Hey guys, I've been away a while. Hand is doing fine and I'm back at it.
So the singer in one of my bands needs an electric that he can go acoustic on when needed. After all my other builds they all turned to me. He wanted a Tele of sorts but didn't want your traditional setup. He just say "Do whatever you want, I trust you." He also asked if we could throw a raven in the mix somewhere. And off we went.
So on Warmoth's screaming deals I see this alder Cabronita
Grab that and this neck from a company in Denver
Mahogany with Bocote fretboard
They seem to do good work. I'll need to do a little fretwork and leveling but otherwise good stuff.
When the neck arrived it did have a slight ding on the tip of the headstock, It came out with some steam. The neck was packaged very well and the box was in excellent shape, so I can only assume it happened before it was packed. Never have had that problem with Warmoth necks or bodies though.
Ok, So were going with a TV Jones obviously for the magnetic pickup. The piezo acoustics with be the same Graph tech Ghost system I used in my previous "Maria" guitar. So controls will be a volume for electric. Volume for acoustic which has a Mid/dark boost push pull in it. And a the mini switch toggle towards the back side of the cavity towards the jack. Goes from Electric-both-Acoustic. No tone knob as this guy always just leaves his tone on 10.
These are the saddles
wires come out of the saddle between the height position screws
The bridge I chose with it's saddles removed
I felt the wires would look messy coming out in front of the bridge. Where would they go? Drill holes for them? Route them to magnetic pickup route? Naw.
I decided to drill holes through the bridge and dremel route a small channel under the bridge area. So the piezo wires could pass through the bridge and follow the ground channel to the control cavity and on to the Ghost preamp. That way they will be completely hidden and just look like an electric.
Now for the bridge, the dilemma is that the connectors on the ends of the piezo saddles are too large to pass though the bridge holes. A hole large enough for them to pass through would make it possible for the saddle height screws to fall in.
So what to do? After closely examining these I found if you use an exacto blade you can gently lift the plastic clip and release the wire lead from the housing. pass them through the hole in the bridge and they clip right back in the plastic housing of the connector. So just a heads up for anyone using this system or dealing with the same issue.
The bridge with the ghost saddles in place
I got the body without the battery route because graphtech's battery box has different dimensions. The battery lays flat theirs. I routed the appropriate size and tested the fit.
Now with all the body work needed done It was time for some fun. So he said he wanted a raven. Gave me no specifics or general direction to go on. So i just started sketching and thinking of a way to fit a raven on here in some way. I plan on dying the back and sides black with dye. Tru oiling the neck. So I rough sketched out the raven on the top. ( also I had to fill the bridge mounting holes and drill new ones for the bridge I'm using )
With my rough outline I broke out the wood dyes and started mixing colors. I also used some ink to define lines.
Little more done
And the whole raven done. (this pic has quite a glare in it, but you get the idea)
So then with the dyes I wanted to add a background. but I want the background a bit faded for a few reasons. To allow the grain to still be seen (even though its plain alder) and to let the eye still focus on the raven. I plan on adding some tree branch silhouettes coming from either side and some other silhouetted ravens flying about. But so far I have the moon and some clouds moving along.
The clouds aren't quite done. But I'll post more as I make progress. I'll shoot some lacquer over it and polish it out after the image is done and I dye the back and sides.
Just thought I'd show you guys what I've been up to since I got full use of my hand again.
So the singer in one of my bands needs an electric that he can go acoustic on when needed. After all my other builds they all turned to me. He wanted a Tele of sorts but didn't want your traditional setup. He just say "Do whatever you want, I trust you." He also asked if we could throw a raven in the mix somewhere. And off we went.
So on Warmoth's screaming deals I see this alder Cabronita
Grab that and this neck from a company in Denver
Mahogany with Bocote fretboard
They seem to do good work. I'll need to do a little fretwork and leveling but otherwise good stuff.
When the neck arrived it did have a slight ding on the tip of the headstock, It came out with some steam. The neck was packaged very well and the box was in excellent shape, so I can only assume it happened before it was packed. Never have had that problem with Warmoth necks or bodies though.
Ok, So were going with a TV Jones obviously for the magnetic pickup. The piezo acoustics with be the same Graph tech Ghost system I used in my previous "Maria" guitar. So controls will be a volume for electric. Volume for acoustic which has a Mid/dark boost push pull in it. And a the mini switch toggle towards the back side of the cavity towards the jack. Goes from Electric-both-Acoustic. No tone knob as this guy always just leaves his tone on 10.
These are the saddles
wires come out of the saddle between the height position screws
The bridge I chose with it's saddles removed
I felt the wires would look messy coming out in front of the bridge. Where would they go? Drill holes for them? Route them to magnetic pickup route? Naw.
I decided to drill holes through the bridge and dremel route a small channel under the bridge area. So the piezo wires could pass through the bridge and follow the ground channel to the control cavity and on to the Ghost preamp. That way they will be completely hidden and just look like an electric.
Now for the bridge, the dilemma is that the connectors on the ends of the piezo saddles are too large to pass though the bridge holes. A hole large enough for them to pass through would make it possible for the saddle height screws to fall in.
So what to do? After closely examining these I found if you use an exacto blade you can gently lift the plastic clip and release the wire lead from the housing. pass them through the hole in the bridge and they clip right back in the plastic housing of the connector. So just a heads up for anyone using this system or dealing with the same issue.
The bridge with the ghost saddles in place
I got the body without the battery route because graphtech's battery box has different dimensions. The battery lays flat theirs. I routed the appropriate size and tested the fit.
Now with all the body work needed done It was time for some fun. So he said he wanted a raven. Gave me no specifics or general direction to go on. So i just started sketching and thinking of a way to fit a raven on here in some way. I plan on dying the back and sides black with dye. Tru oiling the neck. So I rough sketched out the raven on the top. ( also I had to fill the bridge mounting holes and drill new ones for the bridge I'm using )
With my rough outline I broke out the wood dyes and started mixing colors. I also used some ink to define lines.
Little more done
And the whole raven done. (this pic has quite a glare in it, but you get the idea)
So then with the dyes I wanted to add a background. but I want the background a bit faded for a few reasons. To allow the grain to still be seen (even though its plain alder) and to let the eye still focus on the raven. I plan on adding some tree branch silhouettes coming from either side and some other silhouetted ravens flying about. But so far I have the moon and some clouds moving along.
The clouds aren't quite done. But I'll post more as I make progress. I'll shoot some lacquer over it and polish it out after the image is done and I dye the back and sides.
Just thought I'd show you guys what I've been up to since I got full use of my hand again.