Finished - November 2017 - Vivenbacker

[Vivg]

Well it took a little longer than I thought, but it has worked out splendidly. It tunes, it is intonated almost perfectly, the action still needs minor work, but I have bought new name guitars in a much worse state! It plays very well, has an excellent sound and looks really wild.

I actually completed the build last November in 2017, however it has taken a while to get round to documenting this. Far too busy playing it...

You can see it didn't retain the original top that it came with, this was a shame, sadly, and despite warnings from many people on this forum, I sanded straight through it! Oh how we laughed!

[blinddrew]

That is a very interesting combo. Good work!

[FrankenWashie]

That is wild mate, nice job! What is the top made from?

[rook]

That top looks crazy! In a good way. Really unique look. Congrats!

[Vivg]

That is wild mate, nice job! What is the top made from?

The top is "spalted Maple". It has an almost psychedelic pattern, it's only got a few coats of Crimson Guitar finishing oil.

[Vivg]

This is what came out of the box.

[Andyxlh]

Great job, well done!!!

[Vivg]

Here is the trial assembly on the bench...


It all went together nicely, Adam provided exactly what I'd asked for and the quality was indeed superb.



The neck pocket was nice and tight, but not too tight!!

The fun started when I tried to make the pickup cavity larger for the bridge pickup



I'd decided I wasn't going to use the plastic scratch plate, but instead use the spalted maple top I had left laying around. It was while trying to prepare for that I realised I had rubbed down through the existing top. I wouldn't be able to cover it with the spalted maple top! As I actually felt a bit unhappy about cutting the top up, I came up with the cunning plan to use the whole top and make a carved top for the guitar.



You can see I also cut through the control cavity, the plan being to put a cover on the back for easier access.

Here is a view of one half of the book matched spalted maple top... I spent hours on a five minute job to join the two bits of top together!




I then realised I needed the neck in place so I could then fit the new top to the body... Panic set in a bit!

[Vivg]

The neck was a dream to finish, a careful rub down and a few coats of oil and it was good to go....



The fretwork was excellent. The guitar, when finally assembled, played immediately without buzzing. Lowering the strings and working to get down to a low action turned up only two frets that needed minor adjustment. Nice one Adam!



I checked the machine heads all fitted, no problems.

[Vivg]

I did more work on the back of the body... sanding... sanding I gave up sanding sorry!



Then I did some shaping with the help of an angle grinder. Absolutely terrifying, but it was quick and very satisfying. I promise I won't do it again.. probably! ;-)

Before...


After... quite subtle, quite neat. Surprising for an angle grinder.
1. Use a worn out fine pad.
2. Don't get too close!!




The finished back... this took something like 4 days of work in total. Sanding, oiling, sanding oiling...



Although the back is made of 5 different bits of wood, they work nicely together. They were clearly chosen at the right aspect of the moon, they make the bass sound really good!

I hope to put up the rest of the pics tomorrow.