# Build for a friend.



## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 24, 2016)

I've recently sort of comissioned a build for a good friend, we had talked briefly about it in the past, but really decided to do it last week. I know it's still a little early to start a thread for this, but the suspense is killing me. I don't even have all the parts yet, and only one photo to start this thread with as of today, but I have schematics started up on my computer and several more parts coming in the mail and/or will be ordered in the next few days. This'll be the first build I'm doing for someone else. I have done work on other people's guitars before but never a full scratch build. I am very excited and nervous to do this, and hoping to recieve as much constructive criticism as can be offered here. 

About my friend: his name is Ben. I couldn't ask for a better person to be doing a build for. Super solid, nice and understanding dude. I have known him for around 7 years, and he has lived on the other side of the country the last 5, but we still regularly keep in contact. He is a really good guitar player, but dose little in the way of work/mods/lutherie. I think he moved the location of a strap button once... and might have routed existing pup cavities bigger for EMG's... maybe 

He only owns a few guitars, but very nice guitars. He likes his guitars light, tight, fast, thin and hitting like a 10 ton hammer. Straight up metal machines. He is also very specific about the way they feel. Think Ibanez, music man, carvin... but with no flashy or excessive asthetic things like binding, detailed inlay work, gold hardware, pickup rings, pick guards... etc. When he buys a new guitar he judges it by feel and playability, tone and overall sound, and then looks... in that order.

He gave me some specifics about what he wants in this build, but left some of it in the open to see what I come up with on my own. So here's where it begins:

Neck through fanned fret 7 string
All black hardware
25.5 - 27 multi scale
5 piece Wenge and Sapele neck (3 stripes Wenge, 2 Sapele)
Mahogany wings
Walnut top and headstock cap
Rosewood fretboard
24 SS jumbo frets, beveled and polished ends
Super strat shape with deep contours for comfort
Hipshot solo bridges
Locking tuners (still deciding which brand)
Pups custom made by Instrumental Pickups (find them on facebook, good stuff)
Finish... still deciding. Leaning toward hand rubbed oil and wax over the whole guitar for a nice natural slick feeling.
May also be designing my logo to put on the guitar. He said something simple, subtle, goes with the guitar of possible.

If I can still budget it, will try to install piezo saddles. Other electronics, real simple, one vol knob push pull for coil tap and a 3 way selector switch.

So here's my one photo so far, it's the neck core materials I picked up on a recent trip to a Woodcraft store. The wenge is ok. I think it'll do just fine in this build, understanding how difficult it is to find super straight Wenge grain in this length, but the Sapele is real nice. Love the grain here.


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## KR250 (Apr 25, 2016)

Very cool, my next build is also going to be for a friend. Haven't even finished my current project and already getting excited for the next one as well. How are you working out cost of parts/wood? Is he paying you up front or after the build? 

Also, just curious how detailed you got on the specs with your friend? I'm realizing there are a lot of little things that are easy to overlook, tuner knob style, etc. It looks like you have most everything covered, although finishing and logo/inlays style are where it seems there could be a lot of interpretation. 

Looking forward to seeing your project through.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 25, 2016)

KR250 said:


> Very cool, my next build is also going to be for a friend. Haven't even finished my current project and already getting excited for the next one as well. How are you working out cost of parts/wood? Is he paying you up front or after the build?
> 
> Also, just curious how detailed you got on the specs with your friend? I'm realizing there are a lot of little things that are easy to overlook, tuner knob style, etc. It looks like you have most everything covered, although finishing and logo/inlays style are where it seems there could be a lot of interpretation.
> 
> Looking forward to seeing your project through.



I pretty much told him up front that I'm not doing this for profit because we're friends, not to mention the fact that he taught me 90% of what I know about playing guitar - which eventually lead to me developing this hobby of building anyway. As for cost, I also said I'm no pro, I'm not a big name luthier, I'm not even extremely experienced and have never even built someone a custom instrument, nor have I ever bought a custom instrument from an independent luthier, so I have no idea what to quote him; definitely not to expect a high end artist's bill. I spend as little as I have too to get my own personal builds done, and that's the reason I sometimes let them drag on so long and sometimes never even completely finish them. So for this, obviously it has to be done 100% start to finish, within a fairly comfortable time frame. I only wanted to ask conservatively for what I thought it'd take to gather all the parts needed to do his build and be able to finish it meeting those criteria. He sent me a budget above what I asked for. I've spent most of that already and might be going into my own pockets a little to get this build 100% up to the point I want it to be at. If he decides to give me anything more when this is all said and done for my time and efforts, it would be left to his discretion, but for this being my first "customer" build, me having no reputation, I'm not expecting to make much profit at the end and I wouldn't be put off the slightest if I didn't. However, I still refuse to cut corners on this build. It's gotta be the best work I've done to date, putting my best foot forward even if I have to struggle a little to get it there. This is really to establish my work in the hands of someone else who will own and play it, who himself is a good musician and hangs around with other musicians. There's inherent potential future business there along with being able to show others my talent through social media. I plan to possibly make a page for some of my builds on Facebook eventually.


About the details, I emailed him a butt load of questions about every aspect I could think about in a guitar, it was basically a detailed order form, and he gave me responses back for about 60% of it, but the rest he left up to me.


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## BubbleWrap (Apr 27, 2016)

Aside from a few changes of wood, this is pretty much my dream build that I've slowly been trying to design. I'd change the walnut top and cap to quilted maple, mahogany wings to black limba, and bubinga instead of the sapelle. Good luck with the build, I'll be keeping an eye on this.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (May 2, 2016)

Also on a side note regarding the budgeting as described above ^^^ I gotta understand that my buddy is taking a chance on this too, going with someone with no prior experience. I feel it's best if we both simply break even, and let my work speak for itself if this is gonna turn into something and continue on. 

So it's beginning!!! Got the neck lams split and started the glue up. Humidity has been horrible these past few days so only did one joint, will be waiting til next weekend to do more work if the weather holds up.









^yes I did spread that glue out to cover the whole surface before clamping.

Schweet little jig to clamp the pieces perfectly straight. Just a 90deg end on a sheet of MDF. 





Also got more stuff in the mail: 

Hipshot hardware all around





and this bodacious slab of walnut for the top





To Be Continued...


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## electriceye (May 3, 2016)

That slab is suh-weet!!!!!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (May 16, 2016)

Got the lams done and planed down flat, also finalized the body shape. 






Ugly, yes, but theres some pretty stuff on the inside...





See?





Heres the body shape cut out in poster board, will be transfered into a nice acrylic routing template later. This is pretty much the final shape, aside from some different sculpting of the heel while shaping the neck contour.






Also... is it usual for Sapele to have funky waving grain like this?

I took these two pics along the neck, both on the same side of the neck, just a continuation in the same face of the neck blank... and look how the pores in the Sapele wave around in different areas. It's not like I think the neck will explode into a million pieces if I put some strings on it, but just makes me think a little about the stability of it 10+ years from now. I know there are thousands of Sapele necks out there playing just fine today, and besides, this one is multi lam with wenge and it's gonna have CF rods (or titanium... still haven't decided yet) 









Thats it For Today. Gonna let these pieces settle for a few weeks and do the final flattening, mill the sides down a little and start applying the wings.


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## dankarghh (May 17, 2016)

Really digging the body shape man, this is going to look killer.


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## mperrotti34 (May 17, 2016)

that walnut is absolutely gorgeous


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## Killemall1983 (May 17, 2016)

Dang that is a heck of a lot of glue. Probably 5-6X more than needed.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (May 17, 2016)

Killemall1983 said:


> Dang that is a heck of a lot of glue. Probably 5-6X more than needed.



Yeah, I think so too in hindsight when thinking back through the steps I take in a build. I think I tend to get a little anxious when the glue hits the wood. I work quickly (in a rushed almost stressful way) to get everything spread out, pieces positioned and clamped correctly. When gluing the joints, those are very critical points in a build that're harder to recover from than to just do right the first time. I read an article somewhere, the guy who wrote it said something like when he sees all the glue squeeze out, he's torn between thinking it's waste and overkill, or pure genius. Sometimes I think I unintentionally apply that school of thought and just go for too much rather than risk having too little. It's not like glue is terribly expensive or anything, but still should be used in just proportions. 

But seriously, I agree, and thanks for critiquing that. I still havn't gotten very many finished builds under my belt yet so every step I'm taking I try to look for some refining to be done. Will apply this to future builds.


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## Deegatron (May 18, 2016)

I think this is one of those situations where a little extra glue causes a very minor inconvenience of more cleanup.... which actually isnt really a big deal if your just putting things thu a router planer jig.... but not enough glue causes a major inconvenience when your neck splits as you apply string tension for the first time.
I go balls deep on the glue as well... WAY more than needed to ensure 100% that I have any dry spots in the neck lams...


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## thinkpad20 (May 18, 2016)

Seems like the cost of too much glue is far less than the cost of not enough.  I really like that body shape! Really liking everything about this build so far.


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## J_Mac (May 24, 2016)

Lam jig is nails.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (May 30, 2016)

Today's progress... Not as much as I would like to have accomplished this weekend, but it's about quality, not speed.

The gang's all here, time for a scarf joint










Love me a nice scarf joint... fresh out of the routing ramps...





I've come to find I get better results using multiple clamps under moderate pressure instead of fewer clamps squeezing hard. 









So heres where it's at as of today. I purposely used a thick piece of material for the headstock section because I plan to shave the face down in a tilt to line up with the nut angle, that's my next step that I'll probably do tomorrow.





Speaking of quality, I told my buddy up front that because this is gonna be a hand made piece there may be a few blemishes, and well, I've hit my first blemish in the build so far . The lams for the headstock section seem to have glued up ever so slightly uneven. Like maybe a millimeter. Shoot, not even a millimeter. This is looking at the front face of the neck... they seem to be offset toward the bass side of the neck.









HOWEVER the lams are actually slightly offset to the treble side when viewed from the back of the neck as in this pic above. I'm a little torn as to weather or not to try to split the scarf joint and re-glue it to possibly correct it... the lams are offset just slightly to opposite sides front and back, which means that in the middle of the stock they might intersect so closely that it's not noticeable. The middle of the stock is the area that'll be visible in the finished product after removing the excess and shaping/contouring, and the contuoring might actually make the step-off of the lams so askew that it'll not be visible at all... so I just dont know if it's worth risking messing it up, when it's currently perfectly structurally sound at least... 

When looking straight down the lams there is a slight angle in where the scarf is, like 1 degree. maybe even a half a degree.


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## dankarghh (May 31, 2016)

This happened to me just the other day when gluing a ff scarf. I actually just steamed the joint apart as soon as i noticed (<24hrs) and reglued. It's a pain the ass yes, but very much worthwhile i would say.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (May 31, 2016)

dankarghh said:


> This happened to me just the other day when gluing a ff scarf. I actually just steamed the joint apart as soon as i noticed (<24hrs) and reglued. It's a pain the ass yes, but very much worthwhile i would say.



Yeah... I'm gonna do that today, It means a couple hours set back, kinda sucks, but it has to be right. This time with pins to hold the joint straight. I'm sure I could get it straighter that way, gives me better set up time before gluing. Yesterday I tried a different method that I had not done before, with both pieces laid on their sides on a flat surface as they were being glued and clamped, so of course there's some more tweaking to be done to get it right since it was a new method to me, but I'll save the practice for some scrap pieces.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (May 31, 2016)

Removed the headstock, realigned the scarf joint.

Off with its head!!!





This time, realigned with a proper set of pins...













The results were totally worth it. 0.8 millimeter shift in the laminates, now you can only really see the joint because of the difference in the grain.


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## Deegatron (Jun 1, 2016)

Holy bejesus... 6 pins is SUPER OVERKILL!!!!
that being said... I'm a big fan of super overkill... so this rather tickled my fancy.... good work sir... good work indeed....


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## electriceye (Jun 1, 2016)

I think you can use smaller nails next time...


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 1, 2016)

Deegatron said:


> Holy bejesus... 6 pins is SUPER OVERKILL!!!!
> that being said... I'm a big fan of super overkill... so this rather tickled my fancy.... good work sir... good work indeed....





electriceye said:


> I think you can use smaller nails next time...



Haha, overkill all the way! If I make a mistake on a step of a build... that's ok, it happens to everybody at some time or another, typically errors can be corrected... but if I make the same mistake again while trying to perform the repairs, I shouldn't even be doing this. When re-doing a step, it's overkill or bust!!!


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## Grif (Jun 3, 2016)

I think the overkill redo on the joint paid off, I like the attitude for your fix.

As an aside: I'm in love with that body shape


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 14, 2016)

Time for a pic-dump...

Designed the headstock. I love having all the strings pull in a straight line over the nut.






Milled the headstock face to match the angle for the fanned nut. 





Couple pieces of trim off the walnut to make a headstock cap













Mmm, tight glue joint... tasty!





adding the ears


























^ just love how the glue joints came out

I'm still building the schematic as I go... here it is mostly laid out on poster board...





It's kinda starting to look like a guitar... from a distance... in dim lighting... if you squint just right 










Mounted the wings and I forgot to route a channel for the wires to pass from the neck pup cavity into the bridge pup cavity. I meant to cut it into the side of the neck core... crap. Oh well, I can still get it comfortably routed before the top goes on...

Next up, the part that makes me most nervous, bookmatching, flattening and gluing the top wood onto the body... 

To Be Continued...


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## MoonJelly (Jun 14, 2016)

Excellent craftsmanship, I am excite for this build!


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## dankarghh (Jun 15, 2016)

Loving this one man. Looks like you're nailing it- It's an even better feeling when it's for someone else haha. Shape is wonderful. And no sweat about missing the routes, as long as there is no fingerboard glued in place.


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## Deegatron (Jun 15, 2016)

Love the shape of the body and headstock. they look very nice together. well played sir...


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 15, 2016)

Deegatron said:


> Love the shape of the body and headstock. they look very nice together. well played sir...



Thanks! I'm already planning on building a second one of these as a keeper, I've got a body blank that's been stashed away for a while that can go into it... I didn't plan the design out 100% in the beginning, it all just sort of happened that way, really like what's come about though, the second one will be this same model but a few spec changes.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 16, 2016)

Hmmm... what's in there?





PICKUPS 










These just came in the mail, my man Ethan at Instrumental Pickups totally came through with this dank 7 string set. It's custom made for this guitars specific fan angle and string spacing. Came complete with a routing template and mounting hardware. Really cool that these don't have mounting tabs on the sides, kinda makes for a cleaner look. Absolutely stoked about putting these into this build, I can't wait to see it come together!!!

This guy can make some pups for any number of strings, fan angle, pole spacing... etc. In my mind this is basically the U.S. version of Bareknuckle or Lundgren or other similar brands, just lesser known. (disclaimer - I am not trying specifically to endorse the brand, just really impressed with the quality of this product, wanted to share the experience)

With that said, see some of his work for yourself:

Instrumental Pickups - Facebook


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## Deegatron (Jun 17, 2016)

Wow, those pickups look killer.... mounting like a P-90... I'm curious to see how that works out... I've seen a few builds where the pickups are mounted from the rear and it just looks funny to me without the ears... 

classy touch to include a routing template... classy indeed... I couldn't find any prices on his website... were they reasonably affordable? by affordable I mean... justifiable...


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## BlackMastodon (Jun 17, 2016)

I love the fact that they came with a routing template, and the pickups look really good! I'm pretty curious of the price, too. In relation to BKP, Lundgrens, etc. are they in the same price range?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 17, 2016)

I'll PM the damage if interested, just don't wanna throw all the numbers out there...


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 17, 2016)

Deegatron said:


> Wow, those pickups look killer.... mounting like a P-90... I'm curious to see how that works out... I've seen a few builds where the pickups are mounted from the rear and it just looks funny to me without the ears...




They have screws that go down through the coils into the bottom floor of the pup cavity. 4 screws per pickup, they pass through the coil in the same way the pole pieces are inserted through. You can see the 4 holes in the close up pic of the neck pup above. It's a pretty nifty method, and simply uses short sections of squishy rubber tube that go over the screws on the back side to proved tension to hold the pups up against the screw heads. No hardware visible on the back of the guitar...


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## KnightroExpress (Jun 17, 2016)

That really is a slick mounting system, I dig it. The inclusion of routing templates is the cherry on top, as it were.


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## KnightBrolaire (Jun 19, 2016)

apparently it's about 230$ for a set of humbuckers (uncovered). covered ones are 260 for a set.


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## WhiskeyPickleJake (Jun 19, 2016)

Thanks for sharing the whole process. Lovely build.


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## Deegatron (Jun 20, 2016)

WHY ARE THESE NOT INSTALLED YET???? Seriously.... I'm dying to see how they look installed.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 21, 2016)

Deegatron said:


> WHY ARE THESE NOT INSTALLED YET???? Seriously.... I'm dying to see how they look installed.



Oh... sorry bout that, the pickups came in way sooner than I was ready for them... haven't even bookmatched the top yet. Will be doing that this weekend.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 27, 2016)

So... hit another wretch in the plans... I finally borrowed a nice saw to use for cutting that pretty little slab of walnut for the top... and the thing CUPPED when I cut it.

    

^ that was me in the shop about 20 minutes ago...






So, I simply clamped the two flattest faces together with a bunch of clamps, leaving it to sit for 2 weeks to see if any of the stress can be smoothed out of it under pressure like this. Any suggestions for how to flatten a cupped piece? 

I'm gonna have to really think of exactly how I'm gonna glue it to the body now, was just gonna use a flat press type method, but that's gonna be out of the picture now... Thinking about using a dowel method like this:


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jul 10, 2016)

I took it out of the clamps and it seemed to have flattened a little, but still had a slight cup. Not that big a deal, an hour or so of block sanding got it flat enough to use. Got the top glued today, now it starts getting exciting. It's taking some shape. I wound up just gluing it the old fashioned way and used clamps with some wood screws in place where the pickups will be routed out later. Didn't get any pics of the process but the results are awesome. 

Dry fit first, it would only a little pressure from the clamps to make the top stay flat. I shaped the heel of the neck out so the walnut cap will tuck under the edge of the fretboard about 1/8 inch. 





Couple channels routed for the wires.





Glue is dry, out of the clamps and freshly flattened.





Routed and sanded.





These pieces are coning together much better than I thought they would.















Next step is to do a little more body shaping, then focus big on the neck and fretboard. Want this thing to feel real good...


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## M3CHK1LLA (Jul 11, 2016)

looking great so far...can't wait for more progress pics.

have you showed your buddy pics yet? if so, his reaction?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jul 11, 2016)

M3CHK1LLA said:


> looking great so far...can't wait for more progress pics.
> 
> have you showed your buddy pics yet? if so, his reaction?



Yeah, I've been sending him progress pics about as often as I update this thread. He says it looks great so far.


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## Deegatron (Jul 11, 2016)

goodness that top looks lovely....
are you doing a matching cap on the headstock?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jul 11, 2016)

Deegatron said:


> goodness that top looks lovely....
> are you doing a matching cap on the headstock?



wellllll... the cap that is currently on the headstock is the "matching" piece. I cut both the body top and the headstock cap out of the same piece of wood, they have similar grain curl, and don't get me wrong, I deff noticed the lack of lighter colored heart wood present in the headstock piece, but working with the size of the piece I had I could not possibly have cut the headstock and body area from that same lighter colored section, it wouldn't fit together. I'm gonna try to add in a truss rod cover from the lighter area to even it out.

Like this:


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jul 25, 2016)

Unbevelable. 

Still in it's rough form. I'll get everything nice and tidy closer to time to apply finish.






















With a little bit of headstock and neck tapering done today... 


















Also hit me first blemish in this build so far, router took a chip out of the trebel side of the headstock... fixable? absolutely; frustrating nonetheless... 










Full frontal of where it is at now.






Last pic for this update, Wenge is such a trippy wood.


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## Spicypickles (Jul 25, 2016)

Looks like a person with their mouth sewn shut. Evil, I like it.


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## Grif (Aug 16, 2016)

Not to be an impatient jerk, but I'm going to be an impatient jerk; how's the build coming along?


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## dh848 (Aug 16, 2016)

First time seeing these, looks incredible! Thanks for taking all the pics


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 20, 2016)

^^^ Yes, sorry bout the anti-update-ish-ness lately but I have had alot of non music/guitar related things keeping me busy, my progress has kinda slowed a little, but I still refuse to do things sloppy. Gotta be precise each step when I do get chances to work on it.

With that said, heres what's happened since last update. Truss rod slot, CF rods slotted and installed, pup cavities, fretboard flattened and glued up.

The good ol' truss rod slot jig. Works very well.





CF installed









Double checking the placement and straightness of all parts involved with the string test, so far so good.





Marking up the fretboard for final dimensions and placement.





So the fretboard is on. Indian Rosewood. simple, effective, doesn't add too much, so as to draw attention to itself, to the overall look of the piece as a whole.





Truss rod access, liking it so far.





Next up is the fretting process... kinda dread it, it's so tedious.


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## MoonJelly (Aug 20, 2016)

It looks so good! Rock on, man


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## KR250 (Aug 21, 2016)

Great work and cool wood combinations. Very classy. Question though, why not slot the fret board first before gluing on to the neck? I'm planning a neck through build and doing the initial planning of steps and how they will differ from a bolt on.


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## mperrotti34 (Aug 21, 2016)

looks good man


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 21, 2016)

KR250 said:


> Great work and cool wood combinations. Very classy. Question though, why not slot the fret board first before gluing on to the neck? I'm planning a neck through build and doing the initial planning of steps and how they will differ from a bolt on.



Just because the frets have to be so precise, I would hate to do a great slotting job, then accidentally get the fretboard off a little in alignment. Actually this one shifted on me 0.043", roughly a millimeter, even with positioning pins in place. It's ok though, it still needs binding strips which will tidy up the dimensions.


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## Hywel (Aug 21, 2016)

Love that body shape. Great work so far!


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## FIXXXER (Aug 21, 2016)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Speaking of quality, I told my buddy up front that because this is gonna be a hand made piece there may be a few blemishes, and well, I've hit my first blemish in the build so far . The lams for the headstock section seem to have glued up ever so slightly uneven. Like maybe a millimeter. Shoot, not even a millimeter. This is looking at the front face of the neck... they seem to be offset toward the bass side of the neck.



you can avoid this by using thicker neck wood and cut the headstock angle in. most people will say that this is not as stable as a scarf joint but let's be honest, the scarf joint was "invented" mainly to save money on neck wood


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## Parallax (Aug 22, 2016)

Gorgeous guitar! The wood combination is absolutely perfect, and I can't wait to see how it will end up.


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## Grif (Aug 22, 2016)

Does the fretboard cover the gap between the neck and lower horn on the top?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 23, 2016)

Grif said:


> Does the fretboard cover the gap between the neck and lower horn on the top?



Yes it does, I knew it would so I didn't try to mess with it too much. That gap had alot of glue built up in the bottom that I didn't wanna risk marring up the visible walnut surface to try to scrape it out. Small gap still visible inside the lower horn, I will try to fill that one.


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## Grif (Aug 24, 2016)

Ah cool, hopefully that works out. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this build is awesome


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## MoonJelly (Aug 24, 2016)

Any chance of using a spindle/drum sander to just move that cutaway in slightly, that would possibly close the gap visible on the side?

About like zis?





May be too drastic on my MS Paint doodle, but just brainstorming here


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Aug 25, 2016)

MoonJelly said:


> Any chance of using a spindle/drum sander to just move that cutaway in slightly, that would possibly close the gap visible on the side?
> 
> About like zis?
> 
> ...



Yeah man, I deff feel you there. It'll be more like that when it's done. Just need to be sure of exactly how deep I can take it in relation to the fretboard.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Sep 3, 2016)

So... pardon the pic dump here but I made a wee bit more progress on the guitar today and wanted to share today's progress in detail, it was some intricate work that came out really well I think. 

For this update: fret slots cut to final depth, binding strips and side dots.

Made a home made depth stop for the Stewmac fret saw. 






Depth stop works well, all the slots at a consistent depth.





Routed the channels for the binding. My buddy specifically didn't want "binding" like white/black/cream... etc, but we agreed to add these strips of matching wood to cover the ends of the fret slots, but blend into the fretboard and not look like intentionally contrasted accents. 





Also, I put the side dots in to the bass side strip before gluing it in place.





So, with both strips glued in, and the excess glue squeeze out dug up out of the slots, things looked great... Except it just bugs the crap out of me that the second dot on the 12 and 24 frets happens to sit exactly in line with the fret slot, slight miscalculation I guess. Didn't plan for it to happen that way.





This is what I mean, that one dot sits right on the line of the fret slot. I wanted to change this, either by grinding off the binding strip completely and re-do, or something else...





I made a little hand held drill stick using a stick made for lolipops and a 0.0625" drill bit (1/16"), along with a few various other tools and drilled out the side dots, plugged and relocated.





I made the drill stick so it could reach the fretboard edge over the front face of the body. Would be extremely difficult to drill it correctly in a standard drill chuck.





I cut some tiny pieces off of left over binding strip from an area that matched the color of where the hole was (1/16" drill bit for size reference), put it in my drill press and turned it into a tiny little dowel. I specifically did it this way cause I tried a test on some scrap earlier, simply cutting the binding strip long ways and shaping it like into a tooth pick to plug the hole, but the result left the end grain showing, and there was an easily noticeable plug regardless of how well the color matched. Doing it this way however made it so the grain of the plug matched the direction of the grain of the binding strip.












This is after gluing in place and trimming flush. The hole nearly disappeared! Alakazam!!!, it's gone!





Drilled and added in the extra dots. This was the result, closer dots on the 12 and 24 markers. Fun stuff.









After some sanding and finish, these side dot plugs may never be noticed... shhhhhh!!! Don't tell!!!


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## JimF (Sep 4, 2016)

That's some crazy skilled work there!


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## KR250 (Sep 4, 2016)

Wow, I'm really impressed with your ability to work through and fix any/all mistakes. I can't even tell with the fret dots. Thanks for sharing the process, it's really helpful as I try and work through fixing some of my own build mistakes


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Sep 20, 2016)

FRETS!!!

These things took me all weekend, way longer than I thought they would. I first got about half way done, then went back over it with a calpier, crunched some numbers and realized I could sand the fretboard a little thinner... my buddy is all about thin necks. Thinner than a Music Man JP if I can manage. After thinking it over a while I went ahead and pulled the frets I had placed, sanded out a couple hundredths of an inch, and re-fretted. This is where it's at now:










Nothing beats the feel of a good old beveled edge. This one is before end treatment though... yikes those are sharp edges!!!


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## Pikka Bird (Sep 20, 2016)

Arg! Finiiish iiiit!!

Also, your sig makes me think of this.


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## electriceye (Sep 21, 2016)

That's a verrrry thick neck. Are you a giant?


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## Deegatron (Sep 21, 2016)

Epic Metal Lap Steel!!! LOL... J/K

are you not a little bit worried about the neck moving after you remove that much material?
My thought process is that any time you remove material it's possible for your neck to move slightly so I try to have the neck at least rough carved before I do a final pass on the fretboard radius and fret...
I'm sure you'll be fine and you'll have no trouble leveling the frets... just interested in your process is all.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Sep 22, 2016)

Deegatron said:


> Epic Metal Lap Steel!!! LOL... J/K
> 
> are you not a little bit worried about the neck moving after you remove that much material?
> My thought process is that any time you remove material it's possible for your neck to move slightly so I try to have the neck at least rough carved before I do a final pass on the fretboard radius and fret...
> I'm sure you'll be fine and you'll have no trouble leveling the frets... just interested in your process is all.



Honestly that is a good point, thanks for bringing that up. It is a huge slab of a neck, the only reason I built it that way is because I wanted it to be full body thickness first. Long story short, I'm not too worried about it moving for these two reasons. First, I was very careful to observe how much the wood shifted when I originally split it up from large planks into the smaller laminates, very little shifting occoured at all, and pieces that did bend got rejected. After that, I selected the straightest sections I had to work with and oriented them so the grain directions opposed eachother from how it was in the original plank. I made sure they were dead straight during glue-up, with no unnecessary tension accidentally being locked in to the construction. I feel like any bends should be mostly canceled out this way. Also with the CF and dual action rod, it's a little more controlable. The second reason I'm not worried about it, is that if it does bend too far out of salvagability, I'll do what I have to to correct it, to the extent of a re-build, or major work to the neck at least.

I'm more concerned about how it may be affected after the first year or two under full string tension. This wood has never been under that kind of tension, so it may eventually need a turn on the truss rod to get it into long term stability, like where it doesn't move for a decade or more...


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## Deegatron (Sep 22, 2016)

I didn't realize you had CF in there.. that should help a great deal..
I've always found Wenge to be absolutely DEAD stable... but Ive read other posts that very credible guy's say it likes to move... so I'm not sure...
either way. killer build.. I'm rather enjoying this.


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## MoonJelly (Sep 22, 2016)

I have had wenge in my wood stack for about 2 years and it's still dead straight. It's a thin piece, about 3/8" x 4" x 40" long. It's quartersawn.

I think if anyone has noticed significant movement of their stock, it'd be the exception rather than the rule, i.e. it may be a cut along the sapwood or really off-quarter/rift sawn stuff.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Oct 1, 2016)

Major contouring to the neck this weekend. First off I had at it with a circular saw. Turned it into a bunch of little "walls" then popped those walls out with a few light taps of the hammer.









Taking into account the advice in the comments above, I put a piece of scrap wood near the headstock during this initial material removal to see if the neck moved, and far as I can tell it didn't even shift at all, not even a millimeter. Should be easy to set up with simple truss rod adjustments once string tension is on. I marked the scrap wood with a chisel before cutting into the neck, and checked again after the initial cuts and removal of material. There seems to be more shift in the neck than it actually was because of the angle of the picture, but it was still nearly spot on.









Fine tuning the thickness under the router-planer jig.





A few shots of the contour shaping.













I can't decide if I like this guitar better from the front or back... I deff gotta build another one once this is done...









Still needs some fine shaping but it's getting really nice now.


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## JimF (Oct 1, 2016)

Amazing work. Can you talk me through the process between after the circular saw and the neck being shaped? Did you shape the neck with the router? Or by hand?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Oct 1, 2016)

JimF said:


> Amazing work. Can you talk me through the process between after the circular saw and the neck being shaped? Did you shape the neck with the router? Or by hand?



After the bulk material removal with a circular saw, I used the router jig to dial in the right thickness, then the round contour is all done by hand with a combination of files, rasps, chisel and hammer, cabinet scrapers and sand paper.


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## JimF (Oct 2, 2016)

Aaah that's exactly how I'd planned it too! Wasn't sure if you round the edges with the router or something. I love this build!


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## electriceye (Oct 6, 2016)

I realize I may be nit-picking, but that method seems exceptionally wasteful. Why didn't you slice away that section of the neck beforehand with the bandsaw so you could re-use it for something else (headstock lam, neck lam, etc.)?


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## Deegatron (Oct 6, 2016)

I'm really enjoying this build. looks great.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Oct 6, 2016)

electriceye said:


> I realize I may be nit-picking, but that method seems exceptionally wasteful. Why didn't you slice away that section of the neck beforehand with the bandsaw so you could re-use it for something else (headstock lam, neck lam, etc.)?



I agree, I hate to waste wood in that amount, it did seem a bit excessive but it simply came down to the fact that I am not extremely experienced with neck through construction, and I wanted to get this build perfect. No mistakes, plenty of room for error if needed. I deffinately did see where such a cut could've been utilized, but I don't have a band saw and didn't trust myself to make that cut with a circular saw or jig saw. So I did go a little excess in the neck materials. It took the guess work out of it by carving the neck out of a piece of stock with the full thickness needed to pass through the body. I will certainly apply more efficient use of materials in future builds. 

On a side note, you should've seen all the wood I've went through and destroyed in the 6+ years it's taken me to learn how to do this


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## electriceye (Oct 6, 2016)

Haha. No worries. I also didn't realize you didn't have a band saw. I shouldn't assume everyone building has one.


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## Deegatron (Oct 7, 2016)

You managed this without a band saw? I'm all about the whole "use what you got and make it work" approach but A+ for resourcefulness on that one....
I've got one of them little Ryobi band saw's I bought for $100 + 2 or 3 different blades for it.... I'd be lost without that thing...


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Oct 7, 2016)

Deegatron said:


> You managed this without a band saw? I'm all about the whole "use what you got and make it work" approach but A+ for resourcefulness on that one....
> I've got one of them little Ryobi band saw's I bought for $100 + 2 or 3 different blades for it.... I'd be lost without that thing...



Yep. I desperately would love to add one to my shop, but so far got by without. For instance, the body shape, I rough cut it like 90% with a circular saw then trimmed it with a router and template. But for the long straight cuts of the neck I did borrow a table saw, that helped alot.


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## Grif (Nov 23, 2016)

How's the build going?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Nov 23, 2016)

Grif said:


> How's the build going?



Haha, funny you should ask. It'll be done this week if all goes well. I took a little while off to focus on other things, but I'm giving it a final push to the finish now and I'm currently working on final assembly and setup. I still have to make the truss rod cover, and nut... and that's about it. Maybe some minor tweaking on a few areas before packing it up to ship.

It's funny you ask cause I was waiting to make a final update here til it's done, which should be within a week or so, but heres a taste of what I've been doing so far:







More pics to come on the NGD...


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## MoonJelly (Nov 24, 2016)




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## Grif (Nov 24, 2016)

I really like this build and I admittedly got a little impatient/worried that this build was forgotten


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## warped (Nov 24, 2016)

Really nice - is that the hand rubbed oil finish? What did you use?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Nov 24, 2016)

warped said:


> Really nice - is that the hand rubbed oil finish? What did you use?



So far just straight up Tru-Oil, thinking of waxing too. 4 coats over all, pretty well soaked in and cured, a real light rub with 0000 steel wool over the back of the neck afterward to make it feel super slick and knock the gloss down. I know that is not an extremely protective finish, but the guy who will own it is very careful with his guitars, he wouldn't jump off his stack in a local bar gig with this guitar strapped to his back or anything lol... it'll be in good hands.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Nov 28, 2016)

Ok. No more crap. 

It's done.






































Thank God for giving me this talent. So I have been having alot of fun playing this thing. I gotta build another eventually to keep lol. It has a super clear sound from these pups. The action is tight and fast like a properly set up Music Man JP. I actually built the neck to be very close in specs to the JP's. The overall sound from playing and simply knocking on the body is a little more on the brighter side, but it sustains for decades!!! Stays in tune really well thanks to the locking tuners. I still have a little bit more tweaking over all to do on the build before I'm satisfied with it and ready to pack it up to ship... some polishing of the frets and making a truss rod cover and such. Gonna put my signature on the cover. Believe it or not this is actually my second completed guitar. It's hanging with the first one in that last pic. Heres a few more shots of the final build steps for anyone interested:

After discussing it with Ben we decided to take the heel back a little deeper and came up with this shape, super smooth fret access now:





Real tidy electronics cavity, love it!













Heres one last shot I took pre-finish:





Oiled, about to begin assembly:





















Close up on how the scarf joint came out:





Assembly included dropping in the string through ferrules:









Installing pups:





Putting together the electronics. Pretty simple, a 3 way selector, and a single volume with push/pull for coil tap.





Making a bone nut is a bit of an art all in itself, and smells really bad. Not recommended to use high speed cutters...


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## MoonJelly (Nov 28, 2016)

Really beautiful, man. Congrats to you and the new owner.


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## thinkpad20 (Nov 29, 2016)

Jeez, a second build? 

I keep seeing people post these amazing builds which are their first or second or third build, and it blows my mind because I'm pretty sure if I tried to make one it would come out looking more like the Dima Gothic thread  And the build in this thread doesn't look simple at all. Is guitar-making that easy?  or do you have some sort of woodworking or other applicable background?

Either way it looks really amazing, great job!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Nov 29, 2016)

thinkpad20 said:


> Jeez, a second build?
> 
> I keep seeing people post these amazing builds which are their first or second or third build, and it blows my mind because I'm pretty sure if I tried to make one it would come out looking more like the Dima Gothic thread  And the build in this thread doesn't look simple at all. Is guitar-making that easy?  or do you have some sort of woodworking or other applicable background?
> 
> Either way it looks really amazing, great job!



My only background is that I've always loved playing around with power tools like since I was a little kid in my dads garage, done all sorts of at home projects. But I specifically said this is my second completed build cause I have about 3 others sitting around that aren't done yet, and I've made nearly a dozen attempts at other builds that failed in some way or another. This was definitely a challenging build, one I honestly thought about throwing in the towel a few times over. You really just have to be extremely patient, have a full guitar planned out, do each step as precisely as you can, not accepting anything less than perfect in every step and follow that plan through to the end without changing it up mid way. It's taken me about 6 years to get to this point.


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## Ebony (Nov 29, 2016)

Very impressive


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## Hywel (Nov 29, 2016)

That looks fantastic!

Your friend is a very lucky person.


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## Pikka Bird (Nov 29, 2016)

Stellar work, and I loooove your design! Keep at it!


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## Electrotimber (Nov 29, 2016)

impressive work. Congratulation. may I ask about pick ups?


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## Electrotimber (Nov 29, 2016)

This is exactly the guitar model I'm trying to build. I started with the angled scarf joint neck but with out success. Than was lucky to storage another piece of lamineted neck and I did again the scarf joint but this time I did it streaight, I mean perperndicular to tha central axe of the neck. I'm scared to make it angled. I must learn how to make it right becouse don't like the fretboard with that little piece angled that appear after the nut.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Nov 29, 2016)

Electrotimber said:


> impressive work. Congratulation. may I ask about pick ups?



They're made by a guy named Ethan who runs a business called Instrumental Pickups. He can make a custom set for a fanned fret instrument, whatever your specs may be; number of strings, string spacing, scale length... etc. Very nice stuff, look him up on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Instrumental-Pickups-1389691651274679/


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## thinkpad20 (Nov 29, 2016)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> My only background is that I've always loved playing around with power tools like since I was a little kid in my dads garage, done all sorts of at home projects. But I specifically said this is my second completed build cause I have about 3 others sitting around that aren't done yet, and I've made nearly a dozen attempts at other builds that failed in some way or another. This was definitely a challenging build, one I honestly thought about throwing in the towel a few times over. You really just have to be extremely patient, have a full guitar planned out, do each step as precisely as you can, not accepting anything less than perfect in every step and follow that plan through to the end without changing it up mid way. It's taken me about 6 years to get to this point.



Ah, OK that makes a lot more sense then  Well, I really love what you've created. Your friend is very lucky, and I hope you keep it up


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Nov 29, 2016)

thinkpad20 said:


> Ah, OK that makes a lot more sense then  Well, I really love what you've created. Your friend is very lucky, and I hope you keep it up



Definitely man, I'm already thinking of doing another as a keeper. Same model, just different woods and maybe a few slight spec changes. That'll be my next build.


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## Grif (Nov 29, 2016)

I love the whole build, but that shape...man, I might be in love


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## KR250 (Nov 30, 2016)

I've been following this one for a while, turned out great! Well done. I'm building one for a friend as well that is finally getting close, seeing this is good inspiration to "get on it".


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## Navid (Dec 12, 2016)

So ....ing good


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## High Plains Drifter (Dec 12, 2016)

Like a stunningly beautiful woman... looks gorgeous from all angles. Although tbh, I've never drooled over any lady's heel the way that I did looking at this one! He must be an absolutely awesome friend. Not only is he sincerely fortunate to receive this guitar, but I think that it also speaks volumes in regards to what a fantastic friend he must be to you. Congratulations on the completion. 

I apologize if I missed it, but does he know about this? Has he seen any progress pics? And when are you/ how are you going to present this to him?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Dec 13, 2016)

High Plains Drifter said:


> I apologize if I missed it, but does he know about this? Has he seen any progress pics? And when are you/ how are you going to present this to him?



So long story short, we had discussed doing a build like a year ago, but decided to do it back in April. He sent me a budget to cover all the materials and stuff, I put it all together and shipped it to him. I sent progress pics fairly often, every week/2 weeks or so. As of today it's still in transit, should get there next week.


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## Keyvanizator (Dec 13, 2016)

DistinguishedPapyrus, your guitars are amazing.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Dec 13, 2016)

Keyvanizator said:


> DistinguishedPapyrus, your guitars are amazing.



Haha, only the ones I post... you should see the pile of rejected practice pieces I've done 



make you wanna puke...


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## Deegatron (Dec 13, 2016)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Haha, only the ones I post... you should see the pile of rejected practice pieces I've done
> 
> 
> 
> make you wanna puke...



Someone should make a thread for build rejects... you know... guitars that looked like crap, just didn't play right, or didn't meet the cut for whatever reason... I just recycled some hardware off one of mine not long ago....


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Dec 19, 2016)

So after the initial string up, I played the guitar for a few days, made some more measurements, crunched some numbers and compared the original schematics and realized I could take a little more material off the back of the neck. So I partly disassembled the guitar and shaved down the neck a little more.






^ the nice thing about a Tru-Oil finish is you can always dig right back into the wood for modifications, apply more oil and the finish will blend right back in as if nothing ever happened.

Also did a final level and crowning after noticing a few slight buzz spots. It's been several weeks between the time the frets were installed and the time it was first strung up anyway.





While the strings were off I made a truss rod cover too. My buddy said just keep it simple, blending in to the rest of the headstock, so here it is. Held in place by a single screw and a couple pins underneath that keep it from sliding around.









I got all that done, let it settle in another day or two then shipped it. After 9 days in transit, he has just received the guitar today and said it was awesome. We talked for a while over a face time video chat. Sounds great, punchy tone, no buzz anywhere, feels very well balanced and comfortable for him to hold. He was blown away that someone he knows built the thing in their garage... In a sense it's a huge weight off my shoulders, I enjoyed working on it, but glad it's done and now I can focus on the next thing. This build was a good step in the growth of this talent. I learned alot and pushed my limits much higher. I feel very blessed to have this ability, and quite confident to send out more instruments in the future.

I plan on starting up another build next month, right back from square one. Gonna start gathering up supplies in the beginning of January. It'll probably be very similar to this design with a few slight changes, so stay tuned, more to come.


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## Hywel (Dec 19, 2016)

Congrats man, that was an awesome build and the final result looks killer. Can't wait for the next one!


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## High Plains Drifter (Dec 19, 2016)

The TRC may be simple but I still gasped at it's elegance. Absolutely gorgeous work. Really glad that it made it to him unscathed.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Dec 20, 2016)

Oh and one other thing... I've been trying to come up with a name for this design, I was thinking Mardani ... my buddy's suggestion - pigeon destroyer


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## KR250 (Dec 20, 2016)

Well done sir.


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## Electrotimber (Dec 21, 2016)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Time for a pic-dump...
> 
> Designed the headstock. I love having all the strings pull in a straight line over the nut.
> 
> ...



I wonder how you made this nut -peghead transition. Will be a mistery ever.


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## MoonJelly (Dec 24, 2016)

Simple, really. Just offset the neck-angle jig to be further forward on one side. But the execution really is beautiful.


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## Purelojik (Dec 24, 2016)

god damn i saw the NGD before this and i have to say your methods are incredibly clean. Easily one of the cleanest builders i've seen here. This build thread was a treat


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Dec 24, 2016)

haha, thanks man, and believe me I think the same of your builds. As for mine I still highly consider myself an amateur, maybe with potential though .


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## Simic (Dec 26, 2016)

Great build! How do you set the height of the pickups?


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Dec 26, 2016)

Simic said:


> Great build! How do you set the height of the pickups?



The pickup height is set by the 4 screws that hold each pickup in place, there are 2 screws going through each individual coil down into the floor of the pickup cavity below. There's also small rubber spacers under the pickups to keep them in place at the set height. Notice in this pic you see the screws in place in the bridge pup, and the screw holes under the neck pup:




DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> Installing pups:


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## Electrotimber (Dec 26, 2016)

MoonJelly said:


> Simple, really. Just offset the neck-angle jig to be further forward on one side. But the execution really is beautiful.



this I know but he had glued the heastock cap after he has routed the compound scarf of the neck. And then he did agin with the cap already glued. And the cap then just run few mm of neck . Bah Still a mistery! 

cheers


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## Simic (Dec 27, 2016)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> The pickup height is set by the 4 screws that hold each pickup in place, there are 2 screws going through each individual coil down into the floor of the pickup cavity below. There's also small rubber spacers under the pickups to keep them in place at the set height. Notice in this pic you see the screws in place in the bridge pup, and the screw holes under the neck pup:



Thanks for the reply!

Again, lovely built, amazing top as well


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