New Guitar Build Pics - Updated

[SavageRiffer]

It's actually finished now, but I haven't gotten around to taking some new pics yet. These are pics from the other day before I soldered everything and set the rest of the guitar up. I used 2 base coats of Danish oil, then 2 coats of Tru-oil. Feels so good in your hands. Danish Oil + Tru-Oil is the best man.

It's a Kingwood fretboard with flame maple neck. Kingwood is kind of a cross between Rosewood and Pao Ferro... pure luxury. I used Minwax black wood dye from Home Depot to do the stain. It only took 1 coat and a little sanding to let the grain pop out. That's a Seymour Duncan Custom and Jazz set. I'll post some finished pics soon.

 

[oldmtlhed]

It's nice. I like unpainted necks. I would have went with a satin nickel Floyd Rose though.
You doing Gotoh or Sperzel tuners?

 

[SavageRiffer]

It's nice. I like unpainted necks. I would have went with a satin nickel Floyd Rose though.
You doing Gotoh or Sperzel tuners?

Fender locking tuners; not the Fender Schaller style, but the ones with the thinner buttons, F-logo, and square gear housing. I find them to be very stable. The tremolo is a Gotoh 510T, my favorite. I originally wanted to go with a Floyd, but that raises the cost over $100, so to keep the cost down, I went with the usual. Stays in tune well once you file the nut, lube the parts, and set it up with 5 springs in the trem cavity. I can dip the bar, raise it a bit, and vibrato through a whole song without going out of tune much at all.

 

[krueger]

Looks great! Love the body

 

[SavageRiffer]

Looks great! Love the body

Thanks man. It's kind of a rustic look. Maybe I would have done something different if I had better painting/finishing skills.

 

[ewill52]

very cool! I've been wanting to find a swamp ash tele body to try to create the "raw tone" effect that Kiesel is doing. Suhr's Andy Wood model has a similar look and they use a torch to burn around the grain. May have to start shopping for bodies....

 

[SpiderWars]

Looks fantastic! Like the body, love the neck.

 

[xzacx]

Thanks man. It's kind of a rustic look. Maybe I would have done something different if I had better painting/finishing skills.

Hard to tell the quality from the pics, but from what I can see, I really like the finishing - I think the color compliments the grain really well.

 

[SavageRiffer]

very cool! I've been wanting to find a swamp ash tele body to try to create the "raw tone" effect that Kiesel is doing. Suhr's Andy Wood model has a similar look and they use a torch to burn around the grain. May have to start shopping for bodies....

That's actually a Poplar body. For the first time, I did a Poplar build a while back. It's kind of a cross between Basswood and Ash. The tone of Poplar is really nice. If you can find a nice white piece of Poplar that weighs as much as an Alder body then buy it because it finishes pretty nicely for that kind of thing and sounds more like Ash than Alder. Here's my first Poplar build:

Looks fantastic! Like the body, love the neck.

Thanks man. Warmoth has some real good deals on necks right now.

Hard to tell the quality from the pics, but from what I can see, I really like the finishing - I think the color compliments the grain really well.

Yeah the finishing went well, but I opted not to build the finish up too much. It feels really nice on the neck and body the way the finish is now. It feels like you're touching wood instead of paint. I think the combination of Danish oil and Tru-oil are enough to protect the wood for a lifetime. For some reason, I've seen a few videos and Internet blogs that say not to get the oil into the cavities. I don't understand why because humidity can affect it, so I always coat the inside of the cavities with Danish oil. Glad you like it man.

 

[rupe]

Nice build!!!

 

[rottingcorpse]

That neck is beautiful,back and front. And you did a great job on the finish on the body. I always like seeing the grain.

 

[SavageRiffer]

OK, finished. All setup, crowned, polished, and ready to shred. It might be too nice for me to keep so I might put it up for sale. What do you guys think?

 

[rupe]

OK, finished. All setup, crowned, polished, and ready to shred. It might be too nice for me to keep so I might put it up for sale. What do you guys think?

I think you'll lose your ass on it if you try to sell it in any form other than parts. I'm a huge fan of rolling your own, but it's a losing game from an investment standpoint...I build what I want to play and rarely sell any of them unless somebody throws enough money at me to make it worth my while, which isn't often.

 

[SpiderWars]

Looks great but I agree with rupe. Since you've built so many you could get more than I could but still seems like a loss.

Haveyou ever tried PGK? I'm considering a LP type build but spec'ing one out with the upgrades I want is almost $1200 just for the unfinished body/neck.

 

[thenine]

looks great. I might need to move the vol pot down a notch tho.

PS - my Shannon soloist is poplar/maple neck thru

 

[dirtyfunkg]

I built a Fastguitars custom LP and a Black Limba Explorer. Made by/from the same shop as PGK. Fast no longer does kits, so PGK is the only option. Both were incredible quality. Highly recommend.

 

[SavageRiffer]

OK, finished. All setup, crowned, polished, and ready to shred. It might be too nice for me to keep so I might put it up for sale. What do you guys think?

I think you'll lose your ass on it if you try to sell it in any form other than parts. I'm a huge fan of rolling your own, but it's a losing game from an investment standpoint...I build what I want to play and rarely sell any of them unless somebody throws enough money at me to make it worth my while, which isn't often.

Well someone already offered me $600 and seemed like he was willing to go up to $650. There's a local guitar shop that sells Gibson USA, Fender, etc. and they do consignment sales so I think if people have the guitar in their hands, they'll want it. I was extremely careful getting everything 100% perfect, and the action is very low with almost no string buzz. I crowned and polished the frets with about $300 of new tools I bought, so they're super nice now. I'm thinking possibly getting $1200. If I could, that wouldn't be a bad profit.

Looks great but I agree with rupe. Since you've built so many you could get more than I could but still seems like a loss.

Haveyou ever tried PGK? I'm considering a LP type build but spec'ing one out with the upgrades I want is almost $1200 just for the unfinished body/neck.

I've never heard of PGK, but I'll check them out. Thanks. I was looking at your Tru-oiled neck and started thinking I might disassemble this one and add two more coats to the neck and one more coat to the body. What do you think, should I leave it satin or give it more shine?

looks great. I might need to move the vol pot down a notch tho.

PS - my Shannon soloist is poplar/maple neck thru

I'm going to customize it for whoever buys it. I typically don't want anything but a simple volume control and a two-way pickup selector.

I built a Fastguitars custom LP and a Black Limba Explorer. Made by/from the same shop as PGK. Fast no longer does kits, so PGK is the only option. Both were incredible quality. Highly recommend.

I've been wanting to do an LP build for a long time but I always find such great deals on strat parts that I never do. Someone else recommended PGK, so I'm going to check them out and find out who they are.

 

[SpiderWars]

I think it looks great as-is but pics can be deceiving. I like satin.

I recently got my custom pickguards from WD and they are nice. Just trace out what you want and mail it to them (you can tape two pieces of paper together) and put your contact info on the tracing. They'll email you back in a few days and send a Paypal payment request. Not cheap but not much more than a stock Warmoth pickguard.

FWIW, I have 2 cream/black/cream Warmoth HH pick guards with that Delong control setup if you want one. I'll never use them.

 

[SavageRiffer]

I think it looks great as-is but pics can be deceiving. I like satin.

I recently got my custom pickguards from WD and they are nice. Just trace out what you want and mail it to them (you can tape two pieces of paper together) and put your contact info on the tracing. They'll email you back in a few days and send a Paypal payment request. Not cheap but not much more than a stock Warmoth pickguard.

FWIW, I have 2 cream/black/cream Warmoth HH pick guards with that Delong control setup if you want one. I'll never use them.

Hell yeah! Parts never go to waste on my workbench! Thanks man.