Nicksguitar

Hey Drak, Actually this is a photoshop of my guitar. I just got in tall the parts, Bigsby, Fralins, switchgear, Kluson Deluxe repro tuners. I bought the guitar on ebay for $700 stripped of all the parts. It is a 225-T which only had 1 pickup, sadly in the middle. I admittedly chickened out and took it to an insured luthier to have the pickups routed. I figured since I was never going to have it all original again I should make it into what I wanted. So now it's like a Es-225 Switchmaster or something. Here's it as it stood a week ago:

I'm trying to figure the best way to wire this 1958 Es-225 custom. I'm relatively new to wiring and trying to get a feel for what I would like. I'd like this to have Les Paul Custom 3 pickup like setup where the 3 way selector switch chooses between neck, neck middle and bridge. The forward volume and tone will be fore the next, the back for the mid and bridge. Can anyone direct me to a wiring diagram for this? Many thanks!

I've bought from that guy as well. He's pretty good and has some nice stuff.

Does anyone know of any brands of spray can primer that are nitro safe and might be available from home depot? I'd like to wok on my axe this weekend but my reranch primer won't be here in time. Thanks!

Dugz, Here's a shameless plug for Brian at Universal Jems. You can get one of their Saga necks really cheap ($40 or 45) and they aren't bad at all. Even his higher end necks are good stuff cheap.

Holy cow man. That's really something. You should be really proud of that axe.

The plan was for soapbars. Thanks a ton!

Howdy. I was wondering if anyone can tell me the standard routing depth for a P-90 pickup? I don't have the pickup so I can't measure the depth and I'd like to finsih the guitr while I wait for the pickups. Thanks!

I think I speak for everyone when I say tha tI feel for you man... It's almost like dropping your kid on its head. Good luck with the fixes!

First off, I don't entirely disagree with Drak, but I would offer a piece of advice based on how I started. I bought a piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard). It's cheap as heck and easy to cut and carve up. I did the same thing you suggested, made a front and a back and carved out the pickup holes, neck pocket, and the control cavities on the back. It was a great experince for me to work with shapes and get comfy with the tools and stuff. You'll make a ton of mistakes. It's all part of the process. You'll also learn tht routing is a pain if you don't have templates! Next I bought high grade oak ply at my local Home Depot. I did the same excercise but to a higher standard and planned to use these as my templates. The cool thing is that I could screw them together, slip a neck in and it almost felt like a real complete guitar. Heck, I even put on the trem and pickups. It kept me going and got me pumped to build a real deal one and now I had my templates. The cool thing was that my oak ply template set had all the lessons I learned on the MDF test run. Plus the oak holds up well when used more than once for templates. So in essence, whatever gets you started is great, especially if it was cheap. but listen to these guys, they know what they're doing and they'll show you how to make the most of your finished product. Party on man.

GET READY FOR BAD ADVICE, USE AT OWN RISK!!! (I know this is bad advice but it's how I've been stuck doing it up to this point) I use a router to give me a lice ledge at the edge of my carve and clear out any large areas. Then I use a 2" drum sanding bit in my drill to work down the surface and sculpt any dense areas. Next I use a random orbit sander to smooth things out. Both of these tools are killer though, be careful. I slowly take off a little at a time and then eyeball it. Then a little (HA!) hand sanding later, voila, something like this:

Here is the wooden cavety cover in place. A couple more hours of fine tune sanding and I'll be ready to route the pickup cavities. Woo hoo!

Here's a blurry shot of the hand pocket I created in the back of the guitar. For some reason the camera thought I was taking a pitcure of the power outlet...

She's gonna be sweet when you get her finished. I like those rare old guitars, you can play them out and no one else is playing them.

Wow man, you should work for car companies! Great names. I should have my finishing supplies this week from ReRanch. So in a few weeks the guitar will be done!