Musicmaster project - COMPLETE!

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 6:34 pm

it looks rockin', good job.

jamba72 · Post by **jamba72** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:27 pm

now, THATS a nice lefty.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:28 pm

Goes without saying that I would rock that. Nice job. Neck looks lovely.

rps-10 · Post by **rps-10** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:47 pm

That looks great, top job!

foll · Post by **foll** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:15 am

oh man that's an awesome guitar.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 6:25 am

Weeeelllll, it is wired now.

I started off shaping the nut blank, then I switched to cutting a new nut for my bassists new Jazz bass that I'm fixing up for him. Got his installed with no probs.

So then I returned to cutting my own. Got the slots a bit off first try, but whatevs. Fixed the slot positions, then I realized that I'd cut the low E slot waaaaay too deep. After doing that bass one I was basically slotting it out the same depth.

Unfortunately, that's too much missing material for me to just fill with wood glue and bone powder and recut. I know, because I tried. The "plug" fell out after I started doing the new slot over it.

So, the low E frets out when open. I went ahead and tried to get the others situated, and get the bridge height adjusted, and the truss sorted. I need to go buy another nut blank tomorrow.

Upshot is I know where to make the cuts now.

So, I moved on to finishing up the wiring. I found out my strategy of grounding the bridge via copper foil wasn't such a good idea. In the end, I drilled a slant hole under the bridge to the control cavity and ran a proper ground wire.

However, the damn thing kept sounding like it wasn't grounded or something, and I wasn't getting sound from the pickups.

Checked every damn wire I could find for continuity.

Then I realized in my infinite wisdom, I'd ran the ground wires for the pup together, then to the one lug on the switch. AND THEN FORGOT TO CONNECT THEM TO ACTUAL GROUND.

Rewired, now it works. I'm still confused how the series/parallel ended up backwards, I used a diagram that came with the pup and traced it to determine which way to put the switch....which now that I'm talking about this, I'm again a bit stupid and have the orientation of the switch wrong in relation to which lugs are active. It's reverse of the direction of the switch.

So, well the JB sounds nice, a slight bit noisy in series mode, more than I expected, but then I did rip out all of the copper tape I'd meticulously installed in the pup cavity. Maybe I'll put that back at some point.

Upshot, the neck and the guitar overall feels like a fucking dream to play. So light and comfy, and the A width neck is absolutely perfect in my hands.

I'll update with pics after I get the new nut installed.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:13 am

Pens wrote:Unfortunately, that's too much missing material for me to just fill with wood glue and bone powder and recut. I know, because I tried. The "plug" fell out after I started doing the new slot over it.

use superglue not wood glue.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:20 am

Mages wrote:
Pens wrote:Unfortunately, that's too much missing material for me to just fill with wood glue and bone powder and recut. I know, because I tried. The "plug" fell out after I started doing the new slot over it.
use superglue not wood glue.

Don't have any on hand. It's 1am so I'm going to just wait until the morning, go to the guitar shop and buy another blank. I'd rather get it right.

In other news, some more bits of finish came off when I removed some of the copper tape. However, it was all around screw holes that are under the pickguard, so they don't show.

I've been just playing this guitar all night, didn't bother going out to drink. It's so fucking comfortable. I've never played a guitar that had a neck this nice before.

I'm terribly afraid now for what this guitar is going to do to my alcoholism.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:28 am

Pens wrote:
Mages wrote:
Pens wrote:Unfortunately, that's too much missing material for me to just fill with wood glue and bone powder and recut. I know, because I tried. The "plug" fell out after I started doing the new slot over it.
use superglue not wood glue.
Don't have any on hand.

you should get some! very handy stuff.

Pens wrote:It's 1am so I'm going to just wait until the morning, go to the guitar shop and buy another blank. I'd rather get it right.

that would be best yeah.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:40 pm

It's very satisfying when the project guitar turns out better than you expect it will.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:59 am

Yeah, it does. I was afraid after all of the time and money invested it was going to play like shit, but it doesn't. It plays so fucking nicely. I've been playing it so much today that my forearm actually hurts.

I got a new nut blank, did a stupid thing and started the cuts for the ends to the exact size of the previous one that fit perfect. That meant that after I'd cut it to size, then sanded the rough shit off, it was actually about a mm or two short from the full width of the fretboard. It looks fine and I was able to get the slots all done, but it's one of them nitpicky things that I will probably go back later and redo.

I am, however, getting that annoying ghost note bullshit that I was getting with my Supersonic, except this time on the B string rather than G. As I still don't know what fixed the problem before, I'm not sure what to do exactly except hope it goes away. I did notice that if I apply a bit of extra tension after the nut it seems to go away, but I'm not sure if that's because the note is then sharper and isn't resonating, or if it's a lack of tension behind the nut on those strings. If it's the latter, I can install a second string tee further up from the other tee to try to fix that. It's not really that big of a deal though.

I love this fucking guitar. It's light like my Supersonic, but has a neck more like my Jag, and the bridge is fucking fantastic. It's the sum of all of the things I liked about various guitars, all in one guitar. The A width is also so goddamn easy to play on with my tiny hands. The strings are just exactly where I expect them to be.

Johnny Noir · Post by **Johnny Noir** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:17 am

great!

make a video

broomhandle · Post by **broomhandle** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:12 pm

any pics of your finished green? i was thinking about using that same paint. it works great on cars..

also, what did you do to your headstock, looks great and vintage!

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:56 am

This was taken on Friday just before a show, under the "stage lighting"

Note, the color is Chrysler Forest Green Metallic with Reranch Yellowed Clear over it, so it's not the exact color from the can. You have to blend that shit.

The neck/headstock was all done using Reranch neck amber and satin clearcoat.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 6:30 am

You should be proud about how well it came out. Excited for you.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 7:50 am

Yeh, I love it. Problem is, no matter what people still think it's a kurtz guitar. I was asked after the show that night if I was playing a Jagstang.

Oh, forgot to mention, I did go back and get a proper left-hand taper 500k volume pot and installed it.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:16 am

Dibs should you ever sell it

Johnny Noir · Post by **Johnny Noir** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:31 am

cool, what's your band?

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 12:13 am

Johnny Noir wrote:cool, what's your band?

We are called Shut In. Mix parts of Shellac with the Melvins and the Wipers, and that's us.

Thom wrote:Dibs should you ever sell it

Of course. I don't see myself ever doing so, but it'll be coming to the 'Scale Classifieds if that happens.

Johnny Noir · Post by **Johnny Noir** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 7:59 am

French Victory

nice song!