Jump to content

Bluestreak

Members
  • Posts

    28
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Bluestreak

  • Birthday 11/30/1973

Profile Information

  • Location
    Orlando, FL

Bluestreak's Achievements

Explorer

Explorer (4/14)

  • First Post
  • Collaborator
  • Conversation Starter
  • Week One Done
  • One Month Later

Recent Badges

0

Reputation

  1. I found the video on YouTube! It's called "Boyz Are Gonna Rock". I knew YouTube would have it... they have everything. You can see Vinnie's original Jackson Double-V guitar in the video. Just a suggestion, but the mods on this boards ought to think about enabling YouTube in forum posts so we can more easily share videos and music, our own works included.
  2. Eventually, I'm going to build one to match my 30th Anniversary Trans Am. I debated long and hard about the pickup ring. All the real McCoys had pickup rings supporting an EMG. I prefer guitars w/o mounting rings these days, so I gambled and it turned out perfectly. Ah, cut him some slack. Even if he was born in '80, he was barely two years old when Vinnie took over Ace's spot in KISS in '82. Unfortunately, as talented as he is/was, it seems that Vinnie was such an asshole that he ran himself out of the music business. He all but disappeared after about 1988 when the record company pulled the deal for VVI and gave the contract to Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum. Unless you're a mid 30-something (or older) and a KISS fan, you probably don't know who Vinnie Vincent is... even most young guitarists don't. Sad to see so many talented 80's shredders like Vinnie being forgotten by the upcoming generation of players. I like KISS, but I'm not their biggest fan. I'm more of a Paul Gilbert, George Lynch, Vai or Dream Theater fan. It just so happens Vinnie Vincent was on MTV at the right time to inspire me to want to play guitar back in '86, so I have a soft spot for the dude, cheesey as he is. I think the most entertaining part about building this guitar has been showing it to a few diehard KISS fans - and most of them surprisingly had no clue whose guitar it was! Thanks for the compliments, guys. -Roger
  3. And finally... The color just doesn't pop until you put it in natural light. I painted it "Sonic Blue", a Ford color. The guitar was painted to match my Mustang coupe. I haven't taken a picture of the two together yet. I'll do that later today when I take the Mustang out of the garage. So that was my first guitar build. Total cost came in just under $600 - unbelievably cheap, and it plays as well as my collection of high-end Ibanez and Jackson guitars that cost much more. My next project is a 7-string strat based on a fixed-bridge Ibanez RG7621, already in progress. I can see how this can become addictive! -Roger
  4. This was the first guitar I ever saw on MTV way back in 1986. The body was cut from two-piece alder, drawn on a computer and then cut on a CNC machine by a friend in Michigan. In all honestly, the only real work I had to was sand in the bevels and detail-sand the body for paint. The neck (NOS Jackson neck, meant for a Jackson DXMG) and the EMG-89 pickup that went in. The hardware came from a parted-out Jackson Randy Rhoads, or so the EvilBay auction claimed. A screw broke off in the neck while I was re-drilling the neck holes, and the broken screw had to be drilled out. I cut a cross-grain plug (thanks to this forum's advice!) and the repair went smoothly. Here it is, test-assembled and fully set-up, just before it went to paint. It was so much fun to play, I hated to tear it down for paint. The jigsaw puzzle this past Monday night, when the body came back from paint. It turned out immaculate! From the back...
  5. It is. It was the first guitar I ever saw when I first turned on MTV when I was a kid in '86 (the "Boyz Are Gonna Rock" video). I wanted to play guitar from that day... when I decided I wanted a new guitar, that V came to mind. I couldn't find/afford an original one (they only made 28)... so I made my own. You're the first guy to figure out whose guitar it was... most other people I've shown didn't know who invented it or they thought the twin-V was my idea! It's a two-piece alder body. It has very fine grain, but it does have grain, so I wasn't sure if it required filling. I ended up using epoxy where it was needed. I used a hard piece of plastic as a squeegee and spread it very lightly into the grain over the face, back, top/bottoms sides, around the jack input, and on the tips of the V's. Hopefully this makes the wood stronger. There were also a few very small imperfections in the wood grain I wanted to smooth to ensure a nice finish. It really popped the wood grain where I filled, and it's almost a shame to cover such a nice piece of wood with paint. The main body will be Sonic Blue (a purple/blue chameleon color offered on Ford cars from '03 to '08). The secondary V-fins poking out are going to be some kind of metallic silver. I left the shade of silver up to my paint guy, as long as it's a bright silver. This guy does award-winning auto restorations, mainly on late model Mustangs. He knows paint, he was just unsure if auto primer would be suitable for this application as he's never painted a guitar before. Thanks for all the tips. -R
  6. Hi guys, I've just finished building my custom V. You can view it here. Now that it's assembled, working, and playable, I'm going to tear it down and send the body off to be painted. Question 1: Grain filler. I have some Dexcon 4000-psi epoxy here at home. Rather than order some Z-poxy, I was going to use this stuff as grain filler. Any reason why I shouldn't, or why I should just use Z-poxy instead? I notice Z-poxy seems to be the product of choice for grain filler and I was wondering why can't any clear epoxy be used. I use Dexcon on things like the tremolo post holes (keeps them from oblonging over time) and I have good luck with the stuff. Since this is my first guitar build, I figured I'd ask. The only stupid question is the one you don't say. Question 2: Primer. I struck a deal with a local auto body shop to paint the body. This guy helped restore my Mustang coupe. We were going to use an auto body primer, but aren't sure it is the proper product to prep the body for paint once the grain has been sealed. Will auto body primer work fine, or is there some other product that is better suited to painting my guitar? I think that's it. I may have more questions later. Thanks! -Roger
  7. I beat my head against the desk for a while to think of that one! I have a lot of fragment extractors from many years of working on engines, but they were all WAY too big to retrieve the broken #10 screw. What really torques my beanie is that I was almost ready to start installing the hardware and wiring the electronics. This little setback is gonna take a few days (and a crapload of four-letter words) to sort out. Gettin' there... -Roger
  8. I had a screw break off deep in one of the mounting holes on a guitar neck. In order to retrieve the piece of the screw, I had to drill the neck hole out, larger than it was meant to be. Then using a Dremel, I slotted the top of the screw fragment and just "unscrewed" it from the neck. Now I'm left with an enlarged hole mount in the neck. I was thinking of drilling the hold considerably larger and using a dowel and some Titebond to repair the hole. Would that work best, or would filling it with a 2500-psi epoxy be a better idea? Any ideas/comments appreciated. Thanks, -Roger
  9. Thanks! I'm at a standstill now. I have all the hardware, pieces and parts except the body. I paid him on evilBay last Sunday... I want my product! Actually, I just wanna put it all together so I can get it adjusted and play it before I take it off to be painted. I hate being patient!
  10. The neck I posted was a Jackson DXMG neck purchased for my current project. I cleaned up a few nicks, scratches and imperfections in it but much of its original finish was still clean and intact. And it's a gorgeous piece of maple, so having a really nice piece of wood from the factory helps. That neck only got a couple of coats of pure tung oil applied on top to seal where I sanded it. If it were a new neck made from scratch/bare wood, I'd layer 3-5 coats depending on how the neck feels to the touch. I like the wood to be sealed enough to prevent staining/dirt from becoming embedded, but thin enough that the feel of the wood is still evident. For the first 2-3 coats, I like to use naphtha to cut the tung oil down and help it penetrate better in the initial coats. Successive layers (3-5, sometimes more) will be applied at full-strength and the final layer is always pure TO. It gives a really silky, wet-wood look and creates a translucent matte finish. As you can see from the neck I polished up, any figuring in the wood is amplified and takes on an almost 3D look and the grain underneath is clearly evident. I experimented on a lot of necks to come up with that... all my guitars are treated to this because that's just a feel I enjoy in a guitar neck. And to be honest, I can't take credit. WAAAAY back in the 80's when I was learning to play, I read an interview with Steve Stevens (Billy Idol's guitarist). He said he required all his guitars to be made with a bare wood or oil-only necks. He did this contrary to advice at the time which said that unsealed necks were more vulnerable to warping. So I took my Charvel (which I still have!), removed the neck, stripped it, and played around with the finish until I got it where I liked it. Ever since... I've been doing that to my guitars. One thing's for sure: I'll never own a guitar with a painted neck. Not being able to feel the bare wood in my left hand takes away a lot of the pleasure of playing for me. -R
  11. Yes, I know he builds them. First, it wouldn't have the Jackson name on it, and I wanted that. This guitar will be built with 100% original Jackson hardware including the neck itself. Second, I couldn't get it from ERG for the money I spent (and I haven't heard the best things about Ed Roman guitars, either). This guitar will be completed for just under $750, I'll build it myself, and I just sold one of the guitars that's just passing through my collection for $350. Net effect is? For about $400, I'll have built a guitar no one else has. And I did it myself. Cheers, -R
  12. Thanks. I got a hold of the luthier before he sent me the body. It was routed for an OFR, not an Edge/LPE/Edge Pro. He's going to cut a body for me with a Jackson-specific neck pocket set for a 24-fret/25.5" neck. My problems are solved in one easy swat! I'll be back in a few days with photos of all the pieces/parts when the body arrives, and I'll document assembly. My biggest pain now is the paint job. I've got to get a hold of the guys who painted my Mustang, because I want the guitar painted Ford Sonic Blue to match my car (with the shadow V in metallic silver). I figure they can paint and clear coat it super-easy for me. And they'll get a kick out of the project, since they helped me restore my 'Stang. Cheers, -Roger
  13. I do all my guitar necks with lightly rubbed-on coats of tung oil. In between coats, I use 0000 steel wool to give it a very smooth, natural, and soft finish. It also brings out a satin-like luster in the wood. IMO, this produces the best finish on maple necks, but it works on any type of neck/wood. Here's a neck I just finished cleaning up for my current project. Nothin' but tung oil and lots of love with 0000. The picture doesn't do it justice at all, but I thought I'd share. -Roger
  14. This neck is 2-3/16 wide, or 56mm - the same width as the Ibanez AANJ neck pocket, so it should slide in just fine. The neck I have is for a 25.5" scale. I researched the distance from the nut to the first post on an OFR and that appears to be 25.0" for a 25.5" scale guitar (according to StewMac's fret calculator as well as a few other web sources). I'm going with an OFR that came from a Jackson Dinky, as did the neck. The neck doesn't have an angle to it and the V body I purchased was routed w/o a neck angle as well. This neck installation should be as simple as making sure the correct length is applied as the neck is adjusted in the pocket, and then bolting it in at that position. Once the neck is positioned properly to have the correct scale length I'll have to drill new holes in the neck to bolt it to body at that corrected length. Anyone see any problems with this methodology? Much appreciated. -R
×
×
  • Create New...