10pizza

Last update on this thread as I've finally managed to put a decal. First time doing that, so after a few failed attempts I got it right. Also again with help from all the information on this forum. Also changed the TOM-bridge to a roller-bridge with heavier posts to increase tuning stability with the trem. Currently working on a project to customize an Ibanez guitar. I'll share that in a new thread. Hope it won't run as long as this one.

some more pictures: on the right in this picture another refinish project I did at the same time of a Grand Suzuki Les Paul copy. Also refinished in gold.

5 years later. time for an update. Last year a good friend of mine was so kind to apply the gold-finish after some attempts of myself that were not succesfull. Spray-painting is not my cup of tea I'm afraid. only thing left is to create a de-cal for the headstock to finish it off. Playability is great. Due to the thin ash-body feedback kicks in pretty quickly, so that's something to be carefull with. when played without amplifiying the sound is already quite 'big' to my surprise and when amplified the sound is great too. Really like these pickups.

thanks for the tips; I measured the pickups once; they are same width as P90's but the length is just a bit shorter than a P90. With a little luck I could use P90 mounting rings, but haven't found any since they are usually mounted without rings. I'll see what I can achieve with finegrit on the pickups covers. would be nice to have them look new again.

Wow! I didn't know it was 2 years already since I last posted on this project. that means that I didn't do j*ck*ss on this for 2 years! But, better late than never! FINISHING last week I started with finishing of the body; did several ground layers. Since this is my first spraying/finishing experience I ran into some stupid mistakes like spraying to much the first time, so I had to do a lot of sanding again to get the runners of Last night I started with 3 layers of the gold-finish using my compressor with paint spraying kit. Works very well, had to thinner the paint a bit, but things start to look goldish! Got myself some decal material as well so I can create my own logo and get it on the headstock. plan is to try and get a few extra layers of finish on this week and then give it two weeks to harden before polishing. Then I can put on the lacquer. Finish before 1st of may should be feasible. PICKUPS unfortunately the original pickup rings are damaged, so I need to find a solution for that. Problem is that these mounting rings are special size. Standard, humbucker/mini-humbucker rings do not fit. So, maybe I'll try to make my own rings from MDF and spraypaint them black. also I need to polish the pickupcovers. Any ideas on how to make old pickupcovers nice and shiny?

thanks Acoustic Smash I don't want to drill another hole for an extra mono-output, so I'll stick to the stereo with external box. I'll do some experimenting with the grounds and a footswitch, see what happens!

Hi Saber I'll maybe need another switch for that in my guitar, but something worth checking, thanks. My preference is a foot swicht however, so I can switch between bass/guitar faster. ultimately I'd also like to build in 2 LED's in my switchbox to show which signal is active. thanks

Hi all hope someboy can help me with this. I have a Bass/Guitar doubleneck: To be able to send the guitar signal to a guitar amp and the bass signal to a bass amp, I've installed a stereo jack to send both signals seperately to a switchbox. in the switchbox, I've split the stereo signal to two mono-jacks, 1 for guitar and 1 for bass. Ground is shared. using the selectorswitch on the guitar, I select either bass or guitar. the problem is however that when I play bass, my guitar amp is giving a lot of noise and vice versa when I play guitar. My idea of a solution is to bypass the selectorswitch on the guitar and have a DPDT footswitch installed in my switchbox to mute the guitarsignal when playing bass and vice versa, by shorting the non-used signal to ground. I'm afraid however that when I switch back from 1 instrument to the other, this will result in a <plop> or <crack>sound in the amp because of the switching from ground to signal at once. Will this indeed happen? Is there a way to prevent this? Schema: thanks for your help!

Another update and picture. Yesterday I levelled the frets and did a testsetup of the complete guitar to find out: 1. is it playable ( action, setup, nutheight etc ) 2. how does it sound with the original pickups ( never heard them, did they even work? ) Because the original pickups are a special size with special mounting rings, I wanted to be sure I'd like the sound, otherwise I'd need to get replacement pickups and more importantly, I'd need to fill up the existing pu-routes and route new ones. BUT! even without (re)crowning of the frets after levelling and just a quick installation of electronic components available I must say I was surprised! Since this is my first project and fretjob I was afraid I would end up with an unplayable instrument but following good advice found here and in books does help! The action on the neck is great and also the sound of the pickups surprised me. It's very versatile. I only had a small problem with the neckPU of which the plastic cover came off and now and then I lost it's signal so I have some soldering to do probably. apart from that I'm very happy with the result so far and now I can start with the finish with confidence! some other pics: test setup 2 tuner test setup regards

as promised here's a pic of my fretpress: I've used a manual hydraulic jack and mounted a plate above it. I used a small radius block between the fret/fretboard and the plate and just jacked the jack up to get the fret pressed in. Worked like a charm!

long time no updates. Here's a quick report on the progress: Made my own studs for the Tune-o-Matic bridge. I'll glue these into the body so the bridge is fixed solid. Refretting has been done. Unfortunately some of the fretslots were too wide so I had to glue some of them in place. My own fretting-press machine worked out great. I'll post a pic this weekend. Yesterday I filed the fret-ends which went well. Now I need to level them. Hopefully some more progress in the coming weeks.

Ok, I got my hardware ( apart from the trem, which is on back order ) I found that there are no studs provided with the tune-o-matic bridge. Is it necessary to use studs for a tune-o-matic bridge? It seems kind of fragile to just mount the tune-o-matic posts into a hole in the body. thanks

anyone any ideas to have the old tuner screwholes dissapear? Not sure if I can find woodfiller in this color.... thanks

Received the fretwire today, looks like I picked the right size. It should fit in nicely. Not sure yet whether I need to glue or not also got the tuners. Nice vintage kluson-type tuners with metal knobs from Gotoh. I maybe need to drill the tuner holes a bit wider to fit the tuners, but that'll be allright. Now find some time to build my fret-press and the fret pre-bender as described in the tutorial

I'll probably receive the fretwire tomorrow or so. I'm planning to build a fretpress using a small hydraulic jack which I'll mount on a plate so that it hangs over my fretboard. Then I'll be able to press the frets in the board by jacking downwards on a radiused piece of wood on top of the fret. When I have it built, I'll post a pic. Probably not before the weekend.

Thanks for the gesture! I'll stick to the trem and bridge I've already ordered, I like the looks of it more! p.s. can't get into the photobucket album

Okay, Sunday's a nice day to do some work in the morning when you're not hungover This morning I routed the controls cavity from the back and removed the epoxy leftovers from the pickup cavities. here's the back: Now I need to get a long drill to drill the holes for the pickup wiring. My dad has one, so I'll pick it up this week. Damn! when do I get my new hardware! cu

Some pics after todays work. I sanded the body fills and filled some old screwholes: A picture of the body before sanding: Filled body A picture of the fretboard after I've removed the frets: Frets removed I also sanded the board with my radius block: Sanded board Now I'll have to wait until my hardware arrives and I'll need to get a veneer top somewhere. I think the Arnhemse houthandel will be a good choice for that. have a good weekend

I'll post some pics of the guitarbody with the mahogany put in using epoxy when my batteries are recharged. This afternoon I went to my friends workshop and he made me some epoxy filler to get the stuff in. Now I just have to wait until tomorrow before I can do anything with it. I also sanded the fretboard a little, just to clear the roughness from the fret-removal. The chips I've reglued all stayed in, so that's a relief. As for the gluelines showing up on the body: I'm afraid you're right alex Do you know a good adress in the netherlands for getting a veneer top? any idea on the cost? thanks

An update with this mornings work. First I glued the small chips in my neck just by keeping them stuck to the tape and putting some glue beneath them. Then I built the router setup to make a 12" radius sanding block for my neck: some more pics: Router setup 2 Router setup 3 Worked like a charm! Thanks very much Anthony for this tutorial! Then I created some fills for the cavities from Mahogany. Unfortunately I don't have a band-sander so I used a cutter to do the job. Not very happy with it, but it should be allright I hope when filling with epoxy. Here's a pic: Cavity Fills This afternoon I'll visit my friends workshop to do the epoxy work. Right Now I'll check out the fingerboard and do a little sanding to remove the finish and get it ready for refretting. later I haven't received any hardware yet, so no chance to start fretting this weekend

thanks for the tip. Makes things easier too just scored me some new tools and Dremel-accesories to help make my life easier Can't wait till tomorrow to get at it!

Managed to remove all of the frets yesterday evening using a special technique with a small chisel and a Mastercard. I used the small chisel to get under the fret and then used the creditcard to protect the fingerboard while pushing the fret out. First I used an iron to heat the frets up and then let them cool down to shrink again. It went very well, only 1 or 2 very small chips were removed when I lifted the tape from the board. I'll glue them back in tonight. One question I have though: the wood on the edges of the fretslots is damaged by the initial fret installation and removing the frets did not make the wood chip but there was ofcourse a little bit of damaging of the fretslot edges. Is it necessary to do anything about this? Tomorrow I have a day off so I can make my own 12" radius block and remove the finish from the neck and also smooth the fretslots. Tonight I'll pickup a few pieces of mahogany from a friend ( he's a shipbuilder, plenty of mahogany ) so I can fill up the body tomorrow. My friend will then use epoxy to glue the pieces in the body. Hopefully I'll receive the new hardware for the weekend so I can determine the bridge setup. I've noticed however that the neck-pocket is already angled because originally also a Tunomatic bridge was installed.

since this is my first project, I'd like to learn as much from it as possible. I'll try to fill up the cavities and see how it goes, somehow I feel challenged to do it the hard way, allthough I'll probably be punished for this attitude. I might still use this as a template for a next project. But I'll try to stick to this one first. By the way, this one doesn't have to be a perfect copy of the goldtop I posted above. keep you posted

Good luck with your refinishing. I'll also be doing a Goldtop finish so I'll be watching this one close. Have you already selected your paint / finish lacquer types?