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The body wood (I still don’t believe it’s basswood) is very soft, and cuts like cardboard. I’m rather glad about those screw inserts because I don’t think that wood screws will hold well. Here it is filled with two pieces of pine, sanded to shape, and drilled for bridge studs. I used separate blocks for the lower and upper parts of the cavity because I think that will be stronger than one enormous piece.The end grain join is not as clean as I’d like because I couldn’t hammer the block in hard enough without damaging the other end of the body. That’s going to bug me
Next step will be to open up the pickup cavities.
I’ve been saving sawdust to fill dents in the wood. However the basswood is so soft that they’ve all sanded out with a few passes of 240 grit.
Here it is with the face dyed and some black hardware posed on top. The flat face of the pine infill is lighter because it’s uptake of dye is slower, and because it reflects the light better. In reality it is more turquoise than the picture shows.
I was going to leave the back and sides natural. Over time they will get darker. Wiping with white spirit gives an idea of the final colour.
You can see the untreated wood colour in the control cavity. What’s interesting is that the colour difference between the three pieces of wood didn’t show up until I wetted it. I might colour the back and sides to cover this. Possibly black?
For several months I’ve been researching headless bridges. That’s not 10 minutes on Google with a cup of coffee type research. I’ve spoken to several guitar makers who use these things in their own guitars, and even considered designing my own. Nicest of all is the Hipshot. Several other companies make similar one or two piece bridge and tuner designs. There are also single string bridge/tuners which are really designed for fanned frets.
When you look at the cost of these bridges and tuners, plus the head end string retainers, they exceed the cost of the kit. Somehow that feels wrong. If I were spending that much on hardware then I’d expect to use better quality timber for the body and neck.
Having seen it in situ I’m happy with my modified Overlord tuner. When I build my next headless guitar I might go for something more sophisticated. Let’s see how this one performs before deciding about that.
Decision 4. Colour and finish.
Basswood grain is never going to look good, particularly when the blocks which make up the body are such different colours. However it’s easy to sand smooth, and will take paint well. So I was tempted to spray it gold over a white undercoat. Laziness prevented me. At the same time as this build I’m also making Christmas presents. I’d need to stop work on them and hoover the workshop again. Common sense also prevented me. Gold is unforgiving. I’d need to heat the workshop to get the paint to spray and dry nicely. Heating would cause dust particles to circulate, and settle on the paint. I don’t have space for a paint booth.
Veneer would look nice. I’ve always wanted to try it, but that would mean replacing the white binding. As @Andyjr1515 observed, I’ve made a lot of changes to the original kit. Doing much more feels as if I’m hiding the kit, rather than working with it.
So it is going to be an oil finish, Osmo 3032 satin, over blue stain. My wife likes blue.
Over a range of Telecaster builds I’ve tried various pickups. I’ve settled on a Wapping Wharf in the bridge position, and a Californian in the neck. These suit my playing style, with the right balance of warmth and attack.
This kit body is routed HSS, with no pickguard to hide behind, so I need to try something new. I recently talked to a professional guitar builder, as opposed to an amateur like myself. His approach is, of necessity, to stick with what he knows works. As an amateur, with no living to make or reputation to defend, I am free to experiment. In fact I relish every opportunity to try something I’ve not done before. The Stonetones are my first Strat pickups. They have been on the shelf for a while, and at last here’s an opportunity to try them out. The middle pickup is RWRP, which is also something I haven’t tried before. The Solar Flare is an interesting idea, a humbucker with unbalanced coils, so that it doesn’t lose too much volume when tapped. I put a similar pair into my McCarty earlier this year. Here’s the opportunity to try it against single coils.
When wiring up a guitar it’s tempting to go for all the options, with a five way superswitch, and mini switches for tapping the humbucker, series/parallel connection, and changing pickup phase. The reality is that, when playing live, I can’t cope with more than five combinations. So mini switches are out.
Honing it down to five switching options will need some experimentation. It’s likely that whatever I go for initially will change later. The five way which came in the kit is single track. It only allows:
1. Humbucker.
2. Humbucker and middle. (Not sure how usable this combination is)
3. Middle.
4. Middle and neck.
5. Neck.
A two track switch will allow me to start with:
1. Humbucker.
2. Tapped humbucker. (I use this quite a bit with current guitars)
3. Tapped and middle.
4. Middle and neck.
5. Neck.
Then, if either positions 3 or 4 don’t give a sound I can use then I’ll change it to middle only, or tapped humbucker and neck.
So I’ve ordered a couple of five way blade switches. One is two track. The other a four track superswitch in case I decide to put some of the coils in series, or use wired pickup combinations.
The blue looks great, by the way.
It's not designed to be split, it'll be split PAF level of output doing so. You might like it though. It's designed to play well with single coils in series mode.
You can absolutely split the humbucker if you want to. But I hope you'll find it'll do similar to what you're after from the split in standard humbucking mode.
Quick checklist of what I’ve noticed so far, starting with the kit parts:
- Switch is dodgy (no surprise).
- Two of the strings were faulty. Top E unravelled at the ball end. B was kinked.
- Supplied knobs don’t fit the pots. In my haste I stole two from another guitar.
- The selector switch is hidden behind the volume knob
Tuning was initially very stiff. I expected some difficulty because of the gearing ration of the M3 screw threads. Then two more of the plastic washers broke. Once replaced with metal washers and a dollop of grease tuning became much easier. This looks like one of those design faults where the supplier is not getting customer feedback. The strings which came with the kit feel like 9-42s. They’re now 10-42s, and the tuners are not too stiff. I use 10-52s on other guitars. It remains to be seen whether they will work with strings that heavy.
Things I’m pleased about:
- Having two strap button means that it doesn’t fall over when leaning against a wall.
- It only weighs 5lb 8oz.
- You can remove the strings without destroying them. I’ve already done this three times: neck shim, pickup reseating, and tuner washer replacement.
Still to do:
- Tidy the frets. I don’t want to waste several metres of fret wire until I know this is giggable.
- Increase the string gauge. Maybe 10-46s at first.
- Adjust the headpiece. With 9s the top E doesn’t contact the zeroth fret. With 10s it does, but rattles a bit.
- Let the finish harden before I abuse it too much.
Things I’ll change on the next build:
- The 12.5 degree string break angle is plenty. Next time I’ll use a lower angle.
- Put the selector switch behind the tone knob.
- Match the pickup colours.
- Consider having the forward strap button somewhere else. Possible the rear of the horn, or even the neck joint. The guitar feels as if it wants to be worn high, with a very short strap. Practical, but not very rock and roll looking.
Gratuitous picture before electric assembly.
This was the first time I’ve played with Strat pickups! Before I saw the light, and turned to Telecaster, I’d only used humbuckers. I enjoyed experimenting with the different sound. @Alegree’s Solar Flare balanced well with the single coils. The single coils didn’t seem very different from each other. What I’m not sure about is whether I want more than just the Strat sound, possibly something more heavily wound. To make that decision I need to play it more.
The guitar performed well for the first three songs, and then went out of tune. Not surprising for an instrument which had only been assembled the previous day, and hadn’t had time to settle into tension. Rather than fiddle with the tuning I switched guitars.
Today I fitted 10-52s. They’re second hand, taken off aTelecaster, so already stretched. (I can get away with this because the string length is so short). The tuners still turn, if a little stiffly. I still need convincing that they are useable in the heat of a gig.
In the context of this challenge I decided that buying tuners would be a step too far. I’m pleased that I’ve been able to modify the Overlord tuner, and make it work.
For the last two weeks I’ve been trying to settle down the tuning and intonation. It wouldn’t settle. “Is it me?” I wondered. “Have I put the bridge in the wrong place?”. “Am I pressing to hard when I fret a note, causing it to go sharp?”. “Is my capo technique faulty?”
Nope. The zero fret is 1.5 to 2mm out of position. About where the centre line of a traditional nut should be, rather the near edge.
[expletive deleted]
All the frets are in the right places except the zero fret. I can fill the slot and recut at the right position. However it’s not a single fret replacement. The Jescar 47095 wire which I bought for the job has a 1.2mm crown height. The existing frets are nearer 1.5mm, so it means a complete refret. I was hoping to avoid refretting until I could decide whether the guitar is a keeper, or a dust gatherer.
You've lost me in terms of why this would need a refret. Can't you just use a 1.5mm (or higher) fret in the new zero fret position?