MB-1 Kit - The Krook

Hey guys!

I'm super excited to finally be in a spot to put a kit together, and to put the plans for a design I've had for a while in to action, so I'm gonna document it all and share it, now that I've got all of my details sorted.

For a little bit of background: I had an idea for some fairly simple, block coloured designs based off Pokemon, taking the idea from wallpapers in that style. A fairly simple artstyle ended up giving me a bunch of mockups that were nice and interesting, but not too busy, and that would be fairly easy to paint. Eventually, after a bunch of culling ideas because they didn't turn out great in mockups, or because I wanted to use them for grander plans (Multiscale kits will happen one day I'm sure...) I decided on an MB-1 kit (because I need a Mockingbird in my collection somehow,) and using Krookodile as my themed Pokemon.

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EDIT: Updated the mockup to represent the Grey on the front better. It was originally darker, but with the paints I'm using it will need to be lighter. It does also make the outlines on everything a little cleaner and sharper looking though too.

I did talk to Adam, and I got my kit customised too. So we've got a Mahogany body, Ebony fretboard, black hardware, and no inlays (but I will be looking in to getting some Sharkfins added at a later date).

There are a couple of little gripes I have with the kit, the neck pocket is on the large side, asking for no inlays resulted in no side dots, and the glue joins in the body are a little thick. Of course all of these can be worked around (well the glue will just be painted over so no visual damage done there) but it does add a bit more work to it.

I also bought a couple of Push-Pull pots to add some splitting, but it turns out the pickups aren't 4-wire, so I might have to get some new pups a little sooner than I planned (but that will have to wait a bit because I'm still quite undecided on that front...) Oh and the Ebony fretboard was a little lighter than I'd hoped/planned, but it also has light streak down the whole fretboard, and I really like the look of it. So no complaints overall for that.

Now for my planned modifications: Carving the heel joint to help out the upper fret access, shaving away the back of the top horn to make it a little more comfy and less stabby, and a non-standard-for-MBs/LPs wiring scheme (1V, 2T, with Push-Pulls, I originally planned for individual coil taps, but I might make it a Master tap, and either Master Phase or Series/Parallel).

And for Finishes: I'm going for rattle cans to do the body and headstock, purely because this seems like the simplest, and easiest way to get the painting done, plus I have found the colours I need, and a Tru-Oil finish on the back of the neck, because that also seems like the easiest solution! (As well as apparently being one of the best)

And I think that's about all I have to say. I've done some work on it before posting anything because I got excited, and also because I didn't have all of my plans with the finish totally sorted, but everything is started now. And finally: here's a bunch of pictures to accompany the text wall :)

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Since I can only have 5 attachments per post, here's a couple more:


Planned curves for the heel and headstock
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This is the contour I had planned for the back of the top horn. I didn't need to go as deep as this it turns out, buuuut I don't have pictures of the current state of it
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The heel carve:
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I ended up putting a little chip in the heel joint, but no biggie, it'll get filled out.
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Super interested to see how this all turns out, there's been a number of MB diaries pop up lately and its always been a body style I found appealing. I shall follow intently!

Yes! Another build with a really unique twist! I love these knes, and I cannot wait to see your dream become a reality. Looking real nice so far. :D

So many mb builds on the go. Sounds cool mate

Thanks for the encouragement guys :) I'm really happy to see it.

No build progress happened today, but I did run around getting supplies for a couple of things, and I contemplated some of my plans, so there was progress in that.

This all happened a couple of days ago, but I hadn't taken pics and stuff: I drilled the wider holes for my neck ferrules in, but the holes ended up pretty sloppy, had a tapered bottom (on accounts of using a wrong sort of drill bit), and the top-side hole was too close to the edge and chipped off a bit too (I found that chip though, so I'll be able to glue it back in.) I'm definitely filling in that hole completely and moving it in from the edge, but I'll just fill the tops in from the other holes.

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On the good side of things: I didn't end up having to carve the top horn in anywhere near as far as I originally planned, so it's nice and comfy now, instead of being a bit stabby!

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Hopefully I'll have everything cleaned up over the next couple of days and start making some real progress!!

Finally some progress. I had a period of not actually having my workspace, then was missing some of the tools I needed, but I've got that all sorted and am moving on.

I also had some mishaps with filling the neck screw holes. I ended up ripping a pretty big chunk out of the neck join, so I've had another part to fill back in. I also had to drill the larger holes all the way through in order to fill them out and drill them back right. Had no problems with the pot hole, so smooth sailing there.

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Going to start filling everything up with woodfiller in about 10 minutes.

Headstock shaping is also in progress (had to put that off a bit because I needed a break) and the Side dots have been added in. They're a little... off kilter, but they're there and I'm really going to be the only one to notice.

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Now back to work!!

well done on fixing the issues B'Lark
You did rip out a nice size chunk out of the neck pocket !

Why have you had to put side dot markers in, have you changed the colour ? Edit I just read the start of the diary there were no fret or side dot markers on the neck.

Yea. I requested just no inlays on the neck, but they left off side dots as well. When I was talking to Adam to customize it, he did warn me of a language barrier issue (which is why I opted for no inlays, when I would have ideally liked sharkfins) so I presume that barrier would have lead to misinterpreting what I was wanting. But putting side dots in was a super easy fix, so it's not a big problem in the end. It's actually kind of nice because I know now that I could probably replace side dots if I do ever want to elsewhere.

Also thanks, as much as it all worried me at the time, it was kind of good to mess things up and work out how to fix them all. And also to know what to avoid in the future. Learning! Huzzah!

Alrighty, so I may have been forgetting to document a lot of stuff, partially due to being a little disappointed with progress that I'd made, in terms of cocking things up and having to fix them, but we're well underway now.

For the stuff I haven't got pictures of: I finished drilling all the neck holes in the right spots, and without any splitting (one of my Forstener drilled holes to fit the ferrules is a little wonky because I was a little careless on the first hole I drilled, but it still fits in there), covered it all with filler, and sanded everything back, ready for painting.

Then got my primer coats down on it:
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Sanded that all down to smooth it out, and then the colour coats, but that'll be in the next post, because there's a limit of 5 pictures to a post!

Now the paints I'm using were recommended by Gavin on the forums (thanks for that man, they're working well so far). I'm using White Knight Rustguard primer, MTN94 colours, and I can't remember the clear because I haven't had to buy it yet, but that's ok.

The exact colours are Clandestine Red, Metropolis Grey, Tutti Frutti, and Black.

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So my plan for painting:

1) Mask off the bits of white and pink, then paint everything with the Dark Red
2) Mask off the face, plus the back and halfway up the sides of the body, then paint the front half Grey
3) Mask off the front, paint the whole back and sides Black
4) Do the details of the face.

The reason for masking halfway up the sides of the body instead of the actual edges where the grey stops was to overlap it a touch, just to make sure that I didn't end up with any little Red edges coming through, but not cover the whole body with an extra layer of paint.

I also goofed a bit at step 1. I forgot to mask off the pink bits, so I'm either going to have to hope the Pink gets on there quick enough, or sand back just that part of Red, I think I'll use some scrap wood to test the former plan before I finalise a decision there.

I also didn't take any pictures of my masking before painting the Red, or between Red and Grey at all, so all I have is some pics of after the Grey layer:

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I'm also not adding the "#553" in at the moment, I'm going to look into getting a decal instead, because I realised I'm not as precise with the masking as I feel like I would need to be to get that down cleanly.

FINALLY: I'm also going for a couple of Electronics upgrades. I'm going to be able to add Coil tapping and Phase switching via Push-Pulls, which I wasn't actually going to be able to do initially because the stock Pups were only 2-wire. I'm getting Entwistle HVX's for it because holy pants they're cheap, the site claims they're really good with Splitting and super versatile (honestly telling me that pickups are versatile will pretty make me drop the dosh for them on the spot :D ) and I did like the sound of them from the clips I could find online. Also I couldn't afford a set of Duncan P-Rails (Or a P-Rail and a Dimarzio Humbucker From Hell, which also seemed really cool).

I'll try and actually keep the posts more regular, and not skip out fifteen steps, now that I'm well and truly back on track with it all.

Looking good. Can't wait til the big unmasking and unveiling!

cheers,
Gav.

....aaaand another one I'm hanging to see un masked... tense times on the Pit bull forum, so much anticipation!

OH, I actually have been a little distracted, I've gotten my couple of layers of grey on, and they're dry, I'm going to go unmask all that now!! Pictures will come very shortly.

Triple post incoming, be warned!!

Thankfully, I actually did a decent job! I was half expecting bleeding everywhere because I've never done this before and my finesse with all of this little tricky stuff is... not really there at all. (Admittedly I'm still very worried about the white that I won't be unmasking as yet so that worry's gonna be staying a good few more days.

The headstock came up fairly nicely, aside from one little nick in the top left marking, but that will get touched up fairly easily. Naturally will have to sand back a bit to clean up those edges too.

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The sides of the body ended with a bunch of bleeding, but that doesn't matter at all because I'll end up going over it with the black soon.

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Now for the body markings...

This is the part that I was super worried about. But it ended up pretty nice, very little bleeding.

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There was only one of the other marks on the body that bled at all, and well the picture barely even shows it, it is quite minor.

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Again, will have to sand it all back to even up the edges.

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Overall though, quite happy with it.

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So next I'm going to go sand it down then decide where to go from there. it's most likely going to be doing the Pink, then all of the black in a couple of days, and then touchups after that's all done.

mate thats a fairly hectic masking job and some challenging application but i reckon you've done fantastically. Great Job!

Thanks heaps man.

Today, sanded down the grey, and decided I would mask off both the pink bits plus the back and sides, and paint them at the same time, then do the black details soon.

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In order to make sure I got no overspray on to either part, I cut the bottom out of a box I had around, taped it on and sealed it off a bit.

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And blurry picture of it all hanging up post painting.

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So it'll be a few days before I rip that all off, then time for the tricky details.

Well turns out revealing this part will take a bit longer than I planned. The Black in the MTN94 seems to clog the caps really easily, which isn't a problem that I had with the Red, and not something that happened anywhere near as much with the Grey. I probably should have gotten a few caps with the original order but that's all hindsight. So I've got them ordered, if I'm lucky I'll have them by the end of the week but it's all out of my hands. I might start oiling the neck if they don't arrive by friday.

looking good B'lark, certainly alot of masking involved in the project but sure you will get ontop of it.

Thanks man. Yea, so much masking, but it's getting there, and I'm feeling much more confident with it now that I've had some solid results with the first couple of goes around. Hopefully it stays going well.

I'm also going to start up doing a guitar building course in a few weeks, going to be another Mockingbird because I'm in love with the shape right now, but a 7-string, multiscale and semi-hollow (maybe a couple of other little additions, but that's all I've totally settled on.) So if I get a little bit of interest in that, I'll keep track of it in a new thread too, and show that build process too. I might start it up early with some plans and discussion, because there's not much locked in at all!

I'm keen to see that build man. Are you doing the day with Ormsby or something?

Oh man I wish it was with Perry. I love his work (got one of their production models on the way soon though :) ) Nah it's with the Australian Guitar Making School, here in Newcastle. Much more spread out, and less intensive (and less expensive :D )

Mini update:

Still waiting on caps. Started oiling the neck with Tru-oil:

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Pulled off the front masking, and put a new lot on, in preparation for the Black when the caps arrive.

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Oh also, with the Pink, well it went on a bit thicker than I planned and well I can't find the masking that I had underneath it. So I'm going to have to go over the top with some white, after everything else is done. I'm also doing the same with the White of the eyes. With any luck, caps will arrive tomorrow, and if they do I'm well prepared!!

ALRIGHT. My replacement caps arrived yesterday, but I was fairly busy yesterday with plans for the other build, so I did what I could today instead.

I had to sand the sides back, because the grey ended up building up thicker than I expected, and the black alone wasn't going to even that up. It's ALMOST even now, I thought it was even to be honest, but when I sprayed today it showed better. So I will need probably only one more coat on the back and sides, the black on the front will only need the coat I put on today, so everything should be done in 2 days!! So expect a reveal on Monday, and all the coloured painting should be done by Wednesday!! Whee!!

So I may or may not be a week behind when I planned to update. Part of this was due to other life-happenings, partially thinking about and planning my 7-string build, and partially accidentally sanding bits too far and needing to go over them with paint again.

But after all that was done, I've finally got all the masking off the front for now!!

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One of the first things I noticed was:

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I messed up the black part of the snout. Everything else came out quite nicely, couple of little bleeds, but nothing that can't be fixed. I also spent a fair bit of tonight wet sanding everything down, especially the edges where the black meets the grey.

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I also started to tidy up the headstock to make sure it's ready for clears. In doing so though I ended up scuffing a bit of the grey off. so instead of mucking around re-masking everything and making it perfect, I just scuffed up a bit more of the headstock to make it intentional. Even now it's nothing major, but I like the effect.

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Tomorrow I've got to check the compatibility of some paints in order to touch things up, but should only be a couple of days before I do the clear coats. Much excitement :)

lookin great! I love seeing things done a little differently.

Damn, son! This is looking great.

Thanks for taking the time to put up such a comprehensive post B'lark. It was a great read for me as i have never tried spraying with a pattern. Those colours really have come out well!

HOPY SHIP GUYS GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!!!!

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The colours are done!!! It's got a clear mist coat on it and is drying now.

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The face came out rather well. Not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it still.

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Just the back here.

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And a bundle of neck.

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And the front of the neck.

But yea, on the final stretch. If I'm lucky, it will be done next weekend!! I'll be sending it away to get wired up because I don't entirely trust myself with it. So if not then, it'll be a whole week later. But it's very close!!!

Also, thanks heaps for all of the encouragement and support along the way guys. It's been great to see and has helped push me along, so yea, thanks!!

B'Lark, with the full on, comprehensive, Difficulty level = 11 paint job you've done, why back away from the wiring?

Well done!

I agree with Swanny mate, look at what you want to rig for your electrics, consult the fora and ask questions and use other resources like StewMac and similar sites and have a bash. The worst thing that can happen is that you learn how it shouldn't be done and it's good experience.

yea, wiring isn't that difficult. I picked a Tele as my first build because it would be easy to wire....well, I finished up rewiring everything from scratch (replaced the pots and switch on the control panel) and I'd never soldered a wired before in my life.
Next time give it a go :)

It's actually because last time I did a wiring job I didn't do it right, and I had to send it away, so I want to make sure it's done right the first time. What I am going to look in to is actually doing it under someone else's guidance to make sure I DO get it all right, and so that I will be confident in doing it myself next time. I'll see what happens.

Get yourself some aligator clips from Jaycar and make up some patch cables. That way you can wire up the pots into a harness outside the guitar and attach the switch and pups outside the body (using the patch cables) and do a comprehensive tap test before putting it in the body. It means you can play around getting the circuit correct to your heart's content before placing the harness in the body.

cheers,
Gav.

Ok turns out I lied about getting stuff done today. I'm still waiting on my clear coats, and I had to order some new pots, because I only had Audio taper Push-Push pots, and I was going to put the splitting and stuff on the Tone pots. I also found a different diagram, so I'm going to have Splitting, a Master Phase switch, and a Master Series/Parallel switch.

So assuming the pots arrive on Monday, which they should, I will be going in and doing the electronics on Tuesday. Honestly I just want to do it under some guidance so that I know I won't break anything and that I do know for sure what I'm doing, and after that I should be confident enough to do stuff on my own. So, with any luck TUESDAY IT WILL ALL BE DONE!!! Hopefully.

Wiring-up a guitar is actually not that difficult at all to do, as long as you do things one step at a time and check things as you go, it helps to have a clear and easy to read wiring diagram in front of you.

Hey guys,

I've been having a bit of trouble with my clear coats. They seem to not want to stick to the coloured layers much at all, I put some masking tape on one part to help stop me sanding through while I sanded down some runs, and when I ripped the tape off a good chunk of clear came with it. Any thoughts? Did I sand down my colours too finely? I think I only went to 400 Wet sanding but it might have been 600 or 800...

Alright. Alright alright. So this build's been out of commission for too damn long. The long-story-short is that the clear coats were frustrating the heck out of me, and I kinda lost interest in the build for a while, and with my scratch build going, I was thinking more about that. But with that coming close to completion and some new motivation to just get this shit done, I'm ready to finish this guy off.

So the current state:

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Clears are almost done. Basically I was being kinda silly with my earlier clears and had runs everywhere, and tidying those up was kinda arduous, but that's all sorted now. Will be putting one more clear coat on, and then (assuming nothing else gets in the way) that'll be it.

One other thing that I kind of decided, is that some of the imperfections I've caused along the way, like sanding too far through the black in to the red and so on, I'm ok with. Now that's partially because of laziness, not going to deny that, but it's also partially that this is my first build, and more importantly, it's still kind of fitting for the character of the guitar. He's an angry crocodile he wouldn't care if it's not perfect!! Let it be all scratched up and stuff!!

Two of the examples:

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Part of the colour on the upper side of the neck pocket chipped off at some stage

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When I sprayed the white for the teeth, there was a bit of overspray. Honestly it's not super visible unless you're looking closely and in light. So it's not too much of a problem, but still.

So here's hoping that nothing else major holds this all up now!! Time to get it done!!

I feel your pain mate, clear coats are the bane of my life - i could do 5 builds in the time it takes acrylic clear to cure....
hang in there - looks good