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The Twins


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Thank God for the new auto save feature on this forum...dang thing locked up and I had to reboot and without auto save I would have been crying

So yet another project...two to be precise.

I was over at my buddy's house and he gave me a Kahler 2300...one of the real ones,not the imports...He apparently had it sitting for years,because he said he bought it for his Charvel and the guy he took it to said it wouldn't fit(which really just meant the guy didn't want to do it)

Well,he gave me the body to his Charvel body about 5 years ago after a drunken night where he broke the neck,and he said he figured I might use it for something...well,he was right,I use it to trace out strat bodies and I tested some floyd routing on it at one time...

So He has never had a guitar he really considered good I think...the Charvel was an import,not a good one,and it always frustrated him because he couldn't keep it tuned.

So I figure I'll do something nice for him...he's done a lot for me in the 20 something years I have been his friend...

So..twin superstrats...one will have the Kahler,and one will have a TOM...I will give him the choice of the two and I will take the other one..and they will be built with only the wood and parts I have on hand,so I will have to be creative

Birdseye maple top and spanish cedar back

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Ready to cut...Wait...this tiny thing won't cut those big pieces!

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Ah..that'll do

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You know what?I am going to change my mind...one of these will have the import Kahler and the other will have the real one.I have the feeling he may not want to futz with a trem much,so if he chooses he can take the import kahler that has the set screw so he can leave it locked if he wants,or he can just take the USA one..I seem to recall he doesn't like tuning hassles

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It's a 10,000000 ton vacuum press and I set it under Mt Everest...

You might starve the joint with that....

Nonsense. I do a similar thing - except I sit on top of everest for a little extra weight -_-

Hey Wes. im starting 2 cedar & birdseye gitirz aswell. I aints gots no spanish cedar, bitch to get here. But still - cedar/maple combo.

Does yer mate know he's geting a cool present ? or you just gonna surprise em ?

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Does yer mate know he's geting a cool present ? or you just gonna surprise em ?

I told him,because I had to ask him about fret size preference,but I am giving him no specifics other than "strat shaped like his Charvel".A lot of the parts are coming from his old Charvel he gave me(neck plate,bridge pup)...I think he might like the nostalgia of that.The bridge pup was a good one,but the solid black cover was all beat up,so I popped the old cover off and popped on a new one

I still have to take the cover back off and polish everything up,but he always liked the tone of that pickup.In the neck I am putting a mellow "gibson-esque" humbucker,because he plays all kinds of different stuff

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I aints gots no spanish cedar, bitch to get here.

I think it's not easy to get here,either...I just happened across it a while back.A guy at work had a bit of it and I traded a cheap amp for it...close to 20 bf before planing,but he had it stored improperly so I lost a bit to planing....but spanish cedar is really,really light...smells nice,too

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Unbelievable what a hypocrite I am!

For about 15 years, I absolutely hated single coils. For me, they had no ba11s and had no real place in the music I liked to play. The first ax I built when I started here was a tele. Since then I've really embraced the s/c in all of it's forms.

I never liked Strats. I still don't. They're boring, overdone, typical, cliche, etc, etc, etc. They're the template shape for every boring guitar out there. I never wanted one and I never thought I'd ever make one. But here I am making one. Granted, it's not your typical strat: white limba body, cocobolo neck & fretboard, and a Schaller trem (rare Kahler-like design). But it's still a Strat at the end of the day.

I guess I'm saying that a little outward growth and acceptance, or even embracing, of what once hated isn't such a bad thing.

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Yeah,well...the funny thing is that now that I traced it out on the wood and am planning how to do it all I am starting to appreciate how well thought out the design is...I can drill my tuners before thicknessing the headstock part while it's still all one piece and forget about tearout,because I will be sanding it past any tearout anyway...the strings are a perfectly straight pull through the nut,and it allows me to use a thinner piece of wood with no scarf joint.

Even the way it looks is really growing on me...And the fact that I can leave the headstock unpainted and it's still a pro look is a plus...AND on top of all that there is a perfect blank area left over to put my goat head logo...

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Okay...so obviously I had to play around with sizes and angles to make sure I had a straight string pull...I hope I got it

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Tuner holes drilled...I may have to start using this style of headstock more...it's just so nice to do the work on a flat piece of stock

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I found this drill bit,which is what I needed for the next step

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Truss rod access!!!

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Set up my rails...

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Adjusted the depth,and routed

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so I had a bunch of hot rods I need to use...I figure why not use one on one of these...I need more of the blue ones

The clamps are in use on the second body blank,so I'll have to wait a bit to glue on the fretboards

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Hehe...no...It's just that Central Texas is so damn humid that everything rusts in my garage.If I ever build myself a real shop I'll keep a small AC going to keep the air dry.

Of course it doesn't help that my garage is in a depression and that the ceramic brick sweats...I bought a Jobox thinking that would help,but it made it worse because inside the box sweats...I had some success with the jobox out in the open air(so it could breath I guess),but a few years back someone stole my first planer and a trimmer and a chainsaw,and now I have to take precautions

For a while I kept my power tools inside the house,but navigating heavy things through the house constantly sucks,not to mention the dust.

But the drill press is a $30 (when it was purchased)harbor freight model and is about 8 years old.What I really love is my spindle sander...it's all plastic and cast aluminum

I have to be honest,I used to lie to myself and blame the small tools for poor results,but I had to get over that and live by that old motto "It's a poor craftsman that blames his tools"

Having said that,I do wish I had a huge thickness sander...I need to build one but I need a dry space to put it.

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You just reminded me though...i had an epiphany a couple of weeks ago.I have 8 feet of dry space left over in my conex that I want to seal off from the rest(I mean a dust free seal,it is already "sealed off) and turn it into a fold out woodshop...

See,it's at the end of the container that has those two huge doors and I figure I can just open up the doors and all my tools will be there,and I can make a patio right there to put my picnic table and work...I'll take a pic tomorrow and you'll see what I mean

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