How I Put a Marshall MS-2 Into a Guitar (pic heavy)

HilditchGuitars

Addition of the black accenting. I should have done it around the speaker hole as well really, but I didn't really fancy the challenge of masking it off effectively. Maybe next time...

HilditchGuitars

HilditchGuitars

With the pearl lacquer over the black. 
I was unsure how to do the transition on the black, I went with this kind of blend but wish I'd done a solid break now.

HilditchGuitars

HilditchGuitars

I've got some brief clips that I'll put together and upload to show the pearl shimmer

HilditchGuitars

HilditchGuitars

Last weekend i got the frets all leveled and polished and then began piecing it all together.
A brief description of how i level:
Start by getting the fretboard flat and checking with a notched straight edge.
Mark all the fret tops with a sharpie then begin gently sanding with 240 grit on a straight block. I use a piece of maple trued up on the planer, about 8-10" long. The reason for the sharpie is to see where I've sanded and any low frets.
Once all the sharpie is gone I mark them all again and begin recrowning. I use a small needle type file with a safe edge to limit board damage, and I file until there's a very tiny line of sharpie left. It helps judge the centre point too.
Then it's on to sanding from 320 up to 1500 grit paper using my finger, which makes a perfect fret sanding tool as it drops between the frets nicely and rounds them over. Final sand with a 3000 pad and some autosol to make them shine.

HilditchGuitars

Board all taped off to prevent damage to the finish

HilditchGuitars

Sanded fret tops

HilditchGuitars

Hard to make out, and capture, but these show the little lines i leave when crowning

HilditchGuitars

HilditchGuitars

The inlay on this is pretty poor tbh, bad choice of material in Sycamore veneer. lesson learnt though

HilditchGuitars

Assembly
The part we've all been waiting for.
It took me most of the day to get my head around it and plan out the space effectively, avoiding too much of a rat's nest of wiring.
Controls are: master volume, master tone, 3 way toggle, amp on/off/OD, vol, tone and a mini toggle so it can still be used through a proper amp. 
In an effort to combat feedback i got some copper mesh and made, in essence, a Faraday Cage for the speaker. Testing during design phase showed a total drop in feedback when the speaker was behind the copper trem cover on one of my other builds, so this gave me the inspiration. Obviously I couldn't put the speaker behind a copper sheet, but I was hoping to be able to declare myself a scientific genius and solve the problem. 
The result?
When on clean channel it's fine, no feedback when you're not playing. On the OD channel there is a fair amount of feedback when the guitar volume is full, but it goes when you roll down to about 6/7. 
I suppose with a bit of experiment, the power of the feedback could be harnessed into a cool sound, but that is for someone with greater skill than I
I should point out that it is silent if you hold the strings, so it would be able to mask it in a playing situation but I'm too honest lol.

HilditchGuitars

A very packed control cavity. The black rectangle is the battery box/holder

HilditchGuitars

Faraday cage around the speaker, and some grille cloth left over from my 2x10 cab build.

HilditchGuitars

I'm really happy overall, just a setup to do then I'll be recording a little youtube clip showing all the points, positives and flaws!
And some cool photos of course!

MattNovak

Nice work @HilditchGuitars !

JezWynd

Neat idea and great work. I love the MS-2, esp when the battery starts to die - that's when it gets very rock n roll.

Sesh

JezWynd said:

Neat idea and great work. I love the MS-2, esp when the battery starts to die - that's when it gets very rock n roll.

I agree about the battery. I'm not a fan of mine as I find the tone a bit meh, but a half dead battery oddly improves things. 

HilditchGuitars

MattNovak said:

Nice work @HilditchGuitars !

Thanks, glad you like it!