Ya'll! I just finished a guitar (well... almost 
) and i thought I'd share that with you all 
It's a Thinline LP but with features I don't think you see every day. The fun thing was, I build this guitar before, but that one was plagued by a slew of problems. At first, the trussrod broke. I removed the fretboard, installed a new rod, glued on a new board. OK. done? No... The new fretboard was significantly thinner than the old one due to unforseen circumstances. Normally, you'd adjust your trem, but I routed the body for a decked Floyd Rose, so... damn. Now what? OK! Let's go with the Schaller 2000: that trem fits on the spacing of a floyd but with adjustable saddles. Here, something went wrong. Again. The studs didn't align properly. I swear, this guitar was doomed! I already had the guitar fretted, hardware installed so I knew the pickups I chose sounded great, the neck played great too so I wanted to make this guitar WORK.
But at the end, I conceited defeat and decided to scrap the body, get rid of it all. I took the body to the bandsaw and cut the neck clear so I could reuse that. In a twist of irony (or fate?), the neck that caused me so much trouble to begin with is still with us to this day, in this guitar. I did decide to bolt the neck instead of glue the neck in, as I regularly do. For starters, I wanted the snappier feel and tone of a bolt on but I also want the opportunity to get rid of this neck if problems arrise somewhere in the future. It's (IMHO!) a lot harder to build a neck and body simultaneously than make a body fit a neck.
I found a billet of zebrano/zebrawood and hollowed that out as zebrano is REALLY DARNED HEAVY! I did the calculations, added the trem cavity, a nice figured reclaimed Bastogne Walnut back and a maple top. At first, the top had NO figure at all. That was fine, as I wanted to use a single dye. I cut the top oversized, carved the outside, carved the inside, cut the F-holes and glued that on the walnut/zebrano body sandwich. Some hours of sanding later and the body was ready for the first color coats. I was taken by surprise when i noticed a flame pattern emerging. Going from a dark brown to lighter hues of brown and red, this guitar's top started to show its pattern, like a diamond in the rough.
A gazillion thin coats of lacquer later, a lot of elbow grease, sanding paper and polish compound, this beauty emerged.
I decided to add a really old albeit rather nice ABM bridge. A steel baseplate, brass block and brass saddles. The saddles had rollers in them but they were so darned rusty, I couldn't get them to turn smoothly, regardless of the amounts of WD40 and lube I injected into them. So... new saddles were needed. Hipshot to the rescue.
The pickups are (OH MY GOD!) Gibson Slug90's in the neck and middle and they have a really, really, really great tone. I love these pickups. They fall somewhere between a pissed-off Tele, ballsy strat and skinny p90. The bridge pickup is a Pearly Gates/Custom Custom hybrid Alnico2. I love the sweet tones this pickup delivers. Sweet yet raunchy but with more power and tightness than either, with great dynamics. Don't even think of playing metal on this. Too squishy in the low end. It's AlnicoV sibling is much better for that (but I didn't want that on this project).
The wiring is one of my own. The 5 way blade gives you the bridge, Bridge+Middle, Bridge+Neck, Neck+middle, Neck combinations. I also figured a way (with the help of a forum member, I'm sorry, can't remember who!
) to 'assign' the pots. With that I mean that the pickups always have a volume/tone pot set ready for them and their fuction gets allocated when needed. The tonepot doesn't only roll off the high end but also the low end, adding more chime and sparkle when needed, even 'out of phase' kind of tones in the right settings. It's not Fender's TBX, but it's close.
I'm really, really happy with how this one turned out. The action is low but not as low as a shred-guitar, to evoke a more 'classic' vibe (i.e.: 1.3mm on the high E, 1.9mm on the low E). the tuning stability is excellent due to the great bridge, bone nut and stiff neck (thank you carbon fiber rods). The guitar is resonant and feels and plays great. So, yeah. Here she is Just a few little things to fix before I can really close her up.
Some specs:
Body: Figured maple top on a zebrano core with a reclaimed bastogne walnut back and wenge backplates.
Neck: Rosewood neck with carbon fibre stiffening rods, 22 fret 24.75'' scale ebony fretboard with maple/padouk/maple pinstripes on headstock and neck.
Pickups: Gibson Slug90 in neck+middle, Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates/CustomCustom hybrid bridge.
Electrics: Custom made CTS pots, Oak switch, switchcraft jack
Hardware: ABM brass/steel tremolo, Hipshot locking tuners.
Here's how the body was routed etc.
Here the individual parts
The neck for this one is the right one. The left neck went on the strat proto I posted about earlier.
) and i thought I'd share that with you all It's a Thinline LP but with features I don't think you see every day. The fun thing was, I build this guitar before, but that one was plagued by a slew of problems. At first, the trussrod broke. I removed the fretboard, installed a new rod, glued on a new board. OK. done? No... The new fretboard was significantly thinner than the old one due to unforseen circumstances. Normally, you'd adjust your trem, but I routed the body for a decked Floyd Rose, so... damn. Now what? OK! Let's go with the Schaller 2000: that trem fits on the spacing of a floyd but with adjustable saddles. Here, something went wrong. Again. The studs didn't align properly. I swear, this guitar was doomed! I already had the guitar fretted, hardware installed so I knew the pickups I chose sounded great, the neck played great too so I wanted to make this guitar WORK.
But at the end, I conceited defeat and decided to scrap the body, get rid of it all. I took the body to the bandsaw and cut the neck clear so I could reuse that. In a twist of irony (or fate?), the neck that caused me so much trouble to begin with is still with us to this day, in this guitar. I did decide to bolt the neck instead of glue the neck in, as I regularly do. For starters, I wanted the snappier feel and tone of a bolt on but I also want the opportunity to get rid of this neck if problems arrise somewhere in the future. It's (IMHO!) a lot harder to build a neck and body simultaneously than make a body fit a neck.
I found a billet of zebrano/zebrawood and hollowed that out as zebrano is REALLY DARNED HEAVY! I did the calculations, added the trem cavity, a nice figured reclaimed Bastogne Walnut back and a maple top. At first, the top had NO figure at all. That was fine, as I wanted to use a single dye. I cut the top oversized, carved the outside, carved the inside, cut the F-holes and glued that on the walnut/zebrano body sandwich. Some hours of sanding later and the body was ready for the first color coats. I was taken by surprise when i noticed a flame pattern emerging. Going from a dark brown to lighter hues of brown and red, this guitar's top started to show its pattern, like a diamond in the rough.
A gazillion thin coats of lacquer later, a lot of elbow grease, sanding paper and polish compound, this beauty emerged.
I decided to add a really old albeit rather nice ABM bridge. A steel baseplate, brass block and brass saddles. The saddles had rollers in them but they were so darned rusty, I couldn't get them to turn smoothly, regardless of the amounts of WD40 and lube I injected into them. So... new saddles were needed. Hipshot to the rescue.
The pickups are (OH MY GOD!) Gibson Slug90's in the neck and middle and they have a really, really, really great tone. I love these pickups. They fall somewhere between a pissed-off Tele, ballsy strat and skinny p90. The bridge pickup is a Pearly Gates/Custom Custom hybrid Alnico2. I love the sweet tones this pickup delivers. Sweet yet raunchy but with more power and tightness than either, with great dynamics. Don't even think of playing metal on this. Too squishy in the low end. It's AlnicoV sibling is much better for that (but I didn't want that on this project).
The wiring is one of my own. The 5 way blade gives you the bridge, Bridge+Middle, Bridge+Neck, Neck+middle, Neck combinations. I also figured a way (with the help of a forum member, I'm sorry, can't remember who!
) to 'assign' the pots. With that I mean that the pickups always have a volume/tone pot set ready for them and their fuction gets allocated when needed. The tonepot doesn't only roll off the high end but also the low end, adding more chime and sparkle when needed, even 'out of phase' kind of tones in the right settings. It's not Fender's TBX, but it's close. I'm really, really happy with how this one turned out. The action is low but not as low as a shred-guitar, to evoke a more 'classic' vibe (i.e.: 1.3mm on the high E, 1.9mm on the low E). the tuning stability is excellent due to the great bridge, bone nut and stiff neck (thank you carbon fiber rods). The guitar is resonant and feels and plays great. So, yeah. Here she is
Just a few little things to fix before I can really close her up. Some specs:
Body: Figured maple top on a zebrano core with a reclaimed bastogne walnut back and wenge backplates.
Neck: Rosewood neck with carbon fibre stiffening rods, 22 fret 24.75'' scale ebony fretboard with maple/padouk/maple pinstripes on headstock and neck.
Pickups: Gibson Slug90 in neck+middle, Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates/CustomCustom hybrid bridge.
Electrics: Custom made CTS pots, Oak switch, switchcraft jack
Hardware: ABM brass/steel tremolo, Hipshot locking tuners.
Here's how the body was routed etc.
Here the individual parts
The neck for this one is the right one. The left neck went on the strat proto I posted about earlier.
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