First built - Custom EXA-7 (Dora the 7Xplorer)

Hi everyone. I've been reading the forum for a bit now, but this is my first post as I just received my custom made EXA-7. I've done some soldering in the past and besides what products to use, I'm quite okay with the sanding and staining part.

I just did my mock built and in general it looks okay, but there are a couple of things that worry me + one that doesn't worry me as such, but it has already gone wrong.

The simplest one is that one of the tuning pegs that come with the basic kit does not work. The thread inside seems to be damaged and I can't fit the nut that sits on the top side of the headstock. While disappointing, this is just a matter of changing the tuning peg.

The two things that do worry me is that the neck seems to be taller on the 7th string side by half a millimetre and I don't know if this is normal or not. It took me a long time to properly measure the distance because reading 1/2 is hard for my eyes, but I could definitely notice a bit of an angle.

The second one is that I suspect the routing for the floyd rose bridge may be a bit short on one side and doesn't seem to give enough space for the bit under the bridge where the whammy bar fits. In my overall mock, the bridge sat fine in the whole, but it was very high to allow the "strings" to remain straight, but once I let it "fall" into the cavity, it hits the wood on the side of the whammy bar.

Are these two things something to be worried about? Are they normal? Or am I expected to do a bit more routing?

Hi and welcome.

Any faulty components - let Pit Bull know and they'll send you replacements.

Fretboard angle. Ideally it should be flat, but these kits are hand made using jigs and routers, not CNC machinery (unfortunately). So you'll often find that some things don't quite fit or line up as you'd wish. Sometimes you can sand or fettle things to make it better, sometimes you have to live with it. A couple of my kits have that non-flat fretboard. But at least it's angled the right way and probably makes it slightly easier to play as it's angled towards your playing hand.

If you want to pull upward bends, then the FR cavity needs to be large enough to fit the plate in. You've got the choice of either sending the kit back and waiting months for a replacement, or having a go at enlarging the cavity yourself. You could use a router to do it, but small enlargements can be done with a drum sander on a Dremel, if you've got one. Or there's the traditional approach to carving wood and using a chisel. It all depends what's in your comfort zone.

When you knock the FR posts in, make sure the wood under them is fully supported, otherwise you may find the surrounding wood can split. It did on a 2-post Strat I made. All fixable, but its a PITA and better avoided if possible.

Thanks Simon!

As it was a custom kit, it took a long time to arrive and I don't want to wait anymore hahahah I think I'll open the FR cavity myself (or with someone else).

I guess the neck is not a bad thing, I just noticed and thought the hivemind could help me out. I will contact them about the tuning pegs, which is a simple fix.

Cheers :)

It's not easy to correct the sloping fretboard as you have to adjust the angle of the sides and base of the neck heel. Which is both hard to do accurately and will probably leave the neck heel a bit loose in the pocket. As it's not excessive, I'd just accept it. If you are using pickup rings rather than direct mounting the pickups, the neck one will hide most of the end of the neck and make it less obvious.

It's worth trying out how the neck feels in your hand. My EX-1 has a very chunky 50's Gibson feel to it, which I didn't realise until I'd put the finish on. It's comfortable, but not very 'rock'. I plan to sand the shoulders down to get it more to a 'C' shape from a fat 'D' and refinish the neck.

As yours is a 7-string, it may well have a different profile, but best to check now and do any modifications you feel necessary before you start putting finish on. Taking off from the sides is fine, but try not to reduce the depth by more than 1mm (except where it thickens out at the heel), as you'll risk exposing the truss rod.

Thanks for the tips, Simon. I think I'm comfortable with how the neck feels and don't plan to modify besides basic sanding and staining. I thought it was a C shape at 12 inch radius, but whatever it is, I'm cool with it. I also play 5 and 4 string basses and have other two guitars with very different necks, so I don't mind as long as it's not bad.

After your previous comments, I feel at ease with the sloped fretboard and I'm thinking of how to go about the Floyd Rose cavity as that's beyond my limited woodworking experience. I don't want to wait any longer to start working on the piece (if I return it) but I don't want to mess it up - I think I'll pay someone to do a quick job.

PS. I've seen your comments in many other post and find you very supportive and knowledgeable. Thanks for helping all the young padawans in here :)

Talking with my dad, he recommended using a file to expand the Floyd Rose cavity if I wasn't very comfortable with the drill. It needed some patience but it was safer than shaking at the wrong moment. The result is not perfect but functional. It will be covered by the bridge itself and the cover plate on the back, so all good for now... Maybe a bit more sanding when I start the overall sanding.

I applied some timbermate maple colour, hoping it was going to be darker and highlight the grain, but it dried pink and after sanding, I didn't see much difference... that's better than looking bad :D

Now, I sanded down to 240 grit, still a bit rough but feels nice to touch, and applied two coats of Diggers Timber Oil Quicker Dry, which is some form of boiled linseed oil, but seems to dry superfast. I'm going for a rather natural colour. I feels dry to touch almost immediately, but there's still some smell coming from the wood, so I don't think is fully dry. I might have put two coats too close to each other, but I'm leaving it there a bit longer for the subsequent coats - I'm trying to work on the two dry days we have had in Melbourne between very rainy days.

I'm wondering how many coats should I apply before sanding to a finer grit and add more coats. I thought maybe a quick sand to the neck after these two, but maybe two more coats for the body? I'm a bit concerned about starting to sand over the veneer with too thin coats.

Note: these photos were taken after the first coat. It was a bit dark when I put the second coat, so I didn't take photos.

I’ve never used that product so it’s hard to say, but assuming it’s similar to TruOil in the depth of finish each coat applies, then it depends on whether you want a satin or gloss finish. For satin, then 3-4 coats will protect the wood. For gloss, you’ll want a lot more coats in order to have enough depth to sand it flat and then polish it. For gloss, I’d do a first decent sand after maybe 6 coats. But if you notice dust on the finish after you’ve applied a coat, then let it dry and do a very light sand just to remove the dust.

But I don’t have a lot of experience with oil finishes, and your product may give thicker layers than TruOil. The more experience you have, the fewer layers you need to apply, but it’s better to be safe than sorry and have a thicker coat you can definitely sand flat and polish, than risk sanding through the finish.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Juanito

I applied some timbermate maple colour, hoping it was going to be darker and highlight the grain, but it dried pink and after sanding, I didn't see much difference... that's better than looking bad :D

Now, I sanded down to 240 grit, still a bit rough but feels nice to touch, and applied two coats of Diggers Timber Oil Quicker Dry, which is some form of boiled linseed oil, but seems to dry superfast. I'm going for a rather natural colour. I feels dry to touch almost immediately, but there's still some smell coming from the wood, so I don't think is fully dry. I might have put two coats too close to each other, but I'm leaving it there a bit longer for the subsequent coats - I'm trying to work on the two dry days we have had in Melbourne between very rainy days.

I'm wondering how many coats should I apply before sanding to a finer grit and add more coats. I thought maybe a quick sand to the neck after these two, but maybe two more coats for the body? I'm a bit concerned about starting to sand over the veneer with too thin coats.

Note: these photos were taken after the first coat. It was a bit dark when I put the second coat, so I didn't take photos.

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Thats a beautiful grain that will look real good when finished,

Simon your still the guru of all things guitar 👍

+1 The spalted maple top looks great. I love the darker line down the middle of the body. The headstock maple is also great.

Thanks for your comments, Simon.
I think this is closer to boiled linseed oil than Tru Oil (some dude explains in a video how to make an equivalent to Tru Oil using boiled linseed oil, so I guess they are related, but not the same)

I ended up sanding it with 400grit paper before the third coat, and it feels incredibly smooth, the neck feels professional now. But it the built up on the sandpaper did make me think it wasn't dry enough - a bit gummy.

At the moment it's getting a bit too dark, so I don't want to put any more oil. I'll let it rest for a while now as this oil dries fast but not that fast, and I'll see how the colours change. After that, I'm pondering between a top coat with Shellac or Polyurethane, although I don't want it to go much darker than what currently is.

Watching Brad Angove videos, he recommends applying the first coat of poly with a very fine sandpaper (he uses 1500). If I go with poly, I could try doing that, or maybe before the first coat of any other product I end up using.

Indeed, Trevor! I was very impressed by the veneer, particularly with the headstock. When I first opened it and saw the headstock, I did jump a little bit and yelled, then I saw the dry body and wasn't as impressed. After a bit of oil, I am loving it all :D

I started coating it with Shellac (the flakes from Bunnings, which are as orange as the label says). I didn't expect this colour, which are more yellow/orange than in the photos, but here we are! Not complaining much.The back has 9 coats and the front 6. The neck has 5 and it's darker than in this photo. I'm thinking of being brave and try a French polish on the top.

No reason not to. What are you doing in the trem rout regarding a finish? Doesn’t look like there’s any on there at the moment. It’s best to have something on the wood to seal the surface to stop it being affected by humidity changes.

I have put a bit of the timber oil and a bit of Shellac, but way less than on the outside (hence the contrast). Should I go a bit harder on the cavities?

Edit: I was just about to put the last coat for tonight, so I put some on the cavities. I could put more another day before starting my non-french polish

You don't need to. As long as they have something to seal the surface that's fine.

I attempted French Polishing and it was going well, then I got too excited and failed horribly halfway through. I forgot that shellac and especially french polish need little amounts of product, and on the second day of polishing, I started dipping the rubber into the jar, thus leaving very annoying marks on the finish.

Good thing is that shellac is easy to fix with a bit of sanding and alcohol. The imperfections are hard to notice at first and I think I'm comfortable with them. It's looking very shiny and I like it, but I'm not sure if I should buff it with steel wool and add wax - some people talk about it, but I'm not sure I need that. Here's some photos with different levels of shellac'ing

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

https://i.imgur.com/S1Odxl0.jpg

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

Dora The 7Xplorer is done! I just forgot to post the last picture here.

https://i.imgur.com/kaVs7r5.jpg

I still need to go back and fix some things, like some textural imperfections on the shellac and re-do the higher frets, because they are causing a horrible buzzing. Luckily, the buzz is after the 15th fret on the 6th and 7th strings, so I don't spend much time there.

Other fixes I want to make are to change the pickup rings. These ones came with the stock pickups, and they are angled for LP types, but on a flat explorer, the pickups end up in a weird angle in relation to the strings. I didn't shield the cavities, so I may do that when I open it up. Also, I'm not sure if I need to install the metal bit to angle the strings on the headstock.

In a very distant future, I may ask a luthier to carve the body for better access to higher frets, because it has a very bad reach, especially being a 24 frets guitar. I can barely reach the 22nd fret. But, as it is now, I am quite happy with the result.

Looks great.

Sometimes to sort the upper frets, rather than level them, you can first try tightening the truss rod slightly to make the neck flatter, and then raise the bridge height slightly to compensate. The truss rod has very little/no effect on the neck curve of the upper frets, so string action there is determined purely by the bridge height. But with level frets, you should be able to get the neck almost flat, which really helps to get the action down.

I did try to play with truss rod and action, but recently checked the frets again and I did a lousy job crowning them. I started the fret work on the 24th fret and went backwards, so I started very badly and got better as I progressed. I don't know why I didn't check them before assembling the whole thing, but I'm quite happy with this being my first built. I made other errors along the way, but I'm not going to share them here heheje

The headstock is angled back, so you shouldn't need to fit a string retainer bar. They are needed for flat Fender-style headstock with locking nuts, but the headstock angle should be sufficient to hold the strings against the top face of the locking nut. Just undo and remove the locking bits. If the strings are touching the nut at the front and rear edges, then you're fine. If the strings are partially lifting off the nut on the headstock side, then I'd fit a retainer bar and screw it down so the strings are touching the rear (headstock) edge of the nut.

This lets you tune the guitar properly and set up the fine tuners at a suitable mid-point in their travel and he string clamps should not then affect the guitar tuning when they are done up. Plus all the clamping force is used holding the strings in place, with none wasted in also forcing the string on to the nut. It does keep the strings locked tighter.

Thanks again, Simon. After doing some maintenance toy other guitars, I decided not to bother too much with Dora and only changed the strings. I think it helped a lot with the buzzing, and and whatever is left is on an area of the fretboard that I won't use too much.

I think the springs that came with the Floyd Rose were for high tension because only two of them pulled too much, but now with thicker strings, I put the three of them and it's well balanced.

In some distant future, I may get a luthier to carve the body a bit to reach the highest frets, because at the moment, they are very deep in the body. However, I'm happy for the moment and if I need to play very high notes, I may just use one of my 6-strings.

It's been a fun journey.