Golden Number's exa7

[Andyxlh]

Not 100% on pickups yet, all I know is that I want something hotter than the dimarzios in my Ibanez.

Perhaps try tonerider octane pickups. I have rocksongs in my LP and they are great, the octane is one step hotter. Pitbull should have some, but I'm not sure about 7 string models.

[Golden Number]

Well, a little bit of progress.

While under the influence of a rather nice stout I had an epiphany. Considering what I'm going to use this guitar for (riffing, or attempting to) I have no need for a neck pickup, at least for now. As if guided by a higher power I had a scratch around online and found a covered sd invader for ridiculously cheap. The plan is to wire this to the 3 way which will act as an on/off switch while still fitting the neck pickup as a dummy.

Now for the fret. Having been given a boot in the posterior by the pickup showing up I decided to extract the dud fret even though the new one courtesy of Adam hasn't arrived yet. After dealing with a weak soldering iron and useless end cutters I managed to carefully tap it out using a rather sharp nail and a plastic hammer. Not too much chipping to worry about apart from one decent chunk I saw and assumed would already be glued down, obviously not. What would be the best remedy for this, a drop of superglue? I also have a bit of a hole to fill up at the dusty end. Pictures to follow tomorrow as I currently only have internet at work

Cheers

[wazkelly]

Super glue works ok on rosewood.

I de-fretted a bass with rosewood fret board a while back and the tear-outs were huge. CA glue (high grade super glue) was used to create a clear finish and since then any small chips or whatever with rosewood, out comes the humble super glue to the rescue. Excess sands off pretty easy but best not to apply too much in the first place.

[Golden Number]

Extraction successful.



The invader in the supplied kit ring as it came with a flat one.



My budget staining rig made up from a taped up drumstick with a drill bit through it, sitting on some stand with wheels on it I found lying around the yard.



One coat of stain I picked up at a clearance store for $10. Varathane chestnut I believe.





Pretty chuffed with the result and the colour to be honest. It was my first time trying to do any kind of finishing. Looks sort of similar to Mr. Hetfield's Ken Lawrence beast. Another coat or two should even out the colour a bit more.

[Fretworn]

Looking good. You’ve been lucky with the wood orientation. The light-dark-light-dark strips look really good. Better than if there had just been one piece of wood that took the stain differently.

[Golden Number]

Ok, the fret is here but I'm getting a bit stuck. The ends are refusing to stay down, I'm guessing it may be because the wire might not be radiused. Is there a way to work this without a fret bender because if this is the case I'll probably just find somewhere to do it for me. I bought some selleys all fix to use, is this suitable or is it back to bunnings, I'm not really a fan of the texture of this stuff anyway. I was thinking of clamping the fret either side with a cork block under the neck for something to grab onto.

[Golden Number]

After using the highly technical method of grabbing the tang with a set of blunt cutters and bending it with the other hand, I think I've got it in pretty good. Also filled most of the holes in the board left by both myself and the factory.

While I was in there I noticed a few frets sitting a bit higher than necessary, especially in the center of the frets. This mornings job can be sorting that out and staring at my replacement willing it to stay down. I suppose split shifts have their advantages.

Pics to follow when I drag my laptop somewhere with internet.

[Golden Number]

Cannibal corpse could probably write a song about the events that unfolded after this showed up.



My attempt last night resulted in resounding failure, I didn't put enough curve in the wire and the all fix glue wasn't doing it. Went and bought some proper super glue, put a bit more curve in the wire and wound up with this.



Pretty happy with it, the edges are staying down and that was my main concern. Have started to build up glue in the visible chips and also in this hole further down.



The State of the body, stain applied with a foam brush. Found out about overspray from the brush pretty quickly. This is four progressively lighter coats with a light sand after the second one. I was doing a coat a day and buy the end of it I think the wood was getting pretty saturated. Has been sitting for about 2 or 3 days now, I think I'll leave it like this and try to match the neck up or get a more amber colour to contrast.





The colour in the first shot looks a bit weird because it's sitting under a led light but hopefully you get the idea.

[wazkelly]

Very, very nice timber colour from that stain.

Is that a Guz in the background of the 1st shot?

[Golden Number]

Is that a Guz in the background of the 1st shot?

Yep, the trusty sp1000. Sat in the previous owners shed for about 10 years doing next to nothing and now it's sitting in mine doing the same.

Started filing.



Also had a crack at levelling the frets but it just wasn't happening with my limited setup. Managed to track down a local guy that builds his own guitars from scratch and got him to do it, charged me next to nothing too. There's always the next one...

Started taping off the neck to put the colour on that.





Have started staining it, will probably give it a couple of sands in between coats as there is now a few rough spots that have made themselves obvious with colour. Have got a bit of this on the body too but I'm not too bothered about that, can't really be helped with the differing timbers and I quite like it looking a bit rough and ready anyway. I'm using a different colour for the neck, prepare to be shocked and disgusted...