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Well, about 4 years ago I decided that I needed to scratch my jones for a Charvel Star with a strathead in Mary Kaye translucent white...but at the time, they weren't exactly growing on trees...so I contacted a dude on ebay that had been selling custom cut jobs for reasonable prices (Jimmie Lee at Blackhorse Guitars) and asked for a single hum, one volume ash body. He did a really nice job (you can't even pick up that it's a 3-piece on first glance)...but there were a couple indentations and some router chatter on the sides, so I decided to opaic the edges after grain filling and then burst/halo the body. Unfortunately, I got a little TOO opaic on the front, but it's actually kind of cool to only see the grain pop up at close range.
Anyway, I originally wanted to put a brass vintage 6 screw trem. So I thought I had made it clear that I wanted a plain, old flat neck pocket...BUT, it was cut at an angle, so I had to use a floating (ala Floyd Rose) trem...which I found out AFTER I drilled the holes!
OUCHIE! Anyway, I'll need to fill those later with the dowel/CA/drop-fill/blush eraser and wet sand-method. Regardless, this meant I needed to go with a Floyd (or equivalent) and, more importantly, needed a new neck with a Floyd nut shelf cut. So adios, walnut neck:
and aloha maple neck with 1 3/4" width nut and Floyd nut cut:
Anyway, drilling the holes for the nut was PLENTY scary:
But it turned out ok - they were off a touch, but nothing a round jewelers's file couldn't fix! Next up was drilling the .40" diameter post holes 25" from the nut...ok, now raise your hand if you have a .40" Forstner bit in your tool box? :evil: Yeah - I though so...
So I grabbed my 3/8" forstner and drilled away...
Measured 50, 892 times, drilled once...
ABout 3 hours later with the rat's tail and a pair of dings from it getting away from me :roll: , the inserts and posts are in...
The EMG 81 and the gold plated metal ring went in without much problem...
Then it was "string 'er up time" - so far, so good!
Had to shim the neck with a little bit of business card to get a little more "tilt back", and it was spot on action! Something finally worked the way it was supposed to!
Then, onto the electronics...
Yes, I know, I need to get a Duracell in there , as well as a plate cover and a jack cover - they're on the way!. 25k pots for the EMG, .01 mF cap per specs.
Only the volume knob showing up top, but the tone pot is actually wired in as well and tucked away, it's set on 10 as I don't so playing too much "nuanced" music with this thing! And if I decide I want to use the tone knob later, I can alway drill a hole for it...
Well, to make a long story longer, here are the pics..
Parts used:
Ash body
Maple neck (from Jamerson Guitars) - 1 3/4" nut, 2 3/16" heel
Original Floyd Rose trem, with R5 (1.75") nut
Jin Ho gold tuners (no need for fancy ones with the locking nut)
EMG 81 pick up and wiring
1/4 can ReRanch white primer (for the edges)
1/2 can ReRanch Mary Kaye White
2 cans ReRanch clear gloss on body and face of headstock
2 coats Tru-Oil for the rest of the neck
Charvel neckplate
(And, FWIW - this thing is never leaving my house, for all the "you're violating copyrights blah blah blah"-crowd)
Anyway, I originally wanted to put a brass vintage 6 screw trem. So I thought I had made it clear that I wanted a plain, old flat neck pocket...BUT, it was cut at an angle, so I had to use a floating (ala Floyd Rose) trem...which I found out AFTER I drilled the holes!
OUCHIE! Anyway, I'll need to fill those later with the dowel/CA/drop-fill/blush eraser and wet sand-method. Regardless, this meant I needed to go with a Floyd (or equivalent) and, more importantly, needed a new neck with a Floyd nut shelf cut. So adios, walnut neck:
and aloha maple neck with 1 3/4" width nut and Floyd nut cut:
Anyway, drilling the holes for the nut was PLENTY scary:
But it turned out ok - they were off a touch, but nothing a round jewelers's file couldn't fix! Next up was drilling the .40" diameter post holes 25" from the nut...ok, now raise your hand if you have a .40" Forstner bit in your tool box? :evil: Yeah - I though so...
So I grabbed my 3/8" forstner and drilled away...
Measured 50, 892 times, drilled once...
ABout 3 hours later with the rat's tail and a pair of dings from it getting away from me :roll: , the inserts and posts are in...The EMG 81 and the gold plated metal ring went in without much problem...
Then it was "string 'er up time" - so far, so good!
Had to shim the neck with a little bit of business card to get a little more "tilt back", and it was spot on action! Something finally worked the way it was supposed to!
Then, onto the electronics...Yes, I know, I need to get a Duracell in there
, as well as a plate cover and a jack cover - they're on the way!. 25k pots for the EMG, .01 mF cap per specs. Only the volume knob showing up top, but the tone pot is actually wired in as well and tucked away, it's set on 10 as I don't so playing too much "nuanced" music with this thing! And if I decide I want to use the tone knob later, I can alway drill a hole for it...
Well, to make a long story longer, here are the pics..
Parts used:
Ash body
Maple neck (from Jamerson Guitars) - 1 3/4" nut, 2 3/16" heel
Original Floyd Rose trem, with R5 (1.75") nut
Jin Ho gold tuners (no need for fancy ones with the locking nut)
EMG 81 pick up and wiring
1/4 can ReRanch white primer (for the edges)
1/2 can ReRanch Mary Kaye White
2 cans ReRanch clear gloss on body and face of headstock
2 coats Tru-Oil for the rest of the neck
Charvel neckplate
(And, FWIW - this thing is never leaving my house, for all the "you're violating copyrights blah blah blah"-crowd)
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