Non PBG Small Body Hollow

[Pedrovelo]

So Hi! It's been a long time since my last post (for all you catholic people, it sounds a bit like I'm starting my confession).

I thought it was time I started on my third build and decided I wanted to do a hollow body. My only issue was I didn't really want a full depth jazz box style thing so I started doing some research.

I was looking for something along the lines of a PRS Hollowbody II (who can afford $8000 plus for a genuine one) when I came across this guitar from our friends in China.

It's kinda based somewhere between a Fender Starcaster and a custom guitar made by Paul Languedoc for Phish guitarist Trey Anastasiou.

The original design has a floating bridge with a rosewood tailpiece but I've decided to go with a Bigsby style trem. And yes, the offset body will mean I will have to work something out to keep the trem straight. More on that later.

[Pedrovelo]

The kit arrived as body and neck only. I'm planning to wire the electronics myself from scratch.

I've gone with parts from GFS including an Xtrem tailpiece, roller bridge and vintage style humbuckers. I'm going to have a 3 way switch with 1 volume and 1 tone. Volume and tone will be push-pull to activate coil splitting and out of phase sounds.

The obligatory mockups follow.

[wokkaboy]

welcome to the forum Pedrovelo, stunning looking kit, spalted maple, are the body sides spalted maple as well ?

should be a sweet build, hope you are going a natural finish !!

[Dedman]

Should be a nice axe when finished!

[Pedrovelo]

Just so you know, I have done a lot of work on this so far. I've been working on it for a few months and only now starting the build diary so don't think that I am rushing the job.

This kit has mahogany sides with maple top and back and spalted veneers. As with most veneers, these are super thin.

As I mentioned earlier, putting the Xtrem on leaves me with a problem of the attachment point not being flat. This would have left the trem sitting on an angle. I have therefore had to come up with a shim to flatten the base out.

The shim is a small little wedge which I originally made from pine. Looked great until I realised that the grain lines through such a thin piece of wood made it extremely fragile (it broke in my hands). Mark 2 meant making it out of MDF.

[Pedrovelo]

Was initially planning a natural finish but decided to go with Karajini Red instead.

The headstock design is pretty simple. My own take on the strat style headstock.

Rough cut it with a jigsaw and then used sanding drums in my pedestal drill to get it closer before moving to manual labour.

[stan]

that is a great looking kit- if we could get these i'd buy it in a heartbeat

[Dedman]

would the trem fit better if you knocked the hinge pin out and turned the base over?

[Pedrovelo]

I contemplated that but it doesn't solve the problem of the base of the guitar being curved.

[pablopepper]

Wow. I'm with Stan, that kit is spectacular.