# First build: Gibson/ESP hybrid Explorer



## failsafe (Jan 7, 2018)

Hello all, I have been working on this build, on and off, since around October of last year. I have always dreamed of building my own guitar, and after hanging around MLP for a while watching everyone's awesome builds, I decided to go ahead and try my hand at building. 

Part of the reason that this has taken so long (besides my OCD of trying to get everything as perfect as possible), is that up to this point, I had no real woodworking experience. However, I'm somewhat of a fast learner, and with the help of hours upon hours of reading various build threads and watching some helpful YouTube videos, I am now proud to say that I am about %90 percent finished with my first guitar build. 

Okay, now to the details. I've always been a Hetfield fanboy at heart, so of course if I'm going to build anything, it's going to be an Explorer. The problem is, I'm not a fan of the pointy-ness of the newer Explorers. I prefer that more classic shape of the '58. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a thread here on MLP where a member so kindly posted up the best plans I've found for a '58 Explorer. Using those plans for the body and basing the neck and headstock on the ESP MX-220, I started my build. 

Here are the specs:
Body and neck- mahogany
Fretboard- ebony
Frets- nickel
Bridge- Gotoh Tune-O-Matic
Tuners- Sperzel locking
Pickups- EMG Het Set
Electronics- 2 Volume, 3-way switch

Here are some pics of my progress up to this point. I apologize for the orientation of some of these photos, I'm not sure what's going on with them them being uploaded sideways. I'll try to fix it later. 

Body routed for pickups and neck mortise.
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Freshly band sawed and planed neck blank.
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Truss rod fitment.
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Little idea I stole from @freddy G , IIRC. I got the tenon cheeks cut perfectly with this jig.
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Jig for routing the side profile of the neck.
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Sanding fretboard radius.
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Side dot installation (before sanding the dots flat).
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Gluing on the fretboard.
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I glued the tapered fretboard onto the untapered neck blank, and used the FB as the routing template for the neck taper. 
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Gluing on the ears.
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Headstock shape cut out. This is closer to an ESP headstock than a Gibson.
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Carving the back of the neck, using the facet method. I used a spokeshave to take off a majority of the meat, and fine tuned it with files and sandpaper. 
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Roughing in the volute.
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Now it feels like a neck!
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Custom shaped control cavity. My control layout will be different than Gibson and ESP.
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Dry fitting the neck joint before glue up.
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Glue up!
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After sealer. I am using ReRanch products for grainfilling, sealing, primer, and color. Clear will be Behlen nitro through my new HVLP spray setup. 
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I sprayed the sealer on outside, but was frustrated by the debris and the constantly changing wind conditions. I built a little makeshift paint booth in my garage. I built an enclosure that fits inside the door frame in my garage, that holds two cheap box fans. I but some paint booth filters on them to keep the overspray from getting out of the booth. It looks pretty silly but actually works great. There is more than enough cfm to pull out all of the spray and fumes almost instantaneously. Eventually, I want to do a proper spray booth with explosion-proof fan and all, but for now, this will have to do. This is after shooting primer.
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...and here's the back side of the "spray booth".
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And finally....dun dun duuuunnnn...a primered mockup!
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This is how she sits now. The color is Gorilla Vanilla. I just wanna lick it.
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That's it for now. I will update this thread in real time from here on out. Thanks for looking!

-Chris


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## failsafe (Jan 7, 2018)

And....attachments aren't showing up. Stand by.


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## Edika (Jan 7, 2018)

All that build up and the images are not working aaaaaarghh. 
Seriously though congratulations for taking the plunge in building your first guitar. And it being an Explorer shape with an ebony fretboard is super awesome.


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## failsafe (Jan 7, 2018)

Take 2...Mods, please delete the first.

Hello all, I have been working on this build, on and off, since around October of last year. I have always dreamed of building my own guitar, and after hanging around MLP for a while watching everyone's awesome builds, I decided to go ahead and try my hand at building.

Part of the reason that this has taken so long (besides my OCD of trying to get everything as perfect as possible), is that up to this point, I had no real woodworking experience. However, I'm somewhat of a fast learner, and with the help of hours upon hours of reading various build threads and watching some helpful YouTube videos, I am now proud to say that I am about %90 percent finished with my first guitar build.

Okay, now to the details. I've always been a Hetfield fanboy at heart, so of course if I'm going to build anything, it's going to be an Explorer. The problem is, I'm not a fan of the pointy-ness of the newer Explorers. I prefer the more classic, sexy shape of the '58. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a thread on MLP where a member so kindly posted up the best plans I've found for a '58 Explorer. Using those plans for the body and basing the neck and headstock on the ESP MX-220, I started my build.

Here are the specs:
Body and neck- mahogany
Fretboard- ebony
Frets- nickel
Bridge- Gotoh Tune-O-Matic
Tuners- Sperzel locking
Pickups- EMG Het Set
Electronics- 2 Volume, 3-way switch

Here are some pics of my progress up to this point. I apologize for the orientation of some of these photos, I'm not sure what's going on with them them being uploaded sideways. I'll try to fix it later.

Body routed for pickups and neck mortise.








Freshly band sawed and planed neck blank.




Truss rod fitment.




Cutting the cheeks of the tenon.







Jig for routing the side profile of the neck.


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## failsafe (Jan 7, 2018)

Sanding fretboard radius.





Side dot installation (before sanding the dots flat).




Gluing on the fretboard.






I glued the tapered fretboard onto the untapered neck blank, and used the FB as the routing template for the neck taper.






Gluing on the ears.






Headstock shape cut out. This is closer to an ESP headstock than a Gibson.


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## failsafe (Jan 7, 2018)

Carving the back of the neck, using the facet method. I used a spokeshave to take off a majority of the meat, and fine tuned it with files and sandpaper.














Roughing in the volute.




Now it feels like a neck!






Custom shaped control cavity. My control layout will be different than Gibson and ESP.


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## failsafe (Jan 7, 2018)

Dry fitting the neck joint before glue up.




Glue up!








After sealer. I am using ReRanch products for grainfilling, sealing, primer, and color. Clear will be Behlen nitro through my new HVLP spray setup.




I sprayed the sealer on outside, but was frustrated by the debris and the constantly changing wind conditions. I built a little makeshift paint booth in my garage. I built an enclosure that fits inside the door frame in my garage, that holds two cheap box fans. I but some paint booth filters on them to keep the overspray from getting out of the booth. It looks pretty silly but actually works great. There is more than enough cfm to pull out all of the spray and fumes almost instantaneously. Eventually, I want to do a proper spray booth with explosion-proof fan and all, but for now, this will have to do. This is after shooting primer.






...and here's the back side of the "spray booth".




And finally....dun dun duuuunnnn...a primered mockup!


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## failsafe (Jan 7, 2018)

This is how she sits now. The color is Gorilla Vanilla. I just wanna lick it.





That's it for now. I'll update more in real time from here on out. Thanks for looking!

-Chris


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## feraledge (Jan 7, 2018)

This looks awesome!


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## jwade (Jan 7, 2018)

This is ridiculously great. Stoked on the colour, and I'm definitely stealing your door fan idea.


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## JimF (Jan 8, 2018)

Love it!


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## Kyle-Vick (Jan 8, 2018)

Awesome job man. You should be proud of that thing.


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## failsafe (Jan 8, 2018)

Kyle-Vick said:


> Awesome job man. You should be proud of that thing.


Thanks! When I first started this project, I honestly never thought that it would turn out as well as it has so far. Definitely has a few mistakes still, but very minor and won’t be repeated on the second build.


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## Mr_Mar10 (Jan 8, 2018)

Fantastic clean work!

Does the explorer not need a neck angle? Are you having to recess the tom bridge?
(Any advice welcome planning explorer build eventually  never really had chance to examine one in detail tho )


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## failsafe (Jan 8, 2018)

Mr_Mar10 said:


> Fantastic clean work!
> 
> Does the explorer not need a neck angle? Are you having to recess the tom bridge?
> (Any advice welcome planning explorer build eventually  never really had chance to examine one in detail tho )


There is a 3-ish degree angle built into the mortise. If you look closely at the first few pics of the body, you can see that the bottom of the mortise route is angled.

I’m not sure if this is how Gibson or ESP does their neck angles, or if they angle the neck tenon and keep a flat mortise, but this way seemed easier to me at the time. On the next build, I may try to out the angle into the neck tenon instead.


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## BlackMastodon (Jan 9, 2018)

Awesome first build man!


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## pondman (Jan 9, 2018)

Handsome


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## failsafe (Jan 15, 2018)

After the first coats of nitro. I’m loving the new spray gun setup.


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## electriceye (Jan 15, 2018)

failsafe said:


> There is a 3-ish degree angle built into the mortise. If you look closely at the first few pics of the body, you can see that the bottom of the mortise route is angled.
> 
> I’m not sure if this is how Gibson or ESP does their neck angles, or if they angle the neck tenon and keep a flat mortise, but this way seemed easier to me at the time. On the next build, I may try to out the angle into the neck tenon instead.



It's much easier to angle the mortise than the tenon, IMO. You can just angle your neck pocket template up (which I think you did). I did the angle on the tenon on my first V build and it was a disaster. Then again, I'm an idiot and it was my first build...


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## failsafe (Jan 15, 2018)

electriceye said:


> It's much easier to angle the mortise than the tenon, IMO. You can just angle your neck pocket template up (which I think you did). I did the angle on the tenon on my first V build and it was a disaster. Then again, I'm an idiot and it was my first build...


You are right, I angled the routing template to get the angle. If I were to angle the tenon on the next build, I’m thinking I would do an overhead routing setup, like you were thicknessing a body or something, but instead of having the neck blank lie flat, I would put a slight angle on it and run it under the router.


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## Edika (Jan 15, 2018)

Double post


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## Edika (Jan 15, 2018)

This looks great! I hope it ends up playing as good as it looks. I know you are going for a Hetfield but that body would have looked great natural.


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jan 15, 2018)

I don't know what "vanilla gorilla" is -- sounds vaguely racist -- but it looks great. Keep up the great work.


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## failsafe (Jan 15, 2018)

Edika said:


> This looks great! I hope it ends up playing as good as it looks. I know you are going for a Hetfield but that body would have looked great natural.


Thank you.


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## failsafe (Jan 15, 2018)

Spaced Out Ace said:


> I don't know what "vanilla gorilla" is -- sounds vaguely racist -- but it looks great. Keep up the great work.


Haha! Everything is racist these days. 

But it is the color of the ReRanch nitro I used.


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## Kapee (Jan 16, 2018)

Spaced Out Ace said:


> I don't know what "vanilla gorilla" is -- sounds vaguely racist -- but it looks great. Keep up the great work.


what?


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## jwade (Jan 19, 2018)

It doesn't sound racist, it sounds like the title of a hilarious 70s porno


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jan 19, 2018)

I was joking. It was meant to mock the overly sensitive thinking everything is racist.


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## failsafe (Jan 19, 2018)

jwade said:


> It doesn't sound racist, it sounds like the title of a hilarious 70s porno


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## failsafe (Jan 19, 2018)

I have decided to redo the paint on the neck where it meets up with the fretboard. The masking tape I originally used let some of the color seep up onto the board, and didn’t leave a crisp line. Also, there was a pretty thick and noticeable ridge where there as well, which was not very pleasant to feel. It has been bothering me for a while, and I knew that t would bug me forever if I didn’t at least try to fix it. 
I sanded down the transition and masked it off for new paint. I’m hoping that I can blend it into the existing color already on the neck. Here’s a couple of photos of before.


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## failsafe (Jan 19, 2018)

After 2 coats.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Jan 20, 2018)

Words cannot express how badly I want this thing.

Nice work.


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## failsafe (Jan 23, 2018)

I made a little progress since I last posted. I shot another 3 coats of nitro last Saturday, bringing it up to 6 coats so far. I've been level sanding the high spots after every 3rd coat. I just finished the latest sanding.


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## feraledge (Jan 24, 2018)

Every time I open this thread and see new pics, Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together' starts playing in my head.


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## lewis (Jan 25, 2018)

jesus christ. What an incredibly neat 1st build. Even the bleed on the neck/fretboard that happened is barely an issue compared to how sloppy alot of peoples 1st builds would be.

Looks epic. Congrats man. Look forward to seeing more.


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## failsafe (Jan 25, 2018)

Thanks! I redid the mahogany/fretboard line and while it is certainly an improvement, I will use vinyl pinstripe tape on the next one to get it really crisp.


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## failsafe (Jan 25, 2018)

feraledge said:


> Every time I open this thread and see new pics, Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together' starts playing in my head.


I’m so confused haha!


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## metallidude3 (Jan 26, 2018)

Awesome job, dude! Keep it up! I love this.


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## failsafe (Jan 26, 2018)

metallidude3 said:


> Awesome job, dude! Keep it up! I love this.


Thanks!


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## failsafe (Jan 27, 2018)

There isn't much going on around the house today. Daughter is at a birthday party, son is napping, wife is at the hobby store. Explorer is hanging in the guest bathroom, drying. I have 9 coats on a this point. I plan on level sanding and spraying the last coat or two of thinned out lacquer tomorrow.


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## failsafe (Jan 28, 2018)

I just put the last coat of clear on about an hour ago. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out so far. It should polish up pretty nicely. 

I thinned out the Behlens 1:1 for the last coat. For the build coats, I used a mix of 2:1, based on some recommendations I found while researching. These ratios seem to work will with my spray setup. I don't really see any reason to change it up for the next build, which of course, I've been planning for weeks now.

Now she just needs to sit and dry for 30 days, and then I get to experience the joys of cutting and polishing!

note: I use spray booth filters in front of the fans, they were just removed at this point since I was done spraying. I try to be somewhat of a conscientious neighbor.


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## electriceye (Jan 31, 2018)

Nice. The waiting is the worst part! But, that gives you time to work on the next one.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Jan 31, 2018)

electriceye said:


> The waiting is the _hardest _part!



FTFY


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## failsafe (Feb 11, 2018)

Small update while waiting to polish the clear. Made a cavity cover.


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## failsafe (Feb 17, 2018)

Another week of waiting to buff out the clear coat and assemble. I had some free time today, so I went ahead and shielded the control cavity. I picked up a roll of .003" copper from Hobby Lobby and glued it with 3M spray glue. Continuity test was good without needing to solder any of the pieces together!


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## failsafe (Feb 28, 2018)

Done! My wife shot some quick picks me trying it out for the first time. All I can say is that it turned out much better than I expected it to when I started. It's such a satisfying feeling to finally play a guitar that you built out of rough planks of wood!


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## jwade (Feb 28, 2018)

Really great shots by your lady!

The guitar is ok too


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## J_Mac (Mar 3, 2018)

Mint! Kudos on the paint work, every time I try spraying nitro it’s a complete failure.


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## failsafe (Mar 3, 2018)

jwade said:


> Really great shots by your lady!
> 
> The guitar is ok too





J_Mac said:


> Mint! Kudos on the paint work, every time I try spraying nitro it’s a complete failure.



Thank you!

@J_Mac how are you spraying nitro? Gun or rattle can? What’s the issue?


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## J_Mac (Mar 3, 2018)

failsafe said:


> Thank you!
> 
> @J_Mac how are you spraying nitro? Gun or rattle can? What’s the issue?


Rattle can. I just struggle to get an even coat. Blobs and spatter


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## failsafe (Mar 3, 2018)

I used ReRanch cans for the sealer, primer, and color coats. I got a few splatters with the primer but I think it was because I had forgotten to put my spray can trigger thing, and my gloves finger got in the way of the nozzle. 

The clear coats were shot with my spray new gun setup. I’ve never used one before but did plenty of research and got the gun dialed in in no time.


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## electriceye (Mar 4, 2018)

Beyond impressed, dude. Wow.


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## FloridaRolf (Mar 5, 2018)

Looks impressive for a first build, great pics and really inspiring to start an own build


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## BlackMastodon (Mar 6, 2018)

I'm with J_Mac on this, that finish looks immaculate. Great job, man!


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## Spicypickles (Mar 6, 2018)

I love the finish on the headstock, just the front. Very classy.


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## BenjaminW (Mar 6, 2018)

So what part of the guitar is Gibson-like and the other is ESP-like?


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## failsafe (Mar 7, 2018)

BenjaminW said:


> So what part of the guitar is Gibson-like and the other is ESP-like?


Body- 58 Gibson
Headstock- ESP MX 220

Although, I’m the end, it is probably just an MX copy which was a Gibson copy to begin with


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## failsafe (Mar 7, 2018)

BlackMastodon said:


> I'm with J_Mac on this, that finish looks immaculate. Great job, man!


Thank you!


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## failsafe (Mar 27, 2018)

Here is a track I recorded using only this guitar. It plays like a dream and is solid as a rock. Definitely my favorite guitar!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rskwaxienn0lzgh/Battery.wav?dl=0


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## LiveOVErdrive (Mar 28, 2018)

J_Mac said:


> Mint! Kudos on the paint work, every time I try spraying nitro it’s a complete failure.



I've been experimenting with the rattle can fan tips stew Mac sells for a couple bucks. So far they show some promise. A little leaky though, so make sure you spray horizontally.

Also this guitar is beautiful.


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## pondman (Mar 28, 2018)

Excellent ! Congrats.


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## Gabriel Mavrinac (Nov 28, 2020)

failsafe said:


> Sanding fretboard radius.
> View attachment 58256
> 
> View attachment 58257
> ...


Hey, how did you get the shape of the headstock did you draw it by hand or copie an exact shape?


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## failsafe (Nov 29, 2020)

Gabriel Mavrinac said:


> Hey, how did you get the shape of the headstock did you draw it by hand or copie an exact shape?


I found a pic of an MX-220 online and traced it in Inkscape.


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## ExplorerMike (Nov 30, 2020)

Man absolutely awesome job on this. Hard to believe it’s your first build! As you can see by my avatar I’m a sucker for white Explorers, so you got my attention very quickly. Enjoy the hell out of it man!


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## failsafe (Dec 1, 2020)

ExplorerMike said:


> Man absolutely awesome job on this. Hard to believe it’s your first build! As you can see by my avatar I’m a sucker for white Explorers, so you got my attention very quickly. Enjoy the hell out of it man!


Thank you very much. I have definitely been enjoying it, probably a little too much. There is an insane amount of wear around the edges from gigging and knocking into crap while at practice. I also have since snapped the headstock in half, and repaired. It looks fugly but also kinda cool. I’ll try to remember to get some current pics tonight. 

Here is a pic of my most recent build which has taken the white ones place at #1. 
Shell pink!


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