Post your builds, upgrades, and repairs here including kits and partscasters!

A few old threads and pics to get this party started, but please repost some of your prior work if you feel so inclined since this will be tacked!


Attached File


https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/Guitar-build-update--Finally-Finished/148-2477393/

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/-ARCHIVED-THREAD-OK-I-guess-I-m-building-a-guitar-NOW-A-GENERAL-GUITAR-BUILD-THREAD-/148-2347906/?page=6

Attached File


https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/Building-a-Junkyard-Dog-er-Pig-/148-2505443/



Parts Resources:

AmplifiedParts.com: I found this site has reasonably priced components and is a source for quality inexpensive guitar pickups like Gotoh, Gretsch, and Kent Armstrong. Output jacks, capacitors, knobs and luthier tools.  Licensed Fender necks under $150, and even wear parts and other components for Bigsby tremolos.

Information:

Dan Erlewine's videos on Stew Mac's YT channel: Dan's tips on StewMac YouTube channel

(IM to add any resources to the list)

My latest work...tore down the PT Fastback to lighten it and add locking tuners.  Word of advice, tape up your Bigsby pretty good if leaving it on.  I didn't realize I dumped the washer that goes under the spring into the sawdust pile until the trash truck was driving away with my bag of shavings... Going to try with the arm lower for now. Just used a 1" and 1.5" forstner bit in a benchtop drill press.

My washer is somewhere in here:
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File



Polished my damaged frets out while I was screwing everything else up..

Attached File



Innards of a Schecter PT Fastback IIB for anyone interested. G&B pickups unsurprisingly:

Attached File


Overall, the lightening project yielded noticeable results but someone forgot to weigh it before reassembly to see the actual difference before/after . I found out it really isn't the body wood, but the combination of th heaviest possible hardware and electronics you could put on a Tele so the gains in removing wood are minimal. I am going to do this with my cheap Tele with traditional bridge and pickups which will show more gains I'm sure.

Attached File


The board is really a nice piece of rosewood, especially after some lemon oil.

Attached File

The Grover locking tuners are pretty stealthy. The cases are identical to the standard Grovers.they replaced, so no new holes. They lock as you turn the peghead to tighten the string.

Attached File


Attached File


I tried to install a Butchie Bar on the Bigsby, which seemed like a good  alternative to the fugly Vibramate Spoiler, but even though I ordered the Metric version for Licensed Bigsby's, the pins didn't line up.  Company said they are sending me something that might work.  It is a nicely machined product with good plating. Will update when I have a unit that fits..

Attached File

My two modded Telecasters. A '77 that's my #1 and a 90's Buck Owens signature model that is my stage back up



I got the '77 in trade and it was a wreck... Before pic



After pic



Bigsby dug them and shared my photo in their social media

IN!

The Tele relic build:

I love the reliced Indio (original thread) so much I bought a tele from them to do the same sort of thing to.

Here's the as received pic.



And after today's abuse.



It has a set of Danish Pete's DP51T pups coming and an upgraded switch plate already here.
Also a cream-colored single ply guard inbound.



Thanks!

Sure, I use a flat/rounded medium-coarse rasp, a 1/4" wide chisel, and a leather skiving tool.


A little preview of the re-finished neck there.

Oh, and a hammer.

Find a pic of the level of distressing you want.

My first step was to mark a line all around the neck where it joins the body so I can mask that part off and NOT accidentally add or remove material there causing fit issues on re-assembly.  Then take off the neck.
I then put the pickguard (minus pickups), the bridge (minus all its gear), and the output jack back on the guitar, eyeballed the angle that strumming would occur, and used 0000 steel wool to remove the shine from anywhere I figured 40 years of play would hit.  This leaves some shiny areas near the components and a decent-sized area between the bridge and the bottom with 'some' shine left.
Same thing on the back.  I left the ferrules in when steel wooling in that area.  I did add a buckle-wound.
On the edges you just have to think about where it would get touched a lot vs not and only SW the touched areas.

OK, on to making more serious damage.
Take all the hardware off.  Take note of the shiny areas.  No distressing should take place in these areas as they are protected by the hardware.  It wouldn't make sense.
Time for some practice, so go to the area normally covered by the pickguard and...start gouging with the chisel.  On this guitar, the colored poly is thinner and it flakes pretty easily.  On the previous one it seemed more pliable.  I found the chisel worked best at an angle of about 20 degrees.
Work away from previous wounds, or you might accidentally end up connecting two you didn't mean to.  AMHIK.

Try using the hammer (again, test in the pickguard area first) to make circular cracks.  I added some on the bottom of the rear swell and at the back near the rear strap button.  I think I am going to intentionally rip out the rear strap button and relocate it as that seems like a likely failure.

I also add wear to the pickguard (not here yet) and the bridge and output jack.  I cheat here and use my 2x72 belt grinder with a polishing belt to burn through the nickel plating in areas that would happen on those parts.  Folks also use acid to age these parts.  I tried that and didn't like the results.  'Vintaged' metal bits can be bought online if you like.

I hand-sanded the back of the neck with 150 grit to get rid of the poly coating.  It's not very thick.  You can tell you are through it when you put a drop of water on the surface and it gets absorbed.  The head faces I did on the sander.  I am not happy with how I re-shaped this head...it looks goofy, and I am not sure it will work with my hanging hooks, but there's nothing for it now.


The neck is done and coated in 6+ coats of matte clear coat.




And here's the head with my custom decal...




I can't decide on a pickguard color.  The fam overwhelmingly likes tortoise.  Several options inbound.


It's done...and I love how it looks and plays.



$80    open box tele from monoprice.
$10    musiclily pickguard
$25    musiclily locking tuners
$5      musiclily rolling string Trees
$225  Monty's Danish Pete Honoré Signature DP51T Telecaster Pickup Set
$20    Monty's Montypresso Original Guitar Relic Wax - Tin (I was very impressed with this stuff, though I think it is likely just dark kiwi-wax)
Various sandpaper and paint from home despot.

$365 total.

I made a bone nut and really spent some time getting the action where I wanted it on this build and I think it paid off.
I was so happy with it I went back and re-did the action on the previous relic to match this one.

Is the above what the OP intended?

Exactly! Success, thanks to our mod DV8 for tacking.

Tagaroo!

This was a great idea Czechers

Working on this. Never done wiring before but am going to give it a try. Warmoth mahogany body, mahogany neck with ebony fretboard.

A setup like that is a good first wiring project to go with for guitar electronics. Have you soldered any electronics before or new to that? By the way, very nice guitar you have going.

I have a few partscasters and a Firebird I put back together but they aren't anything special. I can dig out the few pics I took while assembling them and put the specs up if anyone wants to look. They are not anywhere near as cool as the other projects done on here but they make noise so I think they were a success.

What's the nut width on that neck?  It looks wide.  That is one reason I am considering a Warmoth neck, they have some very wide options.

Very minimal soldering experience and that was quite some time ago. I will do some soldering practice before working on the pickups.

The nut width is 1 11/16" (43mm) not my favorite nut width. Neck has the standard thin profile with a straight 14 degree fingerboard radius. I prefer flat radiused fingerboards anywhere from 14-17 degrees. I don't like compound radius.

Looks wider...huh.

On soldering, the main trick is to keep the tip clean.
So, get it up to temp, wipe with moist sponge, apply a small drop of solder to the tip, press that solder to the object being soldered, add enough solder to soak all connections necessary, then CLEAN THE TIP AGAIN before putting it away or turning it off.

I am a Hakko snob.

$80 Craigslist find turned out to be basically a Washburn with a cheaper plywood body that was begging for mods...

Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


The rosewood was a particularly nice piece from back when even the cheap guitars got nice slabs.

Parts list:
Wilkinson EZ Lok tuners
Wilkinson licensed Korean ashtray bridge with brass compensated saddles
Tonerider Hot Classics pickups set
GFS wiring harness
Fender knobs, roller string trees, control plate.

Attached File

SRV Number 1 inspired: This guitar started out from a loaded SRV pickguard that was in a MIM Strat I bought used and also had the original pickguard and parts with it. I ended up putting the MIM back to stock form and sold it but kept the SRV pickguard set. Gathered parts individually when I found deals and a guitar was born.

Body: Fender American Original 50’s Stratocaster in 2 tone sunburst
Neck: Fender American Original 60’s Stratocaster maple neck with rosewood fretboard
Hardware: Fender American Original 50’s vintage style chrome bridge assembly, Fender vintage style chrome tuners.
Electronics: Loaded SRV pickguard, Fender Texas Special Pickups and Fender wiring.


Attached File


Attached File



Updated and latest configuration:
Changed out to gold hardware including a Fender Custom Shop 62’ reissue bridge. I never really fell in love with the Texas Special pickups so also changed to a new 3 ply pickguard and wired it with Seymour Duncan SSL-5 pickups. I did try a Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot Strat in the bridge first but it didn’t mix well with the SSL-5s in the other locations.

Attached File

David Gilmour Black Strat inspired: This one started life as a loaded up pickguard that I was going to swap into an American Standard I had and ended up selling to a friend. Found a deal on Reverb for the 3 tone sunburst body and the American Original series are nitro finishes so this is a small detail that makes it a little closer to the Black Strat than what the Am Standard would have been. Gilmour’s Black Strat started out as a sunburst with the black paint over top also so maybe one day I will spray it with black nitro over the burst.

Body: Fender American Original 60’s Stratocaster in 3 tone sunburst
Neck: Fender American Original 50’s Stratocaster maple neck with maple fretboard
Hardware: Fender American Original 60’s vintage style chrome bridge assembly, Fender vintage style chrome tuners.
Pickups: Seymour Duncan SSL5 (Bridge), Fender Custom shop 69 (Middle), Fender Custom Shop Fat 50’s (Neck)
Wiring: 7 way (Gilmour style), Fender 5 way Strat switch, CTS Pots, cheap mini toggle to engage the neck pickup.

Attached File


Attached File


Second iteration I picked up a Fender Custom Shop 59’ reissue Birdseye maple neck. It was short lived and the Am Original 50’s neck when back on. The 59’neck ended up sprouted into yet another guitar.

Attached File


Third iteration and current setup has the 3 ply pickguard changed out for a single ply black. Swapped the other plastic parts to parchment from the aged white and also changed the SSL 5 bridge pickup for Seymour Duncan custom shop hand wound DG SSL-1.  

Attached File

Fender Custom Shop 59’: This one started as a neck swap purchase that didn’t really fit the other project. I was able to pick up the body that the neck was originally built with by the Fender Custom Shop and put it back together to spec, I also have the factory build paper for it. All of the other components are from other Custom shop 59’ reissue guitars except the neck plate, it’s just a standard gold Fender plate since I couldn’t find the one from the original build with the SN on it.


Body: Fender Custom Shop 59’ NOS Seafoam Green
Neck: Fender Custom Shop 59’ Birdseye maple neck with maple fretboard
Hardware: Fender Custom Shop 59’ Gold bridge and vintage tuners
Pickups: Fender Custom shop Josefina hand wound 59’ pickups

Attached File


Attached File

2019 Gibson Firebird:

Bought the parted out body/neck on sale with the plan to route out the pickup cavities for full sized humbuckers but after a couple of others talked me out of it I went more traditional.

Body/Neck: Gibson Firebird
Pickups: Mojotone Johnny Winter pickups
Pickguard: 5 ply black with white logo  
Hardware: Gibson Chrome Tune-o-matic bridge and Stop bar tailpiece

Attached File


Attached File


Attached File

I actually really want a classic SSS strat in a lighter green color than that.  Dunno why.

Thanks for the tips they will come in handy.

Recapping prior build...

Started with 200+ year old pine that saw a few hurricanes in the 100 years it was actually someone's home, nail holes, hammer marks and all...

Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Not without challenges..

Attached File


Attached File


Tung oil..

Attached File


Attached File


I went through a few different pickups.  The Gretschbuckers looked the best but didn't do what I wanted.

Attached File


$79 Neck from Reverb that came with Warmoth bone nut.  Needed no fret leveling, just some polishing.  Vintage tint went well with the tung oil finish.

Attached File


Continued...

When first completed:

Attached File


Attached File


Final version...with locking tuners and Seymour Duncan Psyclones:

Attached File


Attached File

Are you planning on using a soldering iron or a solder station that is temp controlled? If you have access to a station it will generally make the task easier and provide a better result.

That has got to be one of the top 5 sexiest guitar bodies I have ever seen.
Amazing.
What does it weigh?

I'm planning a build out of some dogwood from our favorite tree that finally died.  I may have to do a top layer over softer wood for the body depending on how well I can cut the dogwood.
I would love to buy an unfinished neck with a roasted maple back and no fretboard and try to make a fretboard from the dogwood as well.

Yes, I have been warned about the dimensional stability issues of dogwood.  I don't care...this is an emotional build, not a rational one.

Thanks, some nail-biting moments like when I was shaping the neck pocket and really took too much wood off.  The wood is extremely hard and dry though, much more like working with maple.  It's 8.3 lbs but it's Strat thickness not standard Tele thickness due to starting with 2x4's.  The whole concept was pretty organic.  When I was living in Corpus Christi for work, I went and salvaged a bunch of tongue and groove boards from a demolished 1920's house to build some small benches for everyone in the family, and decided to grab some studwood to do a coffee table for the wife.  She decided later to use some salvaged antique Mexican doors for the coffee table so these studs just kept getting hauled around as we moved.  I later decided to revisit the guitar playing hobby, then I wanted to build...then remembered I had this wood stashed away.  The salt immersion from the house surviving being flooded in multiple hurricanes I think created the unique coloration around the edges once the oil was applied. It damn near matches the tint on the neck. I got really lucky in a lot of places where the body could have become scrap wood.

Hold up!

What's the triple P90 in the background?!?

That was my SX Liquid with different pickups and knobs than the earlier pic below. Wasn't inspiring me so it went bye bye to cash flow other projects.  I think I'll set my sights on a Reverend Warhawk 390 when the P90 bug hits me again.

strangeboner.gif

Nothing wrong with it really but it wasn't great in any way except positions 4 and 5 convinced me that I definitely will end up with a 3 p90 guitar again. I put Wilkinson Premium MIK pickups in bridge and middle and an Artec/Guitar Madness one in the neck.  I was about to swap the middle and neck before I got rid of it.  It had an alder body also. There is something very "strat on 'roids" about positions 4 and 5.  I got it right before the pandemic for $139 (cheap or free delivery).  I still thinks the SX Liquids are great Mod platforms and I would have put a Bigsby on it had I kept it. I actually like the SX headstock on this particular model..

That turned out great Czechers. Re purposing old wood is pretty cool. I've got a source for old chestnut barn wood. I'll bet that wood make a nice looking guitarnail holes and all

Attached File

Paoletti uses "130+ year old chestnut wine barrels" for their bodies and its gorgeous.

Attached File

They could probably use pallet-wood and they'd be awesome.

I'm not one that thinks wood matters on full solid body electric guitars but I love the feel of the tung oiled pine in my hands.  Mojo of the instrument means something. My daughter even asked me to make sure I willed it to her. Her guitar is flat tobacco finished so it will make a nice set. Knowing she'll cherish it long after I'm gone makes me want to play it more.

I hate to rehash the the Spinal Tap meme but the chambering resulted in a huge increase in acoustic resonance in this guitar. I literally brushed the strings while taking another guitar out of the rack and then noticed some residual ringing in the PT that seemed to go beyond what I've ever heard in a solidbody before. Not sure if this is bc the pickguard covers the new chamber or what.  It's a very pure resonance, not like a bad sympathetic vibration you hear in tremolo or pickup springs.

Okay.  A while back, I took my parts PJ and decided to put some old school cool on it.  It also served to let me get some practice and experience at installing threaded brass inserts for projects I have in mind for later.



Oops.  Well, that'll hold far better than a simple screw into the edge of the wood would have, so it's for the best.





There.  Old school aesthetics to make a freaky mutant P body with J covers and bridge pickup.  All with brass threaded inserts so I won't wear the wood out removing the bridge cover every time I change strings.

I like the chrome bits, what's the chrome bit horizontal above the strings?

That is a thumb rest.

Looks good with the covers installed.

Some of the coolest custom knobs I've seen made. ...and all ya'll Glock fanboys love yer stippling .
The prior vids in this series are pretty informative as well.

I did these Warmoth projects a few years back. Each turned out fantastic. The Explorer and Z body guitar I had professionally assembled, but I did the Z bass myself, and the shitty soldering in it is proof.

FAL gas knobs mo bettah!

I feel like I had a big win this weekend when I realized my pinecaster build is the most tuning stable electric I own. With big temp and humidity swings this time of year, my Schecter and Ibanez are usually a little out of tune from day to day but this little thing I built on the cheap is nearly perfectly in tune when I pick it up.  I would have thought my shimmed neck pocket and cheap neck, and pine body would have more issues from the environment. Huh.

What kinda gas knobs?

Those are used Inch-pattern FAL gas adjustment collars.

FAL = fusil automatique legere

I took some use or lose annual leave this week, I may start taking my beater Mitchell apart to refinish her.

Want to give it that 80's fluorescent metal vibe.

Attached File


ETA:

I am not sure if I should just lightly sand the whole body and fill in the dents and missing wood and sand again, or 100% strip it all down to bare wood. What say you all?

Because you boners didn't answer my question, I went with the sanding route . Got her stripped, filled and very smooth...going to look for a primers next:


























Started with 80 and ended with 220. I think I am going to fuck up the rewiring. Also, pulled a black wire out that wasn't attached to anything I can see. Thought it may be a ground for pick ups? We'll find out .

3 coats of primer..



3 coats of finish..

Dead Bass Resurrected!

I found this Ibanez BTB400QM on Reverb, cheap.  It's a bit scratched up and knocked around, but the big reason for the price was that it had fried electronics.



At first, I thought I'd just strip out the preamp and install something I like, like a Darkglass Tone Capsule.  It wasn't long before and idea came to me, and I decided to turn it into a sort of hybrid, by replacing the pickup pan knob with a Dingwall 2X pickup selector (4 detents, for bridge solo, bridge and neck in parallel, bridge and neck in series, and neck solo), and some Nordstrand "Dingstrand Nordwall" pickups (made by Nordstrand to Dingwall's specifications for their FD3 pickups), to more or less make a parallel fretted Dingwall-tone having bass.  So I stripped everything but the jack and battery wiring and ordered bits and pieces.









Everything but the pickups came in pretty quickly, and everything fit in the cavity pretty nicely.



Finally, the pickups showed up and I wired it up and strung it with the old strings to test.



Joy!  I didn't screw up the wiring!

Before final string up, I installed a Hipshot Bass Xtender, and then I'd had these strings sitting around, not knowing what to do with them, then I thought they might look good against that quilted blue.  Having decided that, I found knobs to match, on eBay, and thus, the Dinganez was finished.



The neon green strings and knobs may not tickle everyone's aesthetic taste, but I kind of like it.

Took 0000 steel wool to the finish just to take the shine off and after 30 min it barely scuffed the surface. That old poly is tough stuff I could see taking an orbital with very fine grit to it. Not trying to relic, just give it that handled look.