jrdragonetti

Thank you for the lovely comments  Im sure every builder goes through the same thing when they take photos "can you see where I buggered it up" kind of thing. 

So as I mentioned in my first post this guitar is finished, and has been for a couple of days. I mean this isn't my first build, but its the first I'm truly happy with, even with all its flaws. Its a weird feeling to be honest, Its not like when you get a new guitar and its all exciting and fresh, more that I've spent so much time working on it, tweaking bits and bobs that everything just feels comfortable, like that favourite guitar you've had for years... 

So technical specs (to the best of my knowledge as its a heavily modded kit guitar)

• Basswood body (i think, its soft like basswood so I'll go with that)
• Elm Burl Veneer top
• 2 Piece flamed maple neck
• Wilkinson Trem
• luminlays
• Random machine heads ripped from an Ibanez SZ series
• Jumbo Frets
• Tonerider P90 neck pickup
• Warman Brdge pickup (specs unknown)
• 25 1/2 inch scale
• Pickup rings are the crappy plastic ones sanded down to a matt finish

Lots of first times with this guitar, including laquering and polishing, veneering (yes, please dont ask why the hell did I choose veneering a carved top for the first time! I obviously like a challenge) removing a floyd rose and redrilling for a different type of trem. Also the first guitar I own with a P90, really impressed with that actually, enough to consider a bit of sacrilege and pop one in the neck of my ibanez RG...

Also, before I get to the photo bit - which all viewing this would rather I got to sooner rather than later  i would like to thank everyone who posts on this forum, no matter who you are, the knowledge and wisdom coming from all the posters here as been so  helpful, from the tutorials to the projects and how to fix minor fuckups, everything, I just regret not joining sooner.

So thanks

wow, thats some inspirational metalwork, good job on the binding, haven't tried it myself yet but i know it can get tricky.

I wouldnt worry too much about the rear string holes, as @Andyjr1515 says, it wont really be seen.

Also its good to see another builder from my hometown, good old Lestah

8 hours ago, Prostheta said:

The colours in that headstock are fantastic under the clear. That's deep and powerful stuff. Not so sure about the transition to the masked part....I guess you have significant paint bleed?

Thank you, This was my first attempt masking off areas, I used bog standard masking tape which definitely caused alot of bleedthrough, i sanded most of it away and recleared it, but I'm not too great at this spraying thing tbh

5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Welcome!  

Watching this with great interest. Veneering is pretty much where I started and if this is your first attempt, I am very impressed with the results you've got.  The headstock bodes very well for a great end result

Trying to spray outdoors in UK is a major PITA!  Full marks for your tenacity....

Thanks, yep, due to lack of any type of workshop my builds only happen during the "summer" so maybe over two weeks per year  

so lets fast forward from may/june to the end of August, due to my paranoia over the laquer, I gave it a few months before I cut it back and polished, so here is my first attempt at polishing a guitar...

So this was polished in the usual way, cut back with varying grits of wet/dry up to 2500grit then 3 different polishes, I used the rothco and frost brand, the first actual polish was done with one of those mushroom pads on the end of a battery drill, then the rest using a cloth and the power of my puny arm.

thanks Scott,

Well basically, I accidentally hit submit on my last post instead of upload pics and didnt want to look like i was just trying to add numbers to my post count, but i figure its ok now...

My plan was to do a burst on it, first attempt didnt go too well.

Heres a pic or two..

customary washing line post for amateur builders

headstock turned out ok though

when it came to the front of the body, I had issues, I sprayed on what was to be the hottest day of the year at that point, so the laquer ended up with lots of air bubbles coming up, something that was a pain in the arse to get rid off, especially as I'm someone not experienced in spraying, I ended up pretty much sanding back to bare wood/veneer...

Stay tuned whilst I wait for my image host to upload the rest

Sooo... 

the headstock was carved using an electric corner sander of all things... not what I'd recommend really, but it actually did the job quickly and cleanly enough on low power

so as I mainly build in my garden during nice weather (uk based so very rare) i waited for a nice day and started spraying, obviously the body was sanded down to a nice grit before hand.

Hello,

I've been following this website for a long time, back when it used to be just some yellow text on a black background tbh  and I've finally got my act together enough to actually finish a project worth showing.

So about 3 years ago I bought an EVH type guitar from BYOguitar.com and finished it fairly quickly, learning about dyes, and nitro and I must admit, at the time, i was fairly proud of it,even though the f***ing thing never stayed in tune, 

and here it was finished (well finished enough...)

Unfortunately, the fact that the floyd rose on this guitar, as with ALL hardware on kit guitars hampered things a bit, it never stayed in tune and intonation was always just off enough to piss me off, so I stuck it in a case and hid it away until April this year....

Now, I never really thought i'd ever post this on these forums so I neglected to take photos until things started to go right, so no pics, but ill give a summary of what I decided to do and then actually did, bear in mind this was on my mind for at least a couple of months getting an image of what i wanted it to look like in my head.

So the plan.

• Remove the crappy binding
• remove nitro
• Remove the crappy veneer
• fill in the mounting post holes for the floyd and replace with a new tremolo
• carve the top - by hand
• add a new veneer to the guitar
• do a sunburst and laquer with poly

so as everyone loves photos here is the point i started taking them.

just after i carved the top and added the new veneer - this was a bitch of a job, used a tutorial from this site and it worked, maybe with more practice i wouldnt have to use so much filler...

as you can see if you look closely, this was after about a week after adding the veneer and letting the glue settle and cure, it shifted a bit, not massive amounts but meh also this is the first time i've ever done anything with elm veneer.

here it is after the headstock veneer was applied and carved.

Just to be safe, my next post will contain more photos