I've finally started guitar build number 2, which will be an explorer. Having recently completed my first scratch build a couple of months ago I feel a bit more confident going into this build. I'm not too far into it at the moment as work has been really busy and I also expect it to take me a while to complete, but I'm already immensely enjoying getting stuck into another build.
The current plan is to have humbuckers and a T-O-M bridge as the flying v I built had P90's with a wraparound bridge, so it makes sense to do something "different" (to my experience). The plans are from John Anthony Guitars.
After cutting the body out I discovered a shake in the body blank
So I lopped it off
Had to figure out how to plane a square edge on a pointy guitar!
by clamping a straight edge on the back and riding this on top of the fence, which worked well.
Neck pocket routed - the new pointy bit attached to the top left
Had to change router cutters, hence the difference in the corned radii, will chisel these out later. Got the 3° angle spot on which I'm pleased with.
Quarter sawn neck blank planed with neck scarfed on. This is where I'm up to right now. Will hopefully get some time in the next fortnight to really crack on with the neck.
Fun!
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I went with white as I want this build to be a bit more "modern" and thought the cream might have given it a more retro feel.
In the coming weeks I'm going to attempt to bind the fretboard too. Anything fret related makes me, err, fret, don't know why, but that's the one area that makes me feel uneasy.
Cheers Pete!
https://www.electricherald.com/gibson-explorer-guitar-templates/
Your life will improve when you realise it’s better to be alone than chase people who do not really care about you. Saying YES to happiness means learning to say NO to things and people that stress you out.
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- Fretboard slotted.... so pleased I bought the fret slotting jig, so much better than freehand after a few beers like when I did the last one.
- Neck tenon cut. I'm going for the @GSPBASSES style of neck joint. My pic shows it loose, it's shown just placed in (ie no clamps) here.... though I'm not too ashamed to say that it could be better and that I think I did the joint better on my V build.
- Fretboard glued down.
- Headstock template is cut and I've blocked up the blank on the neck so I can rout this out.
I'm going to bunk off work tomorrow and hopefully might get as far as fretting it, but let's see.Everything looking blocky and odd, but the FB is glued down here.
It's looking gappy... but it shouldn't be, hopefully not. I promise it won't be.
Was routing the taper into the fretboard and like an idiot I didn't peel one part off the double sided tape so it slipped and I cut into the neck. The fretboard is fine though as I'm binding it and the binding will cover this. I will need to patch in a tiny piece of sapele for where it's not covered by binding.
Radius'd the fretboard, put the dots in and one went a tad low..... was trying to sand it flush and got a little too excited and sanded through a high one lol. Ah well, new dots on order and hopefully will get back on track before long.
Routing whoopsee:
Tasty looking board though! Routed for binding and dots installed...
Over zealous sanding whoopsee!
Black with gold hardware Les Paul Custom style would look amazing as a suggestion. I've got a white with gold that I had made from Precision guitars (before Gibson told them off) and painted / finished in the UK, goes well with my custom V in the same style and my Gibson Les Paul