EX-1 with alder body build

[wazkelly]

Ah the Eliminator album, my first ever album purchase. There's a memory lane trip.

Watched the 'Legs' clip last night and forgot how racy it was for that era.

Haven't seen or heard from Simon on his on build thread and hope he is OK? Not like him to drop off the planet for long periods of time?

[Zandit75]

Watched the 'Legs' clip last night and forgot how racy it was for that era.

Haven't seen or heard from Simon on his on build thread and hope he is OK? Not like him to drop off the planet for long periods of time?

He's away on holiday's at the moment. I think he mentioned 8-10 days or so.
He won't be far away.

[Simon Barden]

Well, one step forward, one step back with this guitar.

Decided to go the selector switch on the lower horn route, so needed a pickguard to cover up the switch cavity and cable routs. Decided on a mirrored one to go with the white finish I'd decided upon, so ordered one from WD Music around 40 days ago. These are custom order from the US, so it only arrived today.

Checked it against the body and it looked fine. But there was a bit of silver foil taped across the selector switch hole which needed removing. So I tried cutting the foil out, but it creased up round the edges and when I went to pull it away, it pulled all the mirror backing off with it.

I was not impressed as it cost £40/Aus$64.

Underneath:


Top (still with the protective film on the fromt)


But after a couple of emails, they are sending me a new one in the post (hole in the foil pre-cut by them) as they ordered some spares along with mine (maybe this happens a lot) so a new should arrive in a couple of days, and I don't need to send the old one back. So, good customer service, but it's going to happen again to other people unless they put warnings on this type of plate - or better, just pre-cut the hole out.

But now I can at least mark out the hole, and rout out a switch cavity and a cable channel.

[CascadiaGuitarGeek]

That's a bit of a disappointment. I've always wondered about how fragile the mirror finish on those are. Does this seem like it was just a weird situation, or will the mirror pickguards be extra susceptible to impacts on the edges?

[Simon Barden]

I'd imagine that there's a thin layer of aluminium(or aluminum depending on your location) 'sputtered' on to the clear plastic, so that it's only a few atoms thick, and then the back is plastic coated to stop the aluminium from oxidising and going dull over time. The plastic seems to protect it round the edge, just that the plastic backing sticks to the aluminium better than the aluminium sticks to the clear plastic, so it's all too easy to peel it off if you've got some tape stuck to it.

There's also a big oval WD custom pickguards sticker stuck on the back which I'd much prefer if it wasn't there as I'm going to put some shielding tape on the new one, and it would be a lot better if the back was simply flat.

[wazkelly]

Had a strat acrylic mirror scratch plate a while back and they do deteriorate over time. On my 1980's Explorer I actually had a glazier cut me a glass mirror in the triangular shape only and thankfully they also pre-drilled the holes. Looked awesome but after several hot sweaty gigs the edges went feral from salt corrosion through soaking up sweat. Brushed or polished aluminium is far more durable if intending to play frequently or do live gigging.

[djk7]

Looks interesting. was looking up sci fi stencil graffiti. could reverse this one

[Simon Barden]

It's still very much in an unfinished state, so still thinking about some of the finish options, but Yoda is certainly worth thinking about.

[HECTOR]

Just wondering if the headstocks are exactly the same shape and length as the Gibson headstocks.

[wazkelly]

Just wondering if the headstocks are exactly the same shape and length as the Gibson headstocks.

No, unfortunately they are not the same shape. Original is more pointy and the kits are more blunt and rounded off.

Check out builds 1 & 2 in my signature to see what i mean. The EX5 is closer to original pointy headstock.

Cheers, Waz

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