FrankeWashie's EXA 1 customised kit

[FrankenWashie]

Hi all,

this is a first build, I got the kit and it all looked schmick. there were a couple of changes that I'd decided I wanted to make though.

1. I didn't like the "Bolt on" look to the neck/neck pocket.
2. I wanted to add EMG actives to the thing so I would need to rout a battery location.
3. I had some Gotoh gear laying around and I thought i'd use that instead of getting Hardware with it.

so 1 & 2 were not insurmountable with planning, in retrospect on 3, I quickly discovered that the tailpiece, bridge and Machine head drillings were slightly larger than the required holes for the Gotoh Tailpiece, bridge and machine heads I had. No biggie, another order off to Adam and that problem solved (I also now have some spare gear for a scratch build!)

So I began to size up what would be required to do what I envisaged.

The solution to 1 (from my viewpoint) was to level the wonky neck heel, laminate some additional material and reshape it to leave the back of the neck heel flush with the rear of the body.



Just because I like to make life hard for myself, I also elected to reshape the neck end into a traditional Gibson style tenon and fill and re-rout the neck pocket to suit it. In order to do that, i would need to strip the fretboard, I consulted the Oracles (Adam & DB) who wished me luck but foretold of woe to come.


So I set to it, attacking the fretboard with a steam iron and some improvised tooling, i was not gentle but was comforted to find that the fretboard came away grudgingly but in accordance with the wisdom gleaned from Youtube and other sources. I managed to separate it without destroying either neck or fretboard. I then started measuring, and marking and measuring some more

So far progress to date is:

Battery Box rout and cable run completed
Neck pocket filled
Fretboard stripped (Undamaged)
Neck Lamination and rough reshape done

And all of this without even starting on the sanding!

Thoughts and opinions welcomed. Updates to follow.