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Yew-topped SG-style Guitar


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3 hours ago, komodo said:

Let’s be honest, there is no second here. That thing is stunning and can’t be defined by a silly contest. Sometimes I wonder whether we should even have such things.

Of course, I'm only poking a bit of fun at my talented fellow builders :D

I think many of us here share the view that this is amongst the most fulfilling things we can do with our time.  Certainly, nothing comes close to the satisfaction I get passing across one of my builds or modifications to its new owner or playing one I've made for myself.  And be surrounded by other folks with that same motivation is the icing on the cake.

And it's a cliche, but it's true - we're all winners here :)

 

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I'll sand these fully flush when I tidy up the fretboard and give the neck its final oil and buff after fret levelling, but the mother of pearl fret side dots are in:
_MG_0764.thumb.JPG.ddb27e903b7454512a8a9530b5d52b60.JPG

That's another one ticked off the list.  Just 11 things still to go :)

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2 hours ago, komodo said:

All true! My words came off a little stronger than they were intended. 

Not at all.  :)

Besides, once @ADFinlayson has realised that I sneaked into his workshop last night and did an 'invisible sawcut' from the heel to within a gnat's whatsit of the top of the fretboard of the build he's most likely to enter into the next GOTM so that it claps hands as soon as he tightens up the strings...:hyper

...you might want to copy and paste your post

:happy: 

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46 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I'll sand these fully flush when I tidy up the fretboard and give the neck its final oil and buff after fret levelling, but the mother of pearl fret side dots are in:
_MG_0764.thumb.JPG.ddb27e903b7454512a8a9530b5d52b60.JPG

That's another one ticked off the list.  Just 11 things still to go :)

Did you put two dots in the twelfth position by stacking one in the neck under the one on the fretboard, or did you stack a pair and one set is blocked by the stand?

Either way, I've never seen that done before. Clever.

SR

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3 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Did you put two dots in the twelfth position by stacking one in the neck under the one on the fretboard,

^ this.  I quite like doing it this way when there's a demarcation strip, although I do it either way.  Just depends how I feel on the day :)

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Another two jobs off the list - fret levelling/recrowning ; fretboard tidy-up.

And another shout here, for those in the UK, for Chris Alsop Guitars - after levelling with my 1m aluminium beam, I used one of his whole raft of really usable and practical tools - this fret recrowning file:
_MG_0766.thumb.JPG.436d1f4e9a8f7c25d1574ce48f3c4604.JPG

It is a good radiused diamond file housed in such a usable handle!  Easiest re-crown to date.

I did the normal marking the flats on the frets with a sharpie and then used Chris's file first on its own, then with 320 grit sandpaper wrapped over the file, then with 800 grit sandpaper, and finally with 3200; 6000 & 12000 microweb cloth, again using the file as a radiused sanding block:
_MG_0767.thumb.JPG.2c6e421633873a2dadc6282e67fd8827.JPG

Then used a single-edged razor as a scraper to tidy up the fretboard.

It's come up nice:

_MG_0778.thumb.JPG.0d4add8ce37d933e653d1987ace20c68.JPG

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5 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I'll say.

Are those the gold colored frets or is that a trick of the light

SR

It's the frets.  Jescar EVO Gold.  I think they are great - very hard wearing but easier to cut and file than stainless.

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7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Aren't they hypoallergenic as well, being nickel free?

Yes - I think so, @Bizman62 

And onto another item on the to-do list

The SG has quite a cramped controls cluster.  Some of that is the body shape, and some the fact that they have a top-mounted jack.  While I can't do anything about the body shape, I do have the advantage of going for an edge mounted jack.  

I'm sure there are lots of other ways of laying them out, but after lots of mockups, sticking the knobs and tip on with blu-tack, this one below passed my 'air guitar test' of ensuring I would never accidentally hit the switch while flailing my arms Pete Townsend style, but could still reach both or individual volumes quickly without hitting either the tones or the switch.  
I tried with the switch position a little further forward but came to the conclusion that it is safer from accidental adjustment here.  So it's still tight, but I think is going to work OK live:
_MG_0782.thumb.JPG.8104983a07d799dee91a02312c01cc39.JPG

Inside, I wanted to leave most of the chamber bottom thicker than the pot spindles to maximise the stability in that knotty area, so I just Forstner-cut some recesses for the pots and switch to allow good thread access the other side:
_MG_0784.thumb.JPG.7163a7d7228762ff578d85083c1ee2b3.JPG

Once I've cut the jack hole, I'll tidy up the inside shape to make it look more like it was supposed to look like that ;)

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53 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Once I've cut the jack hole, I'll tidy up the inside shape to make it look more like it was supposed to look like that

Glad you added that. I was already a bit worried about you becoming sloppy in the invisible areas!

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And another one ticked off the list.  I popped a couple of P Rails into the pickup rings (Matt will be supplying his own pickups) to line everything up.  The strings, again, are just for lining up - they are a set of flatwounds I tried on Pete's piccolo bass build a few years ago.
The P-rails are useful as one of the tasks was making sure that the pickups fitted and adjusted in the chambers and the coils of the P-rail are just a touch fatter than most humbuckers - so this should be worst case.

Spent quite a bit of time chiselling out the tight spots.  These now adjust fine, so I am happy that Matt's will also.
_MG_0804.thumb.JPG.c0a13f6d4f6b67a4e9f3fe595dd71249.JPG


And that leaves 5 jobs left on the list :)

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16 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I bet those P-rails would have sounded great in there....

SR

Yes indeed.  They are one of my favourite pickups. :)

One of the pickup rings is about 1mm off parallel.  Quick job but makes it 6 jobs left to do! ;)

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13 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

noice, have always wanted to try a pair of those... see what interesting split combos might sound like.  Guitar is looking amazing.  really brought the wood to life.  excellent work.  how is it for neck dive?

Thanks :)

Balances really nicely.  I shifted the bridge back a touch which helps.

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Just now, Andyjr1515 said:

Thanks :)

Balances really nicely.  I shifted the bridge back a touch which helps.

hehe, I was secretly hoping you'd give up a trick or two you might have used for balance.  figured you must have done something... not disappointed. 

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Well - a small but important part:
_MG_0832.thumb.JPG.0e0a86c5a4c4ee595afe81d2b287bddc.JPG

It's the ebony truss rod cover I've just made.  Important because it is the last made item that needed to be made!  

And the strings have arrived.  And I picked up the pickups from Matt today.
So it's now just about assembly and setup.  And I have a pretty clear day tomorrow :)

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