SH1 build - thoughts, questions, progress and otehr stuff

Well it has arrived, undamaged despite having travelled about half way round the world since leaving Perth Western Australia.

Checking the wooden bits first:
The neck looks to be OK, probably will need a fret levelling when completed and a tweak on the truss rod, but that is to be expected as even new Fenders and Gibsons need that all too often.
Body looks OK, but that is going to get a lot of tender loving care from various tools so any minor imperfections will vanish in a cloud of sanding/saw dust.
Neck/body joint is over tight, with the neck about 0.5mm wider than the pocket (it's a screwed on neck). Easy to solve and better that way round than the 4mm of packing on width that was needed on a friend's bass (not from PBG). Not able to comment about alignment yet as I've not got the tools and sandpaper out yet.

Now for the first question....
How does one go about fitting the bridge/tremolo unit (from Overlord of Music) . There are four mounting holes in the base plate, but they are hidden under the moving part, which "anchored" by spring pressure against two posts. The spring is held in a cavity between the two lumps, pressing firmly against a stop on the fixed part and the adjuster screw on the other. It's a heavy looking spring, and I fear that releasing the tension might send it, or something else into either orbit or that dark forbidding corner where lost screws lurk unseen. I foresee bloodshed (mine) and that is a long way down the list of desirable outcomes.

No idea about the bridge, though a few people on here have made the kit, and there is quite a lot of info on the Overlord bridges on the web. They aren't great, but they can be improved.

I'd wait a few days before deciding to do anything about the neck pocket. Temp and humidity changes in their trip from Australia to the UK can make the neck pockets feel tighter due to relative shrinking or swelling changes in the neck and the body. The changes tend to be smaller on bolt-on neck guitars than on glue-on neck guitars (or at least glue-on neck hollow body guitars where there's more exposed wood area), but it is worth letting them both acclimatise for a week.

Thanks Simon, I was just doing a dry fit to make sure everything was more or less OK and doodling the cut lines. As I'm now packing for a few days working away from home nothing other than laying the bit in place will happen until the weekend.
I've had a couple of looks on the web for installation instructions, but most of the links are to derogatory pages, many of which are just regurgitating one person's bad experience with the bridge in use. I'm sure I'll find the solution.

This video shows someone taking apart and reassembling what I assume is a OOM bridge. Looks like you do need to release the spring and take it all apart to free the baseplate.

http://youtu.be/bFhJv9lfYyQ

On the bass unit, there are nylon washers between the fine tuners and the body which disintegrate very easily, so if you have anything like that, I've seen videos advising you to replace them with steel washers.

Getting all the moving threads lubricated is important as well.

Thanks Simon, I just found that video, and a PDF set of instructions.
And I can verify that once that screw is a long way out, while there is a tiny amount of spring pressure left it is easy to overcome and dismantle (and re-assemble) the bridge.

Ah, those "PTFE" washers. On my bridge they are bronze/brass which should be far more stable than PTFE/nylon and less prone to jamming than steel.

I'll lubricate the threads when it comes to assembling the guitar, they do feel a bit dry just now (parched by the Australian desert perhaps?)

That's it for now, taxi is due here soon.....

Simple task to get the neck to fit, just scraped off a couple of high points and the neck squeezes in, tight but not overly so. I'll have to check that all the routing is OK, but the pickups & bridge all sit in the pockets but I do need to check the alignments.
More thoughts on the reshaping....No cutting yet as I'm not sure.

A few pictures from arrival day:
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...Ah, just found I can only attach 5 pictures per post, so that's all for this one; more to follow.

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That's all the arrival photos (well, not all, just a few to show the condition on arrival.

Since then I've dry fitted the neck, checked the scale-length, marked up for re-shaping the body....
Then got the saw out and the reshaping has begun, roughed out to a few millimetres outside the finish line and sort of started to think about the various scallops. Lots of dust being generated :-( (I must remember to put a mask on BEFORE getting the sander going)
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After cutting to the line I put the neck on (unbolted) just to make sure the new shape felt right - it didn't, the angle at the lower side was too square to the line of the neck, so that's going to be sorted later today.
One thing I did do was mask everything apart from the cavities so they could get a good few coats of a copper-loaded "paint" that I've used at work for EMC screening. I'm now pondering if on whether to leave the copper-colour or go with my first thought of having them black. I suppose if I don't paint them I can see what it looks like against the finish and paint if I don't like the appearance, but if I paint them now I won't be able to go back...... I think I'll leave them as they are until the finish is on.
I'll post a couple of pictures later on today.

A bit more progress.
First I've finished the reshaping, power tools to get to the basic shape. Basic shape using a saw in a multi-tool, next level of shaping with a flap disk on an angle grinder (lots of dust generated), then a palm-sander to get down to the line; finally finishing by hand with a variety of sand paper and flexible pads (more, finer dust).
The add the colour. I'm using Chestnut's green Spirit Stain, it took a few coats to get the depth of colour I want. Then a very gentle flat with 600 grade paper (just to get rid of the suicidal flies that arrived...) before a very light blow over with clear varnish (again from Chestnut). I did this because I'd tried various approaches on some of the off-cuts generated in the re-shaping and I found that trying to get a "mirror smooth" wood surface without a coat of varnish meant I lost the depth of colour, and using a sanding sealer before putting the stain on led to the stain "skidding off".
After the first sealing coats a quick flat (600 grade again) and a couple of coats to build some depth of varnish so I can start the final build-up, which will be in stages.
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One other thing, I have a great dislike of jack-plates sitting on the surface, so I've routed out a shallow pocket for that to sit in.
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(sorry the last one's a bit fuzzy, but I couldn't see a sharp edge to focus on)

wow that will look really distinctive! Nice job

It should clash nicely with one of my other guitars which is a sort of deep purple "V".
(Reminder to self - post a picture of The Kraken)

More flatting, more spraying, more flatting, more spraying. Slowly building up the finish before final flatting and polishing.
And, started on getting some finish on the neck, this time using a satin varnish rather than the gloss on the body. The neck will probably be finished by just a final flatting with 800 or finer, and no polishing.
Then its "just" screw it all together.........

So, you've almost finished! ;)

Ive just discovered this thread and am super impressed with your progress and reshaping.
I reckon that youve “fixed” what i considered a pretty unattractive guitar.
It might even be my next adventure!


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Well the neck finish came together faster than expected. After about 6 coats with flatting between alternate coats it feels right so I'm leaving it there.
Body is now drying after what I hope is the last coat (any more will mean a trip out to get another can spray varnish. So that's being left for a couple of days to properly dry and stretch before making that decision.

@simon - As you know the key word is "just".......... And of course I didn't mention the wiring, nothing fancy to start with to see what the kit pickups, pots etc sound like.
@oli - Thanks, there was a fair bit of thought as to what the shape would be before I ordered which made the shaping simpler. BUT I nearly dropped a clanger as the control cut-out on the back was closer to the edge than I thought it was going to be - thankfuly I checked the cut line on the back as well as the front..... The real heart-stopper was the first cut as I had no idea how the timber would behave, pretty well was the answer. It also sanded nicely which was a blessing as there's one thing i don't like is doing lots of sanding (as opposed to flatting which I find quite therapeutic).

Great work Rob.
Im actually really keen to know how the bridge/tuners work. If they’re smooth, stay in tune, or too complex??

Keep us posted!


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...after what I thought (hoped) would be the final flatting the finish didn't look right, so another can of varnish is in order. Another few rounds of flat/spray/flat it now looks there on the front, but a bit more needed on the back. Once the back's had its "final" coat it will be onto "just" screwing it together (expect much muttering in the corner), soldering up the controls (even more muttering in the corner), "just" putting some strings on then into the so-called final set-up (you've guessed it, muttering....)
And finally(?) plug it into an amp and let the neighbours enjoy another guitar joining my collection of playable guitars.

Finish is there or there abouts, not a full gloss, but a nice "warm" sheen.
Bridge and neck installed. Boy is that spring in the bridge a feisty little thing, spent more time searching for it when it pinged out (repeatedly) as the bridge was being put back together. Great news was that the routing for the bridge is nicely aligned with the neck so no fitting needed, and thus attaching the fixed part of the bridge to the body was an easy task - did the outer two screws first, and once that was done a simple task to mark and pilot drill the other two holes.
Next is to sort out mounting the pickups, and then wiring it up.

One thing of note is that the bridge has brass washers not the dreaded plastic ones.

I may get some pics tomorrow.

Good progress.

Maybe the Overlords manufacturers are finally taking note of the negative feedback they've been getting via forum posts and YouTube videos. When it doesn't take much to turn a design that functions poorly into one that works reasonably well, then why not do it?

Urgh - work got in the way for over a week, next week (hopefully) some progress should be made, probably wiring (fun) and tweaking necks (mine and the guitar). Then hopefully a bit of time to make some noises (or maybe even some nice notes in the correct sequence).

Is it really nearly two months since I last posted anything about the build of my SH1?
Well, the date says so, thus it must be so.....
No real progress apart from finishing painting the cavities with screening paint and sorting out a couple of very dodgy looking bits of wire, all very un-photogenic stuff, next is the actual wiring, but that will mean clearing the bench of work-work (as opposed to fun-work like guitars).
In the meantime I see my next guitar has started to make its way around the world to the UK - hopefully Barry Tone won't take as long to complete as the SH1, but it probably will as we are now getting into the really bad painting/varnishing season......

Another month has passed.
The SH1 is finished and plays quite well, but the pickups may need to find replacements. Hardest jobs were working out where the strap buttons needed to be and how to hang it up on the guitar wall (which still hasn't been done).
Thanks to a shelf collapsing there is a now a mark on the back (old age and decrepidness on behalf of the shelf).


Barry Tone has arrived and a few basic checks made, great to see that the neck is in line with the pickups and bridge. Various bits have been ordered including slightly better tuners, and a piezzo bridge to replace the kit one. I'll let it sit to acclimatise to being in the UK rather than Western Australia before starting on the finishing process.

In case any hadn't gathered "Barry Tone" is a JZ6....
Work has started, the headstock has been shaped, just a very simple curve, nothing too outrageous. And the outward facing surface of the headstock painted a somewhat LOUD shade of fluorescent orange (when has any fluorescent colour being anything less than LOUD?".
A little bit of work was needed on the ends of some of the frets as they were a tiny bit ragged, but a few seconds with a blunt fine file sorted them out.

And so to the body. This has had the main rout modified to allow the bridge pickup to move nearer the bridge by about 15mm, the output jack is moving from sticking straight out of the face to down on the side; in part this is to allow the bridge pickup change-over switch to be on the top (more about that later), and the trem pocket filled (I don't play with a trem, so why have that hole and hardware?).
I've just tried a small patch with the paint that's going to be used for the body, and, as expected with a water based paint, it's done a great job of lifting the grain so I'll let that dry and sand it back.


(By the way - Is there any way to edit the thread title????)