ShortScale.org

stewart wrote:see if bacchuspaul will part with that old V of mike's.

Definitely. I have a GFS Mean 90 to throw you too, if you want it. I got an actual PhatCat off Nick not to long ago, so I've no use for it.

It's the bridge one, though. But it might still work well in the neck if you want to try it. Especially if you're putting some sort of hot, rail pickup in the bridge.

BacchusPaul wrote:

stewart wrote:see if bacchuspaul will part with that old V of mike's.

Definitely. I have a GFS Mean 90 to throw you too, if you want it. I got an actual PhatCat off Nick not to long ago, so I've no use for it.

It's the bridge one, though. But it might still work well in the neck if you want to try it. Especially if you're putting some sort of hot, rail pickup in the bridge.

DAAANG, all these fucking offers today!

How much would you take for the neck, possibly with the tuners?

Nothing. It's Mike's guitar, that I took on the condition that I would improve it a bit, rock it a bit, then pass on for another shortscaler to do the same. Unfortunately, my life has been a bit too much of a shambles these last few years for the plan to take off.

EDIT: you can have the pickup for nothing too, I thought that was implied in the original post. I can't see anywhere it'll go, and I can't see any gaps in my guitar collection either. It might sound the part, or it might not, but it's probably worth a shot.

Wowsers, thanks dude! Doesn't me taking it apart kinda ruin the "pass it on" element though?

I think I ruined that already.

I suppose Mike ought to decide. This seems as good a use for the guitar as any to me, though.

BacchusPaul wrote:I think I ruined that already.

I suppose Mike ought to decide

Ah maaaan; he hates my Marauder plans Maybe I can give him some moneez, it has a lot of parts I'd need for Dave's LP Jr body that I'll be nabbing off him.

Any idea how much it was to ship?

Don't worry about it.

About whut?

Shipping. Sorry, I thought you were asking how much the V was to ship here with a view to shipping it there, and I was saying not to worry about it. Mike covered the shipping when he posted it here.

Yeaaaaah dude, that's what I was asking, I didn't realise you were offering to ship it for free though, fuck!

PM me your Paypal, you gotta have SOME monies towards it.

Not really, I got it for nowt off the decency of Mike. The least I can do is turn that on another shortscaler. Seriously, don't worry about it.

Thanks so much Paul, that's extremely kind of you. Shortscale never fails to impress me, god daaaaaaaaaamn.

Either way, some money will be going to Mike or at least into the Shortscale server fund.

Okay, so I figured whilst I'm waiting on various bits and pieces, I'd plough on with sorting out the colour for the body. Apparently the maroon-burgundy of the real thing is IMPOSSIBLE to find as a wood stain, neither online nor various DIY/craft shops could sort me out.

Soooo, I headed towards the lycracunt haven of Halfords and picked up some "Rover Damask Red" spraypaint, the closest the shop had to the colour I wanted. A light test spray on some scrap bits of pine (or similar) made it look just a little too vibrant and bright; a heavier spraying just started to cover up the grain.

I was feeling a little crestfallen when, from the depth of Hades (our garage), I uncovered some ancient* Colron 'Indian Rosewood' wood dye to darken down the wood. An hour later, I had this, which is pretty damn close to what I wanted.


It's a lot nicer in person, although I tried a little light sanding on one side (left half on the pic), but obviously the paint nor stain was thick enough, as it gave way to some of the paler wood beneath.

While I'm sure using a very small amount of spraypaint isn't exactly GOOD WORKWORK SCIENCE, I'm pretty happy. It'll of course be done very carefully on the real thing, and then lacquered muchly to keep it all shiny and non-chipped.

*This wood dye cost £0.45 from Rowlinson H.I.C in Crewe apparently, which is where my folks briefly lived when my now-32 year old sister was born. Crewe, not the DIY store.

Are you using 'grain filler' Doog or do you want the grain showing through the finish?
Also, if you can get hold of some sanding sealer you will use a lot less paint. The wood just sucks it in otherwise.

In my guitar building experience the majority of cost is in the finishing, which sucks.

Following a brief wood-staining and reception of my (incorrectly coloured) custom scratchplate and awesome free Mean 90, here is where we're at: I've filled the pot, switch and output jack holes in the body with plastic wood, plus the neck screwholes: as the "Flying Mike" V neck is wider than the Hondo's original neck, it needs brand new screwholes, plus the neckpocket widening I've already done. I've filled in the old screwholes, plus carefully measured out where the new ones need to be in relation to the bridge, the new neck and its respective holes.

I actually did the staining two weeks ago, and it seems like a lot of stain was still just "hanging around" on top of the body, easily rubbed off. The various other scratches and such means I gotta sand it all flat and give it another go, but at least it'll look a bit more uniform next time, not to mention mask the neck plasticwood plugs.

I was thinking about somehow painting or otherwise colouring the scratchplate white (my ACTUAL request, Aurora Project guitars..) to reduce extra time and cost to get it sorted, but I'm kinda warming to it.

To be honest, I think that dark colours will look cool on this, kind of seventies and slightly, I dunno, steampunk'd. I always think that Marauders look machinelike.

The pickup is black nickel, too. I probably should have mentioned that.

You may well be right, Paul! I love the look of the pickup incidentally; I wanted to put a bucker-size P90 in the neck and this just looks awesome! Sooo, super thanks for that

Following some of the aforementioned sanding, a bit of drilling and sweating later and ze neck ist on! I didn't have any strings to hand to check the straightness of this totally DIY attachment, so I made a loop of thread through the bridge, tailpiece and tuners to act as my make-believe E strings. I'm almost shocked that it appears to have gone so well! It might be a little biased towards the thin E (giving the thick E too much space), but I think it''ll be workable. I especially enjoy that the lamp-lighting in my photos make it look like a seedy Reader's Wives photo shoot or something.

Think it looks great with the black PG Doog.

Definitely prefer black pickguard to white. Looks awesome so far!

i know you want woodstain (:S) but i think it'd look cool with the body white, it'd match the headstock and the black guard would finish it off nicely.