Richy's #3 - The Blasteroid

[Richy17]

I have off cuts of all 3 colours and they all look nice. Black is probably what I’ll go with but just seeing if there’s any other ideas.

Had considered using clear acrylic and painting the inside but probably not on this build

[Bakersdozen]

If your still after opinions, throw up some pics of the samples on top of the body for us.

[Richy17]

If your still after opinions, throw up some pics of the samples on top of the body for us.

I’ll put some up on Monday. I forgot to take a pic and the guitar is at work

[Richy17]

Time for a bit of an update...

Ended up deciding to go with Mint Green for the pick guard. I was set on Black and at the last second I changed my mind I'm happy with the colour combo, I think black would still look nice and since I made a template I could always make one down the track easily enough if I felt like a change.

This was the initial shape. I ended up changing it slightly after this.



I made these little holders when I was building my ES-1 Kit. Made it much easier to polish the sides of the body without having to use one hand to hold it.





Just an old broom handle with some off cuts for the base. The black sponge is meant for insulating copper pipes. About $4 a length from Bunnings.


My setup for doing the bevel on the side of the pick guard. Dremel Router table with a 45* Router bit.


After a lot of back and forth I ended up going with fenders control lay out. I used the kit control plate as a template for cutting the switch slot.




Time for some wiring. I had to open up the cavities so suit the new control lay out.


I went for an Oak Grigsby 4 way switch, CTS pots and a PIO Cap. Position 4 is everything on in series. ToneRider AC2 in the neck and Tonerider Vintage Plus for the bridge Pick up.


I couldn't wait to pull that plastic off




At this point I put some strings on it.

Unfortunately with the saddles at maximum height it the strings were hard up against the frets. I checked the neck and it was perfectly straight. So I left it to sit for a couple days while I thought about how I'm going to go about it. What I ended up doing was putting a couple layers of veneer in the headstock end of the neck pocket until i got a playable action. Then I used some feeler gauges to measure how big the gap was. The shim was 1.5mm so I removed the neck and measured the heel closest to the body on both sides. I then very carefully sanded that end of the neck down by 2mm (Extra to allow for adjustment in the future) I used digital callipers and managed to get each side pretty much exactly the same height. Screwed the neck back on and it was playing nicely. I am so impressed by the quality of this kit. Ive only really got one very slightly high fret to sort out.



How she sits for two weeks until work opens back up again next year. I want to use the time to design a headstock logo for it.

[DarkMark]

Well done, really like the scratch plate shape and body.

[Richy17]

Well done, really like the scratch plate shape and body.

Thanks mate

[JohnH]

That's a really great result Richy - love the colour, and the pickguard

[Fretworn]

Great job. This might be my favourite completed offset kit yet.

[ozzbike]

Wow what a great guitar.....great build diary too.

Oh by the way...hate your skills. Nah. Really amazing work. Wow wow wow.

[Sonic Mountain]

This is awesome! Gorgeous guitar, well done.