C18Q1 - Nuno Gilmour

digitalscream

Right then, I'm finally doing it - since my wife couldn't possibly buy me something that doesn't exist, the idea is to turn this:



...into a Washburn Nuno-style guitar with SSS pickups, but in the style of Mr Gilmour's Strat (black finish, maple fretboard, silver hardware, white plastics). Jobs to do:

- Finish the body with a deep black stain, but with the grain showing through slightly (I've never stained a bit of wood, much less finished a guitar body)

- Install a graphite nut of some description (never cut a nut before)

- Install the bridge properly (done this once with my Jaden Tele, but it was more luck than judgement)

- Figure out how to wire it up so that the pickup selector switches as though there are only the outer two pickups there, and the push-pull switch on the volume pot engages the middle pickup out-of-phase (I've got a rough idea in my head for this, but again...never done it before)

- Install the locking machine heads (never done that before either, but how hard can it be?)

- Replace the neck's side dots with black-outlined Luminlay dots (done this once, rather badly)

As a bonus, if I finish that then I'll try to make at least one of these into a fully-functioning guitar:



Probably the middle one. This will involve:

- Installing a bridge (hopefully I'll have successfully managed this at least once by this point)

- Installing machine heads and a nut (ditto)

- Fret levelling and profiling (HAHHahAHAHHAhAhAhahahAAHHAAhAha)

- Possibly some sanding on the neck to get it to the right thickness (ditto)

- EDIT: I may get a Red-Blue Dually Lace Sensor and work out a push-pull switch to switch between the coils rather than using them together.

- EDIT 2: On top of that, I might also figure out how to implement a fixed-value tone control which also works on the push-pull at the same time as the coil switch, thus roughly simulating a neck pickup in a single-pickup guitar.

Believe it or not, I'm actually hoping to get these things done by the show at the end of Feb. Ideally, I'll have the first guitar done by my band's gig on the 25th Jan. This might be a bit of a mission, being as I won't be picking the bits up until next Sunday at the earliest.

paulnb57

Nice!

Funkfingers

digitalscream said:

- EDIT: I may get a Red-Blue Dually Lace Sensor and work out a push-pull switch to switch between the coils rather than using them together.

- EDIT 2: On top of that, I might also figure out how to implement a fixed-value tone control which also works on the push-pull at the same time as the coil switch, thus roughly simulating a neck pickup in a single-pickup guitar.

#1 is a good idea. Red and Blue sensors combined in series gets mushy. Parallel interconnection might end up sounding like a Telecaster or a G&L MFD.

#2 is what I did on my PRS SE One. Push-pull pot, capacitor and resistor in lieu of a tone pot. Great with overdriven high gain valve amplification. Congested through a clean channel.

WezV

Sure you don’t want to part with that middle one?  

TTony

WezV said:

Sure you don’t want to part with that middle one?  

That's the sort of thing @Roland says

TTony

digitalscream said:

- Finish the body with a deep black stain, but with the grain showing through slightly (I've never stained a bit of wood, much less finished a guitar body)

I've found Crimson stains really easy to use, and give a pretty good result.

This was the last one that I finished - black coat first, then rubbed back so it's only black in the grain to enhance the grain pattern, then red over the top, then oil over the top of that.

guitarfishbay

Installing machine heads is pretty simple but make sure you’ve got decent screws that aren’t made of cheese, because recovering one that’s snapped off in the wood is quite a pain unless you already have the right tools (I ended up having to make my own bit by filing down another which I’m surprised worked).

Fret work my first go wasn’t great but my second went ok. I found picking tools you like to be important. First go I did it with a 6” file and crowned with one of those rounded crowning files. Didn’t like the crowning tool as much as I expected, found I preferred taking my time with a triangular file instead. Second fret level I used a beam and greatly preferred that.

WezV

guitarfishbay said:

Didn’t like the crowning tool as much as I expected, found I preferred taking my time with a triangular file instead. Second fret level I used a beam and greatly preferred that.

Not just me then.  I do use crowning files now, but that’s only after buying 4 different styles to find one I liked.

doing it with a triangular file is slow, but I think it’s a good way to learn 

digitalscream

WezV said:

Sure you don’t want to part with that middle one?  

Definitely not, I'm afraid - it's the only reason I bought the job lot  For what it's worth, though, there are some interesting woods on that middle one - it's a spalted mango top on the body, and a zebrawood fretboard (apparently).

The others will probably be sold. I got it all at an extremely good price (£200) due to a clear out, so anything over £100 will be going to the local dog rescue (I don't like making a profit from people selling at low prices).

digitalscream

TTony said:

digitalscream said:

- Finish the body with a deep black stain, but with the grain showing through slightly (I've never stained a bit of wood, much less finished a guitar body)

I've found Crimson stains really easy to use, and give a pretty good result.

This was the last one that I finished - black coat first, then rubbed back so it's only black in the grain to enhance the grain pattern, then red over the top, then oil over the top of that.

That looks ace

Crimson were already the frontrunners for me - not least because they have some great YouTube tutorials on stains - so thanks for confirming my thoughts!

WezV

digitalscream said:

WezV said:

Sure you don’t want to part with that middle one?  

Definitely not, I'm afraid - it's the only reason I bought the job lot  For what it's worth, though, there are some interesting woods on that middle one - it's a spalted mango top on the body, and a zebrawood fretboard (apparently).

The others will probably be sold. I got it all at an extremely good price (£200) due to a clear out, so anything over £100 will be going to the local dog rescue (I don't like making a profit from people selling at low prices).

That was an amazing deal.   I must admit I am quite taken with the idea of a hard tail N#

digitalscream

WezV said:

digitalscream said:

WezV said:

Sure you don’t want to part with that middle one?  

Definitely not, I'm afraid - it's the only reason I bought the job lot  For what it's worth, though, there are some interesting woods on that middle one - it's a spalted mango top on the body, and a zebrawood fretboard (apparently).

The others will probably be sold. I got it all at an extremely good price (£200) due to a clear out, so anything over £100 will be going to the local dog rescue (I don't like making a profit from people selling at low prices).

That was an amazing deal.   I must admit I am quite taken with the idea of a hard tail N#

Indeed. I reckon something along the lines of £180-ish is still a great deal for the remaining body and necks, and it comes with the warm fuzzy feeling of £80 of it going to pups in need 

If all goes well, both of the guitars I'm finishing will be hardtail, and available for people to noodle with at the show in February...

Kalimna

If it's of any use, here is the horse chestnut stained black with just a coat of nitro sealer on it. The figure shone through nicely, but is accentuated by the flash.

The stain was Chestnuts' Spirit Stain, which I found covered better than the Crimson tester I had.

https://i.imgur.com/nKVWsGZ.jpg

Adam

digitalscream

Thanks, @Kalimna - useful to know

Of course, I still haven't picked all the bits up yet. I'm painfully aware that getting them all on Sunday means I have only just over two weeks to finish the body, assemble the guitar, figure out how to wire it up, get the frets to a playable state etc. Pretty sure I could do it comfortably if I didn't have that damned day job...

scottygilbert

WezV said:

guitarfishbay said:

Didn’t like the crowning tool as much as I expected, found I preferred taking my time with a triangular file instead. Second fret level I used a beam and greatly preferred that.

Not just me then.  I do use crowning files now, but that’s only after buying 4 different styles to find one I liked.

doing it with a triangular file is slow, but I think it’s a good way to learn 

Sorry for the thread jack (love a nice N4 so want to see how this goes) - WezV, which crowning file did you end up going with? 
Cheers, Scott 

darcym

Is this based of the N6 foundation but more traditional kit on it ?

TTony

digitalscream said:

I'm painfully aware that getting them all on Sunday means I have only just over two weeks to finish the body, assemble the guitar, figure out how to wire it up, get the frets to a playable state etc. 

What's driving the deadline - gig?

digitalscream

darcym said:

Is this based of the N6 foundation but more traditional kit on it ?

Not really - the N6 has a swimming pool cavity for the pickups, whereas this does away with the scratchplate altogether. Also, the pickup selector is in a different place, and it's a top-loaded hardtail. It's basically all the things I love about my lightweight Jaden Tele mixed with all the things I love about my N4, with the added bonus of the out-of-phase Strat position (which I've never really played with much).

TTony said:

digitalscream said:

I'm painfully aware that getting them all on Sunday means I have only just over two weeks to finish the body, assemble the guitar, figure out how to wire it up, get the frets to a playable state etc. 

What's driving the deadline - gig?

Yep. Failing that, the next deadline is The Guitar Show.

Bridgehouse

digitalscream said:

WezV said:

digitalscream said:

WezV said:

Sure you don’t want to part with that middle one?  

Definitely not, I'm afraid - it's the only reason I bought the job lot  For what it's worth, though, there are some interesting woods on that middle one - it's a spalted mango top on the body, and a zebrawood fretboard (apparently).

The others will probably be sold. I got it all at an extremely good price (£200) due to a clear out, so anything over £100 will be going to the local dog rescue (I don't like making a profit from people selling at low prices).

That was an amazing deal.   I must admit I am quite taken with the idea of a hard tail N#

Indeed. I reckon something along the lines of £180-ish is still a great deal for the remaining body and necks, and it comes with the warm fuzzy feeling of £80 of it going to pups in need 

If all goes well, both of the guitars I'm finishing will be hardtail, and available for people to noodle with at the show in February...

Me and Mrs B are setting up a dog halfway house charity for pups that have been pulled from the pound and need medical or behavioural help before going to a rescue centre.. at the moment most of them in South Lincs get put down. 

So if you fancy donating  

(sorry about the thread hijack - just you mentioned pups in need!)

bluebuddha

with a bit of luck you'll end up with something similar to one of my NX6

digitalscream

@bluebuddha - wow! That doesn't look like a Washburn factory model...or am I wrong?

Nice choice with the Lace Sensors, too. They were my first choice, and I may yet swap out the HS3s for a set if they don't work out.

And yes, that's the idea except the shark fin will be bare maple, it'll just have a single volume control and the pickup selector will be a toggle and closer to the Jaden position. Also, I'm aiming for a deeper matte black finish rather than a posh figured and shiny one.