ByronBlack

LPBoco - unfortunatly, I can't claim to have done the inlays, they were already part of the neck when I bought it. MetalSustain - you're correct, it's a 'woodycustom'. It seems to be good for the price, the dimensions and scale all seem accurate, there a few sharp ends on the frets that need a little filing but nothing that is a major problem. The inlays are good however on some parts there seems to be some 'bleed' in the grain of the maple - i'm assuming its whatever he has used to glue the inlays, but this is being quite picky, I imagine these small 'tethers' of dark bleed will easily sand out, it's certainly not enough for me to be bothered by, for £50 I think it's a bargain! matt - I'll definitely post some pictures of the recessed controls - once I get my head around the driling positions :-)

Here are some pics of my other project that I'm working on concurrently with my explorer build. It's using a pre-made 24 fret inlayed maple neck. The body I made some time ago, it's a thick flame maple cap on english yew. It will feature a single humbucker in the bridge position, the tone and volume knobs will be located recessed into the side of the body to allow the front of the guitar to remain clear of clutter. Today I routed the neck pocket and glued the neck, the back of the body will be carved to the profile of the neck providing a sleek transition. The back of the body and neck will be sprayed a solid colour, and the flame maple will be either trans-black, or trans-red, I can't decide on which one yet, it will feature natural binding as the cap is quite thick and should look quite nice. Neck glued to the body: Other pics: Templates for neck pocket being attached: http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronblack/2214602489/ Drill press being used to remove most of the material before the router: http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronblack/2215394490/ Neck pocket routed and neck being glued in http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronblack/2215393580/ Tomorrow, I'll be making the templates for the pickup and electrics cavities, and if time, get them routed. Once I take delivery of my finishing products, I can start getting it sprayed.

Hi keith, I re-wired some of the connections to the pots, and it seems a lot better. The only job I have left is to insulate the cavity with the copper as I still get a little hum, but the ground issue is much better so thanks for the tip. On first look, the connections seemed fine, I had no problem soldering to the pot, but one of the ground wires was a little 'dry' so I re-solderd that one and it seems to have done the trick. However, here's another minor problem. At the moment my string ground wire is actually attached to my tailpiece and is in one of the string holes so the wire is actually touching the string, I have had to do this because the hardware I have seems to have been coated with non-conductive black paint. Even when I scratch a little off on the underside it still doesn't work because the strings are also sitting on said paint inside the tailpiece, without drilling out the hole to expose the metal of the tailpiece, is there a better way to ground the strings on a tune-o-matic setup? It's probably my fault for going for a cheaper make of hardware.

HI Keith, I've got my grounds wired up as this diagram shows: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wirin...tic=2h_1v_1t_3w Is that going to cause a ground loop? Should I change my wiring away from what this says? Thanks for the response

Is there really no one that can help?

Completion is near! It's been quite a productive saturday, I managed to knock off early from work and get motoring on with the explorer. I've managed to get the neck attached, the bridge installed, the nut fitted, the machine-heads installed, and I even managed to get the wiring complete. I've only wired in a single humbucker so far just to see if the wiring works. Wiring completed (just have a ground issue to sort) with the bridge pickup installed - sounds great on my new little modded valve head! (I just need to make a new cab for it) So there we are. I need to dismantle it and start the sanding/finishing process, there are a few set-up tweaks that I need to make, the action is a little high at the heel so I need to alter the neck angle a little, but it's only off by about a mm so I'm pleased with that, the neck plays really nicely, although strangely I find the profile a little heavy even though it's a template of one I used to enjoy - I must have gotten used to a thinner profile on my other guitars, I need to alter this a little with some gentle sanding. It's a shame having to take it all apart again to finish because it's such fun playing it, it sounds better than I thought it would and plays surprisingly well off the bat without a setup, so thats encouraging. While this is in the finishing process, I'll be starting work on the maple guitar, and also making another neck for a third project, I was back at my old home (mums house) last week and found a really old guitar that I forgot I had in the garage, it's a complete wreck, but I can salvage the body and the truss-rod and use this as a basis for a new project!

Ok, I've sorted out the volume fluctuation problem - that was dodgy cable. So, just need to sort out the excessive hum/grounding issue. I've wired in all the grounds as per the wiring diagram from SDs website, and have the ground wire going from my bridge to the back of the pot with the other ground wires, is there something I'm missing? Secondly, i have the copper foil wire insulation to put in, do I put that on all sides and the bottom of the cavity, or just the sides, and should it also go in the pickup cavities? Please help an electronics donkey!

I just completed my wiring today (only 1 pickup so far to test it all out), it kinds of works, but my volume knob acts like a weak tone control, I've triple checked my wiring and it's all exactly as per the seymour duncan website (2 humbuckers, 1 tone, 1 volume). I havn't added my ground wire to the bridge yet, but can't see that would change the volume behaviour? Any idea's? I'm a real complete newb at this, so maybe I'm missing something! Cheers, EDIT: Fixed it, I forgot to ground the volume knob, doh! However, I still have two small issues, the first being, even though the ground wire is attached to my bridge, I still get major hum/static until I touch the bare pot or a pickup screw, I'm assuming this is a grounding issue, but where I do start in figuring this out? Secondly, I seem to get fluctuations of volume when playing, sometimes it goes up and then sometimes it goes down, I can't see any problems with the wiring as it seems to be fine overall, just an odd fluctuation that is hard to replicate, any idea's?

By abrasive do you mean sandpaper? if so what grit? and if not please explain? Yes, just sandpaper - in the same way you would flatten a fingerboard, I think I used either 320 or 400

Tonights task was to crown and dress the frets after yesterdays levelling. I adapted a triangle file for this purpose by grinding a safe edge on one side, this worked to a degree, but I shall definitely be investing in a decent stew-mac crowning file for future work. All in all it took me just over 2 and half hours to do this work, I used the stew-mac plastic abrasive belt dressing tool to smooth out the filing scratches and to get them to a decent smoothness, the final shine was brought out by various grades of steel wool. Here's the pic of the completed fret-job: It's hard to photograph the shine properly, but they have come up like mirrors, which is quite surprising as they looked rough throughout this whole crowning process, but the final rubbing out with the steel wool really makes a big difference.

Pros - aye, just a cheap old file that has been sitting around the lab at work for a while so I thought I'd re-home it and put it to use, it's a little rougher than I would have liked, but gets the ends bevelled quickly and accurately. Bass-Man - I just double taped some abrasive to the radius block, and ran this up and down the neck until all the frets were level, I used the pen ink on top of the fret method to ensure flatness. (And a straight edge of course).

Todays task was to file, bevel and level the frets: Filing of the sharp bits from the trimming: Here's a tool I made to present the file at a 35deg angle to bevel the ends of the frets: It's just held in a groove with three wood-screws. A piece of cloth is attached to the underside as not to damage the frets. nicely bevelled fret ends, these still require to be dressed and have the sharp edges either side of the bevel removed, I'll be adapting one of the many cheap triangle files I have for this task. Frets now levelled (using my radius block) Tomorrow, I'll be adapting yet another triangle file (larger one) to use for the crowning, then using my little fret-dressing stick I got from stewmacs I'll start the initial polish. I'll have to drill the tuner holes as well I suppose and the pilot holes for the neck screws, then I can concentrate on the body!

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys! Drak - you make a great suggestion, it's an option, but I was also thinking of having an area above the speakers where I was going to mount some circuits for various effects, but i'll think on your suggestion. Syxxstring, I was considering making the cab slightly angled to give a little more clarity.. One last question. Is there a marked difference between using 2x10's or 2x12's? (The cab that came with the head already has a vintage 30 10" hence my reasoning for 10's). Cheers chaps!

Trace and dremel. Isnt that the only accurate way to do it? Well, you've done a great job!

Interesting design, nice to see it coming along. Out of cuisoity what is your method for the inlay work - do you drawn it on and route with a dremel like tool, or do you trace the actual inlay and use chisels etc..?

I seem to have lost the reply I just wrote.. Daniel, I was basically saying that although not in the photo, I have a couple of support blocks that I use to support the neck during the hammering process. As for the nut-slot, it's a regular width nut, the slot is uneven - this is just the veneer thats on the front it doesn't effect the nut, the uneven area will be covered with a truss-rod cover and should look very neat/clean, well, thats the plan The workbench was a great project it weighs an absolute ton and doesn't budge, well worth the time and effort to put one together. It's quite handy for sanding and routing too, with the bench-dog holes I can pretty much clamp anything of any shape, so working on guitar bodies is very easy.

Hi prostheta - I used the bounty to lubricate the slots, that coconut oil is pure quality! :-) As for the tools - you can see in the photo that I've already bought them (and from stewmacs). Luckily for both of my stew-mac orders I've not got any import duty bills, so I've been quite lucky in that respect. I did consider adapting some regular pliers but just bought the stew-macs ones to save the hassle, but for anyone with a little time on their hands, your advice is very sound! I use axminster a lot (carpentry has been my main hobby for the last few years) and have a number of their japanese pull-saws, one in particular is the perfect width for fretboard slotting - I actually used it a little on this fret job to deepen a couple of the slots as they were a little shallow after the various flattening processes. If you like the bench, here's a thread with some more photo's and some explanation of how I built it (you can also see some of my other projects, including a table that was featured in a national woodworking magazine - my only claim to fame :-)!): http://lumberjocks.com/projects/2874 It was quite hard-work to make it, but it's an absolute god send, out of my entire workshop, it's definitely my most used tool, even more so than the machinery. I intend to make a host of jigs and holders for it to make guitar building a little easier. For anyone new to guitar making, I would highly recommend building a good sturdy workbench as your first task.

Fella's Just a quick query this time. I've recently acquired a heavily modded epi valve jr head (seriously rocks) but the guy I bought it from supplied a real crappy shoebox with a decent speaker in it as use for a cab, it obviously sounds quite poo and is too tiny for the head to sit upon, so I intend to build a larger cabinet to house a pair of speakers (Celestion Vintage 30 10"). I intend to have the speakers arranged one above the other instead of side-by-side, this will allow the cab to be higher, as I wish to have the head at chest height rather than low near the floor. Will I suffer in terms of sound quality due to the arrangement of the speakers this way (I've searched around the net and haven't found any info on this specific query) ?

Fretting was the order of the day this afternoon. 'twas easier than expected. The pics: Essential tool kit: Fret bending pliars (for radius), fret cutters, fretting hammer and the most crucial to the success of this operation; a bounty chocolate bar Frets cut to slightly over length: First few tentatively put in place: All frets installed and trimmed to fingerboard: Just got to level, crown polish and dress!

Some more progress today. I seemed to bogged down with quite fiddly tasks at the momet, they seem to take a long time and don't show much for a lot of time and effort, but atleast it's getting done. Here's what I've completed today: - Headstock venneer cut/filed to shape and blended in - Headstock edges sanded smooth - Dot markers inlayed and sanded flash - Neck flattened - Second coat of oil added to neck - Body wet-sanded and given a second coat of shellac - Truss-rod rattle fixed I checked the neck yesterday with a straight edge and was quite annoyed when I discovered that it had a slight bow in the middle, so I had spend some time getting this down so the neck was flat, I then had to re-sand the neck a second time after I forgot to put the inlays in first, doh! I havn't lost much in thickness though so it's all fine, just very tedious and not particularly pleasant sanding this rosewood. Here's some pics of todays work: Headstock veneer (front) brought to shape and sanded Completed headstock veneer, makes it look a lot nicer now that you can't see the joint lines Inlays installed and sanded Body wet-sanded and then given a second of shellac - it's starting to have a nice satin sheen, should look better when sanded to 2000 and the first coats of oil go on

Thanks for all your input guys. I've just ordered a hot-rod matched pair of JB/Jazz, a good price too (£105 the pair). Wez - I just missed out on BKP Cold Sweat on ebay the other day, it only went for £37!!! Bargain! As for an amp, I've made a decision, and I've bought a hot-rod modded Epi Jnr Valve head (gain, voice, tone, master volue, power-brake and line-in/line out added) and a cab with a celestion vintage 30 - should sound pretty good! Just need to get the explorer finished so I can give it a full work out!!

good work my man, thats a lovely job, you must be quite proud! I just hope my explorer is half as good as yours!

Hi fella's, I'm hoping some of you guys can help, I'm nearing the end of my explorer build and have to decide on pickups and which amp I'm going to use. I've narrowed the pickup choices down to: A Seymour Duncan matched set of JB in the bridge and Jazz in the neck OR A set of EMG 81/85 I mostly play metal/rock, so the EMG's are the obvious choice there, however, as I get older I'm finding I like to play a little cleaner now and then, and like to jam along with some blues, and some clean strumming - are the EMG's upto that? I keep reading that they can be cold and sterile - is this a myth, or will the SD's be more suitable? WezV - I did consider some BKP's (I think you contributed to a thread of mine) and had decided on a Miracle Man and Cold Sweat combo, but I just can't afford to go for BKP's on this build. Secondly, I want to gather your opinions on an amp choice. I'm mostly a home-based player and only need something relatively small. I've narrowed my chocie down to a Epi Valve Jnr Stack, or a Vox ADVT-XL, for me the epi wins on the tube sound and cool look's stake, but the Vox is more versatile with it's modelling, however the Epi is supposed to react well with pedals, I just can't decide what would be better - a good all tube amp that can be tailored with pedals that looks cool, or a cheaper modelling amp that has a bunch of sounds built in but is probably not as good for a nice tube tone.. Opinions, insults and insights gratefully received!

I know what you mean about the neck pocket, I thought it was a little odd when I first bought it I think the guy that made it clearly had too much material in that area prior to routing the pocket, but its fine though, it seems to support the neck well and doesn't seem to get in the way. When I start my next one I'll have a more traditional neck pocket - unless I go for a set-neck that is.

So, I've fixed the spalted veneer - I took it off completely and will be replacing with a matching walnut veneer. Todays Progress: It was time to clean up and sand the fretboard, heres me using my radiused sanding block. I went through the grits upto 800grit Once it was sanded to an almost mirror finish, I wiped on a little bit of oil to help lubricate the fretboard, it really brings out the richness of the wood and feels really silky, I can't wait to get the chance to play it. (This pic was when it was wet, it looks a lot better dry and feels great) While that was drying, it was time to turn my attentions to the body. It was quite 'rounded' and didn't really have the look of a real rock/metal explorer, so it was out with the ROS and 80 grit to sharpen up the edges, this worked remarkably well. Then it was time to sand the body all the way up to 400grit to receive the first sealer coat: And here's the body at the end of todays work with a single shellac sealer coat: Tomorrow, I'll be putting another shellac coat, and then wet sand to aid in filling the grain, I should be receiving my finishing product (Arm R Seal) during the week and that will be used to give a nice strong but natural protective finish. I'll also be sanding and sorting out the new headstock veneer as well as applying another coat of oil to the back of the neck, I'm going to leave the fretting until monday (The mrs' is at work and this will allow me to concentrate without getting nagged about something or the other).