# New guitar build thread



## Serratus (Mar 4, 2013)

I've been meaning to do a build thread each time I've built my last few guitars, and keep forgetting! But this time I'm determined to take lots of pics and keep this updated!

These are the specs:
Mahogany body
Mahogany bolt on neck (with chrome neck plate)
Striped ebony fingerboard, 24 stainless frets, no inlays
TUSQ nut
2-way truss rod and graphite strengthening rods in neck
Tru-oil finish
Super-strat type body shape
Flame maple binding on body and neck
Evertune 7-string chrome bridge
Hipshot locking tuners
BKP Holy Diver matched bridge and neck humbuckers
Roland GK-3 synth driver kit built-in
Volume, synth volume, tone with push-push coil split, 3-way switch

Here's all the parts:






I'm not gonna get much done for a couple of weeks but after that I should get on!


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## pondman (Mar 4, 2013)

Looking forward to this Rich. 
Are you still swirling ?

Al


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## skisgaar (Mar 4, 2013)

Evertune? I am excite!


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## AwDeOh (Mar 4, 2013)

I thought Evertune didn't sell their bridges directly, only to authorized vendors who install them for you?


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## Kammo1 (Mar 4, 2013)

Brutha where did you get the fingerboard from I'm looking for one exactly like that  please share ?


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## Serratus (Mar 4, 2013)

Al, no I haven't done a swirl for years - workshop's too dusty now!!lol

And the evertune bridge I mailed them and asked if I could buy direct and fit it myself and they were happy for me to do that (obviously I have built lots of guitars before though, and I'm in the UK so there aren't many, if any, authorised fitters).

And the fingerboard I got from David Dyke (Luthiers supplies) - I was speaking to David on the phone and he picked out the board for me as we spoke! It's lovely - the lighter parts look really smoky and swirly close up


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## Kammo1 (Mar 4, 2013)

Damn I was on the phone today with David ordering some fretwire!!!!!!!!!! may have to give him a call tomorrow and thanks for the heads up


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## Serratus (Mar 4, 2013)

No probs  (I have had the board for a few months though - hope he's still got some for you!)


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## Serratus (Mar 5, 2013)

Body marked out on the mahogany blank


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## Serratus (Apr 4, 2013)

Got a bit done the last couple of days, just cut and glued the neck angle (nothing too exciting!). Now to rout the truss rod and graphite rod channels.


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## skeels (Apr 4, 2013)

I like how you used clamps to keep the neck from sliding while gluing it. 

That is what's going on there, isn't it? 

I could be mistaken. I am new to this.


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## AwDeOh (Apr 5, 2013)

Yup. Avoids having to use small pins to locate the joint.

Is it wrong that I wanna spank my girlfriend with that neck..?


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## JEngelking (Apr 5, 2013)

This should turn out to be quite, looking forward to seeing the progress.


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## Serratus (Apr 5, 2013)

You're right skeels, the clamp was to make certain it didn't move while it was drying 

I got the fingerboard cut to size and bound today


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## AwDeOh (Apr 5, 2013)

That striped ebony is really nice dude. Are you cutting the maple binding yourself?


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## Serratus (Apr 6, 2013)

No, I bought the binding with the rest of the wood


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## skisgaar (Apr 6, 2013)

Son, I am excite.


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## Serratus (Apr 7, 2013)

Just got another hour or so done on it today - got the truss rod and graphite stiffening rod channels routed.


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## skeels (Apr 7, 2013)

That ebony board is the bomb! 

I'm going to have to try a bound board now....


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## AwDeOh (Apr 7, 2013)

The truss rod/carbon routing looks good dude, any chance of some close up pics of the channels?


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## theo (Apr 7, 2013)

+1


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## Serratus (Apr 12, 2013)

Flame maple headstock front glued on, truss rod hole drilled and headstock drawn on front


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## JEngelking (Apr 12, 2013)




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## Serratus (Apr 18, 2013)

Got more done the last couple of days 

First, the fingerboard is on, and this was after I had roughly cut out the neck.




Test fitting the hardware after drilling the holes.




And this was after it was rough sanded and shaped, side dots done, and the board radiused.







Next is fitting the frets and shaping the back of the neck


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## Serratus (Apr 18, 2013)

And a quick pic of the headstock rear:


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## Webmaestro (Apr 18, 2013)

Wow... that fretboard!


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## Serratus (Apr 18, 2013)

I love it - can't wait to have it fine sanded and oiled!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Apr 18, 2013)

Serratus said:


> Got a bit done the last couple of days, just cut and glued the neck angle (nothing too exciting!). Now to rout the truss rod and graphite rod channels.



What angle is your scarf joint?


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## Serratus (Apr 19, 2013)

14 degrees


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## Serratus (Apr 26, 2013)

Pushing the frets in:





And after fretting, levelling and filing fret ends, etc:





Now I just need to shape the back of the neck and then do a lot of final sanding etc, before clearcoating the front of the headstock


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## jtm45 (Apr 27, 2013)

Looking nicer with every new post!!!
The fretboard wood is looking even nicer than before too. Did you oil it or polish it or something ?


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## Solodini (Apr 30, 2013)

Really elegant headstock.


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## Wesbanez (Apr 30, 2013)

That is great work man, keep the updates coming.


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## Stompmeister (Apr 30, 2013)

I really like that tuner placement! Keep em comin man, looks super clean.


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## Serratus (May 1, 2013)

jtm45 said:


> Looking nicer with every new post!!!
> The fretboard wood is looking even nicer than before too. Did you oil it or polish it or something ?



Cheers mate! I used a bit of oil to fine sand it before I fretted it - it'll be nicer still when I get to final oil and polish it!


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## Serratus (May 1, 2013)

Neck shaping!!


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## MikeK (May 1, 2013)

Nice! What did you use to shape the neck?


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## Serratus (May 1, 2013)

MikeK said:


> Nice! What did you use to shape the neck?



Router at each end first to get it down to thickness, then the dremel with sanding drum to shape each end, then a plane to join the ends up, then lots of hand sanding and the dremel at each end again where the tight curves are. Need to do more final sanding later but it's close to final shape now.


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## Serratus (May 2, 2013)

Got the logo on the head and sprayed it


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## pondman (May 2, 2013)

Steady away Rich  Looking great .


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## Serratus (May 6, 2013)

Got some work done on the body. Lots of routing for the bridge, pickups, neck and electric cavity, and for the synth pickup between the bridge and the bridge pickup, and then got the basic outline cut out. Next is more shaping and cleaning up, and then the binding on the front edge followed by forearm and back contours. More pics to come


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## skisgaar (May 6, 2013)

PLEASE, GOD, TELL ME YOU PLAN TO BEVEL THAT BODY!!!!!


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## Serratus (May 6, 2013)

skisgaar said:


> PLEASE, GOD, TELL ME YOU PLAN TO BEVEL THAT BODY!!!!!



Depends what u mean - I'm not doing angled bevels (like on a Black machine for example), but I'm obviously not gonna just leave the corners sharp like they are now!! I'm planning to bind the body front, then round the edges slightly and give it a large forearm contour which will cut through the binding, then lots of rounding of the back edge, etc.


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## Suitable (May 6, 2013)

Please excuse my dumbness but why the big void where the bridge pickup is? I have never seen an evertune bridge setup but thats a massive void.? Nice work though! 
Also whats the scale length?


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## Serratus (May 7, 2013)

Suitable said:


> Please excuse my dumbness but why the big void where the bridge pickup is? I have never seen an evertune bridge setup but thats a massive void.? Nice work though!
> Also whats the scale length?



Yep, that's for the Evertune bridge - the bridge completely covers the cavity from the front, and the cavity in the back is similar to a normal tremolo cavity, but is a bit deeper which is why it joins the bottom of the bridge pickup cavity. The bridge does bolt really firmly to the body though, so I'm happy that it has a decent, resonant contact with the body wood, despite having to remove quite a bit of wood for it. And it's 25.5" scale


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## Serratus (May 8, 2013)

Got a bit more shaping done to the body and took a quick pic with the neck sat in the body 
Next is the binding on the body...


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## bouVIP (May 8, 2013)

Looks amazing so far!


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## Pikka Bird (May 8, 2013)

Serratus said:


> Yep, that's for the Evertune bridge - the bridge completely covers the cavity from the front, and the cavity in the back is similar to a normal tremolo cavity, but is a bit deeper which is why it joins the bottom of the bridge pickup cavity. The bridge does bolt really firmly to the body though, so I'm happy that it has a decent, resonant contact with the body wood, despite having to remove quite a bit of wood for it. And it's 25.5" scale



So you're going to have to use pickup rings with this, or what? Is the rear cavity really so large that you have to rout through to the pickup cavity, or can you plan around it?

Also, totally awesome and clean work. Highly envious.


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## Suitable (May 8, 2013)

Sweet! Its sort of like a semi acoustic shred machine with that!  are you using a timber backing plate with lots of screws so its airtight? Looking awesome!!! I love that fretboard!!! I hope mine turns up with that figure  times a million+ 1


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## Serratus (May 9, 2013)

Well, although the cavity looks big, its not really much bigger than the cavity for a floating trem - its just that the part that's under the bridge pickup has to be a bit deeper, so it ends up meeting the bridge pickup cavity. It might be that if you wanted to mount the pickups quite shallow then the cavities wouldn't meet, I'm not sure. It doesn't need pickup rings because the pickup cavity is wider than the bridge cavity, so the 'ears' of the pickup can still be screwed into the wood


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## theo (May 9, 2013)

How are you going to shield the pickup?


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## Serratus (May 9, 2013)

theo said:


> How are you going to shield the pickup?



Well, if its a problem then I can shield the sides of the pickup cavity, and the bridge will run under the pickup and will be earthed, and the rear cavity plate can be shielded, so it can be done  Although I usually don't find that humbuckers need shielding anyway to be honest, just the electronics cavity.


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## kgerbick7321 (May 10, 2013)

Awesome thread! Its really cool seeing this happen from start to finish. What are your plans for the finish?


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## Serratus (May 10, 2013)

The headstock front is lacquered, and all the rest will be tru-oil


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## Serratus (May 11, 2013)

Routing the binding channel:





Shaping the binding:





After the binding was done, and with most of the rough shaping done :








Needs a bit more shaping with course paper to get out some tool marks, then there are some holes to drill (for the neck screws, etc), and then it'll be lots of sanding


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## forshagesan (May 11, 2013)

Seriously, that fingerboard!


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## Suitable (May 11, 2013)

How did you route the arm rest bevel for the binding? Im keen to do it on mine but jst unsure how to do that bit neatly with just a router? Nice work!


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## Pikka Bird (May 12, 2013)

^It looks like he didn't... (he also said that he wouldn't).

But for what it's worth, this'll do the trick:

TrueChannel Binding Routing Jig - YouTube!

Maybe make the thing a little more dome-shaped, but the general principle is the same.


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## Serratus (May 12, 2013)

Yeah, I've always liked guitars that have binding that runs down to a point where there are contours that cut through it, so I did that on this one


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## Serratus (May 13, 2013)

First coats of tru oil going on:


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## Suitable (May 13, 2013)

Tooshay! Nice work! I think Im going to have to try this tru oil! Looks awesome 

Cheers for the link Pikka! Exactly what Im after! What do you mean by dome shaped though?

Sorry for the thread jack...


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## Pikka Bird (May 14, 2013)

Suitable said:


> Cheers for the link Pikka! Exactly what Im after! What do you mean by dome shaped though?



No problem. What I meant is that the area of his "spacer" that touches the face of the guitar has a wide flat spot which will make it follow a sudden dip (like a forearm cut) with a little bit of a delay. This happens because the flat area is still resting on the straight side a little bit after the router bit at the center has passed the slope, and as a result your binding channel will be too shallow in this part. So if you make one of these yourself then you should make the spacer part as small and dome-shaped (hemispherical) as you can, so the delay is as minimal as possible. 

It is possible to find small pre-shaped hardwood spheres or "eggs" for cheap that you can cut in half and drill through to make a hole for your bit. Most of them are also available with a pre-drilled hole through the center, which you'll then just have to enlarge (but only just enough to enable your router bit to pass through).


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## Suitable (May 15, 2013)

Sweet! I get I now! Time to get jiggy!


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## dcoughlin1 (May 16, 2013)

Serratus said:


> First coats of tru oil going on:


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## Serratus (May 16, 2013)

Haha 

I'm in the middle of lots of sanding and polishing coats of tru-oil at the moment. I'm roughly following the method in the second post in this thread:
How do you get a high-gloss from Tru-oil finish? - The Gear Page


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## Serratus (May 16, 2013)

And I got the lacquer on the headstock front flatted and polished (not the greatest pic I'm afraid but you can see the logo is under the nice flat shiny lacquer!)


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## AwDeOh (May 16, 2013)

Did you use the ProjectGuitar mod-podge technique for the logo? Or another way?


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## Serratus (May 17, 2013)

AwDeOh said:


> Did you use the ProjectGuitar mod-podge technique for the logo? Or another way?



I've had the logos for a few years - I found a company on the net that made custom stickers (like the stickers people put on sign written vans, etc), and sent them a file of the design and they cut them for me. Can't remember who it was though, it was a while ago!  Then I just spray enough clear coat over the top that I can flat it back level over the top of the sticker.


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## Serratus (May 19, 2013)

After polishing the tru-oil


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## skeels (May 19, 2013)

Love that finish! 

Also, I love the rounded edges on the back! 

So what are the two extra holes for again?


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## Serratus (May 19, 2013)

skeels said:


> Love that finish!
> 
> Also, I love the rounded edges on the back!
> 
> So what are the two extra holes for again?



Thanks!  I did some extra rounding on the back in the lower cutaway to make it comfy for the hand, and at the narrowest point on the lower edge to make it nice when it's sitting on your leg!

The two holes on the edge are for the two control buttons that are needed for the Roland synth pickup


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## Pezshreds (May 19, 2013)

Your work is absolutely incredible dude.
Cannot wait to see the final product!
That wood is so delicious


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## Serratus (May 22, 2013)

Nearly finished it now, just doing lots of final little jobs 

I will say that the evertune bridge is unbelievable! I put the strings on the guitar for the first time, didn't stretch the strings at all, hadn't adjusted the action or cut the nut slots down to the right depth, so the action was crazily high. Also hadn't touched the intonation. Went across the strings tuning them one at a time, and only tuning each string once, and that's it, it's now perfectly in tune!!! Even with the action still being really high, you can play any chord and it's in tune! It's the weirdest thing ever!!lol Can't wait to get these final jobs done - it's gonna play like butter!!


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## Serratus (May 22, 2013)

It's finished!!

Took some pics today, although only quick pics with my phone - will upload more later! 

Absolutely love this guitar - the bridge is amazing, does exactly what everyone says it does, and the Bareknuckles roar as always. Got the action set super low at the moment, with the SS frets its really smooth to play. Only thing I'm gonna change is that I think I'll get another chrome knob to go on the push-pull tone pot. I'm gonna leave the black strat knob for the synth volume though because with the little pointer aiming at the numbers on the knob it makes it really easy to use. 

Anyway, quick pic:


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## Serratus (May 22, 2013)

Another quick phone pic, just because we actually had some sun today!!


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## dcoughlin1 (May 22, 2013)




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## Serratus (May 22, 2013)

Okay, so here are a few more pics, still only using my phone but they're not too bad! 

First, these are the specs again:
Sapele Mahogany body with cream plastic binding
Sapele Mahogany bolt on neck (with chrome neck plate)
Flame maple head veneer and neck binding
Striped ebony fingerboard, 24 stainless frets, no inlays
TUSQ nut
2-way truss rod and 2 graphite strengthening rods in neck
Tru-oil finish
Evertune 7-string chrome bridge
Hipshot locking tuners
BKP Holy Diver matched bridge and neck humbuckers
Roland GK-3 synth driver kit built-in
Volume, synth volume, tone with push-push coil split, 3-way switch


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## Pezshreds (May 22, 2013)




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## JEngelking (May 22, 2013)




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## sochmo (May 22, 2013)

this is amazing man, stellar work!


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## Stompmeister (May 23, 2013)

Absolutely phenomenal.


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## Solodini (May 23, 2013)

What are the holes in the leg arch for? Looks good, btw.


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## Serratus (May 23, 2013)

Solodini said:


> What are the holes in the leg arch for? Looks good, btw.



They're control buttons for the Roland GK3 synth driver 
On the front, the chrome knob is the guitar volume, the strat volume knob is the synth volume, the strat tone knob is the guitar tone and push-push coil split for both humbuckers, and a standard 3-way switch.
I prefer putting the two control buttons for the synth on the edge (and I leave the synth LED and on-off switch off the guitar completely) to keep the looks as simple as possible


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## skisgaar (May 23, 2013)

SON OF A BITCH! the only improvement I could possibly think of is if all of the controls were silver too.......Jesus H. Christ mane...


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## Sketchar (May 24, 2013)

Any chance to see the wiring?


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## pondman (May 24, 2013)

Quality


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## Serratus (May 24, 2013)

Sketchar said:


> Any chance to see the wiring?



You don't want to see the wiring!! 
Honestly, although the guitars normal wiring is all nice and neat, these Roland synth pickups have loads of thin wires that are pre-installed into plugs that plug into a circuit board, and they're all way too long for a small control cavity, so they all have to be folded tight and pushed in. So it can only look a mess!

Thanks for the nice comments everyone


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## jtm45 (May 26, 2013)

Looks absolutely stunning Rich!!!
How are you getting on with the Evertune ? Those things caught my attention the minute i saw them but i was unsure about the whole idea in the long term. It seems like they're really catching on now though and they're appearing on more and more high-end builders guitars all the time so they must be a good product.
Was it much trouble initially setting it up ?

I bought myself an Axminster Bandsaw earlier this week too (slightly used but very good condition!) so i'm that bit nearer to starting my first build.


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## scherzo1928 (May 26, 2013)

Beautiful work dude.


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## muffinbutton (May 26, 2013)

Serratus said:


> [/URL]



Ok so for some reason I think that's like the coolest thing ever right now. Might be stealing that when I get back around to my build.


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## UnderTheSign (May 26, 2013)

What kind of jack input did you use? I like that one!


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## Serratus (May 26, 2013)

jtm45 said:


> How are you getting on with the Evertune ? Those things caught my attention the minute i saw them but i was unsure about the whole idea in the long term. It seems like they're really catching on now though and they're appearing on more and more high-end builders guitars all the time so they must be a good product.
> Was it much trouble initially setting it up ?



Not really any trouble - initial tuning, action and intonation are easy to do and then you just need to get the tuners in the right place so the saddles hit the bend stop in the 'right' place for you. This means that you can still bend strings. But it's not hard to do.
And it works amazingly! Did the final setup on Thursday and haven't tuned it since, and did a gig outside in bright sunshine today - all still perfectly in tune!
It's also great for just general playing because it corrects for the pressure you put on the strings, so all chords sound more in tune - particularly chords up high that have open strings too, sound so much more in tune than on a normal guitar.

And the jack socket is just a normal mono barrel type like Ibanez use, with the 13-pin Roland socket next to it


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## UnderTheSign (May 26, 2013)

Serratus said:


> And the jack socket is just a normal mono barrel type like Ibanez use, with the 13-pin Roland socket next to it


Ha, I'm so used to them being recessed I didn't even realise they looked like that


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## holt preston (May 27, 2013)

That striped ebony truely is magical.


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## Serratus (Jun 3, 2013)

Got a few more pics taken in the sun today. Tried to capture the fingerboard but still can't do it justice really! And I got the knobs changed to two new chrome knobs on the guitar volume and tone (still got the strat type knob on the synth volume because the numbers are useful).


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## mcrdsd911 (Jun 3, 2013)

Man oh man... That is melting my eyes with beauty !!


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Jun 3, 2013)

So what do the two buttons on the bottom edge do? Very cool looking location btw...


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## Pezshreds (Jun 3, 2013)

so good man, incredible finish


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## Serratus (Jun 4, 2013)

DistinguishedPapyrus said:


> So what do the two buttons on the bottom edge do? Very cool looking location btw...



Control buttons for the Roland synth pickup


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## Serratus (Jul 15, 2013)

Just done a quick clip on my phone of this guitar. It's just the phone audio and it's just me messing around but gives an idea of the grind from the BKP/Diezel combination!!


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## MetalBuddah (Jul 15, 2013)

Incredible-looking instrument!!!!


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## vansinn (Jul 16, 2013)

Very classy, simple yet elegant lines 

With such lovely natural woods, I would've used recessed Sapele veneer covers on the back.


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