First Build - PSH-1 Hollowbody

It is always necessary to ground the shielding for it to work at reducing noise pickup.

Unfortunately some people don’t realise this so you often see very nice-looking pictures of copper-lined cavities, but with no means of them being grounded. Because it looks so neat, others then think this must be the way to do it and so do it that way themselves rather than the necessary way of either using wires to ground the copper or running the copper over the edge of control cavities so it can mate with grounded shielding on the underside of a pickguard or a grounded metal control plate.

You may not notice a big improvement in noise in single coil mode, but it’s still worth doing.

You're a ways off needing to do this, but when the time comes, one way to achieve continuity between your pickup cavity shielding and common ground would be to run a wire from the neck pickup cavity through the pickup wire hole; through the hollow portion of the body then up through the pickup wire hole into the bridge pickup cavity. Solder the ends of the wire directly to the shielding tape in their respective cavities. You will also need a separate wire from either cavity connected to wherever you have your common ground.

And don't forget you will also need to ground one of the posts for the wrap-around bridge. I don't think all the kits come with a pre-drilled hole through to the post for grounding, so have a look as you may need to drill it yourself.

Hi
Simon and McCreed.

Thanks for confirming. Agree I am a while of installing the shielding but going to build my wiring harness to get distance from my pick up selector confirmed before drilling the holes for my dpdt switches and then start my sanding prep and de-gluing ready for staining.

Still a bit more work to get my shim height right as action on mock-up build with my first shim just meets Gibson’s standard action but bridge is low as it goes so have no adjustment flex.

And my kit has the hole for ground to bridge post so no issue there.

Cheers
Mike

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And my kit has the hole for ground to bridge post so no issue there.

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Cool. One less thing to do!

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Day 7 - shim now glued in ready for body sanding. Success on drilling my 2x switch holes. Veneer intact with no blow out.

Experimented with ways to recess the bridge bushing collar to gain a few more mm action adjustment in case I need it.

Neck sanded and ready for staining.

Built a homage truss rod cover as the kit one was pretty ugly.

After Christmas is over I will get onto staining. Next 2x days it is forecast for 42 degrees so probably too hot to stain.


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Nice.

Might as well double check on the glue spots, just in case some didn't show up the first time.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Nice.

Might as well double check on the glue spots, just in case some didn't show up the first time.

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Finished sanding and did another glue check with turps and no glue issues. Getting rid of Horizontal factory sanding marks in the end grain took ages.

Micromeshed the binding.

Now I just need a Cooler day to start staining


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Spoke to soon. Glue spots down the edge of the veneer. Managed to get some of them out with goof off but still not happy. Going to give it another go tonight.

Was having a few challenges with my Japan brown neck covering a few joins and few more glue spots but managed to get a great finish.

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Frustrating evening. Glue stains not budging with repeated goof off and brass brushing. Tried massaging stain in a wire brush which sort of worked. Cannot do too much more scrubbing as starting to damage the veneer. Going to let the front cure for a few days then hit again with more stain and hopefully the build up will hide the glue marks.


Dingo tone stain really isn’t penetrating a lot of grain on the back and sides especially in tighter curves on the side. Have resorted to feast Wason which did the job although my original plan as wanted the neck to contrast the body. Now the back and neck are the same colour. Not all bad as the front still contrasts.


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Bummer... and I can imagine the frustration.

I'm afraid I don't have any revolutionary suggestions. All I can think of is maybe using the goof off in conjunction with some P320 sand paper (???). I only suggested 320 because it's finer than 240 and coarser than 400. No technical reason, other than trying to avoid going through the veneer.

Another alternative, given the major glue spot area is at the edge, is spraying a burst on the edge with paint to cover the glue. You could use a dark brown paint for the burst in keeping with your existing theme.
I don't know what your plan is/was for clear coat, but if you did the burst idea, you can use an acrylic paint and [apparently] you can apply polyurethane safely over acrylic. I have not done it, but I read a few articles that say it's doable.

Sorry that's all I got...