Swanny Jr's MB-1

While I put together my ES-12G my nearly 18yo son, Alex, was watching eagerly to see if I did a crap job, or if he would put out the cash to buy a kit to build. He already has an Epiphone LP Standard that he's taught himself a fair bit on.

Well he's been working hard with his two part time jobs, and now he has this kit ...

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psdn0pmg3f.jpg

The colour and style will be up to Alex, not an old fart like me. I'll try and keep my hands off as much as I can, and get him to do the sanding and staining, and construction. It'll be a good experience for him, as you can't use an Xbox controller to sand!

So far he's ordered a pair of EMG active pickups, so it looks like I'll be doing a bit of routing to fit a 9v battery box into the body.

nice one Swanny Junior, should end up with a cool looking axe.
How big are the control cavities on the MB-1 ? Presume he will route a separate 9V battery cavity

You can see the rear cover in the top left of the photo, so it's not a large area.

I don't think I can trust him on a router yet... I'll be very cautious about it, myself.

yeah with 4 pots in the control cavity there won't be room for the battery. Best have a separate box anyway with small latch so you don't have to remove the cover to change a battery.
If your son hasn't used a router before best you route the battery box cavity Swanny !

Congrats on the kit Swanny Jnr, and your new found addiction. Looking forward to seeing how the build develops.

cheers,
Gav.

G'day Guys! SwannyJR here!

For anyone who is wondering i was hoping to get a finish like this:

Attachment 7557

Hoping to get the headstock on the MB-1 similar to the Schecter as well. I find the design rather "slick".

Going to be a awesome build with those EMGs :D

-Alex

nice one Swanny Jr, a black/silver burst will look very cool !

nice plan!

cheers,
Gav.

Oooo! Another MB build! I like seeing these progress, so I'll be watching this build with interest. Have fun with it. :)

Well, I've had the young bloke doing a bit of work off and on (more off than on!), and taught him how to sand. He's had fun with that!

First we hit it with a black stain, to see if there was anything we could do with the grain. Then it was over to Junior to build up his muscles.

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...pshtc1fuqx.jpg

Since the theme of the guitar is going to be a black and white style burst, we got some white stain from a large building, green in colour, and tried that out. Can't say that the results were impressive. The stain was like a thin paint, acting different to the ink I used on my ES-12G. It didn't seem to penetrate the timber at all.

I tried a couple of things on some scrap timber, diluting Liquid Paper with thinners, mixing it with clear (gave a milky translucent finish), but at the end of all our mucking around, we decided to go a solid colour.

In the meantime, after the young bloke pencilled in the headstock design, we tickled it with the jigsaw for a bit, and then more sanding! We also cut out a spot for the battery to mount in the rear, for the active pickups. (router slipped a bit...oops!)

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psfdxachjq.jpg

Weather being absolutely brilliant at the moment... I waited till the humidity was just under 70% and put down some colour this afternoon.

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psemx3lzkt.jpg

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...pssqtdhy7l.jpg

Next up is to add the black burst.