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See what I did there ;)
Two ST-1's to be precise, one for my brother and the other for me.
His: Wudtone Black Magic Woman, clear neck, chrome hardware, modern 2-pivot bridge, locking tuners and hot pickups.
Mine: Wudtone Columbian Gold, aged vintage yellow neck (probably), gold hardware, upgraded vintage style bridge, locking tuners, vintage style pickups.
Probably some mods to the wiring on both, I have a few ideas in mind.
For convenience, I'm calling them Blackie and Brownie.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...brownie_01.jpg
Headstocks roughly shaped. On both headstocks, the B and particularly the high E tuner holes are slightly out of line with the other holes… and yes, I probably won't be able to stop myself from 'fixing' them.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...dstocks_01.jpg
Both fretboards are good, but each has some mucky spots that will need a bit of cleaning up. However, I luuuurv the grain on Brownie's fretboard (lower), even if it has a small crack in the headstock (I glued the crack today, so I'll see how turned out tomorrow).
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...tboards_01.jpg
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Hmm....you have chosen two colours to use on bass wood bodies that are (along with Olympic Girl) the most difficult to be sure of the resulting colour. Mind you, with your attention to detail and determination, i guess you'll show us how to get it right! Going to be watching this with interest!
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Cool thread title Scott. It made me chuckle. This will be the first time I have seen someone build a double neck guitar with each neck on a separate body. Clever idea!
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will be great to see a dual build Scott
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Keen to see how this turns out - BMW and Columbian Gold look great in the samples. Watching with interest. Great also to see the attention to detail.
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So, the crack in the headstock on Brownie was glued with super glue, a touch of Maple dust, and clamped for several hours.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...ck_crack_6.jpg
When the clamp came off the repair looked ok, but I thought I might help it along a bit more. As some of the tuner holes were slightly misaligned on both headstocks I thought I may as well plug and re-drill them as counterbores. That will not only allow me to align the holes better, but the counterbore should give a much better fit for the Grover tuners and keep more wood in the hole (not a euphemism) for Brownie.
Plugs cut, taped up and ready to glue.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...dstocks_02.jpg
Plugged and setting.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...dstocks_04.jpg
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New hole positions marked… then double and triple-checked for alignment and spacing, and finally checked again to make sure the tuner washers would cover any plug edges.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...dstocks_05.jpg
New holes drilled with a 5/16" (7.94mm) bit for the bushings, and then drilled from the back with the 10mm counterbore. mmm… counterbore.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...dstocks_06.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...dstocks_09.jpg
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And, after a clean up of the new drilled tuner holes and sanding both headstocks down to 180 grit, here's how the crack repair on Brownie ended up. Not sure if I really need to try and blend/hide it more, as I think it'll be ok once it gets some Aged Vintage Yellow on it… don't know yet. It may change a bit when I do the final 240 sanding on it.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...ck_crack_7.jpg
Next step, body work.
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weirdy, that looks great, nice work
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weirdy, that looks great, nice work
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yes agreed nice repair job Weirdy, the crack repair should look fine with a couple coats of vintage yellow
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Change of plan. The 'client' has requested a change of colour, so my brother's Blackie will now be known as Blondie... well, Natural-ie or Colourless-ie actually, but Blondie sounds better.
So, instead of Black Magic Woman, 'Blondie' will now be finished in Wudtone Colourless - maybe with a coat of Honey or Goldenrod first then rubbed right back to add some subtle character to the grain. Not sure yet.
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Natural on wood - can't go past it...
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With the extreme heat this week I decided to restrict myself to air-conditioned comfort, and did the pickguard wiring for these two beasts. Blondie is getting GFS pickups and chrome hardware, while Brownie is getting Toneriders and gold fittings.
Pickguards shielded (the copper is on Blondie)
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_01.jpg
All the bits in place.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_03.jpg
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Time for the wiring… first up, Blondie.
The specs:
GFS Lil' Killer pickups (calibrated set - bridge 15.41K, middle 10.33K, 6.14K)
Orange Drop 0.047uF cap
Treble Bleed mod
Push/pull coil split (all pickups)
Push/pull bridge on
Grigsby 4 pole 5 way superswitch
Here's my wiring schematic/sketch/abomination:
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...ng_option3.jpg
I wanted to have coil splitting on the pups, as the bridge in particular is pretty hot, and I also wanted to have the "bridge on" option (7 sound mod). Originally, I was going to just use a CRL 5 way, but that would have meant the splits wouldn't work for the the 'bridge on' option. So, I opted for a Grigsby superswitch, but still had to make a compromise. The split works for all pickups and with the bridge on mod, but the bridge doesn't split for the "bridge on" in position 4. So, if you are in pos 4 with the middle and neck split and turn the bridge pup on the bridge (only) won't be split. You still get all the normal Strat options, plus those same options with the pickups split, and then the "bridge on" option allows all 3 pups on in position 4 and "bridge + neck" in position 5. Easy to use and pretty versatile. The front tone controls the neck, and the rear tone controls the bridge. Thus, in position 3 the middle pup has no tone control.
The series link for the middle pickup has been switched from red & white to green & black, so that when the pups are split it's hum cancelling with either the bridge or neck, just like a normal strat would be.
This is actually the less complex wiring of the two ST's, but the 4 conductor plus shield wires for each pickup made it quite messy to wire as there was just so much going everywhere.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_07.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_08.jpg
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Brownie's wiring can be described as… kitchen sink.
It has a blender circuit for blending the bridge and neck in positions 1, 2, 4 and 5. It has parallel/series switching for the pickup combinations. And, it has another switch that adds a bit extra for all the other options. It also has tone controls by position, with the rear tone controlling positions 1 and 2, and the front tone controlling positions 3, 4, and 5, and the tone is wired vintage style, post-volume control.
The specs:
Tonerider Pure Vintage pickups (bridge 6.53K, middle 6.32K, neck 6.04K - measured values)
Paper in Oil 0.047uF cap
Grigsby 4 pole 5 way superswitch
3 push/pull 250KA (log) Alpha pots
Position specific, post-volume, tone controls
Because the wiring is pretty complex, it would look like spaghetti if I tried to draw it. So, I've done a 'simplified' schematic where rather than drawn each wire it instead lists each connection by its identifier. So, MVS1 = master volume switch, terminal 1. T1S3 = tone 1 switch, terminal 3. T23 = tone 2 (pot), terminal 3 etc. Doing it this way means you have to think more to trace the connections for each position, particularly when I was devising it, but drawing all the wires would make it entirely unreadable.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...ng_option1.jpg
Note: Terminal 0 of the (C) pole of the superswitch (lower left of the diagram) should connect to MVS3, not MVS2 (wired it right, wrote it down wrong).
This gives 8 different settings with the push/pulls (2^3 = 8), plus the 5 way… so, lots of options. To make it easy, I'm calling the Master Volume push/pull the "Plus" setting, the Tone 1 push/pull the "Series" setting, and the Tone 2 push/pull the "Blender" setting.
Ok, here's the list of settings.
+ = parallel connection
X = series connection
Push/Pull up is ON, down is off.
Blend (parallel), Fade (series) is controlled by rotating the tone 2 pot.
When tone 2 is operating in blender/fade mode, there is no tone control for position 1 and 2 (life is full of compromises).
Standard (Plus off, Series off, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge + Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Middle + Neck (tone 1)
5. Neck (tone 1)
Blender (Plus off, Series off, Blender ON)
1. Bridge + Blend Neck (no tone)
2. Bridge + Middle + Blend Neck (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Middle + Neck + Blend Bridge (tone 1)
5. Neck + Blend Bridge (tone 1)
Series (Plus off, Series ON, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge X Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Middle X Neck (tone 1)
5. Neck (tone 1)
Plus (Plus ON, Series off, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge + Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. (Bridge + Middle) X Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Neck (tone 1)
Blender Plus (Plus ON, Series off, Blender ON)
1. Bridge (no tone)
2. Bridge + Middle (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. (Bridge + Middle) X Fade Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Fade Neck (tone 1)
Series Plus (Plus ON, Series ON, Blender off)
1. Bridge (tone 2)
2. Bridge X Middle (tone 2)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Bridge X Middle X Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Neck (tone 1)
Series Blender (Plus off, Series ON, Blender ON)
1. Bridge + Blend Neck (no tone)
2. (Bridge + Blend Neck) X Middle (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. (Neck + Blend Bridge) X Middle (tone 1)
5. Neck + Blend Bridge (tone 1)
Series Blender Plus (Plus ON, Series ON, Blender ON)
1. Bridge (no tone)
2. Bridge X Middle (no tone)
3. Middle (tone 1)
4. Bridge X Middle X Fade Neck (tone 1)
5. Bridge X Fade Neck (tone 1)
Excessive (or maybe cRaZy), I know, but it'll be fun to experiment with ;)
It actually went together pretty easily, and the amazing thing is… it all worked the first time.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_04.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_05.jpg
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And, here's a pic of my one string pickup/wiring tester… tuned to A ;)
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._wiring_13.jpg
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Whoa, I don't know how you come up with something like this, my brain is toast just reading about it.
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Bleedin' he'll. you'll be spending more time driving it than playing it! Can't argue against the tone variations you'll get though.
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Scott - hooly dooley... that's a whole lotta wiring. Here I was thinking I did OK with my A/B switch and some P / J Bass wiring. I think you've got more going on that all of those combined! Sounds like it'll take some getting used to, but once you do - you may never need another guitar!
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With all the extra wiring and the addition of the superswitches things were a little tight in the control cavity on both these guitars, but only by 2-3 mm's. I didn't want to use my large router, but the cavity was too deep for any of my Dremel's routing attachments… so, I took the mount from my StewMac precision routing attachment, bolted it to a straight piece of 7mm ply and then just adjusted the bit to cut the depth I wanted. It actually worked pretty well. The cavities on both guitars are now slightly deeper and the pickguards seat nicely even with all the wiring.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...ty_rout_01.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...ty_rout_02.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...ty_rout_03.jpg
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I'm not sure if it's been the recent hot weather, a bit of drying shrinkage, or a factory issue, but I noticed a small crack in Brownie the other day. It's not a big issue as it is on a seam on the small strip of wood between the neck pocket and the neck pickup rout, and the rest of that join along the body looks fine.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...y_crack_02.jpg
The area will be covered by the pick guard so I just wicked in some superglue as best I could and I'll probably glue a small strip of maple as a brace along the inside of the pup rout just to be safe, so it shouldn't be an issue. What does concern me a bit though is that same seam runs straight through the centre of the two bass side neck mount screw holes, so with some tension on the screws it could possibly start to open the join (upper two holes in pic below). Unlikely, but you never know. The neck plate won't help with the issue as the holes themselves straddle the seam, so I decided to try something a little more radical.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_01.jpg
I don't really like the feel of full-sized neck plates, so I've been wanting to try using neck ferrules on a build. However, the ST-1's are Basswood and it's such a soft and compressible wood that I was worried if I used ferrules they would either compress the wood and sink too far or distort the surrounding area. So, I came up with an idea that should allow me to use ferrules and solve the potential seam issue… but it may just be lunacy, hard to tell. Basically, if I glue fat hardwood dowels in where the ferrules will sit they should reinforce the seam and give a solid non-compressible base for the ferrules to sit on. Well, that's the plan.
First step, trim off some of the treble corner of the neck pocket and use the basswood offcuts to make a plug for the hole on that corner. I'll be moving both of the forward most neck mount holes but only the treble hole plug will be visible, so it needs to match the surrounding wood.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_02.jpg
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Basswood plug carved for the treble side plug, and a hardwood dowel (because I had one that fit) for the bass side, ready to be glued in place.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_03.jpg
The plan is to angle and shape the treble corner of the neck pocket, and I want a reasonable amount of wood between the ferrule and the edge, so the bass side hole with be moved back a bit and the treble side will be in further and offset. The other two holes will remain where they were. The ferrules themselves are 15mm in diameter, so I used a 15mm forstner bit to drill through to the neck pocket and trimmed some dowel to match.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_04.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_05.jpg
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And, finally, I've roughed out the shape of the treble corner of the pocket. I originally planned to take more off the corner and make it more angled, but I quite like the look and feel of it the way it is now. It sits nicely in my palm so I may just leave it at that or maybe tweak it during the final body sanding. Opinions?
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_10.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_09.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_11.jpg
(the ferrules haven't been seated fully in the pic, they actually sit slightly recessed)
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Loving your work Scott. Attention to detail and determination to make it all 100% perfect.
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Scott this is a legendary build - these will be great guitars simply because you cared to make them the way you did - awesome work
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agreed, Scott, nice mods, what colour you got in mind ?
You should patent your 1 string pickup test setup rig (or sell it to Seasick Steve !) and also the dremel routing mod is very cool too.
Look forward to seeing this build progress
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Scott - looking great! Love the extra attention to detail.
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That looks great, Scott. It'll "class up" the join beautifully.
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I'm a bit behind on the updates, so time for a catch up...
I like getting all the holes drilled and tested before starting the finish, that way I can make any necessary adjustments. The neck ferrule modification/experiment is looking ok so it was time to line up and bolt on the neck.
I put strips of masking tape across every second fret and measured and marked the centre of the neck (the fret dots aren't accurate enough), and then used a fishing line centre line to line up and clamp the neck.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_14.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_13.jpg
Once everything was lined up I carefully drilled the neck mount holes to the required depth, then released the clamps and removed the neck so I could prep the screw holes by waxing the screws and gradually working them down to the full depth. This not only lets me check the hole depth and cut the threads into the holes… but if a screw is going to break I'd rather it happen before it is attached in the neck pocket.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_15.jpg
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Neck attached with the ferrules, which are slightly recessed (the edges will be dipped and rounded in final sanding).
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_16.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...errules_17.jpg
Next step is to align and position the bridge for the right scale length, and then mark and drill all the mount holes.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_01.jpg
However...
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The routs for the trem block and spring cavity are both a little misshapen and spring cavity in particular is bit askew. This wouldn't be an issue for the standard bridge but the trem block on the Wilkinson bridge I'm using is much larger, so the cavities will need to be adjusted to get the bridge in the correct position and give it full movement.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con..._big_block.jpg
The rout for the block mainly needed to be widened on the treble (arm) side to get the bridge aligned correctly, and a little off the back to square it up and give full movement.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_02.jpg
The spring cavity was twisted a bit towards the bass side, which made things a little tough as I needed to square it up so that both the block and the springs would be clear of the body… but without taking away too much wood otherwise I'd need a larger trem cover. I could only afford to take a little off the back of the cavity to square it up for the block.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_03.jpg
Continued...
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The sides of the spring section needed a bit more to square it up. The blotchy fill spot is my glue and sawdust filler I used to patch a large gouge/tear-out from the factory.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_04.jpg
And finally, the squared up cavity. The front edge where the claw attaches isn't quite as straight and square as I'd like, but it is near enough and I don't want to take any more wood away.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_05.jpg
After doing a few tilt tests with the bridge it was still slightly restricted from its full range, so as a final touch I added a shallow recess in the block cavity to allow the edge of the block to travel that little bit further.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_06.jpg
Looks like it is going to be a pretty tight fit under the trem cover, the block is ok but the spring hooks are very close. Which lead me to my next step…
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My first custom trem cover cut from my home-made templates (54mm string spacing)… in clear! (I had to hold it at an angle to photograph otherwise it disappears because it is so clear)
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...lear_cover.jpg
I made this to use as a guide/template for positioning the trem cover on the body, and to allow me to 'see' the clearance of the block and springs etc with everything in place. I also cut a second clear cover which I'm thinking of actually using as the cover on the Blondie (Colourless) strat. It will have a white pearloid pickguard, and I think the clear cover would be something different and potentially make a nice neat spring cavity a 'feature'… not sure yet. It may scratch up too quickly and look bad or just not look good full stop, we'll just have to wait and see.
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Time to fit the bridge. I used a 1m steel rule and handy little square to check the position line for the mount screws (~642mm for the Wilkinson), and then checked the position and alignment with the bridge and pickguard in place and a couple of old E strings. String position and scale length looked good so I marked and then (nervously) drilled the bridge mount holes… I had to be careful as the max depth required for the holes only left about 1.8mm short of the spring cavity and I didn't want to break through.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_07.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_08.jpg
For the trem claw mount holes I was going to use a cordless with an extra long drill bit, but the angle was still a little steep even with the chuck against the body and I was worried it may drill through to the pup cavity. Instead, I rummaged through my old tool boxes and eventually dug up my first ever drill (received as a gift from my grandfather when I was still in single digits). It hasn't turned a cog in anger in a while but with a touch of lube it was soon back to fighting speed. I wouldn't want to drill too much with it, but because it is so slim it was perfect for drilling the shallow angle I wanted in the soft basswood without needing to use the long bit.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_09.jpg
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With all the holes drilled I waxed the screws and attached the bridge, then repeated the process with the trem claw and hooked up a single spring for the test fitting. Pickguard in place and some old strings clamped tight to check spacing and alignment.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_10.jpg
The stock bridge has a 52.5mm string spread and the Wilkinson is 54mm spacing, which is why I've been paying so much attention to the string position. It looks pretty good in this pic, but is actually even better once the strings have some real tension on them.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_11.jpg
As you can see, there is not a lot of clearance above the hook of the trem spring and it will be even tighter once all the springs are on and the bridge is tilted slightly in its final floating position. This guitar (Brownie) is going to have a white trem cover, but the clear gives me a good idea of position and clearance etc. Because this block has staggered holes I'll probably cut a trem cover with longer than normal slots.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_12.jpg
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And a quick pic to get an idea of what the Blondie strat could look like with a clear trem cover, albeit with a different bridge and block and a chrome neck plate.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...m_mount_14.jpg
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Scott - looks like you really scored on that neck - it looks fantastic - love the grain. The extra work you put into getting everything just right - man alive - they just look fantastic!
