2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

[BriGuy1968]

This is my project thread for “Elizabeth,” my second partscaster for 2018 (named for my youngest daughter, who is 12).

This one has been going for a while now. I bought the body from GuitarFetish’s Factory Buyout Clearance for $30 last June. At the time it looked like this:

I found a neck on eBay that I liked for it and my girls bought it for me for Christmas. I considered a few different finishing ideas and finally landed on making it a gold-top. Thing is, I don’t have anyplace inside to do things like finishing and Mrs BriGuy frowns on me using spray paint in the house. I did a basecoat of standard metallic gold back in January at work, but decided to wait until the weather broke to finish it. Here’s a pic of the basecoat:

So we finally had nice weather and I found time to start laying on coats of gold glitter today, and I think it came out pretty good!

No flash:

With flash (to see the sparkliness [emoji39]):

And then with the neck:

Tomorrow I’m going to start laying on about a bazillion coats of clear. At this point I’ve managed to collect up almost all the components, but I still have to purchase a tremolo and pickups. My plan is to buy the trem first when I have the extra room in the budget and then install some pickups I already have around just to get it working.

Final planned pickups:
• Bridge: GFS Vintage Extra Hot humbucker
• Center: GFS Brighton Rock single coil
• Neck: GFS Mean 90 HB-sized P-90

Interim Pickups:
• Bridge: Ibanez ACH-2 humbucker
• Center: Seymour Duncan Hot Stack
• Neck: Ibanez ACH-1 humbucker

...and here’s a pic with the interim p’ups, just for grins:

Of course, if I find that I like how the interim pups sound in this guitar, I’ll probably just keep them.

I’ll update this thread as things change.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Cool guitar so far. I think the VEH and Mean 90 will make a killer pairing. I have no experience with the Brighton Rock pickup, but could I suggest you look into the GFS Jimis? They are Hendrix spec pickups and I have a set in my current project guitar and they are excellenr.

Any idea as to the wiring scheme? And do you plan on installing a locking nut?

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

I’ll have to take a peek at the Jimis... I hadn’t noticed them before. I selected the Brighton Rock because it’s pretty powerful and I didn’t want to worry about whether the center could keep up volume-wise with the VEH.

Lol... plus it has kind of a cool look! [emoji12]

I intend to use a roller nut and locking tuners instead of a locking nut. I’m not a big tremolo guy so the locking tuners should be able to handle it just fine and I won’t have to deal with the locking nut which is, in my opinion, a pain in the ass!

As for wiring, I will be using a 5-way switch that I took out of my RG. It’s one of those weird Ibanez switches that nobody understands, but I mapped it with my multi-meter. It’s actually perfectly suited for the job because I wanted the center position to be bridge+neck instead of middle only (THAT sound will be available via push-pull).

Here’s the wiring for the interim pickups:

And here’s the wiring for the final set:

The only difference between the two diagrams is that, because the Ibby ACH humbuckers only have two wires, I added a mini switch to split the bridge ‘bucker for the final plan which isn’t present on the interim plan.

 

[PS412]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Looking good. That neck is pretty cool.
Have I got a job for you.:notworthy

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

so on that neck
can you just set a roller nut there with out the locking nut?

love the vine btw

edit

is it just me
but this just looks like a dairy cow

 

[BriGuy1968]

2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

so on that neck
can you just set a roller nut there with out the locking nut?

Yup... it’s wide just like a locking nut.

is it just me
but this just looks like a dairy cow

That’s EXACTLY what I thought too! [emoji23]

In fact, one of the motifs I entertained was to add eyes and a nose to make the guitar look like a cartoon cow!

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

So on the roller nut
On the one I put on my Daphne Blue strat
The break point of the string as it passes over the nut
It 3mm farther from the bridge than a standard nut or a locking nut

Do you plan to place it and see
Or remove 3 mm of fretboard, to scootch it forward

I did the later
I also tilted mine a bit closer on the high E side

 

[Chistopher]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

I also tilted mine a bit closer on the high E side.

Hmm... I might start doing this on my zero frets.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Well, it only took me a little over 4 months to get this thing done, but here she is... Elizabeth!

The neck feels like the one on my RG... thin and fast. Crazy thing was that, after attaching the neck and FINALLY getting the trem set up, properly balanced, and tuned, the intonation was spot on and I didn’t need to make ANY adjustments to the truss rod or the trem height... BONUS!!

I just put in the Ibanez ACH pickups I had around along with the Hot Stack in the center. The Hot Stack will probably stay, but the jury is still out on the humbuckers. I’ll know more after next Sunday when I take it to band practice and try it in that setting. The ACHs seem a little darker than I remember, as does the Hot Stack, but the two notch positions are wonderfully bright. It may very well stay just as it is.

 

[Adieu]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Thats a pretty neatly made neck, where'd you get it and how much?

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Thats a pretty neatly made neck, where'd you get it and how much?

I got it on eBay back in December from this seller for $94.95. I just checked and he doesn't seem to have any more, but he does have some others.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Love that neck
How much did you have to offset the roller nut to get it in
On mine, I removed about 3mm of fretboard so that the strings gd still broke at the same spot

Well actually it was a bit crooked ended up slightly closer on the high e side
And like yours, the bridge saddles were straight across with no adjustment needed

 

[BriGuy1968]

2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Love that neck
How much did you have to offset the roller nut to get it in
On mine, I removed about 3mm of fretboard so that the strings gd still broke at the same spot

Well actually it was a bit crooked ended up slightly closer on the high e side
And like yours, the bridge saddles were straight across with no adjustment needed

You had mentioned that before but I had forgotten about it, so I didn’t do anything but center it and screw it down. Now that you mention it I should probably check the intonation at a few more spots, particularly in the first 3-4 frets. It doesn’t SOUND dissonant though in any of the chord shapes I’ve played down there.

 

[PS412]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Nice job BriGuy. Enjoy it while you can, hopefully the kids will claim it as theirs in due time.

 

[Mincer]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Wow, what a cool project, and I love those diagrams. I learn a lot from looking at them.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Looks awesomeo.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

Really cool project Bri. I love how you get the kids and whole family involved in the project. It's so much more important to the kids than you may realize. Now that my daughter is grown and married, she's often told me about all the little things I did with her as a child really meant the world to her. It sounds that yours may end up with many of the same great memories.

Congrats on a cool looking guitar. I hope it shines at band practice.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

very nice! color is def an improvement over stock..haha
Fretwork on that neck pretty good?

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

very nice! color is def an improvement over stock..haha
Fretwork on that neck pretty good?

You know, I played that guitar quite a bit yesterday after getting it put together and I have to tell you that neck is easily the best $95 I ever spent. The fret work was also great along with the rest of the workmanship on it… Nice and level without a single end coming even remotely close to sharp and a nice bevel.

The only thing I’ve noticed is that for some reason I have a tendency to get a little lost on this neck. I don’t think it’s the vine inlay because I generally only look at the side dots, but the side dots are a little small. Even without looking, though, something about this guitar makes it so that I have a tendency to grab chords by a fret off. It’s almost like the frets are in a different position than on my other guitars, but when I check and measure it’s really about the same. Weird, but I’m sure that I’ll adapt.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 2018 Project #2: Elizabeth

It's that upper horn it's in an different position than you're used to
Further up than a strat

You end up being on fret too low, right?