EXM custom

Picked this up from the specials and seconds listing. Not sure what wasn't to the original customers expectations, but the changes are:

• Floyd Rose bridge route + locking nut
• Blade style switch route
• Large AG style rear cavity
• No front inlays, still has side dots
• 24 frets (don't remember this being in the listing, but it's fine)
• No hardware

https://i.imgur.com/5IXNLxo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RdBJfWU.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n66Xgf4.jpg

Neck pocket is extremely tight! It wasn't easy getting it in and it took some real effort to get out, thought I was going to damage it in the process. Hopefully it loosens up a hair while settling. Tight is good but this is too tight.

There's a noticeable line going all the way through the body, top to bottom and end to end. It looks like a join line, but it's different than the rest. A bit thicker, darker, and in a few places it has some tiny gaps that need filled. Not terribly concerned about it, but it is there. Might look worse in the pictures than it actually is.



I don't know anything about Floyd Rose stuff.

Have a couple options I'm leaning toward but I'm open to suggestions. First is the more premium Gotoh GE1996. Likely need the smallest block size. Would probably never need to replace or upgrade it. Second is the GFS Heavy Duty FR. The Internet says it's a well machined bridge that punches above its price point, but you can't always trust the Internet. It's all steel + brass and a fair bit cheaper than the Gotoh.

Also curious about the locking nut. Is the one that comes on the kits sufficient or do I need to look into upgrading that? I know normal plastic nuts are generally the first thing to upgrade on a kit, but I don't know anything about these. Again, open to suggestions here.



Planning to do this all black. Black finish, black hardware. Ebony fretboard without inlays kind of fits that theme too.

Leaning toward trying out a thin coat of truck bed liner, seen some instances of that being used for a matte textured finish. Will just have to see how rough it is in spray can form, saw something about using fine scotch brite to denib it a bit without turning it white. Sandpaper is apparently out of the question.

Failing that, I'll probably just go with a flat black paint and matte clear coat.

Dropping in a GFS Redactive system I got for $20 a while back. Was originally going to go in a custom V kit but the factory botched it. Has the pickups and all the electronics, but needs a new stereo jack + battery connector. That big cavity should hold all the components nicely, and if I go with a magnetic cover I shouldn't need a separate battery box route either.

Don't know when I'll actually get to this since finishing the GS-2Q takes priority, but since it arrived and I have bridge/nut questions I decided to make this placeholder post.

The kit locking nuts are normally OK but do need to be used with a (not-included) string retainer bar (a few $ on eBay or Amazon) to pull the strings down onto the block at the neck side so the clamps only have to hold the strings tight and not pull them down as well. Also makes the initial tuning before locking work so clamping retains the tuning. You don't then have to take several turns of the fine tuners just to get back to where you were, allowing more range in the tuners for normal operation. Illustration here: https://hazeguitars.com/blog/locking...bar-adjustment

Otherwise a FR is very similar to a Fender Strat trem in operation, though you have a lot more up and down movement available. The bridge plate need to be adjusted to be parallel to the body, or else it won't return to tune accurately. And it helps to wedge the block in place when putting strings on and when tuning initially before locking, so that when you adjust the rear springs to get the plate flat, the strings will be at the right tension. They'll need fully stretched-in first, so don't lock the nut straight away. Take some time to stretch the strings and retune until the tuning is stable, then lock the nut.

If the springs are too loose to begin with, the bridge can angle right forwards under string tension and the springs then can't be tightened enough to bring the bridge flat due to geometry issues, so put a decent amount of spring tension on the trem springs to start with before removing your blocking wedge.

The 24-fret neck is interesting. What's the scale length? The bridge pickup rout looks to be in the normal place, but to get an extra couple of frets on the neck, the neck needs to be physically longer. Which means that the bridge position needs to have moved forward by a similar amount to the added extra neck length. The bridge pickup rout looks to be closer to the neck one than on a standard EX kit, so hopefully that's been done.

Just note that if you'll probably need a custom-made pickguard if you wanted to fit one, as a) the pickup are now too close together to fit a standard guard on without modification and b) a standard guard has the selector switch hole drilled in it at the tip of the pointy bit (though you could stick something decorative in the hole).

Cool looking kit

Quick measurement of the neck and it looks like 24.75" scale, which I think is what it was listed as. At a glance I do think the bridge pickup is moved up closer to the neck on this build compared to a standard EX kit. No plans for a pickguard but yeah, I'll need to order a custom one somewhere if that changes.

I guess I won't bother upgrading the locking nut but good call on the retainer bar. I've seen those before and wasn't sure if I needed one, will definitely pick one up then.

Also remembered I will need to replace the switch in the active kit as well. Has the wrong style switch, so I'll need to pick up a 3 way Tele switch. The GFS Redactive page says all the pickups and components are supposed to be on sale for a week which would make this an opportune time to pick those parts up, but I'm not seeing sale prices. Dropped them an email to see what's up with that, if they are supposed to be on sale this week I might grab the modern humbuckers too. They're all plug-and-play so swapping them out to experiment should be easy.


On further review that "one week sale" listing seems to be ancient. They have two landing pages for the Redactives for some reason, one mentions a sale and the other doesn't, each linked from difference places on the site. Terrible site navigation.

Made a newbie mistake on this build. Needed to enlarge the post holes for the bridge since the Gotoh has larger posts. Unfortunately the obvious solution of "just drill out bigger holes" kind of made a mess. Wood around the holes got tore up pretty badly and I left it to sit.

With the new kit coming my motivation is renewed and I'm trying to make some time for this, hopefully I can get it sprayed before it gets too cold. Fixed up the post holes with some wood glue, hopefully that will hold it together.

Also got it slathered with a coat of ebony timbermate to fill some grain. Will use a filler primer which will hopefully cover remaining imperfections.

https://i.imgur.com/yOhoduZ.jpg

Hopefully over the next couple days I can fill the neck, sand them both, and glue.

Also need to make plans for back covers since this came without any hardware. I'm very tempted to embed the trem cover.

Sorry to hear about your issues, but it seems you are coping with them.

Just consider the depth of the trem block when thinking about the rear cover. They tend to come in three general lengths to suit the available body depth. I don’t know what length block your Gotoh came with, but estimate where it will end up once installed. You’ll need to add a couple of mm as the front and rear edges will extend out a bit further when you use the trem and the block is angled. If you still have enough space to rout a channel and have a flat trem plate then fine, but it’s well worth checking first otherwise you may be just making trouble for yourself if the block is just that bit too long.

(And don’t forget the springs will fit on the bottom of the block and add a couple of mm extra depth).

I have the 33mm block, the smallest one. But even with that it looks like it's going to cut it pretty close unless the bridge sits much higher than I expect. So the embedded cover most likely isn't happening. Might try a partial embed with a taper, and have the inside of the cover cut out so it's about the depth a flat cover would be. That might look and function pretty well, assuming my brother has the tools to do it.

Ended up sanding the neck a touch so it fits somewhat better. Still ridiculously tight, actually damaged the heel slightly and have to glue a tiny piece that splintered. Can clearly feel where the wood is compressed from being in the neck pocket, might take a smidgen more off.

Letting that glue dry stalled my neck grain filling. Was checking where the neck needed to sit for the appropriate scale length. I assume with the locking nut, you still measure from the very front of the nut.

Yes, from the front of the nut.

Lots of sanding today. Got it up to 320 and it feels nice and smooth. Ebony grain filler in raw mahogany is pretty ugly, fortunately I'm painting it.

https://i.imgur.com/W8s9EhQ.jpg

Have some Duplicolor rattle cans, will have to find time to go to my parents' house and use them. Sandable filler/primer as a base to fill out any small imperfections that remain, and I will probably sand that to 400 grit or something. Then a flat black paint, and a clear lacquer.

Figure I can get a matte finish out of the lacquer by only wet sanding it to around 1500 grit.

Talking to my brother about making a piece to fit on the neck heel and make the transition to the body smoother. The stock transition is... inelegant, and Alexej pulled off the addition really nicely.

It certainly made it smoother, but it also added more bulk to the heel which will make upper fret access just that little bit harder. It may not make a difference to you though but I just thought I'd point it out as you have got 24 frets. I rounded off the treble side of the heel and rear of the lower cut-out on mine, to improve access. It didn't take a lot, but it made a big difference.

Refilled the grain and had it looking better and smoother than before. Sprayed primer, for the most part it built pretty well but there is still a little bit of visible grain. Figured I might have to add more primer since wet sanding probably wasn't quite going to get it smooth.

But then the dowel it was hanging on broke and the back of the neck got all scratched up. That eliminated any possible indecision about respraying.

Will sand with 600 grit like the can suggests and get the whole thing as smooth as I can, aside from the neck which I'll sand down entirely to completely redo. Then hopefully another can of primer will get that last bit of visible grain smoothed out.

Bummer!

That's one of semi-irrational fears. I use sturdy metal hooks to hang my bodies & necks, but I often worry about walking into the shop one morning and finding something on the floor that shouldn't be there!

At least there were no splits or pieces broken off.

I'd avoid wet sanding primer (Phrozin's instructions). It's not really waterproof, so water can get past it and swell the grain and ruin your levelling work. It's also not that hard a finish, so should sand relatively easily. Best to only wet sand on gloss and/or clear coats.

And do you know how many times my EX-1 fell on the floor after being sprayed due to its stand tipping or drooping? About 10. All involving a lot of paint respray work. Each time I said it won't happen again, but it did. That's why I eventually got around to building a sturdy spraying frame this year. So I feel your pain.

Didn't sand today, but this is most of the damage.

https://i.imgur.com/78p3p7t.jpg

First thought: Oh man the flash shows so much grain.

Second thought: None of the scratches, dings, and dents made it all the way through the primer. It built really thick. That gives a lot to work with when sanding it (and a lot to take off on the neck). Would be nice if I could get it sanded smooth everywhere else and just have to respray the neck, but I doubt I'll get that lucky.


Seems I was mistaken. It did gouge the neck. Guess I will try to fill it and see how it goes.

Mostly salvaged the neck. Still slightly visible, despite multiple rounds of filling and sanding to the point it felt perfectly flush without looking.

https://i.imgur.com/8QU6RA8.jpg

A few places where it's buggered up due to insects flying into my wet primer and I had to get them out. I had more issues with them today than before. Would think the fumes would keep them away, but for some reason it almost seemed to attract them. Shouldn't be a problem sanding those out while smoothing out the primer before putting the paint on. Just hope I have fewer issues with bugs on the paint and clear.

Poor shot of the back, it's hanging in a ladder so it's hard to take a picture.

https://i.imgur.com/EmuRXhK.jpg

Far from perfect, but I think I've learned from it. If I grain fill mahogany again I'll probably use the slurry approach with the thin wipe-on poly I have left from the GS-2Q. The Timbermate really doesn't cut it for a smooth finish. It can feel silky smooth, but it won't get the look.

Control cavity cover is looking a little more difficult than I expected. Needs to be 1/16" or 1.5mm which I had trouble finding, until I realized I needed to look for veneer at that thickness. But they look so thin the wood seems like it won't provide a very sturdy cover.

Are the kits compatible with Epiphone/Gibson covers? Or maybe something else?

I’’ll suggest laminating two or three pieces of thin veneer together at angles to form a ply, which will be much stronger than a single piece of wood of the same thickness. For extra strength, you can always add another layer of veneer that’s cut to fit in the cavity itself, and not the size of the lip.

I need to make a control cover for my EX as it came with just body and neck. I’ll use pickguard material. I did look for existing covers but couldn’t find anyone who did one. Lots for other guitars, but not for the Explorer. Even then, I have no idea if the dimensions would be similar. The Gibsons are probably imperial sized and Epiphones metric dimensioned, which I expect would be more like the kit size.

An alternative I hadn't considered is just routing the lip on the cavity to be 1/16" deeper. Then I could use a 1/8" sheet which I used for the GS-2Q with decent success.

Will involve asking my brother is that's doable. Would also probably need to spray primer around the cavity again.

The black finish looks the same as I had first. But with more paint the surface became smooth and evenly.
After the insects and stuff I am sure you will handle this :)

I think I decided on an another alternative. Instead of routing the cavity edge deeper, I'll just route the edge of a 1/8" thick cover to fit the lip of the cavity.


I should be asleep but instead I'm thinking about nonsense, like wiring mods. For active pickups. Ridiculous.

The Internet says an 18v mod reduces the "activeness" of actives, makes them less compressed and sound more like passives. With other wiring mods being generally out of the question, that's a kind of neat concept.

So there's three solutions. The simple SPDT solution of throwing one battery out of the circuit, which will result in a main battery that's always used and a secondary battery that's only used in series. Or the slightly more complicated DPDT solution that uses a series/parallel power switch. The batteries will drain at the same rate, with parallel doubling battery life and series doubling power.

And the last solution, where I look at this after I wake up in 8 hours and realize how silly all this is and drop it.

Silly indeed. That's not worth it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chaosblade

Needs to be 1/16" or 1.5mm which I had trouble finding,

---

Try model aeroplane suppliers for very thin plywood.

Did a mock wiring setup and everything is good except the switch. I'm confused by how this is pre-wired because it doesn't match the wiring diagram. It's either wrong or something funky and non-traditional.

https://i.imgur.com/wzn0xSK.jpg

Yellow is supposed to be output, white is supposed to be bridge, and red is supposed to be neck. But I think the bridge and neck colors are flipped? Assuming this thing will even work at all without resoldering it? Considering there's a red connected to a yellow the colors might just mean nothing.

Here's the diagram. It says Tele, but the only difference between it and the humbucker diagram is the switch type.

https://i.imgur.com/JNxXrTt.png



Edit: Maybe it is right and it's just weird. The picture on the website has it wired the same way.

Edit edit: Also found a diagram that matches it and would indicate the colors are correct. So it's probably fine.

https://i.imgur.com/ayIZx8k.png

There are two basic ways to wire a CRL style 3-way blade switch, as shown in the two diagrams above.

The first is like your switch with the output connected to the common lug on each side of the switch and the pickups each linking across two lugs so they’re both connected in position 2 (shown in 2nd diagram).

The alternative way is to have one pickup connected to each common lug and then have the output wire link across two lugs on each side, again so you have both pickups on in position 2 (1st diagram).

So, you’re good to go. Generally ignore colours as they can change, just go with what connects where. In your case yellow is indeed your output, white is for the bridge and red is neck with the switch in its current orientation.

https://i.imgur.com/fyItfyu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/IGuTUri.jpg

Painting is definitely, uh, something. Finally got the black and clear on. Honestly I think I liked it better with just the primer. Feel like that showed less of my bad grain filling work and the matte look was better. Probably should have tried just spraying clear over that.

Guess I will let this sit for a while before sanding. Probably 600->800->1200(wet)->2000(wet) and see what I need to do from there.