Hi all,
I am currently planning a PRS Custom 22 style project.
Graham over at
@GSPBASSES is going to build a body a neck which I will then finish and assemble.
I'll use this thread to track the project's progress but in the meantime, I'd welcome some hardware recommendations.
The specs are:
Flame maple neck with rosewood fingerboard
Swamp ash body with flame maple cap
Bridge - Grainger Guitars Hardtail
Pickups - Oil City Black Knight in the bridge and Scrapyard Dog Plus in the neck, though I am considering an HSH configuration so in that case would need a recommendation for a nice single coil for that twangy middle position sound.
Controls - will be 1 volume, 1 tone (push pull for coil split), switch tbc.
Tuners - to be confirmed, would like locking tuners of some sort.
Nut - Graphtec Tusq or a bone nut, tbc. Probably tusq.
Questions:
1. If I were to go with the HSH configuration, what would be the best switch? The design doesn't include a slot for a 5 way blade so the options are either:
A) 3 way switch where each position only selects either the bridge, mid or neck, or;
B ) 5 way rotary switch where position 1 is bridge, 2 is bridge plus middle, 3 is middle, 4 is middle plus neck and 5 is neck.
2. Any recommendations for a single coil? @OilCityPickups ?
3. Any recommendations for locking tuners? I don't like the big vintage Gibson style tuning machines and buttons, and I'll be going for black hardware so needs to be available in that colour. Looking to spend under £100 on them if possible.
Hopefully this will turn out to be a great guitar!
Comments
They came with no drill mounting plates so easy fitment
V happy so far
@SteveRobinson I may be able to but waiting for confirmation.
@sawyer good point about quick switching with a rotary.
theres 3 a side sets and they do them in black
I'm now planning out how I'm going to finish the guitar. I will be staining the top then will be sending it to someone to spray both the body and neck with nitro and polish to a high gloss. This is the plan I'm thinking of:
1. Sand the body, top and neck to 320 grit; would it be appropriate to go 120 > 240 > 320 grit?
2. Lightly dampen to wood to raise grain, wait to dry, then sand again - do I need to go up through the grits again or just go straight to say 320?
3. Tape off the edge of the maple cap to avoid getting grain filler on it
4. Grain fill the swamp ash body as per @SteveRobinson 's guide
5. Potentially stain the body on top of the grain filter
6. Pre-stain some of the top in a dark red (see my thread about the dragons breath pattern)
7. Sand back the top to remove a lot of the dark red so that it just highlights the grain - what grit(s) should I be using here?
8. Stain the top with the colours
9. Go over the body and top with a very fine grit paper e.g. 1500 to remove any raised grain caused by the staining
10. Remove the tape around the natural binding
11. Use either a tool made from a razor to gently scrape the binding and create a thin clear line around the edge of the top OR gently sand the binding to round over the edge of the top and create the natural binding effect
After step 11, would the body be ready for spraying? Or will I need to apply a sanding sealer?
For the neck, following step 2 above:
1. Tape edges of rosewood fretboard
2. Pre-stain with light brown
3. Sand back to highlight the grain
4. Stain neck with amber
5. Go over neck with a very fine grit paper
Same question now about sanding sealer.
I am also considering using a paint pen to draw a design on the headstock. It's an ebony veneer. I'd like to do this before the guitar is sent for spraying, so that the design is protected by the lacquer. Is it okay to use paint pens on bare wood, or will I get better results if say I were to apply a sealer or something on the veneer before I draw the design? If anyone has recommendations for a pen and/or technique pointers, it would be much appreciated
What do people think would be more interesting?
My CU22 has a blade and is wired Bridge, Bridge & Neck Partial OOP (series cap on the bridge), Bridge and Neck in phase (additional 500k resistor and, 500k resistor and .022 cap in parallel with it to ground), Bridge and partial split Neck (voices screw coil), Neck.
Tone control has a push pull which partially splits both pickups voicing the screw coils. When in split mode, positions 3 & 4 are very similar but there is a small but discernible difference. The extra components mirror the extra vol & tone pots in a Gibson style guitar and for me at least help position 3 sound more like it should.
If it wasn't such an expensive instrument and these days avoiding non-reversible changes, I'd actually use two mini toggles for the splits.
@SteveRobinson I assume he will but haven't yet checked what grit it will have been sanded to. Thanks for the clarification on the de-nibbing
FWIW when I carried it into PMT to buy a gig bag (the instrument's for my grandson) the manager took it for a PRS original until I drew his attention to the signature.
Hope that helps
With final photos yet to be posted my construction blog is at: kitguitarbuilder.blogspot.com
On the test strip with no further protection, the Posca pen can be scratched off with a fingernail.
I think my experience suggests that as long as you're careful how you handle the dry Posca-on-bare wood, the further sprayed coats will fix it. Have you asked your sprayer?
Next newbie question: is there a particular sanding sealer I should be using if the top coat is going to be clear nitro? In particular, if I can use a brush on/wipe on sealer I'd prefer that as don't really have the space to spray anything, otherwise I'd be doing the clear coat myself too!
Thanks
Photos are here for anyone interested: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eJ8mn91eunkwKxSBA
On my 94 McCarty the recesses have their edges smoothed a great deal and are much more blended into the top than some others i have seen. I think this because the earlier PRS’s were done by hand and there were variations between guitars.