Chuck’s N1R "Semi-scratch" Build: The resurrection

And so we begin again! My previous attempt at the semi-scratch Toronado-inspired build ended unceremoniously (as you can see here). A few days of thinking about what to do this time and I’m back on the horse. Given I’m doing this at the same time as my JZA-1 build, it might take a little time, but better to start slowly than never start at all.

So, I have a Pitbull reverse headstock N1R neck and all the hardware from before: two Tonerider humbuckers and a “Jimmy Page” wiring harness. I’ve got a couple of ideas around the way I’ll treat the body and, with my new-found interest in working with aluminium, some thoughts about how it will all go together. It certainly won’t be the same as the previous one with the massive swimming pool routing of the body.

Step one was to play around with some shapes on a blank made from Green Shed dressed pine, then do a rough cut with the jigsaw…

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go man go!

nice one Chuck glad you have started on the replacement body. Pine is pretty light so no need for a big swimming pool route

My, that's a big pickguard... #anothercrazyidea

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Avert your eyes children, he may take on other forms...

A Zematis style engraved finish?

If it was steel you could clad the whole body in it and do a rusty Trussart-style guitar.

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Originally Posted by Chuck

My, that's a big pickguard... #anothercrazyidea

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At least I'm not the only mad Scientist in this place

You might want to think about fitting a scratchplate to protect it... ;)

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

You might want to think about fitting a scratchplate to protect it... ;)

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A clear one with the rear printed with the image of scratches for that Faux Relic feel?

Why not indeed!

But then the clear scratchplate would need some protection from scratches....

I'm not quite as silent as FrankenWashie on his build, but I am somewhat obscure about where I'm heading! Initial routing done, might be more to come...

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Bit of work on the "pickguard". First step was to cut it to shape a bit better. Having sanded edges of the body a bit more I placed the pickguard on top, then flipped it over and traced the body shape. I then effectively freehanded a line about 2cm in from the trace line and cut to that.

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Of course the neck pocket was going to be an issue and with not as much margin for error I wasn't sure what to do... until coming up with this solution: clamping the neck pocket template about 5mm above the body, eyeballing it to as close as I could for alignment accuracy, then sliding in the pickguard and tracing the inside of the template.

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And it actually worked quite well. I cut a mm or two inside the lines so there will be some fine tuning in the pocket, and there's also plenty of room to make the overall outline smoother. All in all, quite happy with where it's heading...

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wow good work Chuck. So is the pickguard going to cover all of the front or are you going to cut bits off ? You could have a huge swimming pool route underneath and make it a featherweight axe !

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

wow good work Chuck. So is the pickguard going to cover all of the front or are you going to cut bits off ? You could have a huge swimming pool route underneath and make it a featherweight axe !

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I'm still thinking about some extra routing (although probably not the full swimming pool) - and indeed doing some more interesting stuff with the pickguard. This is one of those builds that's a little freeform - I'm working my way through the things that I know I want and will then make up my mind about the other stuff!! That said, I'm quickly getting to that point so better start being a bit more decisive.

good stuff Chuck, I reckon scratch builds that you design on the fly are super cool

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

good stuff Chuck, I reckon scratch builds that you design on the fly are super cool

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And the best bit is you can't do anything "wrong" if you didn't know what you were going to do in the first place!!

haha that's it Chuck, and as DB says there is always a workaround if anything goes wrong

Some baby steps here as I try to work out what I'm doing. It's a bit back to front, but before finishing the body I decided to mark the bridge location on the scratchplate. This required some fine tuning of the alloy to get it in position, then tacked in place with a couple of the pickguard screws. Next all the measuring (with the neck in place) to establish the location then trace the hardtail bridge.

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Then drill a hole in it to get the jigsaw blade in, do a rough cutout, then plenty of work with files and I now have a bridge hole!

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I "think" the next step will be to do the pickup and control cutouts, and once all that is done I can get back to finishing the body... I may need to fine tune the body routing to accommodate stuff but we'll see.

good work Chuck. Sometimes you have to work backwards with the pickguard dictating where all the hardware goes, so you got no choice. You cut a nice bridge hole, if I was on the jigsaw it would probably be a pentagon shape with lots of swearing coming out of the workshop haha
I would do that as you have planned, cut out the pickup and control holes next, then you can work out a routing plan which should be done before you start sanding the body.

A fair bit of fine filing and sanding to go to tidy things up, but she's getting there...

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Cool stuff Chuck!

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Originally Posted by pablopepper

Cool stuff Chuck!

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I second this.

I second that, too!


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The motion is carried!

Chuck..... you win!

That's going to look fantastic.