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Neck is about done.
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Headstock front and heel front stained with wudtone Burning Sun. Clearcoated with wudtone satin.
Back of the neck burnished with some denim cloth. Really like the way the thumb runs over it.
Gotoh chrome mini tuners.
Paua logo on the original plastic truss rod cover.
Dingobass bone nut.
Next, polish the body.
That is looking very nice :)
nice touch with the truss rod cover
Polished the body and added lemon oil to the fretboard last night.
Today I did the shielding,
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and installed the bridge.
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And this is about as far as I got with the electronics before I decided I wasn't going to do any soldering tonight.
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That's the Tone Monster pre-amp. Doesn't need much soldering - just the pickups. Unless you manage to break off the battery lead. :/
Soldering tomorrow.
That leaves attaching the neck and installing the strap pins, jack and control cover. (Not in that order.)
Strap pins installed.
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Jack mount installed,
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including a stupid bounce of the screwdriver which I'll have to dropfill, sand and polish later.
Electronics are still hanging out of the cavity so it's time to fire up the iron and connect the pickups and reconnect the battery lead.
So I've done the soldering and completed install of the tone monster preamp - and gained another screwdriver ding to repair (lower edge).
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And I did some tests to check the output.
The output increases as the volume knob is turned up, until it gets about midway - then it screams with an electronic sounding warble for a part of the pot travel then the warble stops and can hear the regular output but it's about quarter volume and doesn't change for the rest of the pot travel to max.
| min/off -- increasing vol normally ----- electronic warble --------- constant vol, just above min ----|
So now I've walked away before I get upset with it.
Found the problem with the squealing. One of the contacts on the stereo jack was misshapen. Instead of contacting with the ground sleeve of the plug it was in contact with the tip. Bent it into shape and it passes tests now.
Of course bending it will have weakened it so now I need to replace it. Least the problem is solved though.
nice when the fix is simple, ouch with the screw driver...
Looks great Sam! Get it fired up!
Installed the neck and strung it up.
I've set the action and intonation. Going to play it for a bit before I decide if I want the action lower. If I do, then I'll need to shim the neck and raise the saddles to get a lower action and different angle pass over the pickups without touching them. Played for an hour though and aside from reaaaally needing to use a strap to hold the weight of the neck, I think it could be ok. Sounded nice too.
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