Eathans First build EXA 1 Ash Body

Hi all, I’m Eathan and its my first time doing this and have been wanting to do for a while. Always wanted an Explorer and now I do.... almost. I have done my mock build and checked the scale and noticed the PUP cover does not fit at the neck cavity. I have read through the forums and looks like I’m not the only one. Nothing a bit of macguyvering cant fix. Have sanded a lot started with 400 then 600 and jumped to 1200 and feels smooth as a baby’s bum. I am looking at a stain and varnish from feast and Watson black japan gloss. Has any one used? Or recommend? Cheers in advance and I am sure I will be throwing a-lot of questions this way.

Hi Eathan, welcome to the ever expanding Explorer owners club.
Neck pocket pickup mounting ring seems to be a common problem and suggest ensuring intonation is a higher priority than aesthetics. Plenty of workarounds available to solve that problem.
Not sure such a highly polished body will absorb much stain and you may need to go back and start again with 80 & 120 grits to open up the grain. Highly polished smooth surfaces are easy to achieve towards end of applying multiple coats of finish.
Cheers Waz

Sent from my Lenovo TB-7104F using Tapatalk

Thanks for the welcome and the info. That makes sense about the grain. The intonation is def high priority.

Hi and welcome Eathan. I also love the explorer.

I agree with wazkelly re the going back to the lower grit sandpaper before staining. But maybe with the stain and varnish it would not matter - as it sits on top of the wood (hopefully this is correct).

I have used the FW stains on the TB-4 and TLA-1 with tru-oil and was very happy with the results. I have not tried the stain and varnish on guitars - used it with brushes on dining chairs and seemed OK . Another possibility would be plain FW stains and then wipe on poly!

It sounds like you are trying to fit the neck too far into the body. The end of the tenon does not sit right against the rear of the neck pickup rout (though I know it looks like it should). When you glue it on, position the neck so that the end of the fretboard is just forward of the pickup cavity, so that you can get maybe 0.5mm of pickup ring sitting on the edge of the rout, just enough so you cant see a gap under the pickup ring.

I've done that on all my set-neck guitar kits where the neck pocket and neck pickup rout are all one, and haven't had had any intonation issues.

On my EX-1, the neck pickup ring is just resting on the front edge of the pickup rout, and you can't see into the rout.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/JycXZd.jpg