imalone, red and gold

Deadman

Bloody hell. That's excellent. Really well done mate.

imalone

Thanks both! You wait ages for a wow then three come along at once...
I'll see if I still have the headstock sketches, went through a few awful ones before I stumbled on one that looked okay.
Fitted a new bridge at the weekend, nothing special, just the axetec nashville one. It's noticeably different from the original, better cast, larger, proper clips for the screws rather than springs. I've got a few side by side pictures to put up. The inserts are a slightly better fit too (for both the original and new posts), but don't think I want to risk taking the old ones out yet, and it seems okay.
Still waiting for these files to turn up (supposedly up to a month). May risk posting it so I can continue working on it on holiday.

Andyjr1515

I keep looking at it.  I keep thinking - that looks great!

imalone

Nuts.

These are cheap nut files off ebay, I thought it was worth a go.

Unfortunately the finest file was wide enough to do the first three slots. For comparison here's a side-by-side with one the Hosco nut files from Simnett guitars.

Now waiting on a new nut arriving. Had ordered a Gibson-style one from Axetec but oddly not deep enough, so now waiting on an Axesrus delivery.
Why you should take care to protect the fretboard while removing old nuts:

This divot was made with the ill-advised use of a helping hand. Had a go at steaming it out. In fact having left a wet teatowel over it while the iron was heating I found most of it had sprung back without heat. Final result after applying the iron is nearly as good as new, there's still a thin section which is like a large grain channel, but it's much less noticeable than before. I re-wiped it with finishing oil as it was looking a little paler after this operation.

In the meantime I've rewired things. Before:

After:

The push-pull pot is something of a contingency measure, partly to see if it would fit (it does). These are alpha mini pots, because full-size CTS or Alpha wouldn't fit. High end Bournes would, but seem a bit too much for this operation. 50s wiring, all pots 500k log 0.022μ, I've found the volume pots work well at high gain, but are only response 8-10 with the amp at low volume, the kit ones turn out to be linear, which seemed to work better for quiet cleans. I think I'll leave them as they are.
I also took the opportunity to try out gold knobs. This could have gone a bit Liberace...

Bit more convinced by the neck and bridge now, I think the wiring changes may have helped, but I've also got a different amp here, so hard to tell. Still under consideration, but otherwise nearly done.

Andyjr1515

You can get cream top hat knobs, too, @imalone. There's a UK seller on eBay if it's of any interest. That wiring is so much better - looks very professional indeed

ThePrettyDamned

Wow awarded! Very cool!

imalone

Andyjr1515;312352" said:

You can get cream top hat knobs, too, @imalone. There's a UK seller on eBay if it's of any interest.

That wiring is so much better - looks very professional indeed

Thanks, not too hard I suppose. Guess it's easier to be sure the loom will go in easily if the wiring isn't so tight. Cheers for the eBay tip, may stick with the gold though as all the ones I've seen look a little too yellow and I'm actually fairly happy with how the gold looks.

ThePrettyDamned;314566" said:

Wow awarded! Very cool!

Thanks!

Evilmags

Have another wow. That looks pretty cool.

imalone

Thanks!
Some clips (let's not linger on the playing...)
Still not quite decided about the pickups, with the new wiring and a bit of height adjustment they're nicely chewy, if not very versatile, but my other guitars are more fendery, so I think going P90 neck might just be giving up what's interesting about this one. It can actually do cleaner than in that clip. Maybe another attempt:

Andyjr1515

Hi, @Imalone

You are right - the cleaner demo probably gives a better idea of the sounds..and it sounds great  

I like the brightness of the first half - very fendery - and nice contrast with the other settings.

And I say once more - it's a stunning finish you've achieved 

>-

Andy

Handsome_Chris

@imalone, you are a legend.

imalone

Handsome_Chris said:

@imalone, you are a legend.

Thanks, though I should remind people I basically just followed Jooky's guide on fabric covering!

imalone

Just to finish up, I had adjusted the slots in the axesrus nut when it turned up, but wasn't quite there as I was a bit wary of cutting too deep, this also meant I hadn't sanded enough off the top (worried about sanding out the shallower slots, in the end they weren't deep enough anyway). Revisited this at the start of September and brought everything a bit deeper as well as sanding the top properly.
Before, original nut adjusted using cheap ebay files:

After having a final go at the nut with the hasko files and sanding, then polishing up to 2000 grit:


I also tried filing the bridge to reduce the strings sticking on it. So far as I can tell you are meant to file a tunomatic to match the guitar and string gauge. Think sticking reduced a little bit, but noticeably blunted the length of the files that I used to do it.
And a larger version of the finished picture:

Andyjr1515

Nut looks great, @imalone. And your photo of the final result looks fantastic Andy