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Tailcutter 7 string RG


Neven

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Hey all!

I'd like to share my latest build with PG members.

I've been here on the forum since 2003, but not posting much. Mostly collecting knowledge and drooling over others projects.

Of course I tried (and made) a few meanwhile, and I am buliding as a hobby, for myself and without pressure and obligations, so it's been a joy most of the time.

Let's start with the latest one.

Since I'm a big guy (195cm, 120kg), every guitar feels like a toy in my hands, so I wanted to build something a bit oversized. I've tried building thin superstrats before, but didn't bother to finish them because when they started looking like instruments, I've felt that it's the wrong direction for my builds.

So I decided to try with a 7 string 26.5'' scale RG-ish guitar, with wider neck (53mm at nut and 70mm at last fret). I also upscaled the body for few percents, to (sort of) keep the aspect/proportions ratio of a standard 6 string RG. I kinda don't like the looks of big bulky necks on a small standard RG body, which is what goes on with factory builds. Hope I explained well what I'm trying to do.

Specs:

- RG shape

- 7 string, 26.5'' scale

- maple/sapele/maple neck with angled and reversed maple headstock and 2mm ash headstock cap

- ash body, 2 piece

- Gotoh tuners in black

- Fixed bridge, black, unsure about manufacturer cause I got it for trade

- EMG 707 for bridge & neck position

- padouk fingerboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, offset aluminium rods for inlays, filled with padouk dust & CA glue.

- volume, tone & 3way toggle switch, Ibanez JPM control layout.

- bone nut

- 53mm width at nut, 70mm width at 24th fret

- metallic silver finish w/ graphic, and transparent matte lacquer (not sure how it's gonna look, metallic & matte together?)

- black dome knobs

- matching headstock.

Unsure about the pics per post limit, so I'm gonna go with 5 at a time.

MDF template with layout

oub5.jpg

Body after sawing and some sanding, with pickup cavities routed

8q0q.jpg

Body and neck blank with truss rod inserted

hpku.jpg

Truss rod slot closeup

bv9i.jpg

Gluing the fingerboard

a0ts.jpg

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Then I did side dots, regular plastic rods

8rp6.jpg

roughly shaped neck back

6ktj.jpg

Inlays done, and fingerboard radiused to 16''

92ep.jpg

Then today I did arm contour and bridge holes

w8aj.jpg

Also did a tummy contour and shaped the neck heel a little nicer

m0ad.jpg

And sanded neck volute some more, plus drilled for tuners

41ge.jpg

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So far, this is whats done

pjox.jpg

And finally, a mockup of a finished guitar, done with the help from PG tutorial

g592.jpg

Soooo....

I would like some info about my idea with the finish.

I plan to use metallic silver base, with my logo in a little darker shade of silver, and then use 2K matte over it.

I'm not sure I've seen this metallic/matte combo before, so I don't know if it will loose some of metallic effect, and how it's gona look overall. I would like to see some examples of similar paintjob on whatever object, so please share some with me.

Cheers,

Neven

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dude i dig it. +5 definitely on the scaling up i had a gent build me a vandenberg slightly larger since i used an ibanez neck on it.

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Hi, thanks for the comments!

I would surely like to do some sort of "ghost" graphic, meaning it's invisible from one angle and visible from the other, but I'm still not that qualified and confident with spraying. I also don't have lots of choises regarding paints and lacquers, and I've wasted a lot of money until I founded paints that are good enough for guitars, and still easy enough to work with.

I decided to go with this sort of finish because it is closest to my original idea, I also have template for graphic already laser cut.

I thought I might do just one shade of silver, and then polish the graphic after the guitar is lacquered in matte. But I'm afraid the matte is gonna get shinier with time, so it would probably look like a mess after few years of playing :unsure:

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I managed to hammer the frets in today after doing final fingerboard leveling, and I also beveled the fret ends. Still have to do a bit of fret leveling, and then all that's left to do is final sanding to prepare guitar for spraying.
The temperature is oscilating a lot where I live, I have -5°C early in the morning, and up to 15°C at noon, so most likely there ain't gonna be spraying before April or May.
Here's today's pic, I'll do the closeup another day, it's too late now to shot without flash and then the pics are crappy:

to28.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I decided to go along with your advices, so I glued thin maple (flamed) veneer on the backside of headstock.

This veneer was closest to maple color on the neck, so i choose this one. Have some more laying around, but were much darker in color, almost look roasted.

I hope this looks like you guys imagined it would be, I myself like it a lot. I was a bit afraid that it would be too much with a bit of figuring going on in the wood, but it seems to blend in quite nice.

Here it is, still needs a bit more fine sanding.

zm1o.jpg

b692.jpg

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Thanks for feedback guys!

About dots, they are made of 6mm aluminium tube. The middle is filled with padouk dust & CA glue.

When fingerboard gets darker in a while, and it will, the difference in color with center dots shouldn't be noticable at all. I originally wanted to make small padouk dowels, but my idea abot making them didn't work. I found some great tutorials later, but doesn't matter much now, I like these also just the same.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi all, a small update to keep this build alive...

I routed a battery cavity and got a plastic cover engraved for it:

2wf008m.jpg

here is a closeup

xle3yr.jpg

I also made a bone nut (bone cooked, sawed and shaped by myself), and marked string spacing with a small saw.

I'll have to test fit hardware on guitar, and when I have the strings on it, I'll file string slots to depth.

Also, I did fret leveling and recrowning, still some polishing to do.

oqfvdh.jpg

Edited by Neven
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The nut slots are filed to final depth, and the hardware is installed for a dry fit.
Action is still a little too high with saddles at lowest, so I'll probably sand the neck heel a bit. Intonation is not set yet, but doesn't matter at the moment.
Here are a few pics of the current stage
2z82mn6.jpg
io45l0.jpg
15gb2mx.jpg
2agol88.jpg
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  • 5 weeks later...
Here are few more decent pics
i4n807.jpg
f4jvp3.jpg
f3ulnn.jpg
And here is a spraying template.
Hopefully it won't be hard to apply to body...
I have one more in case I mess it up. Fingers crossed
I'm planning to shoot some more lacquer on the body, so I can smooth it a bit by sanding. The surface is a bit rough now because of glitter particles.
24ngnb9.jpg
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Hi Prostheta, not sure what ding are you thinking of, I'm not aware of any dings?

If you mean the particle that got stuck on the very edge of the guitar (where control cavity begins) on the back shot of primed guitar, it got sanded of while preparing primer for the base coat.

If that's not the one, I'd really like to know about it while I'm still doing first layers :)

Sometimes even I can't find mistakes until I check the photos later.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it wave.gif

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