# First Build - This Time, It's For Real (7-String V Content)



## Malacoda (May 16, 2010)

Ok. Some of you may remember this thread: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...customizations/112005-nbd-my-first-build.html in which I began the plans of my first build, a 7-string v that's kind of modeled after the 7-string Jr. V. ANYWAYS, that thread got awfully crowded, and wasn't going where, and I've now finished making the plywood prototype (all except cavity routes). I did a fair amount wrong and now I know how to do most of that stuff correctly (ie make router templates rather than go freehand with the router). I also adjusted the shape of the body on my actual build, and it's going to be cut and routed tomorrow in wood shop.

*Specs: *
Mahogany body
Recessed TOM with string-through ferrules
Bolt-on
Dean Vendetta 7 neck
25.5" scale
Symmetrical V
DiMarzio New 7 pickups
Scalloping from frets 17 to 24
Finish will be a white base with black splatter
BC Rich tuners

This is kind of simple, since it's my first build. Next build will be a bit more complex.

*What I've done as of May 26 (Updated):*

Drawn/sketched shape and approximate positions of hardware on body
Glued mahogany together, so right now it's a big piece of 1.5" thick wood 
Scalloped frets 17-24 on neck
Sanded headstock down so that it's just maple showing
Reshaped headstock from the original Dean shape
Routed pickup cavities, neck pocket, and electronics cavities
Cut shape of body on band saw
Drill holes for TOM posts
Drill holes for bolting neck to body

Some of you may remember that I was knocked over and a small piece of fretboard came loose and eventually fell out. I filled that with a clear epoxy, which isn't perfect but works ok.

*Still to do as of May 26 (with assumed date of finishing added)*

1. Oil fretboard (Thursday)
2. Drill ferrules (Thursday)
3. Paint and splatter (Friday for paint, Saturday for splatter)
4. Clear coat (Sunday)
5. Glue TOM posts in place (Sunday)
6. Install electronics with the help of my tech (Saturday)
7. Bolt neck to body & install various accessory hardware (Sunday)
8. Design decal for headstock and apply (TBD)

I think I'll be finished with this by next week, maybe Monday. Will keep you guys posted!


So I hope this will turn out well! Thanks to everyone!


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## Malacoda (May 17, 2010)

First off, here's some preliminary pictures.

This is the prototype. You can see its size is off and that some of my classmates doodle all over it 






Here's the neck as I have it so far.





Scalloping





Showing how I filled the gap with epoxy






*News: *Today I routed the neck pocket and the pickups and I began sawing out the shape of the V (pics soon, I just have to upload them). It worked well... except it turned out that part of the wood on my template is softer than another part  so the neck pocket is kind of uneven, but it works.

Here's the mahogany pre-cutting





My templates (next time I'm definitely using MDF, plywood fucking sucks)





Me doing some routing





After the first pass...





After second pass...





After final pass...





You can see that the pickup routes and neck pocket are kind of crooked. Here's how the neck fits into that:










And finally, the first part of the V was cut out with the band saw.


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## Malacoda (May 17, 2010)

Updated with pics.


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## Izebecool (May 18, 2010)

Man this makes me wish I wouldve taken wood shop classes back in highschool. Great progress tho looks like its coming along. Keep it up!


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## Malacoda (May 18, 2010)

Thanks  I'm hoping to finish within the next two weeks.


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## Rokkaholic (May 18, 2010)

Nice looking mahogany. It would probably look cool with a natural finish. My only suggestion is cleaning up that neck insert


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## yacker (May 18, 2010)

I really don't mean to be discouraging or negative, but why are you routing to misshapen templates?


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## Malacoda (May 18, 2010)

I'm not. The templates are correctly shaped (except for that small thing on the bottom of the neck pocket), but I made them out of plywood rather than something good like MDF. So when I put the router down and moved it against the side of the template, the router bit ate into the middle section of the template and skewed the routing of the neck pocket because it went all screwy.


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## Malacoda (May 18, 2010)

Updated pictures! I cut the shape of the V today .

Band sawing













With the base of the V finished





Cut one wing and trimmed down the other for ease of access





Both wings cut!





Final body shape. Gotta start sanding off those burns.





Seeing how it fits with the neck


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## Empryrean (May 18, 2010)

a girl, with boobs, in woodshop!?? touching your wood!??


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## NickDowe (May 18, 2010)

Empryrean said:


> a girl, with boobs, in woodshop!?? touching your wood!??



lmao...


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## Malacoda (May 18, 2010)

Empryrean said:


> a girl, with boobs, in woodshop!?? touching your wood!??



Don't get excited, she's 15


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## Empryrean (May 18, 2010)

I needn't say anything more


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## polydeathsphere (May 19, 2010)

Empryrean said:


> a girl, with boobs, in woodshop!?? touching your wood!??



permission to quote you in my sig?


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## Empryrean (May 19, 2010)

polydeathsphere said:


> permission to quote you in my sig?



Of course sir!


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## AHelm (May 19, 2010)

Empryrean said:


> a girl, with boobs, in woodshop!?? touching your wood!??



ahaha i had to read this out lout to myself adding some enthusiasm...my brother just kinda looked at me like im retarded


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## snuif09 (May 19, 2010)

Malacoda said:


> Don't get excited, she's 15


excellent...


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## Izebecool (May 19, 2010)

Nice hoodie! I have the same one haha. Lookin badass so far. What kind of bridge you gonna use?


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## Sullen (May 19, 2010)

snuif09 said:


> excellent...


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## anthonyferguson (May 19, 2010)

Malacoda said:


> Don't get excited, she's 15


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## Alberto7 (May 19, 2010)

Empryrean said:


> a girl, with boobs, in woodshop!?? touching your wood!??



You sir, are an absolute fucking KING. I just rofled until I almost fell off of my chair  I think that girl sort of ruined/gave even more life to this thread 

Back on topic though; that mahogany looks really sexy!  The neck pocket looks really big to me, although if the neck fits fine, that's a no problemo amigo. The pickup routing is kinda off, but I assume you know that already, and it looks like it can be fixed. Other than that, it's beautiful! Even the shape (or at least that's how my not-very-keen eyes perceive it). Whenever I attempt building my first guitar myself, I will probably ruin the first couple of pieces of some nice, expensive wood that I'll buy  Keep up the good job!


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## Malacoda (May 19, 2010)

Izebecool said:


> Nice hoodie! I have the same one haha. Lookin badass so far. What kind of bridge you gonna use?



Got me a nice TOM.



Alberto7 said:


> Back on topic though; that mahogany looks really sexy!  The neck pocket looks really big to me, although if the neck fits fine, that's a no problemo amigo. The pickup routing is kinda off, but I assume you know that already, and it looks like it can be fixed. Other than that, it's beautiful! Even the shape (or at least that's how my not-very-keen eyes perceive it). Whenever I attempt building my first guitar myself, I will probably ruin the first couple of pieces of some nice, expensive wood that I'll buy  Keep up the good job!



It is a bit big, but it does work. Yeah, the bridge pup route is a bit off, but the neck is good. Thanks  I'd recommend doing a prototype on plywood like I did.


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## Malacoda (May 20, 2010)

Well, I have more news. 
1. I sanded off the majority of the band saw burn marks, so that's all good. 














2. I noticed that I was 1/8 of an inch off in both the depth of the neck pocket and the pickups routes. So I fixed the template with harder bits of wood and re-routed. Now everything is the proper depth, though it does look a bit odd. At least it works. Maybe I can fill the gaps later.


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## Malacoda (May 21, 2010)

Drilled the holes for the TOM posts and did the first of four bolt-on holes.


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## Sebastian (May 22, 2010)

I remember the first thread 

Nice pics


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## Malacoda (May 24, 2010)

Routed the electronics cavity today. Came out decent - I wish I had moved the inset template a little to the left, but it will work fine. PICS! Also updated yesterday's posts with pics.


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## Malacoda (May 24, 2010)

Updated with pics!


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## Rick (May 24, 2010)

Looking pretty good so far!


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## Malacoda (May 24, 2010)

Thanks, Rick . I should be going to my tech to help me wire it up on Friday if all goes as planned.


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## Malacoda (May 25, 2010)

Getting close! Drilled all the holes for the bolts today and bought me some nice acrylic enamel car paint. Sounds weird, but that's what both Ron Jarzombek and Bernie Rico Jr. suggested when I asked them.


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## Sebastian (May 26, 2010)

Awesome ! keep us updated


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## Malacoda (May 26, 2010)

Expected finish date, what's left, etc added to the first post.


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## Ironbird (May 27, 2010)

Looking good, dude. I'm really enjoying this thread, as a big fan and player of BC Rich Vs.  Looks like you've got the Kerry King/Speed V shape thing going on, cool!



> and bought me some nice acrylic enamel car paint. Sounds weird, but that's what both Ron Jarzombek and Bernie Rico Jr. suggested when I asked them.


Two legends, albeit in two different ways. I was thinking of getting my V refinished with car paint too, at a place that refinishes cars...I thought I was mad for even thinking about it!  

Looks like I'm not!


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## avenger (May 27, 2010)

I think you are going to need more then a day or two if you want to do anysort of good paint job. 

Just a thought.


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## Malacoda (May 27, 2010)

avenger said:


> I think you are going to need more then a day or two if you want to do anysort of good paint job.
> 
> Just a thought.



The can says to apply 3 coats, 10 minutes after each other. It's quick-drying, I guess. I'll look into it.

ANYWAY: Lots of progress made today. Routed input jack cavity, drilled ferrules, oiled fretboard. Lots of pics coming tomorrow.


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## ephrion (May 28, 2010)

Man, this looks awesome!


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## Malacoda (May 28, 2010)

Aw, thanks. This weekend will be me smoothing out everything and hopefully getting it all together. I painted the headstock today (no pics sorry) and I'll be wiring tomorrow, hopefully. Will keep you guys posted!

And the bad news, unfortunately. The bridge is ever so slightly off-center, so when I put on the first string to test the action (which is fine), it was off . At least I now know how to completely own on my next build...


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## Malacoda (May 31, 2010)

Well, more bad news. It turns out I routed the electronics cavity too low so I couldn't make the bottom of the pickup route reach the cavity because of the angle. So this will be a strictly bridge pup guitar even though I'll have the neck one in for cosmetic reasons. 

Also, does anyone have any idea how to install an output jack? I'm confused about how to do it.


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## Malacoda (Jun 17, 2010)

Sorry for the super long wait between news updates! Anyways, I went on a family vacation and just got back an hour ago so now I can get back to work. Since my last update, I painted it entirely and clear coated it. Will have lots of pics of that up. I hope to get it finished by the end of June (I know, keeps getting extended). Sorry for the drop off the face of the earth.


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## Soubi7string (Jun 19, 2010)

Malacoda said:


> Don't get excited, she's 15


The amount of shit I do not give is incomprehensible too you meaning I'D TAP THAT


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## Malacoda (Jun 22, 2010)

Sorry for epic delays again. BUT NOW ON TO THE REAL REASON YOU OPENED THIS:





























And the finished paintjob:









Ignore terrible looking joint in this pic; it's not attached.









































And that's it for the paintjob. Still needs some work, but I'm getting close!!!


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## Empryrean (Jun 22, 2010)

clear coats! do it!!


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## Malacoda (Jun 22, 2010)

Uh-oh... I did clear coats XD. Maybe I need to do more, because it sure isn't that shiny at the moment .


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## PirateMetalTroy (Jun 23, 2010)

Malacoda said:


> Uh-oh... I did clear coats XD. Maybe I need to do more, because it sure isn't that shiny at the moment .



You need like 20 coats of clear, and then you needto buff the shit out of it to make it shiny. This is how it works.

Now GET ON WITH IT!!!


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## xiphoscesar (Jun 23, 2010)

snuif09 said:


> excellent...


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## Malacoda (Jun 23, 2010)

Oh ok, I only did 3. On to clear coating MOAR!!


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## leandroab (Jun 23, 2010)

Abuse of them fucking clear coats...

Nice finish..


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## MaxOfMetal (Jun 23, 2010)

Looks better than those Emperions. 

Great job so far man!


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## paintkilz (Jun 24, 2010)

not hating on your build, but i think you might have misaligned the actual bridge tailpiece...always thought tunomatics were to be slightly angled toward the neck on the treble side? you have yours straight parallel to the bridge pickup..not sure what that will do to your intonation..


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## Malacoda (Jun 24, 2010)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Looks better than those Emperions.
> 
> Great job so far man!



 Thanks very much!



paintkilz said:


> not hating on your build, but i think you might have misaligned the actual bridge tailpiece...always thought tunomatics were to be slightly angled toward the neck on the treble side? you have yours straight parallel to the bridge pickup..not sure what that will do to your intonation..



Yes, it is too straight. It's funny, because on the test model I angled it too much! So on this one I wanted it to be straighter. Unfortunately it ended up being pretty much parallel. I think it will be ok though...


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## Malacoda (Jul 7, 2010)

AGAIN, I am sorry for the delay - but I'm going to Berklee College of Music in Boston for 5 weeks. I haven't quite finished, but I'm almost done! Just got to put in the hardware and then I should be done. Soon!!!!


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## Sofos (Sep 23, 2010)

Malacoda said:


> AGAIN, I am sorry for the delay - but I'm going to Berklee College of Music in Boston for 5 weeks. I haven't quite finished, but I'm almost done! Just got to put in the hardware and then I should be done. Soon!!!!



any update? gorgeous guitar! (btw how was the Berklee summer program? i almost went on it, but didn't have enough money.)


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## Malacoda (Oct 7, 2010)

Wow. I've been away for a while guys. Sorry! I got totally caught up in Berklee and then college apps (I'm a senior ) when I got home. But it's done! I'll post pics asap


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## Jeremy (Dec 9, 2010)

Update?..


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