My 4th Build - Singlecut Neck-Thru 6-String, Mahogany, Flame Maple, Ebony

[StarbardGuitar]

Oh that's just perfect. I'll take 3.

Haha thank you!

Update!
Gave the finish two weeks to cure. Looked very orange peel-y as expected.

Wet sanded the entire guitar today, and only had these sand-throughs. There are two right next to the string through ferrule holes, and one small near the seam of the top.

So, at first I thought to myself that it's not a big deal because the ferrules will cover part of the sand-throughs and it shouldn't be that noticeable. With every other build I've done to this point, I've kind of just dealt with the mistakes by reasoning to myself how it's not that bad, trying to stay positive. But this time I decided that since I have more experience now, I'm going to fix this and get this guitar as perfect as possible. They say it's not about not making mistakes, it's learning how to fix them right?

I mixed up some stain and tested it on scraps until I got a color that matched the guitar, wiped it on with a q-tip and let it dry for a little bit. Then I sprayed some finish into a cup, and squeezed some drops onto the spots I fixed with a pipette. I'm going to give it 24 hours to dry, then wet sand the drops back down, this time careful not to sand through again, and no one will ever know. Well, except anyone who reads this...

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Started buffing today, got everything but the back and sides of the headstock and the sides of the body done with coarse compound. It was getting really hot in my workspace with the sun coming in, and using a buffing pad in a drill on a neck thru is really awkward in a lot of spots, so I quit for the day. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish up the rest of the buffing.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Another small update. Finished buffing today, and did some minor things like installing the strap buttons and the string thru ferrules. Also got the first coat of shielding paint in the electronic cavities.

I will probably also wire up what I can outside of the guitar today so that I can pretty much just pop everything in and string it up.

 

[Serratus]

Really classy build! Looks great!

 

[Blue1970Cutlass]

I can't wait to see this thing finished!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Really classy build! Looks great!

I can't wait to see this thing finished!

Thank you! Wait no more my friend, it is done!

It's not perfect of course, but I'm proud of it. There's always small mistakes that just bug me when I look at my builds that other people may not even notice. But like every other build, it's been a great learning experience. Every other build I've done I didn't glue the frets in, and I am definitely going to keep gluing them in on future builds. This guitar didn't even need a fret leveling, it was pretty much dead flat. The action can go crazy low with very little buzz. I haven't finished setting this guitar up yet and it's already playing better than every other guitar of mine. The only real problem I have with this guitar so far is that the Texas Special neck pickup is just way too low output for the DiMarzio Fred bridge pickup. I used to have a strat with texas specials and I remember them being much hotter. So, I have a DiMarzio Chopper on order to replace the texas special neck. I've heard some demos of that pickup used in the neck position before and it sounded very strat like for not being a single coil. As soon as that gets here and I've installed it, I will try to get a video of it up so you guys can hear this guitar!

 

[StarbardGuitar]

I've been very busy with school so I didn't get to make a video with this guitar sooner, but here's a video demonstrating some clean and some distorted tones with this guitar! Clean tones were recorded in the middle position, and all distorted tones were on the bridge pickup alone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk6_3CJaGFw

Also, if you liked this build of mine, I have plans for my next build which I will hopefully start soon so watch out for that!

 

[KR250]

Very cool build, thanks for posting all of the tips and mistakes as well, that really helps understand some of the difficulties as I go through my own trial and error. Neck thru will definitely be my next attempt. I saw other posts where adding a thin piece of wood in between the scarf joint can help hide any slight misalignment's. Still, nicely done.

 

[StarbardGuitar]

Very cool build, thanks for posting all of the tips and mistakes as well, that really helps understand some of the difficulties as I go through my own trial and error. Neck thru will definitely be my next attempt. I saw other posts where adding a thin piece of wood in between the scarf joint can help hide any slight misalignment's. Still, nicely done.

Thanks! I learned a lot of what I do from reading other people's threads on forums like these, so I like to share what I've learned as well to hopefully help others. This was my first attempt at a scarf joint, so I am definitely going to mess with different techniques like you mentioned on my next builds.

 

[DistinguishedPapyrus]

Great looking build, great sound too.

 

[CircuitalPlacidity]

Awesome guit buddy.