Soloist Hardtail Curly Maple stained Pink/Purple

[ARCnet78]

Hey DrSeb

The body looks amazing. 

I am also building a rear route hard tail and am planing on using a Oak Grigsby Super Switch.  I had to expand the internal mount switch route to fit so it would mount perpendicular to the body.  At position 1 & 5, it seems to touch the body, so I am interested in what your plan of attack will be? 

I seem to remember reading that superglue could be used to harden wood fibres.  But tooo much grey hair and not enough grey matter to remember where I read it? 

Thanks for all the photos in the journey.

 

[docteurseb]

Hey DrSeb

The body looks amazing. 

I am also building a rear route hard tail and am planing on using a Oak Grigsby Super Switch.  I had to expand the internal mount switch route to fit so it would mount perpendicular to the body.  At position 1 & 5, it seems to touch the body, so I am interested in what your plan of attack will be? 

I seem to remember reading that superglue could be used to harden wood fibres.  But tooo much grey hair and not enough grey matter to remember where I read it? 

Thanks for all the photos in the journey.

Well I had already 'lengthened' the switch cut out before staining/finishing so I would get the full range of motion in positions 1&5.
You can do it after the fact, it's just as fun and dangerous as clearing out ferrules/neck pocket' finish.

I always use super glue after cleaning up the finish to make sure the bond between the finish and wood is solid, otherwise it could easily lift up when inserting hardware. And yes it does strengthen wood fibers.

 

[docteurseb]

... I would strongly advise not using superglue near a shiny brand new nitro finished body though.

Whenever I use that ultra thin glue I always seem to get some over the body.
If it's poly it's trivial to clean with acetone.
If it's nitro you're out of luck and just ruined your finish.

 

[ARCnet78]

... I would strongly advise not using superglue near a shiny brand new nitro finished body though.

Whenever I use that ultra thin glue I always seem to get some over the body.
If it's poly it's trivial to clean with acetone.
If it's nitro you're out of luck and just ruined your finish.

I am building my first guitar, the body was finished by Warmoth, so not nitro. 

The information that I have gained reading posts to this forum have greatly helped me with my body & neck selection and options as well as throughout the prep and build processes. 

I greatly appreciate your and everyone else's contributions to this forum. 
   

 

[docteurseb]

Time flies...
Headstock was stained and clear coated a few weeks ago, I'm waiting a bit more before buffing it:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/csT2tjQeKDE[/youtube]

Cavities shielding and pickup installation (yes pickup cavities have ground wires, added after I took the pic):

Once the headstock is buffed it'll be quick to complete this one.
Finish residue has been removed from the switch and jack holes, I still have to do the Volume and Tone ones.

 

[PhilHill]

Very Nice Doc. Your doing your usual outstanding job I see........ :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

 

[docteurseb]

After buffing there were too many small imperfections visible when looking up close at the right light angle. Mostly some air bubbles that I though I had been able to get rid of.
I ended up sanding a bit and reshooting a few layers of lacquer; my friend thought I was crazy as he said he'd never have seen them…

It’s good now, there is only one tiny imperfection/bubble (at the bottom left edge of the light reflection) but I'm not going to mess with it at this point:

 

[docteurseb]

As a general rule: whatever can for wrong will generally go wrong.

Tuner installation seemed to have gone smoothly, but when test fitting the nut I damaged the ebony+finish near the nut slot. My usual problem of being slightly in a rush most of the time...
No problem... reshoot lacquer and rebuff later.

The day after (yesterday) I notice finish lifting up around couple of the bushings from over tightening that weren't there initially...

So here we go again: sanding and spraying a generous new layer of lacquer, hoping it'll reflow lacquer all the way to the base layer.
It didn't look promising at first, but after a few minutes I could see the lifted region receding and eventually disappearing completely:

 

[PJ Potamus]

 

[docteurseb]

Happy to report this one is finally completed.

 

[Sadie-f]

Again, dayum.

 

[ragamuffin]

Oh my! This makes me tingly in all the right places...

 

[docteurseb]

Thanks!
The backplate is the only thing I would redo in order to get closer to the top's color if I were going to keep it; but the friend likes it very much that way.

One thing I had a long struggle with is the E string intonation. This is not the first time I run into this with Warmoth conversion necks and hardtail bridges though. I had not only to cut the spring to get more range, but also had to expand the saddle's cut out so the saddle wouldn't partially cover the string hole (making it impossible to change strings).
All good now though but there was definitely quite a concern Sunday afternoon.

 

[Cowbell Fever!]

One thing I had a long struggle with is the E string intonation. This is not the first time I run into this with Warmoth conversion necks and hardtail bridges though. I had not only to cut the spring to get more range, but also had to expand the saddle's cut out so the saddle wouldn't partially cover the string hole (making it impossible to change strings).
All good now though but there was definitely quite a concern Sunday.

Uh oh, could you elaborate on this a bit more as I have a Warmoth Gibson scale CBS strat neck coming soon for a build I am doing with a hardtail bridge. First time ordering a conversion neck.

 

[stratamania]

A classy job once again... :icon_thumright:

 

[docteurseb]

One thing I had a long struggle with is the E string intonation. This is not the first time I run into this with Warmoth conversion necks and hardtail bridges though. I had not only to cut the spring to get more range, but also had to expand the saddle's cut out so the saddle wouldn't partially cover the string hole (making it impossible to change strings).
All good now though but there was definitely quite a concern Sunday.

Uh oh, could you elaborate on this a bit more as I have a Warmoth Gibson scale CBS strat neck coming soon for a build I am doing with a hardtail bridge. First time ordering a conversion neck.

I wouldn't worry about it yet. Install the neck, setup the relief, action, nut, intonate.
Chances are you'll be fine.

I only used conversion necks 3 times on builds: two hardtail, one 6-hole vintage trem.
In all cases it did stress the available range of saddle adjustment of the bridges in order to intonate properly the e and/or E strings.
I'll try to remember it and stay away from those in the future.

 

[Cowbell Fever!]

So your sayin' there's a chance!!???

 

[docteurseb]

So your sayin' there's a chance!!???

I'll sum it up again and would appreciate that we PLEASE not discuss this any further (it'd be like beating a dead horse, honestly):

- I've found conversion necks to always stress the typical saddle's range to intonate.
That's been my experience with the 3-4 conversion necks I've used, relative to the 40+ standard scale ones.
Others and Warmoth may disagree, and I'd be more than happy to see pictures of the bridge of their perfectly intonated guitar to consider the remote chance I either had bad luck, or don't know how to assemble/set-up a guitar.

- Expect having to possibly cut the E saddle spring depending on your bridge, string gauge (do check alignment of the neck too as that can exacerbate the problem, even with standard scale necks). Or pushing the e saddle forward to the point where it's close to the mounting screw of a 6-hole vintage bridge, and the spring being loose.

- The more esoteric the bridge is (like this build), the more chances you take.

 

[Cowbell Fever!]

I I good sir!

 

[Cowbell Fever!]

I would be remiss if I didn't add great stain job sir!!