FrankenWashie's Third, The Cliche Black LP

And so, the die is cast....

Machine Heads: Gotoh SG301-04B, with Keystone button.

Attachment 15895

Bridge: Schaller Signum, Chrome Black

Attachment 15896

Pickups: Seymor Duncan Black Winter set (these were for The FrankenWashie, but there is still some stitching to do for him, and I've misplaced the electrodes)

Attachment 15897

Controls, Single Volume, Single Tone (Bourne 500k) 3 Way switch (gotoh standard black). (Need to read up on treble bleeds etc) Gibson Standard jack (Black)

There's a wee while to wait for the machine heads, so it's surface prep and attending to the cavity covers in the interim as the kit ones are Cream. I might try roughing them over and then spraying them but I'm afraid that would be very susceptible to easy wear.

I think I may have to get some made in black plastic or acrylic.

Wow nice hardware!
I had the same hardware issue with the cream pickup mounts on the flat black one with the orange stripe earlier in this thread. I hit them with white knight sls etch primer and epoxy gloss black. Lasted ok for a while, bit a couple of years in and the bottom edge of the bridge one has worn through. Would be a good stop gap fix until you can source black ones. If you do please let me know as I couldn't find any.

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Originally Posted by Andyxlh

Wow nice hardware!
I had the same hardware issue with the cream pickup mounts on the flat black one with the orange stripe earlier in this thread. I hit them with white knight sls etch primer and epoxy gloss black. Lasted ok for a while, bit a couple of years in and the bottom edge of the bridge one has worn through. Would be a good stop gap fix until you can source black ones. If you do please let me know as I couldn't find any.

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I've got some Gibson original ones, but they are for flat body styles, not the curved LP body shape ( and they're destined for the explorer in any case). That is probably the next "need to find" item. I've a couple of ideas on that, but I need to see if they are feasible or if I am just over reaching.

Black pickup mounts with curved bottoms? Allparts do them for a start. Have a look at http://www.realparts.com.au/hardware...ing-rings.html

You may have to end up making your own control and pickup selector cavity covers as they all vary slightly in shape and Les-Paul style one from somewhere else may not fit very well at all.

Three-screw truss rod covers are easy enough to find on eBay - also another source for pickup rings.

You can always rub them over with wire wool if you want a less shiny finish on them.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Black pickup mounts with curved bottoms? Allparts do them for a start. Have a look at http://www.realparts.com.au/hardware...ing-rings.html

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Well that was easy. I can use these as a base pattern for experimenting with the ideas I had. At the worst they can go on the guitar after some treatment. Thanks for that Simon!

thanks Simon ill source a set for my LP flat black guitar....

On the curved based rings, you may still have to sand the bottoms down in order to get the same radius curve as the top of the guitar. The ones I've got for my ES-3 have a 1mm gap between ring and body at the moment, as the top is less curved than a Les Paul's. I could have gone for flat ones and sanded the curve in, but they are often not as tall as the curved bottom rings, so the neck one could have been too small to sand the right curve in without making it too thin and weak in the middle. But they are cheap enough to simply get some more if I make a mistake.

Agreed. The flat ones I have seen in black but are not deep enough.
At rehearsal on the weekend a mic and stand fell over onto the black lp and took a great lump out of the front of it... it did hit it hard! So it will be up for some repairs and I'll do this job at the same time.
Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Andyxlh

At rehearsal on the weekend a mic and stand fell over onto the black lp and took a great lump out of the front of it...

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Ouch! I hate it when that happens. My LP has a couple of small dents in the front from being rested against a fireplace and then slowly sliding sideways before falling on its front against another guitar. I could repair the finish, but I now feel like it's part of the guitar's history.

Yesterday I had friends over from Sydney for Christmas turn up for a rather unexpected fleeting visit. As a result, I still had a lot of guitars out in the lounge. By the time I'd finished greeting them at the door, their 7 year old son had rushed into lounge and I then found him with my Dave Gilmour custom shop Strat, strap over his neck, holding it in front of him and swinging it around wildly. How it didn't hit anything else I don't know. So I suggested that maybe he should slowly put it down and play with one of the cheaper ones instead.

These Australians have to be watched. Bunch of convicts, don't you know?
agreed, a bit of wear and tear is good. mind you, this might be a bit more than that. I'm also thinking of removing one of the vol and both tones, and filling the holes as i simply never use them and if they get bumped they mess with my tone. just wiring both pickups to the one vol via the selector switch. with a matte finish i should be able to make the local repair without repainting the whole thing methinks!

You could always leave the unused pots in place and just alter the wiring. Then if you ever pass the guitar on to someone else, they can reinstate the standard wiring if they want without having to re-drill holes.

Or you could fill the holes with large flashing LEDs.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

You could always leave the unused pots in place and just alter the wiring. Then if you ever pass the guitar on to someone else, they can reinstate the standard wiring if they want without having to re-drill holes.

Or you could fill the holes with large flashing LEDs.

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Hi Simon, I can't twaddle on about unadorned simplicity and then have two superfluous pots and knobs or glittery LEDs in the thing. Your point is valid, but this one is likely to stay with my for my very own, my pretty, my PRECCCIOUSSSSS! (Gollum! Gollum!)

Attachment 15913

The bridge arrived at work this morning, the above is representative of what is going to have to happen, though the bridge will sit slightly further back than this according to the dimensional data from ze vunderbar volk from Schaller. Unlike a standard TOM, these apparently sit square to the fretboard end and have a wider intonation adjustment. So we have some pluggin' to do.

You may be able to see in the bottom left the two plugged tone pot holes. I will close cut these and then do some exceedingly careful chisel work prior to a touch up sand, as I will do for the four anchor/bridge holes that are now superfluous.

That's a lot of plugging you need to do!

The bridge pickup cavity routing looks a bit wonky to me. The bottom E side pickup mounting-ear cutaway looks further forwards than the top E one. Might need a bit of work to make the pickup sit square in it.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

That's a lot of plugging you need to do!

The bridge pickup cavity routing looks a bit wonky to me. The bottom E side pickup mounting-ear cutaway looks further forwards than the top E one. Might need a bit of work to make the pickup sit square in it.

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Yes it is, but I have 3 out of four plugs shaped already.
FYI, an 18V cordless drill will push a 1/2" Plug cutter quite easily through pine, Plywood and MDF. Rock Maple not so much. It'll do it, but it won't like it much. Methinks it may be time to invest in a semi decent Pedestal Drill Press.

I had thought that with the Bridge PUP position. I had the SD in there at one point and it does sit square, though I really need t see how it all looks with the PUP surround on it before I do anything. No Hurry.

Looking good. I do like the idea of simplicity, being a bit of a 'simple' person myself.... so plugging holes and removing stuff works for me!

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Hi Simon, I can't twaddle on about unadorned simplicity and then have two superfluous pots and knobs or glittery LEDs in the thing. Your point is valid, but this one is likely to stay with my for my very own, my pretty, my PRECCCIOUSSSSS! (Gollum! Gollum!)

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Now, flashing disco lights on a guitar? Ooh, bring me my flared trousers! Like it 😀

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Originally Posted by Andyxlh

Now, flashing disco lights on a guitar? Ooh, bring me my flared trousers! Like it ��

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Disco lights? Yeah. Nah. Disco Lights are in the same project folder as Sea Foam Green finish. The one marked #16/00Never.Ever.

BWHAHAH nice one Frankie, are there any guitar/bass shapes you don't like ? Now we know seafoam green and disco lights are in the banned folder

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

BWHAHAH nice one Frankie, are there any guitar/bass shapes you don't like ? Now we know seafoam green and disco lights are in the banned folder

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TBH the list would be KH-1, MK2, JR-MDC, SH-1, RD and BC-1.

Other than those, its pretty much open slather!

haha no worries Frankie so you share DB's love of cricket bats !! (MK2)

bwhaha just noticed the last item in your project list nice work buddy !

I suspect that DB would have me add a Hipshot bridge to that #X build and a Naughty Oil finish.

haha Frankie if we had to put DB's encyclopedia of hated guitar/bass products we would need a 40 terabyte external drive to fit it on !

Too true mate!

The black LP is coming along really well so far, can't wait to see it finished, you should demo it once it's up and running.

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

The black LP is coming along really well so far, can't wait to see it finished, you should demo it once it's up and running.

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Cheers Doc, this'll be a while yet. Waiting on some hardware and some electronics, that won't arrive until well into Jan. I'll get the woodwork bits done and prep it for the painting for now. I will demo it but I've got to sort out some form of DAW and recording set up else it'll just be Iphone video sound.

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Cheers Doc, this'll be a while yet. Waiting on some hardware and some electronics, that won't arrive until well into Jan. I'll get the woodwork bits done and prep it for the painting for now. I will demo it but I've got to sort out some form of DAW and recording set up else it'll just be Iphone video sound.

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If you're after a DAW that won't cost you anything, check out Audacity, if you're after something a bit better, check out Reaper, the guys who make it offer a $60.00 License for it, if you need to get an Audio Interface for your computer, check out the Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio Interface, I have one and it's pretty good for the money you pay for it.

haha love your work Doc talking about sound demo's and the axe hasn't got any paint/stain on it yet hahaha

hardware plans sound choice Frankie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

If you're after a DAW that won't cost you anything, check out Audacity, if you're after something a bit better, check out Reaper, the guys who make it offer a $60.00 License for it, if you need to get an Audio Interface for your computer, check out the Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio Interface, I have one and it's pretty good for the money you pay for it.

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Thanks for that Doc, I have GarageBand on my Mac as default software so I'll start playing around with that and see what happens before I go trying to get fancy. I've never recorded anything before so I guess its a starting point. I've got I-Rig on my iPad as well which from memory will also record, so I might also play with that. With a bit of luck I shall start with the EXA-1 in a couple of weeks to see how it all works. (Then the SV-1, then the LP!)

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Thanks for that Doc, I have GarageBand on my Mac as default software so I'll start playing around with that and see what happens before I go trying to get fancy. I've never recorded anything before so I guess its a starting point. I've got I-Rig on my iPad as well which from memory will also record, so I might also play with that. With a bit of luck I shall start with the EXA-1 in a couple of weeks to see how it all works. (Then the SV-1, then the LP!)

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No worries mate, Garage Band is pretty cool, you can do quite a lot with it, I'm still learning how to record good demos with the DAW software I run on my Studio PC, I'm currently running FL Studio 12.4 Producer Edition, Reaper, and Ableton Live 9 Standard, it is a bit of a learning curve but don't let that discourage you, keep at it.

The process of imbuing the LP with the necessary evil has begun....

Attachment 15931

The LP is over 60% less Hol(e)y.

Nice plugging!

The next time we see it, will it be back in black?

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Nice plugging!

The next time we see it, will it be back in black?

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It will probably be smeared in timbermate, or I will be punching holes though it's head.

As this building thing goes, i have been leaping about the place a bit, and waiting for hardware on this one has chewed up some build time.
so we are here:
Attachment 16305

I finally worked up the nerve to utilise the drilling jig i had made to install something important:

Attachment 16306

I also finally took delivery of the Machine heads for this one and was happy to find they are a really good colour match to the Schaller Signum bridge.
Attachment 16307

Once i work out how I am going to drill the headstock (It may be a take to work effort as I don't want to have to chock my drilling jig up) I'll do some final surface prep and lay some colour on. At this stage its going to be black, with overtones of Black and to change it up a bit a bit of Black.

Just use a hand drill? Slightly undersize and then ream out until big enough? Tuner holes normally aren't that tight a fit. The tightest fit is on the rear of the headstock and the hole on the face of the headstock is normally quite a lot wider than the screwed barrel. As long as the centres are in the right place, it should all look fine. Whichever way you go in, just attach some flat scrap wood to the other side to prevent splintering when the drill goes through.

Phoar, nice Gotohs FW

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Originally Posted by Andy40

Phoar, nice Gotohs FW

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Thanks Andy, I'm just happy that they are a good colour match for the bridge TBH. Now I can get on with the headstock drilling and throw some colour on this puppy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Just use a hand drill? Slightly undersize and then ream out until big enough? Tuner holes normally aren't that tight a fit. The tightest fit is on the rear of the headstock and the hole on the face of the headstock is normally quite a lot wider than the screwed barrel. As long as the centres are in the right place, it should all look fine. Whichever way you go in, just attach some flat scrap wood to the other side to prevent splintering when the drill goes through.

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Yeah good plan Simon, the trigger on my battery op hand drill is quite touchy, I may have to invest in a good solid hand cranked version for these kinds of jobs. It was very touchy on the bridge post drilling.