iNSANEs EX-1L BMW Build

After a short wait for my EX-1L kit to arrive, it finally showed up on Friday. :D

After a sunny Saturday afternoon of sanding, I have managed to get the Deep Colour coat on.
I'm happy with the way that it is coming along so far. The Black Magic Woman Wudtone went on pretty well on the front and back of the body, but took a bit more effort to get onto the edges.

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0dd0b2ef.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2c6e4e30.jpg

My initial plan is to do a burst finish with the darker black on the outer edges and the more transparent/lighter colour in the center.

In the meantime, while the Wudtone dries, I have a few things to clean up on the neck.
The edges of the nut are very angular and sharp and having larger hands, will need to be rounded a bit.
As well as dressing the frets. I think these will make a nice Sunday job.

Quote:

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/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from iNSANE on August 24, 2013, 19:22

My initial plan is to do a burst finish with the darker black on the outer edges and the more transparent/lighter colour in the center.

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You're doing a black-burst? That sounds cool. I can't wait to see it.

I am definitely going to do a Black Magic build at some point. Will be watching this diary with interest ;)

Looking good so far!

It can be tough to wrangle with, but it's a great looking colour when you get it working. That axe is going to look stunning when it's finished.

And, best of all, it looks like the bridge holes on the kit have been drilled correctly for a lefty.

[/quote]

You're doing a black-burst? That sounds cool. I can't wait to see it.[/quote]


I think the burst will be rather subtle, seeing how dark the Deep Colour is. Time will tell :)


:)

Hey man. Another lefty, seems like half the people here are lefty's.

That BMW does look great. Are you going to sand back in the center of the burst or just try and get darker coats on the edges.

Quote:

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/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from DanMade on August 24, 2013, 22:13
Hey man. Another lefty, seems like half the people here are lefty's.

That BMW does look great. Are you going to sand back in the center of the burst or just try and get darker coats on the edges.

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I'm not surprised to see so many lefties. It's hard enough to get descent lefty guitars as it is, but with these kit guitars you can make it as you want, as opposed to buying name brand guitars that are more often than not either the lower end or higher end guitars with very few colour options.


As for the burst, I'm going to give it a another day 24 hours to dry, it seems to have bought out some of the grain quite nicely overnight, but it is still quite dark. I was originally going to just darken the edges, but I now think i might rub the center back a bit with the steel wool a a bit. I'll still darken the edges as well.

Looking great! Can't wait to see how the burst comes out.

Cheers,
Gavin.

Looking good, the BMW looks great.
Are you going to do any mods

Quote:

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/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Tim on August 25, 2013, 10:53
Looking good, the BMW looks great.
Are you going to do any mods

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Hi Tim,
I've got a couple of mods already planned. I have some alpha 500k pots and an orange drop cap left over from an upgrade I was going to do on an Ibanez. I will most likely swap the selector switch as well.
I'll stick with the chrome hardware that came with the kit, I was going to go with black, but I think the chrome will go well with the black burst.

There is another small mod that I am going to try, I wanted to use some chrome pickup rings on the build, but the two that I have in my parts box are low profile. I originally had them on a guitar with a floyd trem. They are only about 3-4mm high, so I'm going to mount them on top of the black plastic ones that came with kit. I actually looked pretty good when I put the pickups in them and layed out the guitar. 8-)

The only other thing I usually change is the pickups, but I need to play the guitar a bit first. I don't want to buy pickups without knowing how the guitar sounds naturally. Besides, the kit pickups might sound good enough as they are :D

Another update on my progress. I managed to get a bit done with the neck today.

I started by filing some grooves into an old 60cm steel ruler to use as a straightness gauge ( I found this easier than trying to get is straight by sight)

I then leveled the frets using a stewmac sanding block. I have to say that the frets were almost perfect out of the box. All but one of them were pretty much level, just one low fret. Only had to make about 5-6 passes along the neck to get them even. It didn't take too long to clean up the frets with a file afterwards.

My next mission was to sand the neck and begin applying the Wudtone. After some advice from DB I have started to use the BMW on the neck. I've done the first coat, I'll have to leave it a few days before the next one, I should have enough Wudtone left to do one more Deep colour coat before I apply the Base coat.


Here is a pic of the headstock with the first coat of Deep colour. It is a bit darker than the photo shows. I'm not a very good photographer :(
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps00567993.jpg

A pic of the back
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...pscb8f5270.jpg

I was thinking that with the neck, I might go for a bit of a burst on the back. It all depends on how dark I can get it. Yet again, time will tell. :)

Great to see a guitar in BMW - I'll be using a bit on a build, so it will be nice to see how this goes

Quote:

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/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from iNSANE on August 25, 2013, 14:13
I wanted to use some chrome pickup rings on the build, but the two that I have in my parts box are low profile.

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On my 335 I used the low profile humbucker rings as-is. Same with my current buld - Ebens's BC-1.
I actually love the minimalist look of them, especially if the humbuckers have chrome covers too.
Just my 2 cents :).

Whatever you choose to do, the chrome surrounds will look killer with the BMW body! Can't wait to see 'em - good call!


cheers,
Gavin.

I managed to get a bit of work done on the guitar during the week. I was able to get 3 deep colour coats on the neck and tonight I did the first base coat. It is starting to look pretty good, its starting to darken up rather nicely.

The body itself is starting to take shape, but still has a way to go. I need to work on the outer edge of the burst a bit more, there are a few spots where the Wudtone doesn't seem to take to the wood very well, I think its just the way the grain is. I think a few more coats and a bit if a rub back in the middle will get it where I want it.

A couple of pics of the progress of the body

The first one is after one coat of base coat on the whole body and 2 or 3 coats around the edges.
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps72e09f44.jpg


The second pic is after a 2 more very light coats on the whole body and 2 more around the edges, with a bit of rubbing back in the center.
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6e8c4524.jpg

Looks great! First time I've seen anyone go for black black with BMW.

End of weekend update.
I've got the body how I want it :) The edges are dark enough, the center show a nice amount of grain, all in all, I'm pretty happy with what I've got. All it needs now is the clear coat.

The pics I take don't really show it as I see it. There is also a huge difference when looking at the body from different angles, or in daylight or overhead lights.

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...psa097703c.jpg


The neck is almost where I want it. The back is great, it matches the back of the body very well. I just want to darken the front of the headstock a wee bit more.
I have darkened the heel and the headstock a bit more than the middle of the neck, but the flash on my camera really lightened it up more.

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...psfac74766.jpg

Me thinks when the build is complete, I'll get the guitar outside and get the Wife to take over all photography duties. She takes here time and get great pics, I'm a bit "point and shoot"

looking good.
Takes pics outside, but in the shade - it gives even flat light, no harsh light or shadows and you wont need flash

Nice job.The EX is a nice shape guitar.

Ive been rather slack for a while, but the EX-1L is complete.

Now that Ive sorted out the wiring issues(see my thread in the wiring pick ups section), Ive strung her up and been playing her for about a month. I thought it was high time I got some finished piccys up.

You can see in a few of these how the BMW went with the neck. I could have added more coats and gone darker but I stopped at the point where it matched the back of the body.

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...psbbe6fb05.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5d39575a.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6e2d9e93.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4f49aef5.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps69a8cccf.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3f16a467.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3f21f660.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/...psdfe91b6d.jpg

I didn't get a pic of the edges yet, but they are absolutely pitch black. The grain on the ends and sides really drank the BMW and helped with the burst effect.

looks great and a leftie as well!