Non PBG Small Body Hollow

So Hi! It's been a long time since my last post (for all you catholic people, it sounds a bit like I'm starting my confession).

I thought it was time I started on my third build and decided I wanted to do a hollow body. My only issue was I didn't really want a full depth jazz box style thing so I started doing some research.

I was looking for something along the lines of a PRS Hollowbody II (who can afford $8000 plus for a genuine one) when I came across this guitar from our friends in China.

It's kinda based somewhere between a Fender Starcaster and a custom guitar made by Paul Languedoc for Phish guitarist Trey Anastasiou.

The original design has a floating bridge with a rosewood tailpiece but I've decided to go with a Bigsby style trem. And yes, the offset body will mean I will have to work something out to keep the trem straight. More on that later.

The kit arrived as body and neck only. I'm planning to wire the electronics myself from scratch.

I've gone with parts from GFS including an Xtrem tailpiece, roller bridge and vintage style humbuckers. I'm going to have a 3 way switch with 1 volume and 1 tone. Volume and tone will be push-pull to activate coil splitting and out of phase sounds.

The obligatory mockups follow.

welcome to the forum Pedrovelo, stunning looking kit, spalted maple, are the body sides spalted maple as well ?

should be a sweet build, hope you are going a natural finish !!

Should be a nice axe when finished!

Just so you know, I have done a lot of work on this so far. I've been working on it for a few months and only now starting the build diary so don't think that I am rushing the job.

This kit has mahogany sides with maple top and back and spalted veneers. As with most veneers, these are super thin.

As I mentioned earlier, putting the Xtrem on leaves me with a problem of the attachment point not being flat. This would have left the trem sitting on an angle. I have therefore had to come up with a shim to flatten the base out.

The shim is a small little wedge which I originally made from pine. Looked great until I realised that the grain lines through such a thin piece of wood made it extremely fragile (it broke in my hands). Mark 2 meant making it out of MDF.

Was initially planning a natural finish but decided to go with Karajini Red instead.

The headstock design is pretty simple. My own take on the strat style headstock.

Rough cut it with a jigsaw and then used sanding drums in my pedestal drill to get it closer before moving to manual labour.

that is a great looking kit- if we could get these i'd buy it in a heartbeat

would the trem fit better if you knocked the hinge pin out and turned the base over?

I contemplated that but it doesn't solve the problem of the base of the guitar being curved.

Wow. I'm with Stan, that kit is spectacular.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stan

that is a great looking kit- if we could get these i'd buy it in a heartbeat

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I agree Stan...never seen anything like it...but it looks like its on the expensive side of things.

After much sanding (following the forum mantra) I got to a point where colour was required. This is where I made my next mistake.

I figured that with all the intricate curves it would be too hard to tape up the binding and I would just scrape it back later on. As you will see in later posts, the very fact that there are intricate curves actually means it's better to tape the binding. What I found that on some of the tighter curves, there were micro cracks in the binding which meant the stain sunk in and made it almost impossible to scrape out. Anyway, I will show you photos of what I mean in later posts.

For now here are a few photos showing first coat of Karajini Red.

Moved on to the headstock next and was looking to possible routed indent part similar to the edge on a Starcaster headstock but taking up a larger portion. I did some testing on scrap wood but couldn't get the finish clean enough for my liking so decided to use two different stains.

I also had a friend cut some vinyl lettering for my logo.

And here are a few more coats of the red with the binding scraped.

We are getting closer to the finish now so I started on the electronics and did another almost finished mockup.

Bring on the clear coats!

Incidently, the cost is a little higher than the current PBG offerings (I paid $358 delivered for body and neck only). I have spoken to Adam about it and he thinks he can get it somewhat cheaper if there's enough interest from the forumites.

some nice progress, love your headstock idea, well done

hell yes to this kit, but
I'd need a lefty...

Its a niiiiiiice!

That Karajini red has come up beautifully, VERY interested if PBG do a similar option (Price Dependent) (Also Spousal Tolerance Dependent).

very nice Pedro, I have done karijini red over spalted maple and it looks great.
Cool looking headstock logo and the mock build looks damn cool !

Hey pedro,

You got a great colour out of that Karajini Red. I'm assuming that you have put down the intensifiers?

I can see a bit of lumpiness which i would recommend gently sanding down a bit with 1500 (or 2000) grit wet once it cured but before you lay down the clear coats.

Are you using DT finish coats or a different finish?

Cool Andy, thanks for the advice. I'll definitely do that.

I did about 3 coats of intensifier to get the colour I liked. I will be using the DT final coat to finish.

While I wait for the first clear coat to cure, here are a couple of photos of the mods I've done.

The first one shows the wedge I had to add to straighten up the tailpiece attachment, whilst the second shows the hole for the jack. I'm using an electrosocket jack and have countersunk it into the body.

If you look closely at the second photo, you will also see some of the stain that has sunk into the cracks in the binding as I mentioned in a previous post.

nice mods Pedro, this axe is going to be a stunner

Thanks Woks, I'm super excited now to get it to make some noise but I have to contain the enthusiasm and ensure I don't muck up the finish.

no worries Pedro, the hard part is being patient with your build, that's why alot of forumites have more than one build on the go at once so if you are waiting for a curing stage there is another build to work on !