Kit Bash

[avengers63]

I changed my mind. This damn thing has been fighting me every step of the way. Screw this thing straight to hell. I'm just gonna make a whole new body for it. The center is in the clamps right now: a 7-ply block of ash, black limba, and cherry. Mahogany wings will be glued on tomorrow. I'm NOT doing anything cool or interesting to it. Straight linseed oil buffed with steel wool. I SHOULD be ready for assembly and wiring by the end of the week. 

[Bizman62]

Just out of curiosity: Would it be possible to resaw the top off and use it as a routing template for a new body?

[avengers63]

6 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Just out of curiosity: Would it be possible to resaw the top off and use it as a routing template for a new body?

I gave serious consideration to using the original body to make a template. I can't cut out the body until tomorrow, so it's still possible. Today I'll be playing around with the layout and see what can be done with my current templates. If everything looks just plain stupid with a big part of the body missing or recessed out, I might just HAVE to fo with the original shape.

[avengers63]

After looking at what I have, I decided that my own DC design. I think it'd look the least weird with a big cutout of the back. The other options were a Rhodes V, PRS, and a Rickenbacker 600. Seriously - I looked at a Strat, Tele, Mockingbird, LP, SG, Explorer, and the Dano Peanut. 

And since nobody will remember, this is the shape. This exact body is one of the projects I've been working on off-line.

[avengers63]

If there's one thing I do well, it's come up with a dumb idea that has unlimited potential to FUBAR everything. Go with your strengths, right?

So the kit came with a (mostly) perfectly good, maple/rosewood, 24 fret, 25.5 scale neck. It's all done, shaped, and ready to be oiled and screwed together. There is absolutely no good reason to screw with it whatsoever.

 

And I don't like a 24 fret neck. I don't solo up there anyway, so mine are usually 21 or 22 fret. I also think the extra inch or so makes the neck pickup placement sound better.

So I'm seriously thinking about cutting off the end.

I don't think the truss rod will go that far. 

This will also let me push the bridge a little further towards the butt, lessening the cutaway.

And there's no reason for me to do it, but there's sooooooooo much potential for it all to go wrong. 

And I for damn sure don't wanna make another neck. I NEED to salvage as much from this disaster as I can.

So what I want is for y'all to call me a dumbass and tell me to leave it alone before I screw it up for good.

[Bizman62]

You're a dumbass! -Happy?

Now that your wish is fulfilled, how would you attempt to cut the excess off? The easiest way would be to tear the two last frets off and cut along the 23rd slot. That should be far enough from the end of the truss rod. There would be no overhang but there's top shelf guitar builders who do their necks that way so it's a valid method. But the end of the neck slot has to match perfectly...

[avengers63]

I would want to end the fretboard at the 23rd slot, but I'd also want to round the end of the neck at the 22nd and give it the overhang. THAT'S where it would get really dicey.

Also, wifey listened to my dissertation, then scolded me thoroughly for even WANTING to go there. She warned me of additional, personal, dire consequences if she has to listen to me ranting over screwing it up. So it's just gonna stay like it is.

[Bizman62]

Your wife is a wise person!

Didn't we already know that?

[avengers63]

new body blank

 

IDK what this crap is, but it ain't mahogany or sapele. It doesn't like to be routed at all. I didn't have any tearout, but it was really looking like it was going that way. It's also kinda heavy. The final thickness ended up being 1 5/8". I was shooting for 1 3/4, but this'll be fine. 

As a result of wifey's business making chairs for kids in immobilizer casts (I'm so proud of her!), I have piles of scrap MDF to make templates from. For instance, a pickguard template made from a salvaged cutout....

 

After taking it to the original template (pictured), I hit it with a 3/8" rabbit bit. This distance lined up with a Strat p/g, so it'll me proportioned in a way we're accostomed to seeing. But I have to get the final body shape first.  This required a hellofalot of improvised jigs, measuring, re-measuring, transfering the measurements, comparing it to the original, doing it again because I don't trust myself, and still screwing it up. 3 hours later, this is what we have. 

Despite triple checking everything, I STILL managed to place the bridge a full 1/2" off. I currently have a 1/2" spacer being epoxied into place. It'll be completely covered by the p/g. A good chunk will actually be routed away for the bridge HB.

In the meantime, I can debate the p/g shape. Do I do the bastard child of a Strat & a '51 bass? Do I use Ibanez as an influence and make the top bit pointy? If so, exactly how big should the point be? 

 

Also, I'm rather annoyed that this is becoming a proper build. This is absolutely not want I was wanting. 

[avengers63]

The fix is a far cry from perfect, but it's both functional and covered by the p/g

 

I still haven't finalized the p/g shape, but what's drawn here is the current thought. Also, this is the control layout. I'm THINKING about 2 taps, a phase, and a jumper to have all on. Or I can do 2 on/off/tap and an on/off.

[avengers63]

Body is done! Sanded up to 220 and ready to get greasy.

 

Wifey said the bass horn of the p/g should be pointy. As usual, she's right.

 

The wiring will be as such: standard 5-way blade, 500k V, 500k T.  There will be 2 3-way mini toggles for the bridge & neck HBs that will be coil 1, both coils, coil 2. This will be particularly versatile considering the bridge HB is a hot rail and single in one pup. The bridge rail can't be split, but the single attached to it can be, but the hot rail in the neck CAN be split. Figure that one out. 

 

[avengers63]

I spent a couple of hours on the couch this morning, watching wrestling and putting the p/g assembly together.

 

Which leads us to the mandatory preview shot...

 

This thing is actually gonna look pretty classy! The oil in the body is gonna cure over the weekend. Assembly and wiring will likely be Monday.

[Bizman62]

Nice toes!

The pickguard really suits the overall colour scheme. And your wife was right about the bass horn, no need to extend the p/g further than that. I'd even say it now points to the direction a spectator should look instead of covering it.

What puzzles me a bit is why the pickguard extends right to the edge. Is it for making the tone knob look like it's in the right place - that's how it is compared to where the volume pot and the mini switches are. But why make it blend into the tone edge while there's a constant distance elsewhere?

[avengers63]

Simple. It isn't screwed down yet. The wires are shoved into the cavity, but that edge is still lifted up a little bit by unruly wires.

[Bizman62]

9 hours ago, avengers63 said:

that edge is still lifted up a little bit by unruly wires.

Ahh, of course! Remembering your OCD that just didn't look like something you'd accept.

[avengers63]

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Ahh, of course! Remembering your OCD that just didn't look like something you'd accept.

 

[avengers63]

Pickups used as advertised and what's on the multimeter

NECK

 

MIDDLE

 

BRIDGE

 

Wiring schematics used. The DPDT on the left gives you the north coil, both is series, and south coil. With the bridge being a hot-rail/single combo, this is particularly useful.

 

And say what you will about my wiring. It's ugly and kinda haphazard, but it works.

 

[Bizman62]

12 minutes ago, avengers63 said:

And say what you will about my wiring

Well, there's no obvious shortcuts and most likely no cold joints and it fits into the cavity without bulging the pickguard. Much less spaghetti than what I've sometimes seen. I'd be happy for such a decent job.

[avengers63]

I swear this whole thing is cursed.

I needed to do a little work on the neck. The headpiece sat too high - the strings weren't even touching the zero-fret. The end angle of the neck also didn't match with the angle of the headpiece. IDH why the end of the bracket has an angle at all, but so be it.

While trying to get the end angle right on the disk sander, I got too aggressive. I might die of not surprise.

 

So there's nothing for it but to put an extension on it and re0shape the end.

 

It's an end-to-straight grain joint, but the headpiece screws will extend through the fix, so I'm not concerned about it at all.

[avengers63]

I got it all together. As I've heard the Brits say on a car resto show - this headless unit is a fiddly bit of kit.

There's a greater than normal amount of wiring issues. 1) There is a MASSIVE grounding issue. Huge amount of static that actually gets worse when I touch the bridge, but is a lot lower when I touch the metal sheath of the cord. 2) This is a new one on me. The pickups are set more-or-less even. The volume increases as the strings get thicker. Thicker strings generate a stronger signal, but not so much that the volume between the two E strings would be so different. The high E is about half the volume of the low.

So long story short, the construction is done, but it's essentially unplayable until I can get the wiring al sorted out.

It just keeps on fighting me......

[avengers63]

SO.......

I decided to dismantle ALL of the wiring and put it back together piece by piece. That's the only way I know to completely eliminate the insane buzz. Remembering how this has been fighting me every step of the way, it went exactly as we should have anticipated.

I took all of the pickups and switches out of the picture, then started re-assembling, middle pickup only. One hot, one ground, that's it. Straight into the volume pot, tone hanging odd of the volume as normal, insane buss still there. Not your normal s/c buzz - we all know what that sounds like. No, this is intense. 

I'm guessing there's an issue with one of the two pots. 

Were I working and had the spare income, I'd give it to the local experts and pay them to screw with it.

[henrim]

Hard to say much from here but check that there are no cold joints on the solders on the back of the pots. They look a bit suspicious.

Also, at least in the picture you posted the capacitor is not soldered to the pot lug. And check the said leg of the cap is not touching the pot case.
 

 

[avengers63]

I finally have it all sorted out. mostly 

The tone cap @henrim pointed out may or may not have been a factor. I adjusted it before doing anything else, but it wasn't the real problem. I think I had the hot & ground to the output backwards.

The unwound strings still have more output than the wound, but only on certain pickup settings. It's really odd.

The coil selection switches finally work exactly as they should. There isn't enough tonal variation to make it worth the effort in the future. A simple coil tap would do just as well.

In fact, the HB setting in the neck came loose after I had it all put back together It still works perfectly as a single. As I'm currently tired of it fighting me, it's just gonna stay exactly like it is for a while.

The middle & neck pickups are REALLY bright. It might be because I used 500K pots. A little roll off of the tone knob sorts it all out just right. Other than that, the neck & middle are fantastic! There's so much spank and twang you wouldn't believe it. 

The bridge is...... just a powerful bridge HB. It isn't bad, but it's nothing special either. It does split nicely, so there's that. As a whole, the pickups were a worthy experiment that don't disappoint, but the experiment isn't worth repeating.

In the assembly, I ran into a little snafu. With the little bevel I put around the tongue, the neck plate was just a bit oversized. I don't have any black ferrules on hand, so I had to use a narrow chrome plate I had in the drawer. I also misplaced the screws, so the neck screws are mismatched. As it fought me the whole way, I'm not even a little surprised.

So it's finally all done. For all the headaches, it didn't turn out too bad. It'll never be a go-to for me, but it likely won't get ignored either, just because the singles are so snappy.

In the end, there are two clear positives to take away.  1) I dig this headless hardware. A setup goes for about $60 on Amazon, so I'll probably return to it someday. 2) I worked out a p/g shape I can use as a starting point should I want to put a p/g on my double-cut shape in the future.

[Bizman62]

8 hours ago, avengers63 said:

I think I had the hot & ground to the output backwards.

That's what I was thinking by the symptoms but couldn't believe an experienced builder like you could make the same mistake! Glad you got it sorted.

8 hours ago, avengers63 said:

The unwound strings still have more output than the wound,

I had a similar issue with my last build, the pickups were wound by a friend as his first attempt to winding pickups at the luthiery school. The pickups had been sitting on a shelf for years and in the drawer below there was a bunch of neodymium magnets salvaged from old hard disks. One explanation is that the strong magnets had mispolarized the weaker AlNiCo magnets. Remagnetizing and wax potting helped.

Although not quite the type I'd immediately buy the guitar looks like something I might grab in a shop to test how it feels. The shape and material choices please my eye, especially the bottom side is just yummy.

[ScottR]

I hear this all the time about mine---

I think I like the back even better than the front.

SR