After the anguish and emotional turmoil surrounding finishing my fifth bespoke guitar build, I decided I would take it easy and be nice to myself this time around.
Number six isn't a build, per se, but a partcaster. I bought the parts and I'm refinishing them and bolting it all together.
The body is a basswood strat shape that I modified a little, making the horns a little sharper. I also modded the neck joint to make it easier to access the upper frets. The neck is by K-Mise, maple on maple, which I also reshape just to make it more like mine. I like necks a little narrower, so I filed it down to 1 5/8" at the nut and tapered it up towards the upper frets.
So far I have also primed and sprayed the top of the body, stained the back (leaving a strip about 5mm high between the two that will hopefully look like a natural faux binding) and sprayed the neck clear (which also got an inkjet decal on the headstock).
I positioned some of the bits that I've already got in the pictures - Wilkinson tremolo, parchment pickguard (again, cut to my taste, or lack thereof), single volume knob. There will be a five way switch, single volume with push-push to activate a capacitor that will act as a tone switch, humbucker in the bridge and single coil size rails in the neck. I've already decided on the wiring too - bridge, bridge parallel, both, neck parallel, neck. Simple, no frillls. It's not meant to be a do-everything guitar, more of a rock machine, really. But we'll see once I get some Fletcher pickups in there.
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Comments
Oh and I already have a number six of that variety (wifey and I have three each,,,).
Thanks G! Very kind of you. I'm crossing my fingers I don't muck up the clear coat!!
Body and neck, before...
The fret job wasn't too bad, but still needed a little work. For £20-odd quid, it's quite amazing. I think.
Close up of the stained body, showing the faux binding.
I'm still waiting to do the clear. This is not my favourite part (waiting!).
I think they only have black ones left..
Cool !
I see what you mean about musicman looking.
I'm glad you like it, Graham:-) counting the days until I can spray the clear.....
So far so good. I lost count but guesstimated that I have about 20 odd coats on so far. That's two cans of lacquer. One to go.
More news as it happens!
I thought I should put a decal on this one...
…and a little something on the back. Hey, why not.
That's Wilko's finest clear lacquer, their own brand stuff.
I finally figured out how to do the decals. I was using them like old Airfix ones - print them off, float them in water and get them stuff all over your fingers before they curl up in a ball. I had largely ignored the instructions because the Ingrish was a bit broken, but I worked it out. You print them on an inkjet, spray with lacquer, let dry and THEN use them as normal. I made a few extra and violently abused one to see how much they can handle, and it seems they can take a LOT. I screwed one up in a ball and it still looked ok! They were just the cheapest inkjet water slide decals on eBay. Nothing fancy.
• Cut out with scissors.
• Drop in a saucer of water for 30-60 seconds.
• Slide off backing paper onto guitar (or Messerschmidt BF109/Spitfire/etc).
• Let dry.
• Stand in awe of your own brilliance.
Easy
LOL
We'll see how the clear coat goes. That may still be an option!!