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My first base model build a Pair of Mollys


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So where do you start when you have a 1000 ideas you want to do. Well base it on what you play. So the start is my number 1 for the last 10 years "Molly" A Heritage CM-150. but make the changes I needed. So first the woods

Mahogany body

Maple tops

Necks

Maple Jatoba 5 ply With Jatoba fret board.

Purple heart maple 5 ply with Willow fret board

So I start as always with a hard board "master" template that is transfered to 3/4 MDF

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After I am happy with everything its the glue up of the 2 part body and the top after resawing the maple cap

looks nice

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Now originally I was going with purple heart necks which you will see later went to hell

The original Billets and necks

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Starting to early in the morning and took to much wood of on the jointer and made some fire wood

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So grab a fresh blank and redue the scarf joint. I cut these at 13degrees on the band say then even out on the jointer

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Now truss rod cut on the router table

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Then some wings for the head stock

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Now moving on to the bodies, After the glue up its off to the thickness sander to get them to thickness and clean them up.

First a trip to the band saw

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Seeing the cut outs never gets old

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And hogging out the control cavity before template time

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Now I use a combo of the Shaper and overarm pin router

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I also do my tops the same way. Now on my templates I put in register pins so to a line everything up and to prevent slipping in the glue up.

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and then its back to the necks

Rough cut on the band saw then over to the pin router

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When I carve the tops I take a little off the top with the pin router for a guide and to speed things along

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I do the main carve with a angle grinder then with a scraper and a hockey skate blade

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I have a template made for the neck pocket. The depth I always measure with each guitar just to make sure

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Finished neck pocket with back angle

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And a test fit

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Well first off took some days to do some shop "upgrades" New band saw tires cool blocks and these beauties

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I also got a few fret boards slotted One of Jatoba and one of Willow.

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Now I have never done binding before, so i king had to figure out how I wanted to do this. I wound up using an offset pin on the pin router. Then glued the wood binding to the fret board. Maple and Purpleheart.

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Then a quick trip on the jointer and drum sander to level it

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Now I was little off on replacing the final trim out so I will half to remember that for next time

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  • 8 months later...

Well it has been awhile but sometimes life gets in the way or our mental health but hey with that fixed or at least medicated lets get back to building. Now on the last step I jumped the gun and glued the fret board on before putting in the side dots not the end of the world, but it makes the job harder. I use aluminum for my side dot so the shine up really nice

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I got all the sanding and carving done

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After I drilled out the string holes and for the bridge. It was then I realized I did the neck pocket to deep or not enough pocket angle either way a recessed bridge can fix that. BUT..... in the process we had our first real disaster. The router was set way to deep and dug out a trench and blew out the pick up wall a bit so this was all going to have to be filled and hid. Lucky for me it happened under the bridge which makes almost unnoticeable, But with some timber mate we got it fixed

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Then comes my least favorite thing grain filling.

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Edited by XBIGJIMX
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So then on to the finish which was was desided on sunburst-ish see though blue. So I sanded the body down to 320

Step one mask off the natural binding and the neck binding.

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Then with a cotton rag and water based stain I wipe on the black for reasons one to make the grain pop in color and to raise the grain to sand flush. So add the black

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And sand off the black

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Then add the blue

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Then logos which was just a basic mask and sprayed with an airbrush

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After the color got done i scrapped the binding for any seepage

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I used a 2 part clear post catalyzed lacquer

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One of the things I love about using stained tops is that I can fix them pretty easy is I burn though them while level sanding. as you can see in the before and after pic. A couple quick wipes of stain

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So after another 3 coats and a level sanding from 500,800,1000,1200 It was off to the buffing wheel that I built from my drill press (there is  tutorial pinned in this site) I moved on to electronics which were a standard 1 volume one tone and a 3 way switch and a set of old Ibanez super 58's from an old artist I was saving. I then put it on the home made stew mac fret jig and did all the fret work. And finally put on the magnets that hold on the trust rod covers and control plate. And 1 of the Molly's is complete. the other is waiting.

All and all it came in at 10lbs1oz

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No top ferrules?

I debated this one alot. I had not used them in the past and it seemed to not be a problem or caused any tuning issues on tour ( and I am rough on guitars). So angled the edges to avoid and indention in the wood. This may have been a real bad idea but we are going to find out. I know on the next project I will use them more because of rubbing compound in the indents thats horrible to get out.

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