Soloist Hardtail Burl Maple Top - Black dye glow/burst satin, dog hair back

[docteurseb]

The neck arrived couple weeks ago. It took me a while to post because I needed to drill the side dots myself to install Luminlay Super Green dots.

I thought it was a good idea at the time but it was slightly daunting, luckily it went very well.

Here's that 'figured' ziricote board+veneer:

Roasted maple back:

and the drilling process:

Next will be what I hate doing the most: rolling those fingerboard edges, rounding those fret ends, and polishing those stainless steel frets.

 

[DieterDeux]

Wow! This is gonna be a stunner. I envy having a workshop for projects like this. Next house maybe.

 

[Rick]

Nice job with dots ... Wow!

 

[docteurseb]

Wow! This is gonna be a stunner. I envy having a workshop for projects like this. Next house maybe.

Thanks ! I don't think I'll be doing that again though, too much stress lol.

My 'workshop' is a small garage with limited space (got to fit cars and a motorcycle) but we have all we need for most small woodworking projects: router, drill press, planer, belt sander, jointer, table saw, scroll saw.

 

[dmraco]

This is turning out great.  Nice work!

 

[wildbill]

That body has a wild west vibe to me for some reason. Like it I do, a lot !

 

[docteurseb]

Had a wonderful time rolling the fingerboard edges, polishing frets, and installing the nut and tuners.
Fantastic sustain on that one, although not surprising of a hardtail.

Only the highest register frets were polished at that point:

I put some Music Nomad Fretboard F-One Oil and that ziricote fingerboard went from unexciting-looking (at least to me) to a fantastic match for the body:

There isn't much left to do at this point. I'm still debating whether to use the black single coil mounting rings or wood mount. With the prior noiseless single coil pickups I used in wood mounted guitars the neck pickup almost always ended up being slightly noisy unless my hand was right next to it. A mounting ring with cavity shielding should take care of that but does look a little bit ugly.

 

[JPOL007]

Beautiful job ccasion14: I am soo envious of your finishing skills :evil4:

 

[docteurseb]

Ordered #4-40 wood inserts for the pickups this time around.

While I did a direct wood mount on the prior two guitars with single coils I found this to be a pain to adjust and it doesn't look very clean/professional.

The fret felt so smooth on this one I felt compelling to redo the polishing of my Soloist Dragon Breath frets
It seems really critical for SS frets to get those scratches out with the initial 600 grit microfinishing flexible sand paper and crowned file; direct sunlight or using the smartphone's flashlight really helps to catch those. Once that's taken care of the higher grits are pretty easy.

 

[docteurseb]

Template for drilling the mounting holes is done. Basically took a picture of the cavity, scaled to size, and then drew the shape and mounting holes in Inkscape... wish I had done that before for prior builds!

 

[docteurseb]

This one is finally done !

I'll swap the pickup height adjustment screws for black oxide ones once I receive them:

This may seem a bit extreme but in most of my prior rear-routed single coils build I found the neck pickup to be noisy without shielding the pickup cavity:

I'll post better pics soon, in the meantime that's what I have:

 

[stratamania]

Good job with the inserts. I wondered how you were getting on when I saw some in my parts box yesterday. It looks very good.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

That’s a fine clean job on those giblets, quite nice sir.

 

[docteurseb]

Good job with the inserts. I wondered how you were getting on when I saw some in my parts box yesterday. It looks very good.

They were quite a pita to get them in straight enough when inserting them.

 

[stratamania]

Good job with the inserts. I wondered how you were getting on when I saw some in my parts box yesterday. It looks very good.

They were quite a pita to get them in straight enough when inserting them.

Was that drilling the holes or I am guessing the part afterwards?

 

[docteurseb]

Good job with the inserts. I wondered how you were getting on when I saw some in my parts box yesterday. It looks very good.

They were quite a pita to get them in straight enough when inserting them.

Was that drilling the holes or I am guessing the part afterwards?

Definitely the part afterwards. Drilling the holes was straightforward with the drill press, just need to make sure not to drill too deep ;-)
I'm using the EZ Lock type of inserts, I'll try their insertion adapter next time to see if that helps.

 

[stratamania]

That may help or using a tap with the correct thread size may also be an idea.

In the end it looks far better than the pickup rings that sometimes get used around Strat pickups on rear routs. For me those rarely look that great.

 

[docteurseb]

That may help or using a tap with the correct thread size may also be an idea.

In the end it looks far better than the pickup rings that sometimes get used around Strat pickups on rear routs. For me those rarely look that great.

Agreed, I bought three black metal rings before going the insert route and it looked pretty awful the moment I just lay one of them around the pickup cavity. I can seem them being perfectly great for solid painted bodies, but for figured woods they just don't do it for me.

Now the beauty shots:

 

[docteurseb]

Black screws arrived, much nicer !
I took the opportunity to use humbucker springs instead of relying solely on foam and it's so much nicer that way: better range of adjustment, smoother, and the pickups stay more level with the body.

In terms of screws black Phillips 4-40 screws can be a pain to find and I got mine from monsterbolts.com
Ordered Monday and received today; very reasonable shipping compared to eBay/Amazon alternatives although shipping is of course more expensive than the screws themselves.
I got both sets of 3/4" and 1" lengths, and 1" seems to be the way to go in my case (definitely needed for the bridge pickup). I did use 3/4" ones for the neck but I'm sure 1" would have worked fine too as I drilled the inserts' pilot holes deep enough to accommodate longer screws.

 

[wildbill]

Beautiful !