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Everything posted by flashriprock
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
Here's a sketch of my pickup cavity dimensions. Notice that mine were routed about 1.25mm off from a true center line. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
Below are the dimensions of both the pickups (which are identical in size measured at their widest points) and the cavities. Pickups (L x W x D): 67.7 mm x 37.0 mm x 16.34 mm Cavities (L x W x D): 85 mm (widest) and 69.5 mm x 38.0 mm x 11.0 mm Each pickup sits on a pair of black form pads to help adjust height. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
NEW PICKUPS This topic is usually a pretty quick post. The person drops-off their guitar to their local shop and voila -- it has new pickups! Or, the experienced luthier glosses over the process because it's so mundane that it barely merits explanation. My process was neither. Because I decided to DIY this process by myself, I had to figure out a few details on my own. I'll share the process for others who might also like to do this by themselves. First, here's a look at the stock pickups and cavities. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
For those looking to mod or custom build the NK Headless, I notice they recently started selling the guitar in a kit form now too on eBay. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
@D_stone, the picture you’re referring to (and pasted again here) was sent to me by guitar163 from eBay. I could tell the body was chambered when I got it, and I requested a picture to understand where. I can’t easily verify the illustration without poking a hole in mine, but based on the drawing I would not suggest trying to mod the body. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
Hi @D_stone. I'd suggest being persistent. I too had to email more than once sometimes, but I eventually received a response. I consciously tried to send my inquiries during their business hours in China so my messages were fresh. When I got a response, I'd pounce to keep the conversation going real-time. I tried to have contiguous dialogues when possible rather than stretching them across many days. English is a second language, and it's easy for things to get lost in translation. I also sent pictures with arrows and highlights to help, and I wasn't afraid to keep checking after a period of time. I got the feeling they were doing their best. Best of luck! -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
Cheers @Fusion. Pleasure to connect, and particularly with someone abroad in the Netherlands! I was hoping others like you would find this post. Many people who have bought the NK headless seem to like it enough to improve it, but very few have posted their project. My build has been stalled for about a month now. My next task will be to install new pickups. I've had the pickups for a while now (Seymour Duncans: Distortion trembucker, Jazz neck), but I need to rout the pickup cavities to accommodate them. Like everything else so far I will do that myself, and for the first time. I bought a router and I sourced a professionally made routing template just for my project (a learning I'll soon share). I received the template just this week, but I won't be able to spend time on this project for 1-2 weeks. When I do, I'll share everything -- successes, failures, suppliers, learning. Please chronicle your project too. I'm very interested to see how the Hipshot bridge works for you. You probably saw I almost chose it too, and it appears to be outstanding. Your installation will be MUCH easier than mine. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
Here's a pic before installation. I used excess StewMac copper shielding tape on the inside of the cover. In this picture the cover is sitting copper-side-up. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
I didn't want the cover to be crystal clear because then light scratches and swirls would show up. To solve this, I lightly abrased the outside using fine grit sandpaper. I set-up a guide and sanded it in a single direction, creating subtle straight lines across the entire width of the plate. It's a little tough to see, but here's a pic. (Note, the protective plastic film is still on it, and that film is clouding the the effect a little too). -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
NEW BACKPLATE I really liked the copper, and decided it would be a shame to hide all that beautiful metal. I wanted a cavity plate that would let some of that color show through. I started with a sheet of clear polycarbonate. You'll want it 1/16" thickness because that matches the stock plate's thickness. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
I blame this next (unnecessary) step on Jeff Kiesel, specifically, his many video tours of the Kiesel Guitar factory. On one particular video he showed how they copper shield every guitar, and then, how they tap in brass knurls to accept the backplate screws. This way, each screw goes into a nice threaded knurl rather than directly into the wood. I chose M3 threaded, 8mm long knurls that were 5mm in external diameter. I matched them with 10mm long M3 screws. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
COPPER SHIELD CONTROL CAVITY I next decided to copper shield the control cavity. To do this, I bought the StewMac Standard Self-Adhesive Shielding Kit, which proved to be more than enough for this cavity. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
Here's the view from the front. It's unconventional, but it completely solved my knob obstruction problem and I gained two killswitches in the process. -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
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Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
These explorations, plus a few I won't go into, eventually lead me to my third and final plan.... Solution idea 3: Relocate two controls, fill the two vacated holes with killswitches (yes, 2 of them so they look purposeful), use full-size CTS pots if the space allows. By the way, none of my explorations looked at keeping the coil tap volume. I've never had that function, so I won't miss it with this guitar. Keeping it simple. Here's what that looked like: -
Upgrading my NK headless guitar
flashriprock replied to flashriprock's topic in In Progress and Finished Work
Glad I tested it, but the dowel cap approach was a fail in my book. The plug fit very nicely, but the cap was never going to match satisfactorily. I knew that it would always bother me and detract from the other improvements. It basically said "my amateur owner resorted to this stupid plug to deal with his mistakes."