First Build - AES-1 AHAHAHAHA

[Scramblermatt]

First coat of the yellow...

[Fatboy]

Hi,

Crimson Guitars do some good staining videos and I found their stains excellent.
I started out with a nice black/red/amber burst that eventually turned into a brown mess.
See my build log for further details.
It is actually rather nice but I wanted a guitar with a burst...grrr.
I used their finishing oil which was good but the turning point for me was a can of Halfords PU Lacquer
I had knocking about. It turned a mediocre guitar into one I would have bought in a shop.
Best of luck, the boys here (especially Simon as he is UK based) are very knowledgeable and friendly.
Cheers, FB.

[Scramblermatt]

Thanks Fatboy.

Here’s the final burst...I’m pretty happy and I know there’s imperfections but I can live with them!

[Scramblermatt]

A quick question...

I’m going to use the Crimson Guitars finishing oil which looks pretty straight forward to use...but...do I need to tape up the binding again or does the oil just go over it to give it a smooth finish?

Or will it just wipe off?

[Simon Barden]

I'd go over the binding with it. You would with a normal clear spray topcoat. It may tint it slightly more yellow - but I think it's a better look than the blinding white of scraped uncovered binding.

[Scramblermatt]

Thanks Simon! That’s what I was thinking!!

So next question!! I’ve let the wood settle down now and there is still a gap when the neck is in the neck pocket...any suggestions??

[Scramblermatt]

I got the electrics out this morning to have a look and god I’m confused!!!

I’ve downloaded the wiring diagram for a two humbucker, three way selector but it makes no sense to me!

Here is what I’m looking at...



On a different note, I’ve started oiling the body with Crimson Guitars penetrating finishing oil and am chuffed with how it is coming out! I will post some pics over the weekend of the body!

[Simon Barden]

Whilst I'd still be tempted to leave it a little longer before doing anything to the neck joint, you can obviously start to have a look and see if there's anything in particular stopping the neck fitting in fully. I'd rub some chalk on the pocket join area, push the neck in and the high spots should leave a mark on the sides of the heel. You can sand those down, repeat, sand repeat until it all fits nicely.

Not a great pre-wired harness you've got there. I'd be tempted to start again as the wiring lengths between the volume and tone pots are rather excessive and the wires will tend to flap about inside a bit. The pots with the green capacitors attached are the tone pots, the other two are the volume. The long bits of wire attached to the volume puts are the pot outputs which run off to the selector switch.

The red wire attached to the back of one of the tone pots is the ground wire for the bridge.

It's made slightly more confusing due to the factory wiring the pots in shielded cable, rather than the singles cores the wiring diagrams normally use. In some instances, you want to use the braid as a ground link, and sometimes it only needs to be connected to ground at one end.

[Scramblermatt]

Whilst I'd still be tempted to leave it a little longer before doing anything to the neck joint, you can obviously start to have a look and see if there's anything in particular stopping the neck fitting in fully. I'd rub some chalk on the pocket join area, push the neck in and the high spots should leave a mark on the sides of the heel. You can sand those down, repeat, sand repeat until it all fits nicely.

Not a great pre-wired harness you've got there. I'd be tempted to start again as the wiring lengths between the volume and tone pots are rather excessive and the wires will tend to flap about inside a bit. The pots with the green capacitors attached are the tone pots, the other two are the volume. The long bits of wire attached to the volume puts are the pot outputs which run off to the selector switch.

The red wire attached to the back of one of the tone pots is the ground wire for the bridge.

It's made slightly more confusing due to the factory wiring the pots in shielded cable, rather than the singles cores the wiring diagrams normally use. In some instances, you want to use the braid as a ground link, and sometimes it only needs to be connected to ground at one end.

Thanks Simon. So along these lines...



Where the red, grey and black wires join theres another one which is covered in solder...what’s that for? And the the long red one that goes no where...whats that for?

[Simon Barden]

The clump of three wires is where the selector switch goes. The red wire here will be the main output wire, going to the output jack. The selector switch has one end with connections for the input and output signals, and the other end for a ground connection. At the signal end, the output wire is soldered to the middle two terminals (normally bent together so they meet), and the two outer terminals are for the signals from the volume pots. The soldered-together braided wires from those three cables is attached to the other end of the selector switch (a single thick lug). Obviously the braid doesn't want to touch any of the signal connections, so some electrical insulating tape round the braid will come in handy (ideally some heat shrink, but tape is better than nothing).

Some tape round the wires going to the selector switch will help keep them together and going where you want them to go.