Jon's 4th build: SSCM-1E

[jonwhitear]

Also, you can put two regulators in series. I have a moisture trap + regulator in the middle of my airline. So with that arrangement you can set the pressure on the compressor regulator down to say 30psi, which means that the second regulator should have less work to do in controlling to a bit less than 20psi.

This works well. I turned the reg on my compressor all the way down, so the pressure at the outlet is 35-40psi, and that made it much easier to have a consistent 20psi at the gun. Thanks.

I thought I had enough clear on the body, but when I did a first wet sand with 360 to get rid of the worst croutons, and then 1200, I found there were a few pits in the finish. I suspect that may be because I didn't wait long enough (1 week) after spraying to start sanding. Anyway, I got a few more coats on and I'm very happy with how it's looking.



Now the patience test.

In the meantime, I've ordered some parts from around the web. I have some pickup rings and a pick guard (in black) from Realparts, but unfortunately the rings don't fit the pickguard very well. The rings are smaller than the 'guard cutouts for them, so not a problem I can fix with a scraper.

Any suggestions as to where to get sets of rings and a pickguard that will fit together as well as the kit parts do?

[Simon Barden]

There's normally a knob on the top with a castellated bottom edge that locks into a mating piece below. Pull it up and turn it. Watch the gauge to see the downstream pressure. There are normally arrows for increasing and decreasing printed on the top. Once you are happy with the pressure setting, push the top down again to lock it in that position.

You'd normally have a gauge before it to show the tank pressure, then the water trap/reg valve with its own gauge, then the hose coupling.

[Simon Barden]

It's hard to say, as obviously the distance between the pickup routs can vary a bit depending on whether they followed the Gibson design rigorously or not.

Note that there are two general sizes of pickup ring. The Gibson standard ring is slightly shorter and a tiny bit less wide than the generic pickup rings you get with the kits, most replacements and most non-Gibson guitars (including Epiphone). You may have the Gibson sized rings and a pickguard for the wider rings.

For reference (refer to the plan details as the heights and curvature vary)

Gibson:



Generic:

[McCreed]

I was going make the Gibson v. Epiphone point as well.
If you check your invoice from Realtone, maybe you accidentally ordered a combination of G & E bits?

[jonwhitear]

I was going make the Gibson v. Epiphone point as well.
If you check your invoice from Realtone, maybe you accidentally ordered a combination of G & E bits?

Yeah, that was my first thought, but they're both supposed to be for Gibson guitars, and made by Allparts, so you'd think they'd fit. Realparts just said that's "expected" and I can send them back if I want to. I think I'll just find some rings that are at least as big as the 'guard cutouts and tweak any slight differences with a razor blade.

[Simon Barden]

I note that the Allparts pickguards vary slightly, though for Gibsons. The cream 1-ply pickguard has 45.5mm neck pickup ring cutout and the black and pearloid 3-ply guard cutouts are 44.5mm. Looking on the Allparts site, they give the Gibson rings as 44.3mm wide.

What colour rings and pickguard are you looking for? Cream I assume!

Always worth measuring the ring and cutout width and see if they match the stated dimensions.

[jonwhitear]

What colour rings and pickguard are you looking for? Cream I assume!

No, actually they're black, with a black/white/black three ply guard. The kit came with cream plastics, and I'm not a big fan of the colour. - I don't know if aftermarket plastics are going to look any less "plasticy". I've sprayed the control/switch covers black. I might try building it with the supplied cream rings and guard to see how it looks, but at this point, I'm aiming for black.

The kit rings are 46mm wide x 92mm long, while the neck cutout in the supplied guard is only very slightly larger - I measured 46.02mm. It's a nice snug fit with matching radii on the corners. The gap between cutouts is 59mm.

The Allparts rings measure 44.5mm x ~90mm, while the cutout's 45.3mm, and the gap 57.7mm. The rings and guard have quite different radii on the corners, which I could fix by scraping (probably) but there's still a gap between ring and guard. It seems these rings are pretty much Gibson spec, it's just the cutout in the guard that's a fraction large. Realparts' website shows the cutout as being 44.5mm, so I think I'll see if I can swap mine.

Cheers,

Jon

[jonwhitear]

Some more progress with the finish on this. My patience lasted two weeks. I've wet sanded with 800/1200/1500/2000, and then polished with Ultimate Compound several times. I'm very happy with how it has turned out - far from perfect, but really quite good.



There are still a few scratches in places, and the sides aren't done yet, so there's still some more polishing to go. I did a mock build with the cream plastics, and they're still not doing it for me.



I'm going to take the Tonerider AC2 classics out of my AG1 for this build, and then I'm looking at refinishing the latter (all the fun of making a new guitar without actually making a new guitar.) I think I'll keep the electrics fairly simple - I don't think I'll do coil splits, but I may have push/pulls to bypass the tone controls, or try a different tone circuit style - possibly a master passive treble/bass.

[McCreed]

It may not be perfect in you're eyes, but jeez, you gotta be happy with that Jon! Mirror finish is the only way to describe that!

I haven't done the PTB on a 4-knobber, but I have it on 3 out of 4 strats and can definitely say I prefer it to the standard tone circuit.
The one 4-knob 2-HB guitar I have (my PBG PRS-1TS) I have just done a bass cut for the neck pickup. I find that really useful as well, and prefer that to the standard method.
If you're looking to do something a bit different electronically, I would recommend trying the PTB.

[jonwhitear]

Thanks McCreed.

I got the idea for the PTB tone circuit from your recent thread about the same. I might well just try it out and see if I like it, having not tried one before. C1M pots may be the issue - looks like Tayda have them, but I might be waiting a while.