Explorer EX-1E first guitar build

Hi, we are a father and son team building our first guitar, and have gone for the EX-1E. Just unboxed and starting to make a plan. As you might expect we've got some dumb questions which we need to get out of the way:

1) which pickup goes where? Does the wiring colour (red and yellow) have any relevance? The red one has a thicker mount/bezel than the yellow one, so we are guessing that goes nearer the bridge?
2) What direction do the bridge saddle pieces point? we have three pointing one way and three pointing the other way, which seems a bit odd. And do the screws point towards the neck end or the tail end?
3) We ordered the optional bone nut, but there is already a pre-glued black nut in place on the neck. How do we remove this nut and put in the new one?
4) We are thinking of doing fractal burning on the body, does anyone have any experience or advice on doing this?

Hi Guys!
Great choice of kit! 👊
I am building my first guitar as well myself, and have limited time to do it, so treat my comments with care, especially when you will be ahead of me rather than behind.
1. correct, the thicker mount pickup is the bridge - so opposite to how you put them in for the photo
2. saddle pieces: the point is that thicker strings must be longer (it is correct as it is set up now) for proper intonation. Might look odd, but very important, otherwise you won’t be able to achieve proper tuning along the full fretboard. You will notice that the holes for the bridge are at an angle too (not perpendicular to the stings) - this odd thing serves the same purpose. As far as I have seen on other guitars, the screws can point in either direction. I asked the same question, but got no answer yet.
3. I have never removed a nut before
4. this is the first time I heard about fractal burning - after a quick Google search I just say stay safe!
I wish you good fun with the project!

RudyRudy, the already-installed nuts are notoriously cheap, so the purchase of the bone nut was a good choice. I have done only one nut replacement, so there may be other and better ways to remove the old, but I used a razor blade to gently work in front of and at the base of the nut until I was able to wiggle it loose. Then clean up the old glue before attaching the new one. Good Luck. Hope that helps.

Rudyrudyrudyrudy, great project! Those intonating screws on the Gibson-style bridge point toward your tailpiece. (Opposite to photo)

A quick google search found this..... https://images.app.goo.gl/AXSWTNoFMbkU8bdU6
Looks like screws facing nut or stop tail piece doesn't matter but angle of saddles should not be ignored.
As for pickups, shortest wire = bridge.
Cheers Waz

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The nut can be gently tapped out but as someone has already suggested, using a very fine blade to break the glue seal could help prevent tearing out, particularly end of the fretboard.
Fractal burning looks risky and wish you luck with that.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

A quick google search found this..... https://images.app.goo.gl/AXSWTNoFMbkU8bdU6
Looks like screws facing nut or stop tail piece doesn't matter but angle of saddles should not be ignored.
As for pickups, shortest wire = bridge.
Cheers Waz

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Very valuable info in this video, thank you for sharing Waz!

Been very very very slow progress - too much other stuff has taken priority. P{bus must admit to feeling a bit nervous of attacking it and screwing things up.

What I have been doing is some experiments with fractal burning, which have concluded with what probably some of you were trying to tell me in the first place - not a great idea. Still it was fun - and we learned a lot!
Attachment 39242
In the first pic I tried some bog standard softwood (pine) and the fractal patterns were pretty cool and well ... fractal
Attachment 39241
In the second pic the upper piece is a block of beech which I had lying around - again the fractal burn "found" the grain and did some cool stuff.
The lower piece is a basswood laminate I made up to simulate the construction of the guitar. All my fears were confirmed:
a) basswood has such an indistinct grain that the burn has no decision to make and if your not careful just goes A-B via shortest route, which often involves a plasma-like surface burn (spectacular at the time but ultimately crap looking)
b) it has a high tendency to follow the glue lines and if you're not careful, will burn the laminate apart

So - abandon that idea
Now thinking a solid nitro finish in a kind of aubergine or black cherry colour. Anybody done that and can recommend any paint colour names?

Thanks in advance

Really interesting experiments! Seems quite destructive too :), good thing you tried it first on some other pieces of wood. I guess a design like this could work with rusty hardware and maybe even some bent nails here and there. That would look unique on stage but maybe would be uncomfortable to play :)

Ok so body and neck now primed and ready. Question, should I now assemble body and neck together before continuing gloss topcoat? Or should gloss each part individually and then assemble afterwards ?

Interesting question.
Having built 2 explorers, one set neck and the other bolt on, it is easier to finish as much as possible before setting the neck. Once set it is such an awkward shape to handle which adds to the degree of difficulty.
Adding finish after gluing neck will help to fill the joint. From memory i think about 75% of the finish was done on neck & body then final 25% on the whole guitar.
Hope this helps in some way.
Cheers Waz


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Having set my neck prior to applying finish, I would wholeheartedly endorse Waz’ approach to finishing an EX.
Its all personal choice but they are a big awkward beast to handle when finishing in one piece.

Thanks both, that’s exactly the kind of mental trade-off I was going through in my mind. I think I’ll get a few coats of gloss (nitro) on before assembly, and then perhaps a final blow over once assembled

An additional reason to apply the finish first is that it makes the excess glue easier to wipe off - at least so I was advised, so I am applying shellac before glueing the neck.

Hi guys, dumb ass question #125; my Grover tuners, some of them are marked ‘5.D’, some ‘5.B’ and some ‘5.C’. I can’t see any visible difference between them. Any ideas if it makes any difference? At first I thought one for each string but don’t have any marked E or G

No difference at all. It probably marks the machine they were stamped on so they can trace any faults they pick up in the factory.

I assembled my EX-1 before spraying. It is an awkward shape and you need a large area available to work on it easily. I had many 'incidents' where the wet body caught things as I was turning it round to spray, requiring a lot more fixing up afterwards.

On the other hand, as I was doing a solid colour finish, it did allow me to get a very smooth blend between neck and body. But if you are just spraying clear coats, then you won't be using a lot of filler to get the blending, so doing body and neck separate and then just having to spray the join area once it's assembled does make things easier.

Just don't forget to mask off all the pocket and neck areas that will be glued before you spray.

Here's my answer to Lappa's question about the bridge saddles, which should answer your original question 2.

"ABR-1 T-O-M bridges normally have the screws facing forwards, Nashville T-O-M bridges normally facing backwards, but they work both ways round. on an ABR-1, the screws sit near the top of the saddle and can get in the way of the strings as they leave the saddle, so the screws generally get faced forwards as a result, On a Nashville, the screws are smaller and lower down, so dont get in the way and being lower, are easier to access if facing rearwards.

The main thing to consider is the saddle orientation when you come to intonate. Flat side facing forwards allows more forwards movement; the flat side facing backwards allows more rearwards movement. It used to be that T-O-Ms came with the 3 top saddles facing forwards and the bottom 3 facing backwards, but now they often all have them facing the same way. On ABR-1 bridges, its easy to remove a saddle and rotate it. On a Nashville style TOM, there's a very small circlip to remove to free the saddle which is almost impossible to do. There are YouTube videos on it, but whilst I've once managed to remove a clip, I've never managed to put one back on."

From the picture, you have a copy of a Gibson ABR-1 style Tune-O-Matic bridge, so screws pointing forwards is normal for that style.