RD build is underway! DONE!

I have a brand new gold Duncan Phat Cat (neck) sitting around, not getting any closer to being installed on anything of mine.  it's missing one height adjustment screw, but otherwise complete - it's never been installed.  Make me an offer if you're interested.
 
bagman67 said:
I have a brand new gold Duncan Phat Cat (neck) sitting around, not getting any closer to being installed on anything of mine.  it's missing one height adjustment screw, but otherwise complete - it's never been installed.  Make me an offer if you're interested.
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I hear the SD Phat Cat's are pretty good. They are a humbucker sized P-90. What your opinion of them?
 
They're pretty close to a real P-90 sound, but obviously bobbin shape and height makes a difference.  Overall, I like the sound quite well.

I was planning to put mine in the neck position on a tele build, but that's kinda stalled for financial reasons, and some finishing issues I don't really have time to resolve right now.

I'm not aggressively trying to sell my Phat Cat , but I noted that the original poster spec'd a Phat Cat for his build, and my pickup ain't doing anyone any good right now - so I figured if he wants it I can save him a couple bucks off the retail sources.
 
bagman67 said:
They're pretty close to a real P-90 sound, but obviously bobbin shape and height makes a difference.  Overall, I like the sound quite well.

I was planning to put mine in the neck position on a tele build, but that's kinda stalled for financial reasons, and some finishing issues I don't really have time to resolve right now.

I'm not aggressively trying to sell my Phat Cat , but I noted that the original poster spec'd a Phat Cat for his build, and my pickup ain't doing anyone any good right now - so I figured if he wants it I can save him a couple bucks off the retail sources.
Click to expand...

Apologies for hijacking this thread. Thanks for the replies regarding the PhatCats. Why I asked is that I have a friends Epiphone LP Standard that I will be upgrading for him soon, and these were one of the pickups he was looking at. We have been listening to the sound samples that SD have on their website and liked them. Just wanted to get some first hand info from someone who has them.  :icon_thumright:
 
Got the design printed out yesterday & traced today (got my kid to practice "writing" with me  :icon_biggrin:), and while my daughter played on her swing, I took the jigsaw & a small work table out back & did the rough cut of the body shape.  As you can see, I left myself plenty of work to do with the spindle sander, but that's much better than trying to cut too close & making a mistake.  Yes, that neck pocket cut will be deeper - I'm already quite annoyed at the result, but glad I have lots of time to work with it.

I also did a test of stain on a small spot on the neck - and immediately concluded that it's not going to work.  However, I'm really looking forward to seeing all this gorgeous mahogany oiled & sanded to a slick perfection.  That's a few weeks away at least, but it's getting there.

nexrex said:
Apologies for hijacking this thread. Thanks for the replies regarding the PhatCats. Why I asked is that I have a friends Epiphone LP Standard that I will be upgrading for him soon, and these were one of the pickups he was looking at. We have been listening to the sound samples that SD have on their website and liked them. Just wanted to get some first hand info from someone who has them.  :icon_thumright:
Click to expand...

Please, discuss away!  I'm looking forward to the wiring up & plugging in stage myself, and any tone talk I can get to hold myself over in the mean time is good.  :rock-on:
 
Sweet, looks like there's plenty of room to cut some back for lower fret access....And that neck is awesome..... :icon_thumright:
 
I'm still trying to get ahold of a good sanding spindle - neither of the big box stores, nor the specialty lumber shop near me have them - so I've been paused on the body, but I have been diligently experimenting on the excess wood from the blank.  I've basically decided that I'm not going to try dyeing the neck & body, because I'm not sure how well I'll be able to match the colors.  The neck has a sanding sealer, which makes my job finishing that easier, but in trying out a few types of dye & stain on the butt end of the neck (where it won't show once it's done), I've had trouble getting consistency in coloring with the body pieces.  I've tried a few grain filling solutions, but still can't quite get the color match close enough for my preferences.   Thus, no dye, just oiled Mahogany all throughout.

Fortunately, there's a lot of left over wood to play with from the body blank, so the next time I do something with mahogany (which will be - let's be honest here - far sooner than I can afford  :icon_biggrin: ), I'll have more direction.  

Anyway, I've started to finish the neck in TruOil - these pictures were from this afternoon, having applied the 2nd coat yesterday.  I waited for exactly 24 hours before a brief rub down with 0000 steel wool, and a 3rd coat.  I'll probably stop there on the back of the neck, and maybe 2 or 3 more coats for the headstock.  It's looking quite amazing so far.   :toothy10:
 
The scarf joint isn't as visible from all angles.  It's actually an amazing quality of this neck - depending on the angle of the light, it looks like 1 piece of melted chocolatey mahogany goodness.  Other times, it's clearly visible as 4 separate pieces of mahogany.  I don't have an HD cam for showing how it can change color in the light the way it does, but I'll see if I can't get more pics to show the color variation, it's quite incredible.  :toothy12:
 
I'm not sure what you mean by a "good" sanding spindle but I hard a hard time finding a suitable on for my last build. They were all too short. On a whim I went to Harbor Freight and found exactly what I was looking for at a decent price too. They are an excellent source for some odball tools or something you might only use once in a while or cheap stuff that is noninvestment grade. Good luck.
 
Just finished the final sanding & shaping work: a few hours of spindle sander, orbital sander (really handy for the edges), and steel wool (and alternating back & forth between them), then a wipe down with lemon oil to clean it up & make that gorgeous grain appear. 

As you can see, the final shape has kinda diverged from an actual RD, but it's still looking quite cool.  It will be a truly 1 of a kind instrument. 

I'll wait a while for the lemon oil to dry out, then fill the grain and get to TruOiling.
 
NonsenseTele said:
Cool! But what happened to the RD cutaway? ???
Click to expand...

Well, it was already off from a true RD shape anyway, and the way I'd originally cut it, there was lousy upper fret access.  I did a big of sketching on the body to visualize a new cut, and this was the shape that I was happiest with.  Another pass with the jigsaw, a bunch of spindle sanding & hand sanding later, and I've got something I hope my brother (who will be the recipient) will love. 
 
No pics at the moment, but I've got 2 coats of TruOil on the body (on top of a single coat of sanding sealer) - anticipating up to about 11 or 12.  The headstock got what may be it's final coat last night (about 10 coats there) - I'll see how it's dried tonight & buff it with a cloth, but I'm pretty happy with how that's looking.  The back of the neck is REALLY smooth - looking forward to playing this thing for a while before I give it to my brother. . . . for Christmas. 

:laughing7:
 
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