Sam’s Goldtop

[samr]

I’ve always wanted a carved-top-single-cutaway-set-neck-mahogany-solid-body of the type sold by the brand that dare not speak its name, so I splurged some Christmas money on a kit from China. Looked at the Artist kit but wasn’t super-keen on the bolt-on maple neck, and I didn’t really like the look of the cheap eBay kits.

Kit is ‘musoo’ brand (aka “Beijing Palace Musical Instrument Company”), the damage ended up at AUD250 incl GST & shipping and arrived in Perth in just under two weeks. My impressions (bearing in mind this is my first kit) are:

• It’s pretty good! Machining seems tidy (it’s allegedly CNC), neck fits the pocket pretty well, centre-lines look right etc. It was nice to find kits available with P90 routes rather than attempting to fill humbuckers.
• Neck is made of two pieces with a visible join on the heel, the long tenon is a separate piece to the rest of the neck. Truss rod & adjustment hole seem slightly off-centre.
• Fretboard looks like rosewood, although not A grade with a few knots. Frets, binding etc all appear okay at first glance. The inlay routing is a little untidy in the corners, although probably in line with what you get for a couple of hundred bucks.
• No idea what sort of wood the carved top is made of (other than ‘not maple’, although wasn’t really expecting it for this price). The veneer is super-thin, I think this is like most kits though.
• The veneer looks pretty nice, I’m obviously painting but it would make a decent looking burst. I haven’t checked for glue spots (there may be one at the cutaway) but I can if anyone’s interested.
• Hardware is really junky, I don’t think I’ll use any of it. The plastic is all black (and I’ll go cream), there was no pickguard included, the pre-soldered controls look budget, the tuners are very sloppy etc.

The plan is to do a Goldtop, after reading the Guitar Magazine Greco conversion I’m partial to the idea of a ’54. No post holes drilled yet so I can do the wraparound (though the kit TOM/tailpiece actually looks reasonable). I’d like to have a go at doing a MOP headstock inlay as well but that may depend on the level of enthusiasm remaining once I hit that point.

At this stage I have several projects around the house I have to finish before the boss will let me work on a guitar, and I obviously have a bunch of bits to collect, so I won’t be starting immediately. Just thought I’d get the ball rolling with a post.

[samr]

New parts day!



Goodies are:

• Lightweight aluminium wraparound bridge (for the princely sum of USD19; compared to MojoAxe, TonePros etc at around USD140)
• Vintage length steel anchors - the rationale is that if the top timber is crappy & soft, the anchors will have a bit more to hang on to.
• Locking studs (cheapies again, not TonePros)
• Knob indicators for coolness factor
• Plastic jack plate

All up came to about $87 delivered. Pretty happy with that bridge, I saw the vendor (Philadelphia Luthier Supplies) mentioned somewhere on les paul forums when I was looking for options. Just getting the Kluson version locally would have cost $60 + shipping.

I still have more bits to go - tuners & electronics (& more spousal projects to complete)- before I can start drilling holes & sanding, but I’m calling it progress.

[samr]

Joining the boom in isolation guitar building.

Gluing in the neck.



Positioning the bridge. This took a long time. I attempted to use some online 'foolproof' measure & drill instructions I found but they were lacking critical info so I ended up macgyverising something with the kit tailpiece to intonate. The bit I’m most worried about is string alignment with the poles, I’ve roughly split the difference between a mathematically calculated offset and the online measurement, seems to look approximately right with strings on.



Drilling anchor holes. The brother in law has a tidy pedestal drill, so I headed out on some totally essential travel.



Managed to remember to drill a hole for the bridge earth. Not sure where they normally go on an LP but this looked logical.



Grain-filling the back/neck with Ebony Timbermate slurry. I’m not sold on this, I’ve started sanding back and it’s extremely difficult to get an even finish. I think it would look better with a lower contrast colour, alternatively I think I might just skip it next time & use a sanding sealer.

[Simon Barden]

Hi and welcome.

That Guitar mag Greco conversion had a lot of good ideas in it.

Grain filler is pretty essential with mahogany. But you need to scrape as much off as you can before it dries hard, otherwise it is hard work. Two thin applications are better than one thick one, as it does shrink back a bit over a few days, so you may still need another application.

Sanding sealer is a very different beast, and should be just a thinned version of a clear lacquer that allows it to soak well into the wood and hopefully prevent the main finishes from sinking into the wood over time. What it won't do is fill those pores, so you'd still end up applying a lot of expensive lacquer coats just to build up enough depth to sand back flat.

Guitar building is at least 75% sanding - either the wood or the finish.

As long as the strings are equally spaced from the sides of the neck and you've got the centre of the bridge on the neck centreline, the pickup pole pieces should line up fine (though you are dependent on the pickup routs being central).

The veneer looks like maple to me, but you're going goldtop so it doesn't really matter anyway. At least you don't need to grain fill the veneer - sanding sealer only for that.

[samr]

Thanks for the tips Simon, I’ll persist. I think I’ll do a second coat of timbermate a bit less runny.

As long as the strings are equally spaced from the sides of the neck and you've got the centre of the bridge on the neck centreline

I’ve offset the bridge centre approx 2mm to the bass side - my understanding is the angled wraparounds need to be offset because the strings wrap on an angle?

The veneer looks like maple to me

Sorry, I wasn’t talking about the veneer, but what’s underneath it. It’s very soft and very open. It looks like some sort of meranti, but I’m from WA so I only know jarrah & radiata pine.

[Bakersdozen]

When you get to it, the p90 pickguards are hard to find. This one should do the trick, but you might have to measure up the routs in your body just to make sure it's going to be spot on.

https://www.realparts.com.au/pickgua...pickguard.html

If it's out of alignment, you'd have to cut your own from a blank as the humbucker one's (which are in huge supply) will look odd.

RealParts are great for a lot of other things as well, think electronics, knobs, wire, nuts and some pups.

[samr]

Thanks Bakersdozen, yes, I’ve spent some time looking and I realise they’re thin on the ground. These guys seem to have them listed as well (although they’re expensive vintage repros) - https://www.aceguitarparts.aceguitar...au/56lppg.html

[Bakersdozen]

Thanks Bakersdozen, yes, I’ve spent some time looking and I realise they’re thin on the ground. These guys seem to have them listed as well (although they’re expensive vintage repros) - https://www.aceguitarparts.aceguitar...au/56lppg.html

Yep, not really worth it imo given its not a vintage instrument. That pickguard would cost you more than your bridge for example. Anyways your well on the right track and thinking about all the right things. Keen to see what paint you decide to go with

[Simon Barden]

Yes, the bridge itself needs to be angled slightly. You've got the adjustment screws available for fine tuning (the intonation is never going to be perfect with a non-intonated wrap-over tailpiece), but I much prefer it for the screws not to be used, as the bridge then make a much firmer contact with the studs.

[FrankenWashie]

Sorry, I wasn’t talking about the veneer, but what’s underneath it. It’s very soft and very open. It looks like some sort of meranti, but I’m from WA so I only know jarrah & radiata pine.

The layer under the veneer is likely Pawlonia, the rear looks to be plantation mahogany or similar.