn't see any comments on this) how you were planning on getting under the board on a neckthru guitar? Would the same point-of-entry as those bolt on necks work on the 607b?



One of the first things I did was rip off the fingerboard binding. There's a little lip that the fretboard sits on. I can get between there without too much trouble.









I'll still start at the same end. It's pretty much exactly the same process as the other ones only more awkward because it's attached to the body.


----------



## TheBigGroove

^^looks like you have a bit of space to 'chisel' away. are you opting out of neck/board binding with the refinish?


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## EpicFlail

I haven't put much thought into it. I bought some cocobolo binding for the headstock. I don't know if I'll bind the neck yet. I want to use the heart/sapwood for the fretboard and don't know what it would look like bound.


----------



## technomancer

Great work so far, always nice seeing somebody take their time and making sure they get it right


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## EpicFlail

technomancer said:


> Great work so far, always nice seeing somebody take their time and making sure they get it right



Thanks! I'd rather it take longer and get it right the first time rather than blazing through it and having to do it all again because I screwed up.

More hardware updates: The string ferrules I bought showed up. I also ordered a matching output jack plate, the Ghost Acousti-phonic kit, and a Graphtech nut. All that stuff is being shipped to Oklahoma, so I won't get to do anything with it until early May. At this point, all I need are a few more fretting tools and the piezo saddles for the bridge.

My list of things to do when I fly back is as follows (as I'll have access to every power tool I'd ever need):


Dowel the bridge holes and re-drill.
Drill for tuner screws.
Plane, cut, taper, and install fretboard.
Install, level, crown, and dress frets.
Drill for piezo wires.
Drill for ferrule grounds.
Install piezo preamp and other electronics.
Fit nut.
Finish carving out the wenge knobs.
Install all new hardware.
Jam to some Southern hardcore music.

Not necessarily all in that order. I'll itemize when I have everything in front of me.

I'm also thinking about ditching the rear string ferrules and making my own back plate. My plan would be just routing a spot for it and dropping it in. That way I could bypass drilling into the ferrule holes to ground each string individually and instead just ground the entire plate. I could either buy a small plate of brass or whatever and mill it out. Or, I could make things interesting.....

Back in high school, I made my own forge for basic bladesmithing. I still have that forge. I also have a small stock of random metals in dire need of being hammered out. What better way to customize my guitar than by literally forging my own parts out of raw materials! I don't have any personal pictures of what I'm going for, but google "mokume gane". I made a few pendants like that to hang on keychains back in the day. I think some hardware like that would really pop. Especially with the grain of the wood and the patterns of the different metals working together. It all depends on how much time I have. It's quite the effort to do something like that.


----------



## DMAallday

I find myself keeping looking at your thread, it is very interesting!! great work so far! I have a 607b in natural finish and it's very cool to see all your work! I don't know if i missed this, but have you decided on a color?


----------



## EpicFlail

I was going to paint it white, but since the wood is decent, I'm going to keep it natural and apply some kind of oil finish. I can always go back and paint it later if I so desire.


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## Levi79

This is pretty sweet man. But why don't you just go for a whole build? 

Also, southern Hardcore FTW!


----------



## EpicFlail

I don't have the time, money, or equipment for a full build. Lol. The universe is completely against me when it comes to building. I live in an upstairs apartment building (my car is parked in the garage out of commission), I work constantly, and almost all my money ends up going to paying back school. Almost makes me want to move back to the Midwest. I remember when I was in high school, my crush moved off to college. I was pretty bummed. Moving away from my drill press, table saw, lathe, etc--it hurts worse than any girl could ever do. 

This is kind of like a test to tread the waters and see how I do. I've got some ideas for a real build (and about a hundred papers full of sketches, measurements, and the likes). Once I finish this project and get a little more financial stability, I'll start a new build thread. You know it's going to happen. When is the question though. I've started accumulating specialty tools over the past few months and my dad's been helping me look for power tools locally. Hopefully in a few months I'll have my own personal garage workspace.

Also, how would I go about finishing the wood on this thing? I just want something simple, like maybe an oil finish. Would I have to seal anything?


----------



## EpicFlail

Ok, guys. I haven't updated in a while. Mainly because there's not much more I can do at this point. I got all the sealer sanded off a few days ago. I also ordered all the fretting supplies I need: leveling block, radius block, files galore, etc. I also got a surprise for it too. Nothing huge, but a cool little addition (at least I think it's cool). The Ghost saddles, Acousti-phonic kit, a Graphtech nut, and pretty much everything else I need are sitting in my old room ready to be installed.

I also got my car fixed, so tomorrow morning I will be heading off to the post office to ship the guitar and all the hardware and tools I have accumulated over the past month.

In other news, I'm officially on the .strandberg* wait list. Awesome weekend is awesome.

I don't want to congest the forum with pointless posts, so this will be the last update until I get to Oklahoma and start working on it again.


----------



## EpicFlail

Well, I'm back in Oklahoma for nearly two weeks; incredibly jet lagged and hungover. I said earlier that all my purchase have been sent here. I mailed the guitar, all the parts and tools, and my newest guitar here to play around with for that time. It's been way too long away from all my gear. That being said, as soon as I got back to "The Dirty D", I got to work. The piezo system arrived so I decided to switch the saddles out.

I got one in there and immediately knew I'd need to do some bridge modifications. First of all, the saddles don't rest on the bridge. The saddles are T-shaped. The original saddles rested on the bridge (as seen in the picture) however the top part of the new ones are around 1 mm too tall. I'm not sure if the bottom of the saddles are rubbing on the bridge or the lips are too high. They rock left to right a bit. Would that cause tuning or intonation problems? I think that the hole for the intonation screw is too low and it's not letting the saddles rest properly.





I'm positive I ordered the correct saddles. The bridge is a standard 7-string locking TOM and the guys at Graphtech have been nothing but helpful dealing with all my seemingly redundant questions.

Also, the wires for the piezos won't fit through the bottom. Err, they fit, but the bottom of the saddle is nearly flush with the floor of the bridge if that makes any sense. I can't intonate anything. The saddles are all the way forward.





I'm pretty sure I'll have to file a channel on the right side in regards to the picture for the wires to pass unobstructed--I know that. Basically, I would be filing the hollow area into a backwards L-shape.

One final thing which I have no pictures of: All the saddles are all slotted very shallow. I don't know if that will have any effect on the strings when at full tension. I don't want them slipping out when I pick hard, especially with the relatively large 7th string.

I've already sent an email to Graphtech asking about everything above. I thought it would be beneficial to ask around here too.

I have plenty of other stuff to do while I figure out the right thing to do with the saddles. Let's see....dowel the bridge anchor holes and re-drill, remove the fretboard, make a new one, refret, the list goes on. Expect quite a few updates in the next week or so.

Cheers from Oklahoma!

EDIT: I also arrived to four packages with all sorts of goodies for me to tear into. I got a sanding block, radius block, neck caul, radius gauges, fret slot depth thing-a-majigs, fret dressing sticks, crowning file, fret corner file, a stupid-awesome fret rocker/string height/fret height gauge, fret hammer, fret pressing insert (just because), string spacing ruler (for a future build [stay tuned]), Luminlay side dot material, a new jack plate, a new nut, the entire freaking Ghost system, a stereo jack cable, and some other stuff I've forgotten about. It was like Christmas.


----------



## EpicFlail

This is my new setup for a week. I figured I would start trying to take off the fretboard. I swear this picture wasn't blurry when I took it. My garage must be haunted. I bought a neck caul. Seriously the best investment I've made in a long time. It's worth its weight in gold.





You know the drill. Steam for 5 minutes then seat the blades.









5 hours later and we have this.









There was a little bit of rosewood at the bottom, but all it took was a razor blade to scrape it off.

Who's smiling now, Stephen?





It was only 1 AM by then and I wasn't tired yet so I went ahead and peeled off the binding.









Today my plan is to buy some glue and bind the headstock. I also want to clean the neck and get it ready for gluing the fretboard.

On an unrelated note, I found a very large pile of wenge and purpleheart boards. I'd say it's enough for about two necks. Hint, hint.


----------



## LetsMosey

This is unreal. Great work dude.


----------



## Sirppi

Extremely Awesome. Sub'd.


----------



## peagull

Man this looks like it's gonna be awesome. Outstanding work so far. Hope you get the bridge sorted. Having one of these bad boys at home makes me want to put a new fretboard on now to get rid of that logo.

Gonna be watching the rest of this with interest!


----------



## master of the human race

It seems everyone hates that gay signature they put on the fret board. What was SC thinking?


----------



## TankJon666

I'm literally pre-blowing in my pants at the thought of what this is gonna turn out like!


----------



## BlackMastodon

EpicFlail said:


> On an unrelated note, I found a very large pile of wenge and purpleheart boards. I'd say it's enough for about two necks. Hint, hint.









That turned out really clean though! Great idea doing the practice runs first, and the unbinding turned out very nice as well. Not sure if I missed it but what will you be using when you redo the binding?
And lastly, glad you really like the neck caul, I just ordered one through StewMac too along with some fretting supplies.


----------



## EpicFlail

Another update for you all today as a way of saying thank you for all the kind words.



BlackMastodon said:


> Not sure if I missed it but what will you be using when you redo the binding?



I'm using a strip of cocobolo to somewhat match the fretboard. Here, have a picture. (It's still taped to the purpleheart board to keep me from breaking it.)





I went to the hardware store today and bought some stuff.





Cocobolo is oily. Oily wood doesn't glue well. At least that's what the internet tells me. I read that rubbing the surface with a solvent to release the oils helps solve that problem. That's what the acetone is for. I had a bottle of Titebond II lying around, but I hear that's a big no-no. I was trying to find Titebond I, but there was literally none in the entire store. Titebond is a water based glue. Gorilla Glue is something else that you need to add water to (i.e. dampening the gluing surface with a wet rag). And it was on sale. Why not?

I decked myself out in safety gear and cut off a small piece of the cocobolo board. The longer piece is a piece of red oak I had in my room.





I want to add that when I cut the cocobolo (all by hand--it's hard as hell), it turned a beautiful purple in the center. I'm in love with this wood. It's also worth mentioning that it sinks in water. I didn't know that. I dropped a piece in a glass of water expecting it to float pretty low, but it sunk straight to the bottom. The more you know.

I cleaned up both pieces with acetone and ran a wet towel over them to activate the glue. I put a very small amount of glue on both pieces, slid them around to spread the glue, and clamped them up.





While I was waiting on the glue to dry, I decided to be productive. I got a 14" radius fret press insert from StewMac for $5 just for the hell of it when I made my big purchase a week or so ago. The actual caul you put the insert in is $40. Way too much for me. I cut a piece of red oak and did this.













All it is is an oak 1x2 cut 2.5" long. I took a saw and a file and cut a groove just smaller than the thickness of the insert. I found a 1/4" bolt in the garage, drilled a 1/4" hole all the way through, and drilled a hole slightly smaller than 1/2" in the bottom to countersink the bolt. Put in drill press and you have a fret press. Total cost: $5 for the insert. Everything else I had already. I didn't measure anything except the length of the thing, so it's not centered properly. Not bad for just messing around though.

After I ate some good ol' Southern cookin', I went out to check on the scraps I glued.

I cut off a piece and tried ripping it apart by hand. Didn't work. I clamped the oak part in the vice and smacked the cocobolo with my palm. Nope. I then got a hammer and violently hit it a few times. That did it.









I didn't get all the surfaces coated with glue. Still, it took a fucking hammer to get them apart. That smells like success.

Here's a few shots of the other part (ignore the cut mark half an inch into it). This is the cut edge.





Side.





Everything together.





The bigger piece with the long piece of oak isn't coming apart. I grabbed it and started hitting it on the ground. It ended up chipping a piece of concrete out of the driveway. I'm pretty sure this will work for the fretboard. Also, keep in mind that I didn't coat the entire gluing surface with glue. If I had, I doubt the smaller part would have broken in half.

I'm calling the guy with the carpentry workshop I talked about months ago in the morning to see if I can use his shop to get the fretboard blank cut and planed. I'm also going to take all the wenge and purpleheart strips and have them thickness planed for a future project.

I'm currently emailing back and forth with Graphtech about the saddle situation so I'm not going to do much with that until I get a solid answer. One of the possible reasons everything's not fitting is that I don't have a TonePros TP7 bridge. I know I have that _style_ of bridge, but I don't know if it's an official TonePros TP7. Would anybody be able to tell me if I do? I added a picture of it yesterday. Can anybody shed any light as to whether or not it's official? It's stamped "SIC" on the bottom. Does that mean anything? I'd rather not buy another bridge if I have the real thing.

I was also going to get a dowel to fix the bridge insert problem, but all the stock at the hardware store was either misshapen or oval-shaped. I'll wait until I can go to OKC to the place I got the cocobolo from. They know their stuff. Unlike the average hardware store employee. (No offense to hardware stores--they're just not woodworking stores.)


----------



## EpicFlail

Since my last update, a lot has happened. Not with the guitar--with my health. Either I'm getting sick or that cocobolo is working its magic. I can't breathe, my chest hurts, I'm wheezy, my throat hurts, I'm losing my voice. Think oncoming bronchitis symptoms. When I cut the larger piece, I wore a respirator with new filters, so I hope I'm just getting sick.

But enough about me. Last night I decided to start the binding.

Dry fitted.





I wanted to start at the bottom but I didn't have a pipe and a blow torch handy to bend the tighter curve, so I did the more shallow curve. I used the Gorilla Glue as well. The gluing process was the same as the test pieces. Clean both surfaces with acetone, rub with a damp rag, squeeze glue in the headstock route, push binding in, slide back and forth a bit, and apply pressure.









I got it all tied up at midnight. I'm going to go out in an hour or so and take it off and clean it up a bit. Maybe glue another strip.

Here is a dramatic parting shot of the cocobolo. It's not as lustrous because I just cleaned it up with acetone. I love the heart/sapwood border.


----------



## EpicFlail

Small update for progress and pictures.

I took the rope off and touched up the one piece of binding I glued last night. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It's still very rough and not finished.

















The stain near the nut area in the last picture is the glue that mixed with either the oil or the sawdust when I sanded it flush.

I cleaned, glued, and wrapped another part and set it up to dry.





I also saved some of the sawdust. I can use it as filler if I need to or I can throw it in the eyes of my enemies. If I get enough of it, I would like to make a natural stain. I saw a thing on TalkBass where a guy saved his padauk dust and made an orange stain.





Also, I think I might know why I feel like shit right now. Yesterday when I was cleaning up, I swept some cocobolo dust up into a dustpan without my respirator. It's possible I stirred it up enough to inhale some.

EDIT: Almost forgot, I called the guy with the workshop. He's moving to Missouri and already shipped his stuff there. We were both pretty bummed. I wanted to get the fretboard started and he wanted to show me all his stuff and work on a guitar together. I'm going to try some other people and hopefully at least get a blank cut before I have to fly back.


----------



## peagull

I really like the look of that binding! Looks real sleek.

Hope the cocobolo dust wears off soon man.


----------



## TheBigGroove

not gonna lie...the bum was puckered the entire time I was scrolling threw the fretboard removal pics.

Great work dude can't wait to see how this pans out!!


----------



## EpicFlail

This was actually one of the easier fretboard removals. One of my friends dropped by with a six-pack, so we caught up, drank a few, and every 5 or 10 minutes I would tap the scraper 1/2" or so after the heat soaked through.


----------



## Mprinsje

woah, that's some classy binding!


----------



## EpicFlail

Speaking of the binding, does anybody have any tips on bending wood binding? I glued another piece on and was going to do another, but I couldn't get the tight curve on the treble side. I tried using the iron I took the fretboard off with, and I tried an iron pipe heated with a torch. I got it curved a little, but not enough. I also broke a piece by bending it too much too fast. Should I just take a lot longer and go slower or are there any tricks of the trade? Funny enough, I burned a little chunk of cocobolo to see what would happen. It sizzled and the oil bubbled. After the flame went out, it smelled wonderful. A mix between burning wood (obviously) and burning pine resin (unexpected).

Now something disheartening. I emailed Graphtech about the bridge issue and they said it wasn't an official TonePros bridge.           I'm ordering an OFFICIAL one tomorrow. Hopefully that will work with the saddles. One more....  There we go. All better. Nope.  Now we're good. That means I can't dowel and redrill the holes in case the new inserts are different sized.

I'm on vacation. Things are supposed to be easy!


----------



## Thrashmanzac

try soaking the binding in water for a while before you bend it over the heated pipe. the water should help steam the fibre in the wood and help make the binding easier to bend


----------



## EpicFlail

Thrashmanzac said:


> try soaking the binding in water for a while before you bend it over the heated pipe. the water should help steam the fibre in the wood and help make the binding easier to bend



Thanks! I'll try that tonight!

I ordered the right bridge (again) as well as a new 3-way switch and 25K pot. Now I have to figure out a way to get rid of the older new bridge while breaking even. In my defense, it was advertised as what I wanted. I guess it's my bad for buying secondhand. Whatever. New one's on the way and I will hopefully get it installed before I have to fly back.


----------



## EpicFlail

I went out of town yesterday so I didn't get any work done then. Tonight, I bent and glued some more binding. Soaking it in water and bending it over the hot pipe really did the trick. It split a little bit, but that part will be sanded away when I make it flush with the headstock.





Also, what do you guys think of this? I was bored so I decided to try my hand at making a truss rod cover. This was just a scrap of wenge I had lying around. It's not done yet. Just rough shaped with 80-grit. I still need to finish sand it and clean up some of the bevels.













I like it more than the black plastic piece, but I don't know how well it will mesh with the cocobolo and maple. The knobs will be wenge unless I decide to make them out of a piece of cocobolo (Which I really don't want to do). I suppose I could try to make a cover from the cocobolo. Any other suggestions?

Apparently I forgot to sand the sealer off the front of the headstock back when I did the rest of the guitar. I finished that tonight as well.


----------



## TheBigGroove

you're one classy son of a beach my friend


----------



## EpicFlail

My new bridge should be here tomorrow (Tuesday). That gives me until noon on Wednesday to get the piezo stuff installed and all the electronics wired up before I have to fly back. Not to mention machining a string through plate from scratch. I'm a little stressed out. Still no word on the second guy that was going to let me use his stuff to plane the fretboard blank. I think I'm just going to order a fretboard blank online and slot and install it in California. I honestly thought I would get this thing finished over my vacation.

Between seeing family and friends and working on this, I have no idea how I even found time for sleep. 

Unless by some miracle I somehow find a way to pull it off, I'll have to ship it back to LA unfinished and do everything unplugged.

If my goddamn bridge was the correct one in the first place, I could have had it all wired up by now and all it would lack is the fretboard/fretwork and applying the final oil finish.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Can't win 'em all.


----------



## EpicFlail

I'm updating from my phone, so no pictures. I went to a hardwood store a few hours ago and what do you know? They had a closeout sale on fretboard blanks. My luck! I bought three. Padauk, bubinga, and striped ebony. Once I get a solid Internet connection, I'll post pics. I think I'm going to use one of those for this project. There all equally beautiful. I promise. I really wanted to use that cocobolo. I have three blanks ready to cut though. I can't complain. I'm crashing on a friend's couch. Pictures tomorrow.


----------



## Levi79

EpicFlail said:


> I don't have the time, money, or equipment for a full build. Lol. The universe is completely against me when it comes to building. I live in an upstairs apartment building (my car is parked in the garage out of commission), I work constantly, and almost all my money ends up going to paying back school. Almost makes me want to move back to the Midwest. I remember when I was in high school, my crush moved off to college. I was pretty bummed. Moving away from my drill press, table saw, lathe, etc--it hurts worse than any girl could ever do.
> 
> This is kind of like a test to tread the waters and see how I do. I've got some ideas for a real build (and about a hundred papers full of sketches, measurements, and the likes). Once I finish this project and get a little more financial stability, I'll start a new build thread. You know it's going to happen. When is the question though. I've started accumulating specialty tools over the past few months and my dad's been helping me look for power tools locally. Hopefully in a few months I'll have my own personal garage workspace.
> 
> Also, how would I go about finishing the wood on this thing? I just want something simple, like maybe an oil finish. Would I have to seal anything?


Super super late reply, but that totally makes sense man. This is coming along pretty cool. I know how you feel though. Not quite as badly, but I do  I have so many ideas in my head, all the supplies and most of the tools to do it, but nowhere to do it. Hopefully by the summer I'll have a little workspace setup in my garage for building. After denting the kitchen table accidentally when doing some work on my guitar my dad agreed to set me up a space in the garage soonish.


----------



## EpicFlail

Well guys, last night in Oklahoma. I might cry. But you don't care. You just want to see guitar pictures. And I'm not one to disappoint, so here's some updates.

First, I finished the headstock binding a few days ago.













Yesterday I mentioned I bought some fretboard blanks. Bubinga, padauk, and striped ebony.





The right bridge came in this morning.





But son of a bitch, it wasn't drilled out for the piezo wires.





The metal was really soft. Nothing a drill press, a 1/8" bit, a needle file set, and some sandpaper couldn't take care of.





As you can see, I wasn't too worried about getting it perfect. As long as the wires don't rub against the corners, I'll be happy.

I completely forgot about the tuner holes I needed to drill. I made a depth stop out of tape. Nifty.





Mark it with a marker.





I used a hand drill with a 5/64" bit. I tested different bit sizes with the screws I had and 5/64" was almost perfect. No pictures of the holes but I'll describe them to you. They're holes. Moving on.

I decided to use the padauk fretboard. I put them all on the neck to see what they all looked like. They were all killer. The padauk goes AMAZINGLY with the cocobolo binding. The ebony looked gorgeous too, but it's 1/2" thick and I obviously don't have a thickness planer. I think I'm going to use that on a full build I've been planning. (Get ready for that.) The padauk is 3/8" thick. I cut the slots really deep to make up for it when I sand it down thinner. They had 1/4" padauk boards at the store, but none of them looked as good as this one. Dat orange!





Here it is as assembled as I can get it right now.





I got the piezo saddles installed in the bridge. The bridge inserts aren't pressed in. I still have to dowel the holes and redrill. Seeing that I'm leaving in 12 hours, I won't get to do it here. I would do it right now, but my drill press isn't deep enough and I don't want to go dig my Shop Smith out of storage this late. I would hand drill it. The holes are already big. I'm just drilling them slightly larger to fit the dowel. The only problem is that the 31/64" bit that fits the dowel won't fit in the good hand drill. It fits in another, but it's not variable speed. Also, the power cord seems to have been cut open, the wires fucked with, and haphazardly taped back up. Fuck that.

I put the wenge truss rod cover on the headstock with the fretboard on the neck to get a feel for things. It didn't look right. Too many things going on at once. Maple, padauk, cocobolo (which might as well be padauk--they're virtually the same color), the gold tuners, and the wenge. Blegh.

What did I do?





Much better!





That's it for now. I'm going to put the pots/switches in there and see where I have room for another hole for the piezo quick switch later tonight. That way I can drill the hole before I pack it up and ship it back to myself. We're getting close! I can feel it!


----------



## areyna21

This is all coming out amazing


----------



## Wretched

Man, that headstock binding turned out awesomely!


----------



## Levi79

Stoked to see your build since you've been doing such a fine job with this.


----------



## BlackMastodon

Wretched said:


> Man, that headstock binding turned out awesomely!


This x30. Good call on the new trussrod cover too.


----------



## EpicFlail

WARNING: I'm tired as hell so this update is going to be all over the place.

My plan was to just leave it as is and work on it in California. Nope. Didn't happen. I've been stressed all day, and when I'm stressed, I work. I worked my ass off. 10 AM to midnight. Since my last post, I had made a fretboard, truss rod cover, and installed the piezo saddles in the bridge. After that I kicked it into overdrive. I drilled a hole between the bridge posts the route the piezo wires. I drilled a connecting cavity between the bridge pickup route and that hole I made. I made a makeshift brass ferrule for the piezo wire route. I drilled out the bridge post holes, glued dowels in, and drilled the new post holes. All without a drill press. I didn't take any pictures of the actual process. I feel bad about it. I always take tons of pictures and have to weed out the bad ones when I post here. Today, I took one while I was working and the rest were after I cleaned up. I was in the freaking zone today!

The piezo route drilling was the first thing I did. I nearly had a heart attack drilling basically blindly with a three foot long drill bit (either that or a stubby one). I wish I could have videoed it. I looked like a crackhead pacing back and forth when I thought I fucked it up. I drilled the ferrule hole first. Then I drilled from the bridge pickup route into that hole I made. It came out about 3/4" deep. I then intersected that hole from the ferrule hole. It's hard to explain, but a drawing would clear things up. Unfortunately, I'm exhausted and that will have to wait a few days. 

After that, I doweled the bridge holes. I sucked it up and used the terrifying drill. I smeared glue on the dowels, and used a mallet to hammer them in. After about half an hour I sanded them flush and started a pilot hole. The very first hole veered about 1/8" northwest. Shit. New strategy......nothing. My dad noticed I was frustrated, so he stepped in. We tried it all. Smaller bits, step bits, trying to fit it in the drill press (The press's mouth is 4 inches deep. The holes are just over 4 inches in. ). We were about to give up and have him take it to a mill, but I wouldn't be there for that. He then suggested taking it to LA and making a template. I don't have a drill, so I sacrificed a piece of cocobolo. (Please don't hate me.) I drilled a 7/16" hole in it, pressed in the insert, lined the bridge up, marked it, and drilled another 7/16 hole. Boom. A template. Cover it in sticky tape, place on guitar, and viola. "Perfectly" drilled bridge post holes. The holes are about 1 mm too far apart though. It's nothing too bad. Hell, we managed to do all that without a drill press. I should be able to figure something out. 

I don't know what I'm going to do when I get it back in Cali. I didn't drill the Ghost Quick Switch hole or a hole to ground the string ferrule(s). I might buy a small hand drill and do it when I get back.

Anyway, in my flustered state, here are some pictures.

Marking where to drill for the piezo route.






Cocobolo bridge template. I tried to save as much of the board as possible. Cocobolo has gone waaaaay up since I bought that piece in December. Now it's up to almost $50/board foot, which is certainly more than what I paid for.









Sticky tape.





Line it up, slap that bitch on, and drill.





Posts aren't pressed in all the way. I'm going to wait until I apply the finish. You can barely make out the makeshift ferrule. It will be polished by the time I press it in. The piezo wires are going to funnel into that and snake through to the bridge pickup route. From there, they'll go into the pot bay with the pickup wires. Pretty neat I think.





^^That red drill in the background is the devil. It's as long as my forearm, fast as hell, loud as hell--it's just one pissed off power tool.

I won't be updating for a while. I'll have to have everything shipped back to me, so it could be a week or so before I get to work on it again.

EDIT: I didn't drill the bridge post holes. My amazing father did that. I held the template on (by hand--pretty scary with a drill an inch from your fretting hand) as none of my clamps were deep enough to safely clamp on. Not the smartest thing.


----------



## EpicFlail

Alright, everybody. I've been pretty quiet over here for a while. I never had my stuff mailed back to me in California. I'm flying back to Oklahoma tomorrow for a friend's wedding. A dry wedding at that. Boo-hiss. After that, I'll get to work on this thing for a full day and a half before I have to AGAIN fly back. I've started a list of things I need to do while I'm there. I'm saving all the stuff I can do without power tools for later--just trying to get the last of the big things done.

I have a few questions for some of the more experienced users here. The padauk fretboard blank I bought was 3/8" thick. Massive for a fretboard. I already slotted it. Fairly deep I might add (to make up for thinning it out later). I was planning on trying to find someone to plane it down to roughly 1/4". The thing is that I've already slotted it. I didn't think much of it at the time. Would that be safe to do? If it won't cause any problems, I'll just run it through a thickness planer (if I can find one--I didn't have much luck last time). I don't want it to tear out at the fret slots I already cut though. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was in such a hurry a few weeks ago to get it completed that I just slotted it without thinking. Another possible solution I thought might work would be to glue it as is and use the radius block to take it down to size. My only qualm with that is that it would take for-freaking-ever. Also, I have doubts that it would be perfectly straight.

I also failed to mention in my previous update that the piezo push/pull volume pot shaft is smaller than the original tone pot I'm replacing it with. It wobbles around in there a bit. If I were to use washers in there, would it be stable? Or would I have to dowel that part and re-drill to the correct size? It's not a huge problem right now. I'm more focused on the fretboard. I can always get a cheap hand drill and do it myself later, but it's still worth an ask.

The rest of my to-do list includes:


Clean up the piezo route (Still very rough).
Do all the fretboard modifications afore mentioned (Plane, taper, glue).
Possibly re-drill, re-dowel, and re-drill bridge anchor posts (They were a bit off. Not too sure if it will be adequate. I'm a perfectionist.).
Somehow ground the ferrules.
Finish sand.
Apply oil finish.
Do all the fretwork.
Install hardware.
Electronics (Not looking forward to that).
Finally jam.

If I were to keep the fretboard a bit thicker than normal, I could always set the bridge higher than normal. That might help with the anchors being slightly askew. I'll be tapering the fretboard on my table saw at my grandmother's house. That's where my ShopSmith drill press is, so I could pull that out and accurately drill the bridge anchors if I have to. I don't want to if it'll work, but I will if I have to.

I'm not too worried about having the neck super-slim. This isn't a shredding machine. That's what my Ibby is for.  This is mainly an off-the-wall-melt-your-balls-off-don't-mess-with-this-pissed-off-face-chugger. And an acoustic. So, basically a chuggernaut. And fingerstyle acoustic baritone 7. 

I have another idea for the volume knobs instead of using only the wenge. I won't say anything about it yet, but when I get back I'm going to try it out. You'll have to wait for that! If it works out like I think it will, I'll be doing that. If not, then no harm no foul?

See you all in a few days.


----------



## animal101

awesome thread! I've been looking for a natural one for ages but am considering just sanding down the black one I have. Maybe even shifting the middle pickup to the neck......wondering how ugly it would look? how to fill it etc

without messing with the binding , if you sanded off all the paint what do you need to do to the finish? use tung oil?


----------



## EpicFlail

I started the fretboard today. I tapered it by hand. Pretty time consuming. I mapped out the outline in pencil, gave myself a few millimeters of "this is in case I screw up" space, and started cutting. I didn't want to drive al the way across town to use the table saw. Plus, it looks like it's about to rain. I don't want all my tools out when it eventually does decide to start pouring.

I clamped a straight edge along the line I drew and clamped the whole thing in the vice. I then used a new hacksaw blade to slowly go the whole length of the board.





After it was cut, I wiped the fretboard down with acetone, put a piece of tape over the truss rod cavity, and glued the fretboard to the neck. I used the neck caul for the back and a flat piece of 1/8" steel for the top. I drew a center line on it before I tapered it, so I used that to line it up with the center of the guitar. It's not 100% perfect, but it's pretty damn close.





I hope I used enough glue. I squeezed some on and then spread it around to cover the entire gluing surface. I think it should be fine though. If there are some gaps, I have a ton of padauk dust I can mix with epoxy to fill anything. I used Titebond I for what it's worth. I read padauk is also oily as crap so I hope that doesn't bite me in the ass later. I realllllllly don't want to remove the fretboard and then re-glue it with Gorilla Glue. It got three or four full acetone wipedowns so it should work, right?

I'm leave for California tomorrow at noon, and I want to keep the clamps on for as long as possible. It's 2 PM right now. The glue instructions say clamp for 30 minutes and don't stress for 24 hours. I would feel better not doing anything for a few days, but I don't have that time. We'll see what happens!


----------



## TankJon666

mmmmmm updates 

This has been a refinish and a half! Seriously good stuff going on here 

Regarding the Titebond. It should be fine to unclamp after 24 hours. If it hasn't dried by then something is wrong! I used it to glue the scarf joint on my wenge neck blank and that is meant to be a fairly oily wood. Solid as a rock the next day.


----------



## EpicFlail

Thanks for the insight on the glue! That relieves a lot of stress.

Mini update while the fretboard glue dries. I worked on one of the volume knobs in my free time. This is what I came up with. I think it's kind of fun looking.

The idea came from topped guitars. If people can glue tops on bodies and headstocks, then why not knobs? Obviously not done yet. I want to add some bevels to both sides and possibly slim it down some.


















Not really necessary, but neat nonetheless. It may work in the end, it may not.

I also decided to attempt to make a switch tip out of padauk. It's quite a bit harder than I had anticipated. I got the hollow chiseled out. Now it's all about shaping. Again, it may not work, but it's a cool concept. Or maybe I should cut tiny filets of wenge and padauk and do the same dual-color design I did with the knobs. It seems like a lot of work for a switch tip though. I honestly think I'm past the whole "let's just get this done" phase. Now I'm at the "let's see how far I can go with this" phase.


----------



## spilla

Impressive thread man, cool vol/tone knob and i really like the idea of the two tone switch tip.


----------



## BlackMastodon

That is an awesome looking knob! If you can and want to go for the switch tip then I say more power to you, should look very interesting at the least. This has been one hell of a refinish, man!


----------



## scherzo1928

Maaaaan, I NEED to start reading these mod threads. I always open up the build threads and discriminate these awesome mod ones... no more. It's all looking awesome dude!



EpicFlail said:


> I read padauk is also oily as crap so I hope that doesn't bite me in the ass later. I realllllllly don't want to remove the fretboard and then re-glue it with Gorilla Glue. It got three or four full acetone wipedowns so it should work, right?


 
Should work very well. Titebond is a LOT stronger than Gorila glue btw. A lot!

Oh, and this might be too late, but use the respirator when you work with padauk as well. It's not as bad as cocobolo, but it's still up there.


----------



## MiPwnYew

Shit, this thread has been an awesome read. Keep up the awesome work, can't wait to see future updates


----------



## EpicFlail

scherzo1928 said:


> Oh, and this might be too late, but use the respirator when you work with padauk as well. It's not as bad as cocobolo, but it's still up there.



.....shit.

Duly noted, scherzo. From now on, I'm just going to wear a respirator when I work with everything that isn't a 2x4.


----------



## tuneinrecords

I'm in awe of this project. Very motivational and inspiring! Wow!


----------



## VMNT

MiPwnYew said:


> Shit, this thread has been an awesome read. Keep up the awesome work, can't wait to see future updates


.


----------



## EpicFlail

I woke up early this morning to check on everything before I had to drive to the airport. I took the clamps off of the fretboard. Not much, but here are a few pictures. I didn't have time to get super detailed shots of every single angle. I'll save that for the NGD.

The gross spots between the nut and first fret slot are residue from the double sided tape I used to keep the steel bar attached. There's also some around the 20-something'th fret too. Not a big deal. I'm going to thin the fretboard down significantly before I fret it. In my haste, some of the glue seeped down into the cork on the neck caul and into the rag I used to protect the neck where the caul wasn't long enough. Again, not a big deal. That will all come off when I finish sand it and apply the oil finish. You can kind of see how terrible my tapering job was. That just means I'll have to sand a lot of it off. Hey, it's better to have too much material than not enough! The nut shelf is also a tiny bit too long, so that'll have to get sanded/cut down too.










I wish I was home right now. If I'd have had an extra day or two, I could have gotten so much more done. The good news is that all of the big stuff is out of the way with the exception of drilling the QuickSwitch hole. I'll just buy a cheap hand drill when I get it shipped to me. Apart from that, it's basically just finishing, fretting, and doing all the electronics. Oh yeah, and finishing the knobs and switch tip.

EDIT: Before I left the house, I put some super secret things in my carry-on bag that I want to use for another refinish project. I'm not going to go into detail about what it is, but I'm positive nobody has ever done this before. As soon as I get another guitar TO refinish, I'll start another thread for you all. I'll give you a hint though. FINGERPRINTS.


----------



## LtdRay

This looks very nice I can't wait to see the finished product


----------



## Cougs

This is awesome, can't wait for it to be finished.


----------



## 7stringDemon

Bad ass knob idea dude. Can't wait to see the end result!

And unrelated, but c'mon. No pics of that beast on wheels behind your guitar?!?!?!


----------



## LtdRay

I've been following this build since the beginning and can't wait till See the finished product.


----------



## Machva

why y u no update


----------



## Kapee

Yea! We demand update!


----------



## jake7doyle

Just starred reading this from the beginning, such an interesting read. Looks incredible so far, and im sure this is going to turn out stunning!!


----------



## kn1feparty

Kapee said:


> Yea! We demand update!



Yeah what he said.


----------



## ejendres

looks so cool


----------



## Sullen

this thread is really yummy!


----------



## Chalupacabra

Could the lack of recent updates mean its almost done?


----------



## Edika

I just hope he manages to finish it and not end up collecting dust! We're rooting for you dude! Finish this beauty up!


----------



## TankJon666

Chalupacabra said:


> Could the lack of recent updates mean its almost done?



Hope that is the case and not that he's lost interest and its been pushed to the back of the cupboard.


----------



## youheardme

Awesome picstory so far man


----------



## EpicFlail

UUUUUUPPPPPPPDDDDDDDAAAAAATTTTTTEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't lost interest. For those of you who remember, I shipped this thing to Oklahoma to do some heavy work. Well, I came back to California nearly broke and didn't have the funds to ship it back. Five days ago, I bought a new car in Oklahoma. I flew down, picked up my new ride, went home, gathered everything up, picked up a hitchhiker, and made the 23 hour drive to Los Angeles. I'm here now. I have my guitar, tools, and equipment in my living room as I speak.

A lot has happened over the past few months. My computer broke, so I haven't been checking SSO at all. My car also catastrophically broke, hence the new vehicle purchase. I've acquired a loaner iPad to use, so I can now make regular updates!

No pictures now, because I can't seem to make photobucket work on is damn thing. I started sanding the fretboard taper flush with the neck. It's still hella thick, so after I get the correct profile, I'll use the radius block to both radius and take it down to the correct thickness.

There is also some glue residue, cork residue (from the neck caul), and some towel residue (from the towel I used to keep the clamps from gouging the neck) on the neck from when I hurriedly glued the fretboard on nearly two months ago that I need to clean up.

I'm excited to get this started again. My roomie is gone for an entire week, so I'll be able to work in the living room uninterrupted for six more days. You better expect a metric ass-ton of updates. And hopefully pictures. 

It's good to be back, guys. I've missed you all so much. Not to mention, I've also missed playing with seven strings. I've been stuck with six. That really sucked. 

....and you all thought I abandoned this project.  I'm back and I have a mission.

EDIT: I also got Instagram over my hiatus, so I may or may not post some extremely hipster, sepia, bordered pictures. I'll hopefully refrain until I finish it, but no promises.


----------



## Edika

Good to have you back man! Sorry to hear about all the stuff that happened but it seems that everything is coming under control! We will be waiting patiently for your updates and as you know, in this forum there is no such thing as too many pictures!


----------



## DjentDjentlalala

HELL YEAH MAN! cant wait for the updates!


----------



## peagull

Real Life sucks big hairy mushrooms at times. Glad you're back and looking forward to more updates!


----------



## nutsock

Great thread man! Can't wait to see the final product!


----------



## nsimonsen

YO!

Just caught up on this thread and wow, so stoked to see this progress.
Glad to see that you're getting back to it after a bit of a rough run.

Also, what's your Instagram username haha


----------



## The Only Factor

I too am very interested in seeing the end result of this thing. I am always intriuged when someone does something completely out of the ordinary with thier ESP 7 and like to see what ideas I can get for a future project one day.

I am sorry to hear about your vehicular troubles my man, and I know your pain all too well. My truck started spitting spark plugs out of the head and that was the sign to get something new. So I - like you - have a new ride and am making car payments again. 

Looking forward to hearing and seeing more updates on this when they become available!!!


----------



## skeels

Awesome stuff meng!

You make my little mods seem very.....well, little ..

" I replaced the binding and the fretboard and put piezo paddles and a bridge saddle and new knobs on that I hand carved from a tree that I cut down myself...
What mods did you do? "

"Oh. Well, I put strap locks on.... and those funny colored strings...."



Just kidding. Keep up the waaaaay-above-average work!
You are inspirational!

I actually do cut down trees...









" And here's a guitar that I actually carved by hand from a larger guitar!"


----------



## EpicFlail

Taper profile is done. I'm currently covered in bright orange dust. It mixed with the sweat on my arms and turned a dark red. I look kind of bloody. Totally m3t4l. Not trying to brag, but that glue line is almost invisible. When I tapered it, instead of making the edges 90 degrees, I gave it an upside down trapezoid profile. Meaning the actual fretting surface is slightly wider than where it meets the plane of the neck. I'll fix it later. In this case, I didn't want to accidentally make it too narrow so I overcompensated to get it squared later. It's around 3/8" thick, so I'm going to radius and reduce the thickness next time I work on it. I've been thinking that it might be nice to round the fretboard edges out. Kind of like a Strat a friend of mine had.

Still no word on uploading pictures. After work tonight, I'll try to get that taken care of. For what it's worth, my Instagram username is brizzleygare. I have a few progress shots on there. If you feel like it, you can check those out. It should suffice until I figure out how to upload onto SSO.


----------



## EpicFlail

Finally, after much delay: PICTURES!

Yesterday I finished up the fretboard edges?































Parting fancy Instagram shot.





That was it for yesterday. Today I started sanding the radius.

I started the day off with a refreshing West Coast IPA. When it's hot as hell and your A/C only kind of works, a cold beer is a godsend. 





14" radius block loaded with 80-grit.





My makeshift workstation.









About 20 minutes in. I have a handy radius gauge in the corner.





I posted this on Instagram. 15 minutes later, my roommate, who is in Colorado right now, sent me an angry text informing me that sanding a guitar is not an indoor activity.





I called it quits early, sweat dripping off of me, and took a nap.

That's all I've done right now. It's too hot. Lol. Tomorrow I'll try to finish the radius and slim it down some.

Also, photobucket and iPads are a match made in hell. This whole update has taken about an hour.

I had more I wanted to say, but it's a pain in the ass to even try to post pictures on this thing. Boo-hiss. I'll add more later.


----------



## loktide




----------



## peagull

Yay for Picture update!!! 

That is a lot of sanding you've got to reduce that fretboard down, you're gonna be ripped by the end of it mate!


----------



## Danukenator

This is looking awesome. I love the binding you did for the headstock. I also hope you're wearing a mask this time around. The dust can be nasty.


----------



## BlackMastodon

Yeah you definitely have your work cut out for you, that fretboard looks thick as hell! Looking great so far man.


----------



## EpicFlail

I woke up early to do some more sanding.

This was my point of view for almost two hours.





And this is the workstation after about an hour.





I started where I left off with 80-grit, and once I got the basic shape I wanted, I moved to 150, 220, 320, and 400-grit. It's nearly as smooth as glass now. Obviously I'm exaggerating, but it's still damn smooth. Every 10-20 passes, I would stop to check the radius with the gauge. The radius block is only slightly wider than the widest part of the fretboard. This made things very difficult. The last few frets had a much tighter radius than the nut area. And somewhere in there, I sanded the treble side almost 2 mm more than the bass side. Once I noticed what I was doing, I sanded more on the bass side. Then I sanded down the center and made damn sure not to deviate from the center line. I also drew diagonal lines in pencil to see what material I was removing. This helped IMMENSELY. I only decided to do this after I took too much off the treble side. No pictures of that. When I do something as intensive and intricate as this, I zone out..

Despite dripping sweat all over the place and on the verge of collapsing from the heat, this was the most enjoyable moment of my day--maybe even my week. I turned an ugly, rough piece of orange wood into a buttery smooth, silky, shiny, gorgeous playing surface. I turned a piece of lumber into something usable. All by hand. I know pride is a sin, but I can't help but feel proud of my work. I've always been good with my hands, but this made me very, VERY happy to see (and feel). I created this. I MADE this.

After nearly two hours of constant sanding, I got called in to work. I work in a fairly busy restaurant; so being covered in padauk dust, I considered myself to be a walking biohazard. I quickly cleaned up the living room and walked to the bathroom to shower. I looked in the mirror and this is what I saw.





Always with the thumbs up.





When I went to work, all I could feel (besides the blisters and callouses on my hands) were my burning knees from kneeling and my back from being hunched over all morning. It hurt like hell, but all night I was reminded that when you really want something, it demands hard work. It requires time, patience, devotion, a little blood, a lot of sweat, some tears when you think you fuck it up, and even more hard work.

Enough of the introspective thoughts. Onto progress. I got the thickest part of the fretboard down to just over 7mm. On my imperial ruler, it measured ~9/32". Just over 1/4". I find that quite adequate. Thicker than normal, but not too fat. I used the nut and the bottom of the nut slot (which I still need to file out for a shelf) as a guide. I eyeballed it to see where the bottom of the lowest string slot sat in relation to where I thought the fret would be (if that makes any sense--hey, I'm tired!). Before I fret it, I'll definitely check and re-check it, but for now, I think it's fine.

Here is a close-up of a portion 400-grit sanded. It feels UHH-MAZING.





And the full board. 400-grit sanded, but not dusted off.





I may still decide to thin it out more. Now that I look at it closely, I see that the treble side is slightly shorter than the bass side. It's not a huge difference, but I may have to even it up. Maybe a millimeter, but it's not perfect. I'll sleep on it and decide later. Any thoughts? Would that small of a discrepancy have any negative consequence? I could always lower the treble side of the bridge by that much, but I wouldn't want to cause any unneeded stress on the bridge post area.

That's all for tonight. I may work on it tomorrow. I may not. I'm physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. Between the physical stress of this project, the mental stress of my actual job, and the emotional stress of life in general, I'm on the verge of shutting down. Wish me luck, guys. I'll need it!


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## CrushingAnvil

A millimeter? I can't think of a reason why it would matter too much, but if you think you can fix it, just do it


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## loktide

good job


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## Edika

Amazing work so far man! It looks beautiful and smooth as glass!

Since you are exhausted I would suggest that you take a couple of days of the project and then get back to it fresh to see if the fretboard so far satisfies you. If you decide now, start fretwork and after a while you feel you should have done some more work on it, then it will be harder to go back at it.

EDIT: To me it seems a little bit thick. You should check how it feels in terms of thickness when you put your hand on it. If you are satisfied then don't mind what I or anyone else says.


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## EpicFlail

Im conflicted whether or not to thin it down more. Comparing this to my Ibanez Prestige, it's incredibly thick. At the same time, I don't want the same feel. I want this to be a purely chuggernaut and acoustic. I like a bit more mass for acoustics. This isn't for shredding. I'm going for a ballsy punch you in the face djent sound. I also want something for easy chording and pretty sounds. It is a lot thicker than normal, but I don't see that as a detriment. I'm going strictly by what I've played before. When I lent this guitar to a friend to record some stuff (well before I decided to refinish it), I only had my acoustic. I also played with my old roommate's Strat at that time. It had a different neck profile. It was very thick compared to the ESP. I liked it. I'm thinking that the thin profile of this one in conjunction with the thick fretboard would give me a comparable feel to the Strat. Not entirely, but something different. Something....thicker.

I'll think about it, but for now I want to keep it as is. Unless someone can change my mind over the next few days. I'll accept all criticism and critique, but right now I can't see a reason to go shredder thin.

If anything, once I finish it, it will give me a reason to take it apart and change it. I think that's what I like most about this: the freedom to change anything I want whenever I want.


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## CrushingAnvil

EpicFlail said:


> I'm going for a ballsy punch you in the face djent sound.


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## peagull

It's an interesting idea about increasing the thickness of the neck using the fretboard. I have no idea whether it would or not, I imagine you'd be better off asking for advice in a thread on here, but my thought would be that it may negatively interact with the truss rod/bowing when you set up your guitar, if you undertand what I mean. I do like the idea though.

What I'd do is get a few bits of plastic/wood or whatever, that are the same thickness as your frets. Stick a few strings to them, put that on the fretboard, so it simulates it being strung up, then see how it feels in your hands. 

All in all, it looks nice. Excited to see it finished!


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## Kapee

lol instagram


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## 7stringDemon

Looks awesome dude! And feel proud as fuck of that thing! There's no such thing as sin


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## EpicFlail

After quite a bit of time off of this project, I figured my one day off should be put to good use. I set up shop in my garage. The previous tenant left a small entertainment stand so I used that as a bench. It was quite nice. It has doors on the front, a little area under the main area, and a big surface area. All my tools fit nicely underneath it.

I started by sanding down the fretboard a bit more. Not much, but just enough to stir up some serious sawdust. Same thing as before. 80, 150, 220, 320, and 400-grits. I still haven't cut the nut shelf. I need to get a good file for that.

After I got the fretboard as smooth as I wanted, I started cleaning out the slots. Now, this is where I'm kicking myself for not getting the fret-slot cleaner from StewMac months and months ago. The padauk had formed this almost solid gunk in the slots. I spent probably half an hour with a razor blade trying to scrape it all out. It was still light outside when I finished cleaning the slots, sooooo....

I set to fretting. First, I cut all the fretwire to approximate lengths. I found a cool way to hold on to the wire while I was cutting the rest..Double sided tape directly on the workbench. And nobody's the wiser. 





Here are the frets lightly pressed in. Not yet hammered.













Another filtered Instaguitar pic.





And here they are all hammered in. Outside and inside lighting.













Here is the only casualty of the night. Hammer meets finger.





I have to say that this was one of the loudest things I've done yet. I used a 1-lb fret hammer. It still sounded like gunshots. Especially ringing out in the garage. Neighbors be piiiissseeeddddd. Funny enough, two of the women that live in my little 4-apartment flat came out and were super intrigued that I was building a guitar. They were asking all sorts of questions about it. Hopefully they won't get mad when I crank the amp way up....

My next day off isn't for a while, so if I do anything, I'll be working an hour here and there. If I find the time, I'd like to get the frets flush with the fingerboard and leveled by the next update.


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## flexkill

Great thread, great job!


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## EpicFlail

As soon as I got off work, I went to Home Depot for a file, a roll of blue painter's tape, and a five gallon bucket. The file was for filing down the fret ends flush with the fretboard. The tape was for the fretboard so I didn't scratch it. The bucket doubles as a place to hold things and as a seat. I used it as a seat tonight.

It was overcast all day, which meant it got dark super fast, so I only worked for an hour and a half or so. I did get stuff done though!

First I taped the first few frets and then started filing. I have quite a few of those metal things with a slit down the middle that you put over the frets when you crown them (I'm totally drawing a blank on what they're called), so I bent one at a 90 degree angle so I could get as close as possible to the edge of the fretboard without damaging it. It worked surprisingly well. I slipped a few times and the file hit that instead of the fretboard. Sounds like success if you ask me.






All in all, I got nine frets filed down to manageable size. They still stick out a millimeter or two. After I get them all like this, I'll go over them all at once to get them completely flush.










As you can see, the fretboard is still pretty thick. I sat down and "played" it before I installed the frets. It felt comfortable. Different, but good.










The light in my garage is terrible or else I'd still be out there. Dammit, I need more days off.


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## BlackMastodon

Man that padauk dust got every where eh?


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## EpicFlail

BlackMastodon said:


> Man that padauk dust got every where eh?



My clothes are permanently stained. My cat also now has an orange belly. And I keep finding orange fingerprints all around the house. I hate to admit it, but maybe my roommate was right. Sanding in the house is not an indoor activity? Oh well, I have a nice garage workshop now. She wins....for now....at least until I start my wenge/purpleheart RG1527 baritone conversion neck build. Or the full build I've got planned. Or another refinish I have planned. Or a friend's refinish I want to do. She gon' be piiiissssseeeeddddd. Next angry text I get I'm uploading on here.


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## BlackMastodon

EpicFlail said:


> My clothes are permanently stained. My cat also now has an orange belly. And I keep finding orange fingerprints all around the house. I hate to admit it, but maybe my roommate was right. Sanding in the house is not an indoor activity? Oh well, I have a nice garage workshop now. She wins....for now....at least until I start my wenge/purpleheart RG1527 baritone conversion neck build. Or the full build I've got planned. Or another refinish I have planned. Or a friend's refinish I want to do. She gon' be piiiissssseeeeddddd. Next angry text I get I'm uploading on here.


I wouldn't sand purpleheart indoors if I were you. I hear that stuff is poisonous.


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## EpicFlail

BlackMastodon said:


> I wouldn't sand purpleheart indoors if I were you. I hear that stuff is poisonous.



What's not anymore? 

Anyway, I had to wake up this morning and move my car to a different street lest I get a parking ticket at 8 AM. Not too thrilled about that. While I was out, I went to Home Depot. I picked up a 3-foot long piece of galvanized fencing, three small C-clamps, and more blue tape. I was feeling creative. I'll let the pictures do the talking.























There you have it. Fret end file. I took the idea from wedging a file in a 2x4, but that would have involved owning a decent saw, which I do not have. I clamped the file in there (course side inside) and used double sided tape to fix a piece of cardboard to slide over the fretboard. After a few minutes of tweaking, it worked like a charm. After I got them down, i turned the file over and used the finer side to further dress them. And it only cost a few bucks. I got all the fret ends down to what I did yesterday in half the time.

I then loaded the sanding block with 150-grit and started sanding them flush to the fingerboard. I found that the sanding block worked perfectly for the first 12 frets and the homemade file guide thing worked just as good for the upper frets. Maybe because they're closer together? I also used an actual fret end file to make them super smooth. They still need to be beveled/rounded, but that can wait.


















The previous picture looks like the fretboard is radiused too tight, but it's correct. I mentioned earlier I got the treble side a little low. This is what I meant.

I also started the nut shelf. I stuck a fret protector in the slot to keep from sanding into the first fret.













I actually finished the shelf. I just didn't get any pictures. The shelf is a bit too long though. I started filing it shorter to match the thickness of the nut but stopped when I started getting really itchy.

I've been thinking about opting out of using the rear string ferrules I bought and machining a brass plate and routing a cavity for that. That will save me the trouble of grounding each ferrule. I really want to get this thing strung up already!


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## peagull

How did I miss 3 whole updates!!!

Looking awesome man. Also we definitely need to se some of these angry texts


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## Shelvock

Grounding each ferrule? Could you not just ground a bridge post/insert?


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## The Only Factor

Shelvock said:


> Grounding each ferrule? Could you not just ground a bridge post/insert?



No unforunately... Due to the saddles being non-conductive, he needs to either ground each and every string ferrule, or make a plate that connects all 7 ferrules together and ground the plate instead. And since the saddles sit in the bridge, the bridge now has no conductivity to the saddles as they are an entirely separate pickup, so the tailpiece or the ferrules need to be grounded.


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## bob123

Just read through this... some times, you need to take things more seriously then usually. Some of these woods can seriously do harm. Like carcinogenic, serious harm to your lungs, among other things. I was pretty cavalier about sanding and cutting until i messed with goncalo alves. Its a brazilian wood, that I've been playing with. I got a face full of sanding dust in my face, and I felt sick for like 3 days. 

Im not going to "parent you" or anything, just some things are worth taking extra precautions. Purpleheart... is nasty dude.


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## EpicFlail

bob123 said:


> Just read through this... some times, you need to take things more seriously then usually. Some of these woods can seriously do harm. Like carcinogenic, serious harm to your lungs, among other things. I was pretty cavalier about sanding and cutting until i messed with goncalo alves. Its a brazilian wood, that I've been playing with. I got a face full of sanding dust in my face, and I felt sick for like 3 days. .
> 
> Im not going to "parent you" or anything, just some things are worth taking extra precautions. Purpleheart... is nasty dude.



I understand full and well the hazards of working with certain woods. I know I take a more light-hearted approach here on the forum, but in reality, I take it very seriously. A few pages back, I cut a piece of cocobolo by hand. Wore a respirator, thick gloves, goggles, etc. When I was sweeping up the dust that night, I forgot the respirator. For the rest of the week (my vacation at that), I had nasty bronchitis symptoms. I couldn't breathe, my throat was scratchy, I was coughing up gross shit--it sucked.

I'm also an amateur blacksmith, so I've been around ceramic blankets (carcinogenic) and other refractory coatings (they have their own health hazards). Not to mention bituminous coal and other fuels (dangerous soot and CO gas). What I'm saying is that I'm well versed in safely using and basically being around hazardous materials. I do appreciate the thought though. And feel free to parent me. I do some stupid stuff sometimes.  Sometimes I need someone to swat my nose and tell me "NO!"

In other news, I got all the frets leveled and 16 of them crowned. One thing I thought I could get away with was using a cheap crowning file. It's one of those with the interchangeable files. Never again. A diamond file would be a gift from up above right now. "No, I'll just buy the cheap one. Save some money!" That extra $40 would have made my life so much easier. You live and learn I guess. I would have done them all, but I had to go to work. Something about "paying bills" or some nonsense. I leveled them all to the same height, but looking back, I may have done it all in vain. I've read that the 16th through 24th frets should be leveled lower to make up for the neck bow. Interesting theory, but since my fretboard is thicker than normal, maybe I can get away with them all being the same. We'll see when I string it up. I did however check each fret with a rocker to make sure they were all the same height. They all (all 16 I crowned) checked out, so I have high hopes. I still need to crown the last few frets and then progressively sand them to blinding reflective polished sheen, but I'm merely one man and I can't do everything at once. No pictures as I was too busy to be bothered. I just taped the fretboard with blue tape and markered the tops of the frets black. Leveled until the black was gone, marked them again, and crowned until a tiny black line was left down the center. Pretty uneventful photo-wise. I need to buy a set of micro mesh sandpapers, some steel wool, and finer than 400-grits of sandpapers for the finishing and polishing stages to come. I'll keep you guys updated.

EDIT: When I was filing the nut shelf, I was wearing a tank top. When I came in the house to clean up, the part of my chest that was exposed had a bit of padauk dust on it. It mixed with my sweat and my chest was all red and irritated. It also itched like crazy. Just a small addendum to your warning, Bob.

EDIT 2: The Only Factor is exactly right. Since I don't have a tailpiece, grounding the ferrules are the only way to go. I was thinking about picking up a 1/2" x 1/2" brass bar and drilling out holes for the strings then routing a pocket for it to sit in. That sounds much easier than drilling ridiculously small holes and threading wire between each one. I saw that method on a Schecter forum. The string plate seems like much less work for the same outcome. I've also been considering (alluding to the blacksmith paragraph above) forging my own retainer plate out of some other metals. If I could find some copper and nickel, I could forge weld layers of them into a solid chunk and pattern it to make my own unique design. Ahh, the joys of being a middle-schooler and getting a toy capable of melting steel for Christmas. Makes me want to cry.


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## iRaiseTheDead

Sexy guitar is sexy


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## Shelvock

The Only Factor said:


> No unforunately... Due to the saddles being non-conductive, he needs to either ground each and every string ferrule, or make a plate that connects all 7 ferrules together and ground the plate instead. And since the saddles sit in the bridge, the bridge now has no conductivity to the saddles as they are an entirely separate pickup, so the tailpiece or the ferrules need to be grounded.



Got ya Completely forgot about the piezo system, what a ballache!


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## eddiewarlock

BlackMastodon said:


> I wouldn't sand purpleheart indoors if I were you. I hear that stuff is poisonous.



It's not poisonous, otherwise, i'd be dead a LONG time ago.

I probably have built more than 10 guitars with purpleheart necks.

Some varities have a very subtle but very pleasant smell.


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## bob123

eddiewarlock said:


> It's not poisonous, otherwise, i'd be dead a LONG time ago.
> 
> I probably have built more than 10 guitars with purpleheart necks.
> 
> Some varities have a very subtle but very pleasant smell.




purple heart isnt, but padauk sure as shit causes problems haha


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## 7stringDemon

So. . . . . Uhhhhhhhhhhh. . . . . . How's the guitar doing?


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## japs5607

So where are the updates. I keep checking back


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## Majkel

Aww I thought it would be an update from EpicFlail when I saw the thread had been updated..


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## japs5607

I was trying to push for an update


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## Hene

I have lost faith in this thread. :/


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## TheBigGroove

Hene said:


> I have lost faith in this thread. :/



I lost faith in the world


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## kevdes93

update pls


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## Stealthtastic

All I want for Christmas...


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## slenderman

I was so excited to see what this was going to look like


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## Suho

Maybe the OP has been in a Paduak-dust induced coma?


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## AStarlitNathan

I got a 607b a while ago, and I've been watching this thread for any kind of update because it was a huge influence for me to want to refinish mine...

plz finish this kthx.


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## Veritech Zero

Man a year long guitar project. I do hope everything is ok, can't wait to see what it comes out like.


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## incinerated_guitar

I hope this guy is still alive...... 


so we can see more pics


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## codycarter

I suggest a man hunt for OP


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## CaptainLuckeyBeard

NOOOO!!! What the hell!!!! Soooo clooseeeee! What a tease.... :,(


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## Danukenator

EDIT: In case it's not clear, I mean this is a loving way!


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## esphil

pics?


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## Neilzord

Ok, This thread was around before I signed up here, Just been on a bit of a traul. 

went through all the pages of this with building anticipation to see this thing finished....... and then... What? no finished guitar? 

Hope the Guy who made it is OK! :S


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## Rick

codycarter said:


> I suggest a man hunt for OP



Up for a good manhunt, are you?


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## celticelk

OP hasn't logged in for nearly a month - I wouldn't hold your breath for a speedy update.


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## Connor94

Pretty interested to see how this guy turned out. Update needed!!!


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## TheWarAgainstTime

Saw this thread get bumped then excitedly opened it in hopes of an update and now I have trust issues


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## Connor94

TheWarAgainstTime said:


> Saw this thread get bumped then excitedly opened it in hopes of an update and now I have trust issues



I was hoping i could help motivate the guy to finish! This project is too interesting to leave hanging


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## HOGANMW

I would like to see it finished.


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## Djentliman

I remember this from A LONG time ago. I really want to see it finished as well!


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## swollenpickle

Okay!
Wheres she at?~?~


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## jpcalloway

looks amazing! i think I'm going to refinish my rga8 when it comes in, but i'm not expecting the wood to look as nice!


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## Hene

Dude I hope you´re not dead or anything but I really want to see this guitar finished! And for those who thought the bump was about an update I am truly sorry!


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## Steinmetzify

Found this thread searching Google for something else. Really got into this one and the SC607B is my current guitar GAS. Got to the end and SON OF A BITCH THERE'S NO GUITAR!

EDIT: felt bad about the necrobump so I tracked dude down....he's alive as of a week ago, and he's on Instagram. The guitar still isn't done as of 9 weeks ago, and he says it's been under a sweater for a year. I told him we missed him and needed updates; hopefully he comes back and finishes the job.



Untitled by Steinmetzify, on Flickr


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## Kanye

Omg.... this has to be the most anticlimactic thread ever! 

haha.. I read every page. 

Thread dredge of disappointment..


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## Pikka Bird

^Ha! I knew you would go through this thread after seeing your other posts. Did you get your passion for refinishing your 417 bolstered?


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## Kanye

Pikka Bird said:


> ^Ha! I knew you would go through this thread after seeing your other posts. Did you get your passion for refinishing your 417 bolstered?




Haha. It's definitely not a question of if but when. This is the closest I could find to a refinished MH417, I at least wanted a peek at what is beneath the plastic feeling finish before I skin it. For all the shining reviews of the MH417 Im a little surprised that I can find any crazy modded examples. Not going to the extent of this chap though, the fretboard is fine fo a start.... cosmo black though....yik


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## ASoC

TheWarAgainstTime said:


> Saw this thread get bumped then excitedly opened it in hopes of an update and now I have trust issues



This is me every time this thread gets bumped


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## Kanye

I started off great didnt it.


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## Pikka Bird

Dooo eeet! I'm quite sure it's gonna look quite fine under the paint.


Kanye said:


> cosmo black though....yik


You don't like cosmo? Whereabouts are you, I might wanna buy the parts if you are swapping everything out. Especially the ferrules, but I'll take the whole set if we can agree on a price (depending on the condition).


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