Regal/Hombre build

[seattlesteveo]

Here are some build pics of my Regal/Hombre build.  This is pretty simple compared to some of the great instruments I see here, but I really enjoy making and playing these guitars. I was going for a Les Paul with P90's look.

I could not have done this and my other 2 builds without all the how to videos on youtube and the posts here on this forum.  Especially helpful to me were the threads about waxing the screws and being very careful not to snap the heads off the small screws and burnishing the raw woods.

I ordered parts while waiting for the body and neck to arrive.  I traced the knob layout from my 2001 R8 Les Paul so I could make a template and begin soldering the controls.  I soldered the pots and pickup switch cable, so they were ready to drop in when the body arrived.  When researching pots, I saw on Toneshapers that they sold CTS pots with 24 teeth, so an internet search turned up atlanticcustomguitars.com for Gibson style knobs made for 24 teeth shafts.  Lollar pickups are located near me, so I ordered their P90 pickups.

 

[seattlesteveo]

When the body and neck arrived, the build was very straightforward with few issues.  The biggest issue I encountered was one of the pickup screws on the neck pickup hit the side of the cable route, so it was hard to drill there.  To resolve this, I bridged the route with a piece of plastic that was thick enough to hold the threads of the pickup screw, but thin enough not to interfere with the pickup height adjustment. I used small wood screws to attach the plastic on each side of the route, and then the pickup screw goes into a hole drilled in the plastic.

 

[seattlesteveo]

This first thing I did was dry fit the body and neck to check the fit and the scale length.

I burnished the back of the roasted maple neck and peghead for over 3 hours to give them a nice shine and slick feel, and when that was done, put in the tuning pegs.  Then I installed the pickup selector switch, the pickups, the volume and tone controls, bridge and tailpiece. Put on the neck, strung it up and then did the setup. 

 

[seattlesteveo]

Very pleased with the results.

 

[bagman67]

Beautiful!  Now you can wrap it up and ship it my way for safekeeping. 

 

[AirCap]

Beautiful!  Now you can wrap it up and ship it my way for safekeeping.

Ya beat me to it!

 

[rgand]

Looks great. That Hombre neck is a nice look with this body style. Good choice, there. Very nice job.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Lordy, that is beautimous!