Gorgeous! great job.
Gorgeous! great job.
Build 1 - Shoegazer MK1 JMA-1
Build 2 - The Relliecaster TL-1
Build 3 - The Black Cherry SG AG-1
Build 4 - The Sonicaster TL-1ish
Build 5 - The Steampunker Bass YB-4
Build 6 - The Howling Gowing ST-1
"What I lack in talent I make up for with enthusiasm"
I must also comment on the quality of that finish. Absolutely brilliant! (and a great colour)
Love the badge for the headstock too. I've recently gone to laser etched badges in lieu of decals. Mine are not at all as flash as yours though! Quite pedestrian by comparison.
I "hardtailed" a strat body on a (non-pbg) build last year using the same solid timber block(s) method. I too had a couple of very slightly visible lines of the original trem route. Like yours, it can only be seen at just the right angle.
The confusing bit, is I could not feel it when running my hand (or thumbnail) across the surface before the paint went on. Even angling a bright light and looking across, it appeared smooth as glass. It was virtually invisible after priming but didn't appear until the clear coat was applied.
Oh well, chalk it up as another learning opportunity!
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
Thanks for the comments gents. Have made some progress, the wiring has been done and passed the tap test.
Over the warmer months the clear settled more and had to redo fine sanding and polishing. In that process the shielding tape got knocked away from the edges so that got taken out and redone.
Found some spots between the cavities that weren't as conductive as they should be. Stripped the plastic insulation off of some of the kit wire and used that under the foil tape where needed to get everything connected as should be.
Have also used a 0.2mm brass shim in the neck pocket because I think the bridge needs to come up a bit so it can pivot with the trem properly, if it's not needed is easy enough to take out.
cont...
Don't know how this can be done neatly but this is what the wiring looks like installed.
Had to rotate the jack on its control plate because when I plugged it in to test there was a whole lot of silence, something was earthing a bit too well.
Over the time (years) it's taken this one to get done, the fretboard has dried a little bit. This is just the first wipe on of DrDucks, up to three and am sure it will need more.
Just had to throw a set of strings on.
Grant
I just used furniture orange oil on the fretboard - about 4 coats and it worked fine.
I can't wait to see that colour scheme in natural light!
Taken a while to get the setup close to where it should be. Once strings were tuned up the trem felt stiff, not moving smoothly. Removed it and the spring lever bars were hitting the bottom of the rout
Only needed to take 1mm out to get clearance but took 2mm to be sure
Used a curved chisel which was perfect for the job
Neck had to come off more times than I would have liked to get the amount of shimming for a good break angle over the bridge close. Started at .02mm , went up to 1mm, currently have 0.7mm (0.2 + 0.5 separate shims stacked). Doing this kind of setup with locking tuners is very unforgiving on your strings.
As luck would have it the mounting screw for one of the tuners ended up in a grain line which didn't appreciate it and opened up. Took the tuner off and carefully put some CA glue in and now seems OK.
cont...
Had to raise the string retaining bar quite a bit to make sure the strings would clear the back of the bridge, may be able to bring it back down a bit once all is settled in.
Using Gotoh HAP (Height Adjustable Post) tuners and kept breaking high e strings when tuning up to pitch, this side shot shows why, someone forgot to adjust the post height and B as well.
Had to print this chart out for the switching to be sure all was working as it should, wasn't.
On lead circuit, switching works as it should with no hum until the neck pickup is brought in. When switched to rhythm circuit it hums no matter what you do. Also does not respond to any switching, pickup is just on, and the master vol and tone don't have any effect, the rhythm vol and tone do.
Will have to take apart to work it out and hoping I've just got the neck pup wires backwards.
I'm bound to damage it in some way so here are a couple of pics before I do that
This is the wiring diagram I followed
and a repost of my wiring if anyone can see a connection that's been missed. Note that the actual pickup wire colours are swapped to the diagram (neck to bridge). The Kleins clearly have neck and bridge cast into the base plate so I went by that and not wire colour.
Grant
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