Screwed

So as seen in previous posts the body has a contoured heel ... but the neck screws are all the same length, and when you put them in THIS happens:

As you can see the left rear screw protrudes the required 5/8" ... the others ... more. The right front screw is too long by 5/16" ... get out the hacksaw ... well after trying to use the jigsaw with a metal cutting blade ... not sure what was going on but that didn't make much of an impression on the screw I tried it on.

I drilled some holes in a scrap piece of 1/4" ... something ... and screwed in the screws till the protuded just about a much as needed to be cut ...

And then proceeded with elbow grease and the hacksaw - INITIAL measurements can be seen on the wood, turned out that was to little and two of the screws made another trip through - REMEMBER on custom thingies like these (they are Gotoh cosmo black to match the neck plate) measure twice - at least -, cut once; AND cutting long and you can shorten later, cutting short and ... well ... $&#*((#@ sums it up I think ... ... the metal cutting blade in the jigsaw barely made an impression but the hacksaw blade was made of somewhat sterner stuff ... although one end still got chipped ... Note To Self: get a new blade ...

That looks more like it, I don't know if it matters but the tops of the cut screws were deburred using a bastard file and now the are all 5/8" over the neck pocket.All the cut screws went in very smoothly, it was the screw that wasn't cut down that squealed and squeaked ... go figure ...

And here is the result ....

Now we need something to go into and cover those holes ... ... ... working on it ... ... ...

Still have to figure how that will go together but I found that I need about 6" of width and it doesn't matter if its straight back to front or at an angle .... need to check the required length in both cases though ... and where the screws would end up ...

Pick the pickguard

Okay so I had some time on my hands as the wife and kids did other activities ... so I went down to the 'local' wood working store (which incidentally had a 25% off on wood sale) and picked up some pieces for the pickguard. Here are some photos ....

Padauk, Wenge & Yellow heart .... oh the possible combinations. At this time the top photo is also the top contender ... mirrored over the red Padauk so with another yellowheart stripe & then the Wenge again ... not sure if that's wide enough though ... may have to use a 1/2" stripe instead of 1/4" or put another stripe on the outside. I'm pretty sure I wont use the full width of the Yellow heart as in the bottom pic ... or alternating Wenge & Padauk as in the middle ... 

The body . . . part 3 of ...

Well the finish of the body is finished, here is a picture with the neck ... which fits quite snugly BTW, I may need to do a little work with some 400 grit sandpaper if it's not quite straight as it will NOT move as it is now ... fortunately a quick check with a straight edge seems to indicate that it is ... ... ... or at least very very close to

And here is a picture of just the body with the first attempt at a pick guard ... at least the part covering the pickup cavities will be wood ... and quite possibly the whole top part ... the bottom most likely will be black/red/black 3 ply.

Next the bridge post holes need to be drilled out (they need to be 5mm deeper and just a hair wider to accommodate the inserts) and the neck mounting screws need to be shortened ... ... ... I bought some clear optiplex from Lowes to get a better read on the eventual form of the pick guard once that's cut to (more or less) shape I can start assembling the electronics ...

More from the cat

Must have been feeding him the GOOD stuff lately ....

(sorry for the blurry pic . . . only noticed later)

The body . . . part 2 of . . .

First rule of wood finishing; All finishing takes at least twice as long as you planned for.
Collary; There is at least twice as much sanding involved as you think.

So after the last update, the body was sanded lightly with 220, sanded with 320, lightly stained (stain wiped on and almost immediately wiped off) ... in 3 stages, front, back, sides ... and let dry for 24 hr. Then sanded with 320, buffed with non woven white finishing pad, and lightly stained again.

AND ... I discovered another rather nasty scratch on the lower horn. The nice part about this finish is that you can sand out the scratch (see below) and touch up the stain and you'll never see it after it's finished. Try that with a spray on finish ... possible but MUCH harder to get 'right'.

The horn after sanding out the scratch ... no that's not reflection ...

So here it is after restaining drying, sanding, 2nd stain, sanding & buffing ...

And after the restraining ... still just a hair lighter but you have to
know that it's a refinish and not something that just is a bit lighter.

And here it is in better light ... although next time I'll have to watch the shadows ... just after the last stain. It'll get one more buff in 48hr or so and then it'll be ready for it's osmo oil topcoat.

And no it won't be ABSOLUTELY perfect but even with my OCD tendencies good enough.

Pickups; I broke down and bought a pair of Seymore Duncan p-rails for it (ultimate versitility?? we'll see ...) - they won out over some Sentell mini humbuckers ... BTW I don't like the covers on the S D ones, those S's are a bit much ... , the Sentells may go into something like a future jaguar type build or I may replace the p-rails to see what happens or ... ... ... isn't indecision great. Some copper tape for shielding is also on the way ... now I just have to figure the rest of the wireing. And how to do that raised center to the bridge thing I've been thinking about ... nope I'm not done yet ... 

And yes I still have to clean up the rest of the mess on my work table, such as it is ... fixing the fence this morning had a much higher priority ... not having to chase the dog down through the neighborhood ... ... ... priceless.