Marauder Copy Project

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:15 pm

No, not that Marauder. The Gibson one. A Marauder Custom to be exact.

This one's in the early stages but I thought I'd post a few pics.
Neck is from a 70s MIJ LP copy. It had no frets and the binding was missing when I got it.
I refretted and put new binding on. I'm still working on filing the binding down flush with the frets.
Slow and tedious work. At least it is for me.
Got the pickguard shape down. I was going to do a black pickguard but I didn't have enough material.
No pickup routes yet since I'm not sure what's going in it.
Something cheap most likely.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:26 pm

Nice one. Screaming for a p90 or filteron/GFS retrotron

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:31 pm

YES!!!

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:39 pm

love the tail end of the pick guard.

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:05 pm

gaybear wrote:love the tail end of the pick guard.

Me too. I liked the pickguard on the Gibson S1 better than the Marauder. Then I ran across a picture of
a Marauder Custom. That was it. The best of both guitars rolled into one.
I'll still probably go back and make a 3 ply black pickguard eventually.

Just finished adding contours. I'll have to smooth the rest by hand.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:52 am

How did you make the contours?

mordechaister · Post by **mordechaister** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:11 am

Classy. What kind of bridge are you gonna use?

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:55 am

you put binding on it, you say?

can you eat without putting gloves on?

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:03 pm

DGNR8 wrote:How did you make the contours?

I used an 80 grit sanding disc on a hand drill. Sketched out the limits of the contour then slowly started
grinding away. Then I smooth it out with a palm sander.

mordechaister wrote:Classy. What kind of bridge are you gonna use?

Allparts sells a harmonica bridge like the original Marauders have. I hope to score one of those.

SKC Willie wrote:you put binding on it, you say?

Yes, binding on the neck.

SKC Willie wrote:can you eat without putting gloves on?

Yes, but huh?

Are you talking about the binding glue? That stuff is nasty. Your hands and sleeves look like a preschooler with a head cold by the time you're finished.

Here's the picture that got me hooked on the Marauder Customs.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 2:24 pm

looks great! mad skillz, again.

Post by **Doog** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 2:36 pm

Very nice indeed, sir! A classy and interesting guitar to build a copy of. What colour are you gonna finish it?

One of these days, I'll be able to do some more work on my Marauder copy. I shot a can of Halfords colour on it a month or two ago to see how it turned out.. not too bad at all, may have to clearcoat it with 'vintage' ting clear though. Still annoyed that the assbutts at THE AURORA PROJECT fucked up my order and made me BWB rather than WBW like I'd asked for 5 times.

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:08 pm

Thanks guys!

Not sure about the color yet. I was hoping to go with a natural color and a black pickguard
but I need to figure out the pickup situation before I decide.

Yours looks great. That's one of the colors they originally came in isn't it? It actually looks pretty sweet with
the black pickguard.

Post by **Doog** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:49 pm

Thanks man, it was actually a Hohner LP Jr body and neck that I swapped Dave some parts for- I've done nowt really apart from routing and painting it, you're the hero here.

Yeah, I was going for the kinda "cherry" vibe that the originals had, but without any woodgrain showing through, it just looks a bit plasticy and weird

jamba72 · Post by **jamba72** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 6:37 pm

wow..the custom Marauder definitley looks nice wit neck binding.. a DC version would be nice , too..

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:44 am

old band mate had one, totally ripped compared to my teles

Ben79 · Post by **Ben79** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:08 pm

Nice work. Looking forward to seeing how this goes. I want one, seems more interesting than a boring old Paul.

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:51 pm

i say do a TOM bridge and a jazzy/jag trem.. but that is just me...

kinda like this:

► Show Spoiler

Ben79 · Post by **Ben79** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:20 pm

Or a Bigsby?

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:22 pm

Bigsby's look cool but for me it's like being 13 and having a hard on.
It just gets in the way and no matter how much I yank on it nothing constructive is going to come out of it.
I've never had much use for a trem of any sort even though I've owned a few guitars with Bigsby's.
They do look cool.

Finished scraping and filing the binding. You might not be able to tell it from the picture but
there's a little white nub of binding left at the end of each fret. What a pain. I'd like to see how
Gibson does it 'cause I'm sure I didn't do it the easiest way.

crazydave911 · Post by **crazydave911** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:05 pm

cooterfinger wrote:
Allparts sells a harmonica bridge like the original Marauders have. I hope to score one of those

I believe guitarpartsresource has it somewhat cheaper. It's the original Gotoh bridge

EDIT, here is the link, Bridge
BTW, I looked over the allparts and can't find the one you mean. Found "SG type" bridge that looks similar, but really isn't close. The one on my L6 (severely butchered headstock

) I think contributes as much to the sound as the Bill Lawrence pups. With that slim maple body, it adds a "bell" like quality. I tried a Gibson nashville bridge somebody gave me and while it looked spiffier, it took enough away from the tone that I swapped the old one back the same day

Dave