Muzz

Yep I think Pestvic is right, just keep spraying and sanding until everything levels out, I would check your finish for Prostheta's idea there might be contaminants or solvent problems before you do though, good luck with it, guitar building never goes according to plan, I try and tell myself it's character building, where's the emoticon for wry smile?

Got down to about 40 mm. Drilled through from the top, cut some would out and then filed out enough so I could get a bit in from the back

and finished it off

I am so envious you caught Halestorm, they are amazing I would love to see them. Glad you are liking the build

I started routing the top block hole,

about 20 mm down, I didn’t check the router could spin freely on start up and I heard the dreaded clack. I checked out the damage, it was OK, most of it will get routed out when the back route gets done.

But I still hate tearout, what am I saying? Who likes it? So I cut wafers of wood and glued them in. A few bit more went in after this pic

A friend called up so we went and got fish and chips at the pub and checked out some music stores. Got back routed the repair

Looking fantastic

Yah!!! Giant neck!!!

Serious neck dive candidate! Puts it all into perspective doesn't it?

Looking good Muzz. I'm looking forward to seeing this turn red.

SR

Same here Scott, it shouldn't be too far away, I am going to get going on the body routes tomorrow.

I used the plans that Paulie sent me to make templates for the trem route.

This one is the top block cavity, it turned out 1 mm to long, but I just used it to make one the right size

then I used the top cavity template to make the back block cavity,

and used my Floyd spring cavity template to make the slightly shorter Strat style cavity

I'll get going tomorrow, I'll get in the right frame of mind listening to this

Yeah, I would buzz the top off the LP and put a new one on

But the green guitar is looking awesome, colour, shape, grain, everything, Rockin

I'm not sure I like this Cardinal lacquer from LMI. It has left some bubbles in areas that I sprayed a little too thick and they are had to buff out. I have been melting them with a very thinned lacquer brushed on.....we'll see how it goes.

SR

Great stuff Scott, it looks comfy and beautiful

I drew in the screw line and positioned the trem,

And strung it up with fishing line

Everything looking OK, but after checking the measurements twice I thought I was being obsessive doing it again, but on the third check I realized I had positioned the screw line at 25.20 inches instead of 25.25

Fixed

Dude put a shirt on, it's 16 degrees outside

New design looks great, the current batch of explorers also fantastic but how come you are grinding so much apex off the frets? No biggie there is plenty left.

You getting back into playing?

Today I made the neck pocket template and routed the pocket. I still haven't seen anyone else use this technique for making templates.

I've done something similar, just not to the extreme that you've gone. I don't believe I ever posted pics of it either.

We will have to come up with a name for it then

LOL wow.. I actually fell for the guitar falling... Looks awesome though. I am definitely going to use this technique for the neck pocket template. For some reason its the hardest/ least favorite route that I have to do on my builds... Thanks!

Cheers, when you get all the pencil centre marks lined up, you can just relax and enjoy routing it down, let us know how you go with it.

That looks fantastic, and when it's lit up you could play some L.E.D. Zeppelin on it .... boom tish

Lined the template on the body and clamped it down, 4 clamps, I don't want that template slipping.

Routing down

And this is a pic of me holding the guitar up with no screws or glue in the po ......... oh no, disaster ........

Just kidding, always wanted to do that, here is the cliche photograph

and that's it, I am never, ever posting the body hanging on to the neck with pure tightness photo again that is just guitar building nerdness

Heya OSi, Oh yeah, now I can see the ends at the headstock, I like the headstock shape too, that looks cool.

I've never tried them, but I've never heard anything but good reports about them. I have some Chinese Artec pups - likely wound in the same factory - which sound surprisingly good for how little they cost.

Yes I think some of these Chinese pickup factories are getting better with the quality, Belcat is another brand I have heard about, but never tried.

GFS pickups sound good...I bought some and can't complain...they sound like the description.

Great, I'll look forward to trying them out then, some of the guitars at Guitar Fetish look amazing especially for the price they are charging.

Today I made the neck pocket template and routed the pocket. I still haven't seen anyone else use this technique for making templates. I use the straight edge on 6 mm pieces of MDF and screw them into 18 mm MDF. Then route through using the edges of the 6mm as the template.

I drew a centre line on the piece of MDF, lined the neck up on it so it is centred.

Screwed the first piece of MDF on, I countersunk the screws in at least a mm over the head, you don't want those scratching your router.

Then clamped pieces each side of the neck and screwed them on

Then cut out most of the inside

and routed out the rest

Yep, this is a fantastic project, It is great to see the craft shared and the guitar developing

So on the advice of a friend I ordered some GFS pickups for this guitar, are they any good? They are cheap as chips so nothing really to loose giving them a try for a change from DiMarzio. Just checked on the tracking site and they are in Jamaica, NY at the moment.

So the Ibanez model is pre- lawsuit?

Floyds are great, so is the Ibanez edge trem, but snipping the ends off the strings and pinching them with those tiny blocks in the trem is fiddly $#1! , I love the way they keep the guitar in tune for a whole set, they sound pretty spectacular when a string breaks too

whoa where can i find those micro mesh pads?

Yep Maull is right they have them at Stew Mac, but you can also get them from lots of other woodworking shops. I got mine from a guy who runs this great shop out of his garage, he has some really cool gear there, and his pet turtle is in the shop too. I didn't know that turtles often live longer than 120 years.

your new friend has a very nice collection !!

The neck is looking stellar- nice work so far.

Mang, I was in there today, he has some seriously cool guitars there, I asked him,

Q. How many guitars does a guitarist need?

A. Just one more

Great guitar, I love breaking the rules so the screwed on floyd is the duck's nuts (Aussie slang for cool)

Sanded the finish to 2000 with wet and dry, the headstock is still to be done in this photo, now I realize why everyone says the camera doesn't get red colours right, the colour looks browner in the photos than in real life, no biggie

Then polished the finish up to 12, 000 with micromesh

Ready for buffing

Before I paint the front of the headstock black I am going to leave it woodgrain for a while, just for $#1&$ and giggles I'll put an old school style logo on it

I started work on the neck pocket template, looking forward to cutting that out

I just want to play Whole lotta Rosie on it

Thanks for all the advice but as RestorationAD said "I personally couldn't stand knowing it was off. It would drive me nuts" Its got to come off. So off it is. I'm also going to have a little holiday from guitar building as I'm rushing it and making mistakes through fustration. I was doing well on this build but its getting to me so time to step back.

I'll post when I have good news on progress.

Chins up

Lee

Good call

Yep, the first fret will be about 0.5 mm more towards the bridge on the treble side of the neck and o.5 mm more towards the nut on the bass side. It could be accommodated by adjusting the bridge saddles, its a personal choice to go that way or steam it off, how much time would that take? a few hours? I can't see any reason you couldn't glue the same fretboard back on if you go that way.

Rockin

Got the black paint for the headstock front yesterday, polished the rest of the neck to 2000, tomorrow micromesh to 8000 this morning.

Spent the rest of the day, recording demos, lots of guitars to choose from that belong to my new friend Michael.

The guitar on the left is just the colour I want for this guitar

I loved the mosaic front single cut with the Bigsby