Enter the Splintercaster...

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks again!

I had prepped the headstock and decal sheet last weekend and finally got the decals on the headstock this afternoon:

Had a bit of curling under on the main decal but I think I got it flattened out well enough once I get some lacquer over it.

I'm about to start in on the polishing of the body and might hit the headstock w/ a couple coats of lacquer if I'm up late enough.

Edit:
The body polished up pretty quickly, on to put stuff back together  :toothy10:

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Well, I got the hardware and pickups back on the body and I'm up to 7 coats over the decals on the headstock.

The last couple of coats haven't seemed to do much more in the blending of the decals and it's getting pretty thick in general so I'm thinking about stopping at 7 coats (well 9 total) and letting it cure.

I might come back at some point in the future and sand the headstock back down past the decal so I can get a couple more coats down under the decals and trim them more aggressively so they'd melt into the finish from all angles a bit more transparently.

Hoping I might be able to get to the polishing of the neck, remaining re-assembly, and testing of the electronics sometime next week/weekend. 

 

[Glimmer]

Just beautiful!

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks Glimmer!

Talked w/ my luthier friend last night and he convinced me I was fine to go ahead and do final sanding and polish on the neck as long as I held off on aggressive buffing and polishing of the headstock and put it on so, short of the electronics, the Splintercaster is complete!

Based on the time I've spent w/ it dry assembled and last night, this is easily both the smoothest playing Tele and tied for my favorite vibrato action w/ my Caribou.  Can't wait to get the electronics sorted.

Not the best pics as it was into the wee hours of the morning by the time I had finished the polishing and reassembly, but I'll get some more, better ones once I wrap up the wiring:

 

[Logrinn]

Yowza!
That is one very cool guitar!

 

[rgand]

That came out great. Very nice work. :icon_thumright:

 

[Glimmer]

WOW!!! Great job. Kudos, sir!

 

[Timmsie95]

maybe a contender in next month's GOM?  :icon_thumright:

 

[Logrinn]

What Timmsie95 said!

 

[ThePhilosopher]

That looks very nice, very nice indeed.

 

[Glimmer]

Would love to hear how you feel about that trem, once you've spent a little time with it.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks alot guys!

There are a few areas w/ room for improvement on the next finish & build project (polish of the body wound up w/ some white grainfill in a couple spots,  my attempt at progressively rolling back the masking on the border of the tru oil and lacquer on the headstock resulted in not the most invisible seams, and I will definitely try to trim back my decals more closely), but all in all I'm pretty darn happy w/ how it turned out aesthetically and couldn't be more pleased w/ how it plays.

Hoping to have some time to finish the wiring this weekend.

On the Doozy vibrato:  I'm not sure if it's just the spring and the design of the arm, but I'm pretty sure it's the perfect vibrato for me.  Silky smooth w/ more up/down range than any B3/B5/B7 I've used, good ergonomics and pretty unobtrusive when you're not using it, I love the string through design, and it looks great IMO.  Only downsides are having to order it from Germany to make it reasonable price-wise and the relatively high clearance is making finding a nice, well fitting hard case for this guitar a little challenging.

 

[Glimmer]

Thanks for the quick reply re the trem. Didn't think of the size posing a potential problem with the case – an important consideration!

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Yeah, I was a little surprised that none of the Tele/"Universal" cases I've got on hand seem to accommodate it w/o putting more down pressure on it than I'm comfortable w/ (or pulling the liner and modding the foam).  Gonna go hit the local shops this afternoon and see if they've got anything that works.  In the meantime the Rhino softshell EPS case works well enough, just seems a little cheap looking for this guitar to me.

 

[Glimmer]

FWIW a note that came with the Mastery trem I put on my guitar says, “We suggest leaving [the arm] in at all times, especially when cased. If the arm is pressed down when cased it will loosen the string tension, and that's good for storing and transporting the guitar…” You might even want to shoot the D. people a note, asking them what concerns if any they might have w/respect to the arm being depressed (well, you know what I mean ) when the guitar is in its case. Perhaps it's a non issue.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I generally don't sweat 1/4" or so of compression on the lid (especially w/ a new case), but the two Fender Tele cases I've got are more like 1/2" or more and that feels a bit more dicey.

I'm guessing if I point Google at tdpri I should be able to find something.  Worst case I could just get myself a G&G or TKL and mod it if I'm uncomfortable w/ the amount of tension on the lid.  Just seems like it would be a pain in the ass to get the liner back on satisfactorily ???

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Took advantage of the Musician's Friend case sale over the weekend ordered an SKB 66 case w/ the thought of ballpeening it into submission if necessary.

After 12-14 hours of troubleshooting, rewiring from scratch and re-troubleshooting this weekend, my "S1 + blend" wiring scheme still refuses to do what it's supposed to do so I think I may punt to a more stripped down approach tonight w/ a 3 way switch as I'm pretty much over screwing w/ it for the time being.  Pretty frustrating as I've done essentially the same thing on a couple other guitars before (one using humbuckers and a 3 way toggle w/ no series/parallel switching and one w/ a 4 way blade but no blend)but oh well...  :icon_scratch: :dontknow:

On the upside, the P-90 sounds great so far  :guitaristgif:

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

The SKB-66 case came in today and it's just about a perfect fit, nice and compact on the external dimensions too.  The lid's got about the same 1/4" of compression as the Rhino softshell w/ no hammering or natural compression of the foam yet.  :headbang1:

Also went ahead and got the wiring in a semi-functional state last night using 3 of the 4 positions on the switch and no phase switching.  I'll probably redo it to discrete S1 switching removing the blend, switching to a no load tone pot, and moving the phase switching to a DPDT mini-toggle in the near future. 

I'm really liking the sound of the Fralin +2%, it's got great classic Tele twang and it's blending really well w/ the dogear.  I'm thinking maybe the +5% would wind up handily supplanting the SD APTL-1 as my favorite Tele bridge pup, as it is the +2% is really close but is just a touch lower output than "perfect" for me.  Still a great sounding combo so far.  All in all there's no shortage of bite regardless of the pickup mix.

 

[Cagey]

Those SKB-66 cases are nice. Strong and light, both. It seems they've dropped in price. I could swear I've been paying like $125 or so for them (and I'm a shopper), but I see now several places have them for $88.

The thing to watch with those overwinds (2%, 5%, etc.) is the farther you go, the less articulation you get out of them. If the 2% sounds good and you want more output, perhaps a smidgen of boost from something like this would work out better. It's a clean boost unless you really crank it up and beat up on your amp's input.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Yeah, the SKB-66 seems like a winner for the price.  Not the most classic looking case but seems nice and sturdy and the guitar is well supported and locked in place.

I generally use a boost or two in my setup for gain staging and light tone shaping (current favorite "clean" boost is the Fat Boost FB-3 at the front end of the signal path).  I'm definitely planning to play around w/ my boards over the weekend to nail down an additional boost to bring this pup into parity w/ my other guitars.  So far adding a Zvex Channel 2 or Moog MF Boost at the end of the drive chain seems like my best option I've got on hand for this application.  Both seem to have output to spare and give the sound a bit more mass while preserving the majority of the dynamic range as long as I don't dial them up into OD territory.