ShortScale.org

astro wrote:What about cannibalizing a Squier Venus XII for the bridge and pickups? I don't know how much these are worth so I have no idea if that would be cost effective.

I would like one of those Venus XII. More affordable than an original XII. I would love to see a shootout between a Fender XII and a Venus XII

Oh man, I hadn't even noticed the Venus guts before. I would be leery of hacking a future collectible though. Better to hear back from Curtis and make my own covers. I put on the filler coat last night, so the next step would have been priming (had I been going with straight white). The burst will give me practice. I am going to try using some leftover butterscotch blonde in the damaged areas, but just to see what it looks like. I have tried it before, and obscuring the grain makes it look like a tacky Coney Island pinball machine.

do an burst-under-solid how to! i want to do burst on something...

I would be really tempted to find a used Jagmaster, buy a 12 string neck and bridge and make a poor man's XII. Would have to buy new pickups and pickguard. but it would be fun. The Jagmaster can take the 25.5" neck no problem. I am not sure about bridge placement or whether I would have to fill in the hole from the strat trem. I guess I could get the Strat XII bridge or Gotoh 12 string bridge


Excuse the crude Photoshop here

taylornutt wrote:
Excuse the crude Photoshop here

For some reason, I now have total GAS for that thing, in all of its bastardized glory!

tomin8r wrote: For some reason, I now have total GAS for that thing, in all of its bastardized glory!

Jagmaster XII (not to scale)

Original Fender XII


I am definitely no Leo Fender but it might work. The hard part will be keeping costs down. I wish i had not sold my other Jagmaster now. DuuuuuooH!

ugly shit is ugly, but i think you might be onto something nutt.

venus XII is perfect how it is. I like it better than the fender.

endsjustifymeans wrote:venus XII is perfect how it is. I like it better than the fender.

+1 to GNAR!

Well, the burst idea is out. I am out of butterscotch, and I decided I didn't want to sand all of the walnut stain off because I didn't want to lose any more wood than I have to. The good news is that I can paint this weekend and it will be done much more quickly with just primer/white/clears.

The first pic set shows the original damage, as well as the head fix. I highlighted the seam on the headstock, but it is hard to find, and will be even better buried under XX coats. I bought a silkscreen decal on Reranch, which will look bitching.

The second pic set was taken this morning. You can see that I filled in the swimming pool with wood, and used a rock hard epoxy compound to fill in cracks and transitions. The spot on the back is wood with a skim coat of epoxy on top. I think the tone will be fine, but it is what it is. The back has all these great scratches that will get covered over. I am leaving a bunch of dents in it. It's going to look every bit of 40 years old. A lot of the surface was still yellow from Fullerplast and the original burst, so I mixed some yellow pigment into the nitro filler to make it consistent. I am going to have to machine the back string plate out of aluminum. The real piece is made of pure unobtanium.

As you can see (in 5 across, 4 down) the brass plates fit perfectly (if snug) in my new cavities. I did not use a router for any of it. I used a bandsaw to cut the wood out and hand sanded it. There were a few edges I had to chisel. You would be amazed at the clean edges a sharp chisel is capable of making.

looking stellar. can't wait to see how she looks painted.

jings, it's going to be amazing...

dibs if you sell it!

DGNR8 wrote:The real piece is made of pure unobtanium.

rolf

I love to watch papa dgnr8 work. One day maybe I'll have the cashola to afford an archtop restored by his crafty hands.

Damn DGNR8, that body is starting to come along great now that the huge wounds are filled in. Keep it up mate, I'd love to see this painted.

Sooo good.
I love your threads.

When I see those segmented images of progress and skill I get the old school Batman sound effects in my ears

KAPOW

BLAM


BOOOIINNGG

yesssssssssssssss

Magic Chris, you do some pretty amazing work. Thanks for progresspics.

How about using the covers from a mustang bass pickup? I don't know if they are the same dimensions. I have 2 mustang basses so I can measure the covers if you want.

i've heard they do work, i believe someone on offset got into a big debate with novack about it. from what i remember they are 2mm bigger on the outer diameter so you have to trim the guard a bit to make them fit.

stewart wrote:jings, it's going to be amazing...

dibs if you sell it!

second dibs