Tom P.'s eBay Project

[TomPerverteau]

Did some more stuff on it at home today.

Put the body inserts in.

The bridge landed here. It looks like just a tad further back than I intended. That's OK, it has lots of adjustment for intonation. Even more important is the side-to-side location for string alignment. According to the lines I drew, it's right on the money. It's pretty parallel to the pickup route, too.

The early Floyds had the C-shape knife edges on both sides. I spaced the distance between the studs here like on an early one. There is almost 0 clearance between the saddle and the head of the stud with this bridge! It kind of freaked me out at first. I double checked on the treble side (the side with the C shape), and it's right where it should be. But damn, that's a close fit!

Test-fitting some of the mahogany filler blocks I made. Remember, this will be Bondo-ed up & painted, so they only have to be a rough fit. This will also get final milling for cosmetics after it's all filled in. I used mahogany for consistency with the rest of the body, thinking about the sound.

Filler blocks glued, clamped, and left to dry. There is still more filling to do after this to get everything looking even & correct around the bridge.

The de-butchering is moving along!

 

[Crazy Dave]

Wow man, just...wow. 

 

[TomPerverteau]

I put the bridge on with one spring and the 2 outer strings to check things out. With the strings tensioned up enough to level the bridge, I twanged it. I can feel it resonate. It's very loud & lively, and sustains like a piano! Very encouraging. It's pretty obvious that with all 7 strings tuned up to standard pitch, this thing is gonna kick ass!

Yay! Side-to-side string alignment looks perfect (sigh of relief)!

The middle-of-the-middle saddle position ended up closer to 25.25" than 25". Of course my target was 25, but this is where it landed. I'm fairly confident there is enough range of adjustment to get accurate intonation. I obviously don't want to re-do the body inserts unless I have to.  

There is some interference between the post & the saddle on the bass side. I moved that saddle to the back screw hole, and the bridge rocks smoothly. Any closer together, and the body inserts would have to be completely relocated. I may have to grind a little off the side of the saddle, depending where it ends up at perfect intonation. The treble side has enough clearance, by about...0"!

It's time to take the hardware back off of the neck. I marked the location of the screw hole for the truss rod cover at this point. I want to drill this hole next. This neck will not be back on the body until the finishes are on it. I am shifting my effort back to the neck now because I want to get some coats of Formby's Tung Oil Finish on it. The neck can soak up oil while do more work on the body.

 

[chrisg]

looking good Tom

 

[TomPerverteau]

I'm working on this neck AND getting my car ready to be in a show this weekend. Like I said before, I really want to get the neck soaking up coats of finish while other things happen.

I just set up this new shop entertainment center. I ran cable TV out there. Now I don't have to miss my auto racing, gearhead shows, and other quality programming while I turn wrenches & make sawdust!

The nut was a little high, so I knocked some off the "shelf" with a file.

Flattening the headstock face with a sanding block. The flatter it is, the better the paint will look.

While I was at it, I straightened out the corners on the headstock with files & a sanding block.

Someone had lazily slathered a coat of some sort of clear goop on this neck before I got it. It was obvious that they had done this WHILE IT WAS ON A BODY! They did not put any finish at all on the fingerboard itself, so it was all stained with black marks when I got it.

After a whole lot of elbow grease with red ScotchBrite, sandpaper, and finally 0000 steel wool, it's as clean as I can get it. The edges of the fretboard are rounded off nicely. It feels VERY nice, like my old Boogie Bodies necks.

In the past I have used some-brand Tung Oil Varnish on necks with great results. I haven't seen that stuff lately, so I got this Formby's Tung Oil Finish. I hope it's the same thing or similar.

It drinks the first coat up like crazy! I can tell I'll be doing this 5 or 10 more times.

The oil helps show what this maple really looks like.

Time to hang it up to dry.

 

[TomPerverteau]

I'm still at it. No matter what else is going on, I'm trying to be sure to buff the neck with 0000 steel wool & apply another coat of finish every day.

 

[Patrick]

i applaud you and your endurance through this project.

btw, is that the south park episode where cartman looks for his dad?  :laughing7:

 

[TomPerverteau]

Ha! Somebody on the 7-string forum where I post this project suggested I call it "Dr. Mephesto." That made me think maybe I should name it after my favorite Southpark episode and call it "Man-Bear-Pig." I'm serial!

 

[Patrick]

:laughing7:

 

[TomPerverteau]

I didn't like any of the control locations, so in this segment I eliminate all of them! I also did some more filling in the bridge cavity.

Making some more little chunks of mahogany & checking for square.

I found these neat walnut plugs at Ace Hardware. They are 1/2" and the holes I want to fill were 7/16". I punched the holes out to fit with this neat reamer. I also did some filing on the plugs to make them fit the carve of the body a little closer.

Before I filled the cuts for the blade switch, I traced them on masking tape, then stuck the tape to some heavy paper. Now I have a template for a blade switch.

I plugged the other holes with dowel I already had lying around. Here everything is glued. The little mahogany piece I made for the blade switch slot came out especially nice.

Next, I break out the Bondo!

 

[Dan025]

oh dont tell me your gonna solid color that beautiful body. honestly i'd keep the repairs visable it'll add to the charecter. i know the wood dont match but i'd tung oil it anyway.

 

[Alfang]

Bondo huh?  That's a bit of overkill,  you should just use a regular sandable wood putty, bondo is too hard and will probably be hard to blend into your wood, maybe not.

I'm a late commer to this thread, but I have read every post.  A few pages back people we're asking about your scale length, and you seemed to get a little short with them in your response. your tape measure didn't proove squat to us in your photos, so that was a legit question.  And would have been so easy to check by measuring from nut to 12th fret as some said earlier.  I and many other on here are not familiar with 7 string guitars, so the standard scale length of them is an unknown to us.

Having said all that, I'm gonna laugh my ass off out loud when it turns out to be 25 1/2 scale.  But I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope when it's all said and done it looks and plays well. It looks good so far, sorta.

 

[nexrex]

I'm a late commer to this thread, but I have read every post.  A few pages back people we're asking about your scale length, and you seemed to get a little short with them in your response. your tape measure didn't proove squat to us in your photos, so that was a legit question.  And would have been so easy to check by measuring from nut to 12th fret as some said earlier.  I and many other on here are not familiar with 7 string guitars, so the standard scale length of them is an unknown to us.

Having said all that, I'm gonna laugh my ass off out loud when it turns out to be 25 1/2 scale.  But I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope when it's all said and done it looks and plays well. It looks good so far, sorta.

Hate to jump on this one. Alfgang, why even bring this up? sounds like you are trying to pick a fight?  :icon_scratch:

 

[Alfang]

Oh really?  How so?  I said I hoped it worked out, I was just telling him I didn't think bondo was a good filler, it's too hard, thats what autobody guys use.

I was also trying to get him to double check his scale length. I wasn't try'n to start a fight at all. The reason for any future LOL will be because he was advised by some smart people to double check it, and his response was, look at the photos theres a tape measure in the photos. I looked at every photo, not one photo shows the measurement at the 12th fret. So while I applaud his detailed thread for his rebuild, the fact that he's got lots of good photos doesn't give him the right to get snippy at people who make a friendly suggestion.

As far as my statement that he was short with a few earlier posts, go back and read them yourself, I stand by that. If I wanted to start a fight I would been way more harsh and to the point

Nexrex next time you think you hate to jump on this one, go with your instinct and don't say anything, Friends?

 

[nexrex]

Yeah, no problem. The wording just came off as being a bit confrontational. Getting "snippy" as you call, as mentioned it was weeks ago, why even bring it up? Maybe the guy was just having a bad day. Also, don't tell me what to do. It's the internet, and it is a public forum. ROFLMAO

 

[TomPerverteau]

Dan0, 'fraid so. When I saw the photo of the body on eBay, I knew I would paint it even before I bid. It had been mangled so badly in that lame attempt to convert it to 25 1/2" scale that there was a lot of re-work to do. I agree it would look kinda cool and show off all my labor just to oil it, though! But I envision an opaque finish with a matching headstock. The whole time I've been working on it I have thought, "I'm just gonna paint it anyway."

I wasn't even going to respond to the Alfang post because I was "laughing my ass off out loud." He must be under the impression that the scale length is undetermined. Well, OK.

a) I didn't mean to be snippy in previous posts. I was just very determined to land the bridge 25" from the nut.

b) I like using Bondo on guitar bodies that will be painted. It sticks very well to wood as long as a sanding sealer is not at the top. It's smoother & easier to work than wood putties I have used, and sands much nicer. The lightweight stuff is also quite resonant, so I don't think it hurts the tone. Maybe not everybody wants to use Bondo, but I really like it.

c) All those photos of a tape measure or ruler going from the nut to the bridge? Along the way to the bridge, the ruler or tape measure passes the 12th fret---every time. Yes, this is a 25" scale neck.

d) Warmoth has a website that shows the products that they make, including the scale lengths available for the different necks. Anybody can tell just by looking at this neck that it is not a 28 5/8" scale, and I invite you to try to find a 7-string Warmoth neck with a 25 1/2" scale. Yes, this is a 25" scale neck.

EDIT: e) I just went back through the whole thread myself to remember how it went. We already discussed the scale length. I want this to be a fun thread, and not turn into some unnecessary conflict.

 

[Alfang]

It is a cool thread, I think your doing a fine job, and since you've used bondo before on wood, I believe you when you say it works, I may use it myself on a body with a recessed floyd route, that I wish was a top mounted floyd.

I think I confused bondo with some other 2 part stuff that is hard as a rock

I'm glad you were LYAO, and yes, I was under the impression that you hadn't checked scale length, A previous answer to a question was, it's a 7 stringer, they are all 25" (paraphrase) I didn't and still don't know if thats true, probably is.

So anyway, I didn't mean to ruffle feathers, keep it up and lets see it get done, cheers  ccasion14:

 

[TomPerverteau]

Warmoth would sell a lot more 7-string stuff if they made it in 25 1/2", but they only make 25" and 28 5/8". I have read speculation that it must be because of truss rod lengths that they already have, but I really don't know.

I think I will like the 25" scale for my small hands and for the easier bending a shorter scale allows, but I would like a rounder back profile. They don't offer different profiles for the 7-string necks either. I guess the market for 7-string stuff is relatively small, so Warmoth doesn't make all those wonderful options for the 7s that the sixers enjoy. And again, that's just my guess.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

PRS and Rickenbacker have dabbled in the 25" scale.  It's quite comfortable.  If a Gibby feels fine and a Fender feels fine, in the middle has got to feel fine.

 

[TomPerverteau]

Every PRS I have ever seen in real life was 25". Most 7-string players don't like the shorter scales because the low string tends to be floppy. I like the playability of the shorter scales, but the higher tension of the 25.5" scale sounds better.

I have a bit of an update on the project. The neck seems to be pretty saturated with the tung oil, and is not really taking it in the past couple coats. Parts of the fretboard are still absorbing it. The moistening with the oil has made the fretboard's grain come up in a bunch of places, so I'm going back to sandpaper to smooth it out. I haven't been working on it much because other things have taken priority as usual.