ScottR

The 24 fret layout makes the pickups look noticeably closer together than I'm used to seeing. I presume it's a 25" scale? I guess I just don't see all that many 24 fret builds any more.

Those your pups? PAFs?

SR

That looks great!

What humbucker sized P-90s did you put in?

SR

17 minutes ago, avengers63 said:

How thick is the body? It looks like it'll weigh more than a LP.

It started as a 2" back and a 1" top--actually just under on both of those. Currently it is 2.5" at the thickest point and a half inch at the thinnest point. My bodies look like a wedge in cross section. It is under 5 pounds at this point.

SR

43 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That very piece is made of the leftover piece of the headstock

Oh.

SR

You have anything left from the headstock or neck that you could use to make a cover veneer or new cover? I typically make the cover out of a wood used elsewhere in the build as opposed to the body wood. That helps give a visual balance and reference to the other wood, and is easier to make look good than trying to use the same wood as the body. Unless you do an outstanding job with grain direction and matching, what you end up with looks like a bad repair job. Using wood from other areas in the build looks intentional.

SR

8 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I remain in awe....

Awe thanks Andy! That's ahfully kind of you to say so.

SR

That old pine certainly has some character, and you are taking advantage of it nicely.

SR

Time to carve the neck join.

Before:

And after:

SR

On 11/23/2023 at 11:59 PM, Mr Natural said:

Dig that grain on the butt end. What a sexy a$$. 

Thanks Natch. Gotta love a nicely figured bottom end.

SR

6 hours ago, Asdrael said:

Looks awesome. The electronics "plate" will not be easy to do though

6 hours ago, henrim said:

Why? As far as I can tell it's a rounded rectangle that can be sanded flush in place.

It's not too bad. The bottom is mostly covered by the plate and will be dark, so I don't have to go all OCD on it. The vertical sides can be a trick to get to evenly, particularly the radiused ends. Rounding off the top edges makes it easier and makes the clear easier to polish and less susceptible to chipping, as @killemall8 alluded to in his current build thread.

SR

Yeah, that's filthy, just sexy as hell!

SR

28 minutes ago, killemall8 said:

Your sanding skills are so impressive

Thanks Luis.

Looking at the pics, I see one area where I want to tweak the contour...

SR

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Take a piece of Abura and build a chiseled one out of that! Pretty please!

That does look carve friendly as long as I don't get a freshly cut piece or decide to snack on it.. And it looks like the temptation to polish it up would be more easily resisted. The note says it is seldom available in North America...

I'll keep my eyes open for some.

SR

6 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Your chiseling is so clean even the rough shaped top looks superb! On such a spectacular piece of wood leaving it as such would be a waste of appearantical (is that a word???) resources. But on a blander piece of wood, have you ever thought of leaving the surface structured?

6 hours ago, henrim said:

I agree. Like @Bizman62 said, on this top the smooth finish is probably the way to go. But you should really use that beautiful chiselled surface somewhere sometime. I think I saw similar in your burl table and thought, damn that's beautiful!

It would be a fitting top for a band named Bloody Forearms.

Seriously, I supposed I'm going to have to do that sometime.....maybe not on a guitar top. I get that suggestion at that stage of pretty much every piece I do. And I agree it's a cool look. I just get so insanely curious about what the wood is going to look like all polished and finished. So I finish it to satisfy my curiosity. I can always carve it some more.....

But nope. So far I cannot carve it again....

SR

Rough shaped top.

Rough shaped back.

SR

There are so many combinations that must be tried, for the good of mankind, as it were.

SR

The repair on the HS plate is first rate. There ought to be tapered grit wheels/drums for enlarging tuner holes. Sanding is much safe than cutting when it comes to holes.

The phrases "ripped him a new one" and "tore him a new one" likely originated with someone trying to enlarge a hole with an edged instrument.

SR

5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

OOOOOoooo... here we go     The bit I've been waiting for 

Me too!

SR

7 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Have you checked your spam folder? That has often happened to me since Thunderbird doesn't synchronize the Spam folder. I've since learned to check them via browser every now and then especially if I'm waiting for an answer from a new contact. Not to mention the case when my ISP enabled filtering and started to send the messages from my website to trash and delete them after two weeks. Don't know how many customers I lost before finding that out! Also note that the filtering rules may change without notice.

 

I did. No love there either.

SR

Still no Klein pickups. I ordered on July 4 of this year. My credit card was dinged on July 4 of this year and I got an order acknowledgement on July 4. My account says not shipped yet. I've emailed twice via the contact us tab on the website and gotten no response. There is a notice that says if you contact them too much the system will automatically tag you as spam. There is no phone number listed. The policy says every order will be built, and there are no cancellations. Payment is due at the time of order placement. The only recourse appears to be a return authorization if requested with 14 days of delivery. Assuming they answer the email.....or maybe the paperwork includes that information, I don't remember. I have used maybe a dozen sets of these pickups and absolutely love them. I'm wondering if covid killed the business and the website is well enough constructed to do everything it has so far automatically.

In the meantime, I ordered as close to the same thing as possible from Lollar, who also are very well spoken of. They don't go to the same lengths to recreate vintage pups with vintage materials.....but I'm tired of waiting. And looking forward to hearing these. Also, I ordered these online on Saturday, received a these have shipped email Tuesday, and they were in my mailbox Wednesday. I selected standard shipping and they came from halfway across the country.....actually all the way across the country from the north and south point of view.

Added magnets to the control cavity and cover.

And since I have pickups, I did my pickup routes.

This gets me to the fun stuff.

Carving!

Let the rabid beavers feast!

SR

On 11/5/2023 at 4:56 PM, avengers63 said:

The Tele bridge is just the neatest thing in the world. The harder the twang, the better. For harder applications, I'm leaning towards the P90.

I'm a big fan of a fat tele bridge and p-90 in the neck.

SR

That mountain I often see in your backgrounds have a name?

16 minutes ago, killemall8 said:

I also recently started chamfering all holes slightly. It's been a game changer with sanding and finishes. 

I imagine it is......brilliant!

SR