Pinball Wizard

[maxaxe]

Onwards:

The cigar box style body gluing . . .

[maxaxe]

A couple more steps forward:

(Pic 1) Built the "core" to which the neck & bridge will be anchored. This is made up from from solid aged pine, glued & screwed.

(Pic 2) The part where luthiers & Pitbull builders are bound to say "WTF?"
The "core" aligned & setting into place in the body before getting screwed from behind (he he)
This hideous arrangement will be mostly concealed by the "playfield" at a later stage of construction.

More soon . . .

[lawry]

This is just insane. Might have to change your name to Mad Maxaxe.

[GlennGP]

I'm with you Max - similar to the oak block at the core of Brian May's Red Special.

[maxaxe]

How to spend a Sunday literally shredding a guitar . . .

As can be seen, I've prefit & cut the speaker holes, the flipper button holes and a recess hole in one side for the effects control plate and the other side for the input/output jack plate.
The neck has copped a routing all the way down the back to accommodate the wiring pair for the headstock LEDs.

I took heed of the consensual advice from our wizards on here and bought some Timbermate to back fill with - it's great stuff and cleans up with water, a real bonus - thanks dudes! After the rout channel filling is sanded back this will all be hidden under paint matching the body.

Still madly doodling around with artwork/graphics ideas behind the scenes . . .

[maxaxe]

First fit-up:

Neck with built-up "wedgeheadstock" positioned, speakers in place, effects module (I/O actuated by left flipper button), amp module (I/O/OD actuated by right flipper button), shooter rod (works but no function) and power in/signal out jackplate fitted.

Still much to do . . . . .

[DanMade]

Holy cow. This things really coming along.
I didn't realize you were putting in an amp sim and effects unit. This is going to be an everything but the kitchen sink build.

Now I wonder if somehow you could make the shooter rod actuate a whammy bar. Just a thought.

[lawry]

This is getting more insane each time you post an update. It is so cool.

[maxaxe]

Hey Dan, Cool idea.

I reckon it would be feasible to operate a whammy system from the shooter rod. After all, they work by simple leverage. A suitable linkage wouldn't be too difficult to make up.
However, I can't do it at this stage as the axe is already set up to take a Badass bridge.

Below is an early stage pic of the "wedgeheadstock" clearly showing the lateral dowels running through it as suggested by DB for my Stealth project headstock.

Mad Max

[jarrod]

Geeze max this things insane . Pete Townsend would have loved to have played it in the song Pinball Wizard