Guitaraxz

Blue 7

Hi! This is a seven string so tuned down to G which was originally going to be an 8 string but the dude who asked me to make her changed his mind. He preferred 7. I’m talking about changing his mind when I was more than half way thru, but it was possible. You can see the build here http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/48439-7-8-string-axes/

Neck

Three piece neck thru; Cedar-Chen Chen-Cedar

Fanned Stewmac Jumbo frets; 28.5”-25.5”

Rosewood fingerboard

Headstock; 8 degree fall away, Palo Escrito veneer

Inlay; glow in the dark

Body

Woods; Caoba Blanca (white mahogany) wings, Palo Escrito top.

Bridge; Fanned Fret Innovations individual bridges.

Finish; Sherwin Williams blue dye & Polyurethane

Electronics

Pickups; Lace Alumitone Deathbuckers

Pots; CTS

Jack; Switchcraft

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

Nice! It makes so much more sense to paint the black last.

SR

Hehe, we thought it was a lot of trouble so we wont try it again! Next time; Black first.

We made a Frankostrat and decided to try and paint the black colour last. 

We used Caoba Blanca for the body, Cedar for the neck, Rosewood fretboard and Duncan Mod 78 humbuckers for that brown sound. Sorry, no pics of the build.

But let's get to the paint, usually the black goes first but we thought it would look nicer if all the electronic cavities were black so we deceided to go in reverse. First White & Red then tape it up

and paint it black

I think that the black mate lines will look cool on another Franky!

peeled her off

And had the cavities in black too

Put some clear & polished her

Thank you for the coments Scott & Prostheta!

As for the Deathbucker Alumitones from Lace my impresions are that they are either the upper part of mid gain (mid-high gain) or lower part of high gain (high-mid gain). But maybe that is because they seem to lack some bite, some high frequency spectrum. For instance a Duncan Mod 78 sounds like it has plenty of power because it has a lot of high mids in them, they have a good bite, yet they are mid gain pups. The Deathbucker Alumitones may have high gain but on the lower end. That may give them high gain in numbers but not in my ears. Great of you like dark tones.

They are absolutely noiseless, zero hum, so you can really add all the gain you want in your setup. They sounded nice and clean when the seven string ax was tuned in B (normal) but when I used the tuning my client wanted, the seventh string down to G, it was fizzy. That was the same guitar, same amp, same player (me), but when I tuned down I could hear theis fizz which made me lose clarity in complicated riffs. 

For a 7 string metal head ax I preffer a Nazgul-Sentient Duncan set, but those pups are not as loooong as the Alumitones (thus limiting how angled you can place them) nor do they look as good. 

It's a good thing that you had to add binding to that fretboard. Real wood binding looks very elegant. 

took of the tape and put some clear coats on 

And ran into a HORRIBLE problem; the bridge was too tall......aaargh!

3 sollutions seemed available; 1- take of the fretboard and make a thicker one. 2- Ditch the guitar and start from scratch. 3- Recess the bridge. .......... I chose the latter.....so time to do some fine routing

And then paint her up with Stewmacs shielding paint

Did some soldering and shielding

Once installed the bridge looked fine and the strings were at a beutifull 1 mm height!

Thank you Scott!

It,s time to finish up the guitar that was going to be 8, but is now a 7.....

Scrapped of a the edges of the Palo Escrito top

put a bit of blue die in

Scrapped of the die and tapped of the edge

did some sunburst

Wow, nice jig for curving that S top........to think that the only S type guitar I've built I used a wood plane makes me feel prehistoric. 

I love that "screwless" swith trick! 

Nice video editing

Great work and great photografs!

Aaargh! I know what that's like, it once happened to me on an already finished guitar. I went for this gadget http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Types_of_Tools/Routers_and_Bits/Bits/Guitar_Screw_Rescue_Kit.html 

It also works to make fret board markers with a diferent wood speicies. 

16 hours ago, Mr_PaTi3Nc3 said:

Thanks for the help guys.  It actually turns out that im just a novice with this as i havent built a guitar before and the copper tape i had put too much on,  it was touching thr base of the pickups and the pots. 

 

All working now and i couldnt be happier for a first build. 

 

I'm glad that you solved the problem! And yeah; I know how shielding can short circuit your electronics because I've been there too, it's a pain in the arse. 

¿Did you shield the electronics cavity? On various ocations I have run into shielding making a short with something and the solution was a bit of masking tape. If your cavity has shielding just take the electronics out (without disconecting anything) and see if the guitar now has sound. If it does it's just a short circuit, a bit of masking and youre done. 

4 hours ago, 2.5itim said:

Im not sure about this bridge pickup distance from the bridge, hopefully it's not to close! 

IMO as long as the bridge is at the right distance everything else is just a matter of taste. The bridge distance, from the nut, is what matters (in relation to the frets). 

To me a pickup close to the bridge sounds brighter, youre worried of it beeing too bright, but I have run into some that are too far which made getting pinch harmonics difficult. If it sounds too bright you cn use a 250K volume pot instead of a 500K and that would probably tame the high end. You can also swap the mag of the humbucker and put a UO Alnico 2 which has more mids and less treble than any other mag. I have a Seymour Eclair humbucker with a UOA2 in it, that pup has a beutifull sweet singing voice. 

On 11 de abril de 2016 at 10:08 AM, ScottR said:

I love your depth stop idea on your drill press, and that is a sweet fret radiuser, did you build that?

SR

Naw, I once made one but it wasn't perfect so I got this one from Stewmac

Well......counting how many days it takes to make a strat has gone to hell. I only had time to work in bits & peices, lets say a week.

Drilled in the fretboard holes & glued the dots in

Drilled in the side dots, just marked the spot with a punch and free handed them in, it worked fine.

Made sure the fret slots were deep enough

made the top surface a little wider to accept where the fret tang joins the fret itself

curved the fret wire

Hammered em in

And filed the fret end down to par.

Thanks for watching!

-Raxz

Well......counting how many days it takes to make a strat has gone to hell. I only had time to work in bits & peices, lets say a week.

Drilled in the fretboard holes & glued the dots in

Drilled in the side dots, just marked the spot with a punch and free handed them in, it worked fine.

Made sure the fret slots were deep enough

made the top surface a little wider to accept where the fret tang joins the fret itself

curved the fret wire

Hammered em in

And filed the fret end down to par.

Thanks for watching!

-Raxz

Cut the fretboard & glued in the binding

Routed in the Piick up cavities

And glued in the fretbord

Aaaaaaaaaahhh.............................. How things can get complicated!

The client for the 8 string guitar asked me to change it into a 7 string.......so I had to make a new fretboard (since it's a Fanned fret the distances would change if I just made it norrower).

First I made an MDF template of the new fretboard and bridge, the one to the right came out wrong so I had to make another one (to the left) in which i meassured the distances, held down the bridges with double tape and drilled a small mark of where the holes must be.

Mind you that my drill press stopped working so I had to think of another way to drill the holes sorrectly on the body. In these bridges the strings go all the way to the other side.

On the marks I had made I used this little whatsitsname to drill the holes STRAIGHT in the MDF.

I then used those holes to hold the template on the guitar by screwing them in.

I put in the bridges (sorry no pic) and used them as a Template to mark where the body thru holes will be  and used the same whatsitsname. BUT the drill bits would only go half way thru (not long enough). I went as far as I could on all 7 holes.

Since the holes in the MDF ere straight they hold the bit in position to drill in the rest and get to the other side. ONLY ON 7 & 1st STRINGS.

I flipped the body and held the Template on the 7 & 1 strings, with srews, and used the Template to drill in the other half from back to top (the first half was done from top to back).

On 27/3/2016 at 2:37 AM, 10pizza said:

real classy looking! was there not enough wood to recess the round cavity cover?

love the colour mix.

 

It was 9 AM and I had to deliver the guitar at 10 AM, there wasn't enough time! The client had a gig  and wanted the ax ASAP.

I see that you already routed the trem resess and that shouldn't be a problem. What I personally find dificult is to make sure the bridge and neck are aligned and at the right distance for intonating. I sugest you insert the neck, then put on the 1st & 6th strings on the trem and use them to make sure everything is aligned before dilling in the trem posts. Then put in a pickup and make sure both strings are properlly intonated, it's always easier to do this before painting to avoid showing any mistakes. 

On 8 de enero de 2016 at 2:09 PM, bassplr19 said:

 

Gorgeus top, that is going to be great!

On 24 de febrero de 2016 at 11:28 AM, ScottR said:

You are about half crazy, you know that? I love this project. I'll be eagerly watching to see how this one turns out!

SR

Half crazy would make him half sane! No way! 

Completley bonkers ina cool way!

Personally I prefered the white stove knobs, Scott prefered them black, you prefered some brass ones so nobody agrees haha. 

Hello Guitarists!

This is a seven string build, I call her “Grey Thunder”,  where the goal was to marry an old line with a longer range & modern pickup configuration. So we decided on very light wood, painted it with a vintage style  grey yet put some modern looking red binding & modern humbuckers.  We did our best effort to keep her easy to play with a thin neck, despite being a 7 string bolt on, I always consider that the player must have a good easy access up to the 24^th fret.

·         Body; Caoba Blanca, nice & light.

·         Neck; Caobilla with Palo Escrito high light and Rosewood fret board. Glow in the dark side dots.

·         25.5” string length.

·         Bone nut

·         Frets; Stew Mac medium jumbo.

·         Seymour Duncan pups; Invader bridge & Pegasus neck.

·         Electronics; CTS pots & Switchcraft jack.

You can see the process of the build here http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/48439-7-8-string-axes/

Thanx for watching!