Rhays SGD-612 (EDS 1275)

[rhay]

Kit arrived and looks pretty good.

Rolled the body this time and all the laminations seem closed and firm.

There are a few blemishes, dings and burnished spots - but nothing too grave. Similarly the only really discordant bits of grain will be covered by the lower scratch-plate and removed when shaping the head.

Although one of the fingerboards has a pretty strong burnish across it and the other has a pit next to one of the fretts. Similarly both nuts are pretty roughly shod and will need some attention. However I don't see any of these as major issues.

My intention is to replicate the mid 70's EDS 1275, so a fair amount of the hardware will be changed. Most notably;
- chrome covered HB's
- black on white scratch-plates
- 2-switch control (3-switch is an Epiphone EDS thing)
- "green wedge" machine heads
- hook tailpieces

At this point I am having trouble sourcing Black over White (not B/W/B) acrylic, so if anyone has any tips on where I can get some I would be grateful?

Have decided to finish this in cherry (+level tint, oxide red), flat stained rather than any burst.

Being a replica this one won't end up in the GOTM, but I'll post the results here.

I have also included a pic of my Q.A. Officer.

[wokkaboy]

Hi Ray,
pity about the small blemishes, hope they can be sorted, sounds good the mods you are doing, should come up a treat.
Not sure where to source the black on white scratch plates, hopefully someone else can suggest a website. I suppose try all the regular online shops and ebay.
Just check the pup routes were too narrow on the 6 string side of my SGD

Good luck and look forward to the build diary. Sure it will be eligible to enter GOTM as long as the body and necks are Pit Bull the rest of the hardware can be customized.

[Bundy64]

Rhay
You can try Phil @ 3dimensional industrial art on

08 9471-1800

He showed me a brochure on different colours for scratch plates....

Bundy

[rhay]

Wokka; cheers for the heads-up. The pickups are still in transit, but I will double check the specs! RE: GOTM, this one will have Gib branding on the headstock, and being gloss black I am reluctant to do the swap-a-roo - although I could probably just photoshop them out and drop in some PB ones.

Bundy; thanks, I'll give them a call.

[rhay]

Heads shaped and necks sanded.

The blank is essentially the shape I want, just needed to re-shape the tip.

Made a template from light-card and made rough cuts with the trusty jigsaw, staying well away from the line. Then I shaped it down with rasps and files, moving onto 80Grit - 180G - 240G etc.

I always put masking tape on the timber before using the jigsaw, it protects the wood from rub marks.

[rhay]

Next job is to block-up the tailpiece holes.

The guitar I am replicating used hook tailpieces not the classic SG/LP type and they fit flat to the body and are not as wide.

I am waiting for some ash to use as plugs (run out of donor timber) and don't want to graft any out of the body.

A lot of people use dowel, but this technique leaves an end-grain which I don't like the look of.

Once this is done I can start on the sanding and staining - can't wait.

[rhay]

Latest lot of machine heads arrived with 8mm collars too, so I'm a bit overstocked!

Anyone have 18 vintage green SG/LP tuners with 10mm collars they want to swap?

Just got the first coat of black on the headstocks too.

[wokkaboy]

headstocks look great Ray and don't know anyone with 18 tuners to swap

[rhay]

Cheers Wokka. Yeah i don't seriously expect anyone to have some.....

The location if the holes is actually not quite where i'd like them - so i aam toying with going back a step and filling them. However a small. edge of the fill will show on the back of the stock

[rhay]

So, decided to stick with the machine heads. As a result need to realign and reduce the tuner holes.

Sadly the 12 string head is a lot shorter than on the original EDS, so a few mods will need to be made to the tuner cases.

As the pic shows this re-do has also exposed some low-points in the wood work. So it is kind of a win on this front, although these troughs were not really serious enough to warrant a fix on their own.

Ready for (re)priming and away we go.