Project Appletree - electric guitar build log

[19_blackie_73]

hello one and all
I managed to get another milestone done

but first off, continued finishing the plug thingy from yesterday, now it's glued up. It's quite a pain to get it to fit kinda right. Plug done:

 

aaaaaaan glued into place:

 

Next step is sanding it flush, but that has to wait until thursday, won't be able to do anything tomorrow.

 

AND NOWWWWWWWWWWWW the milestone: I started carving the neck for now it is in the rough shape and sanded with 80 grit, but I'll have to do a few minor tweaks. I went for a chunky profile with around 26mm of thickness (my strat neck is only 22 mm on the first fret) because I have large hands and played a 50s style strat with a very chunky neck at my local music retailer which I liked very much. So we'll see if it is playable this way or if I have to change that later. I will test that before the final finishing.

 

That's it for today, thanks for having a look

[19_blackie_73]

another update:
First of I finished of the infill I did:

 

Next up, I did some additional shaping to the neck and did a water test to see how it will maybe look like when finished:

Also sanded quite a bit of the heel of the neck so it's sits more or less at the right height at the moment, though no pics as of now.

The other thing I made today was the shaping of the top on the two horns. I didn't make it as big as I originally planned to do as starting to shape it I thought it would look better that way.

 

Next steps are sanding, sanding and a lot more sanding, the positioning of the knobs and the switch, ordering finally the pickups and doing the routing for them. Also I need to position the bridge and lock that down.

Another thing I now need to decide on within the next days is the finish, I want something that really enhances the grain.

That's it for today, thanks for stopping by

 

[19_blackie_73]

Another update, the last one for this week. Due to family obligations I'm not able to do anymore this weekend + I need to wait on some packages to arrive.

 

BUT back to the topic of updating you all:

In short: It took me more than 2 hours for 12 holes. First of: mounting of the neck. I needed to make a spacer because the screws were too long, they are definitely designed for fatter bodys. Due to no other source atm for black 4x40/35 wood screws I stick with them for now and the spacer, but if I get the opportunity, I will swap them later on. With some sanding the spacer should look fine, but not excellent of course. It's just a rough fit for now to see if the instrument as a whole works out

 

Next thing: knob layout. This took me probably the longest time to decide how to do it. I settled on the design mostly because of ergonomics and how they fit in the compartment, especially the 3-way switch. The two more inner knobs will be volume of each pickup and the outer ones tone. Mostly because I don't use the tones while playing, they are most times set and forget. This is kinda different to how they are positioned on gibsons, but I don't care (FYI most Les Pauls (AFAIK) have the volumes horizontally and the according tone knob vertically to the volume (referred to the pic below))

 

As you can see, the output jack is also mounted:

this was quite a pain in the ass to get in because I only have 20mm forstner bits and the black thingy has 22mm outer diameter... So after a lot of dremel work, it finally fit.

 

Next up, I mounted the bridge. This was only measure measure and cut drill, As the bridge has a large adjustment path for the intonation, I positioned the saddles kinda in the middle and put that the scale length away from the nut. Worst case: I can't get the intonation right and have to plug the holes and drill new ones. But it should fit.

 

 

Finally a complete shot of the guitar, I'm more than happy how it turned out:

 

Now I'm waiting on a huge order from crimson guitars for some fretworking tools (I hope shipping from uk doesn't take ages), I'm in contact with the guy who makes the pickups (hope they have not a huge delivery time) and I'm in contact with a local guy for helping me to fit the nut because nut files are damn expensive.

Things I can do at the moment is starting on the fret ends, drilling the tuners in and sanding, sanding sanding.

 

So that's it, have a nice day

[Dissitesuxba11s]

2 hours ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

Finally a complete shot of the guitar, I'm more than happy how it turned out:

That looks sick! Great job!

[19_blackie_73]

7 hours ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

That looks sick! Great job!

Thank you now it just has to play and sound as good as it looks

[19_blackie_73]

small update:
I managed to drill the holes for the tuners (and install them) ...

 

 

... and as impatient as I am string that baby up for a check if the bridge sits, playability is given (note that the fretwork is far from done) and also intonation and string height is workable. Concerning the latter, I need to either give the neck a slightly different angle or take a mm or two off the heel to get the action right.

 

Instead of getting more work done, I just played that thing for like half an hour even though it was pretty bad set up and the frets are far from level. A first sneak peak on how it sounds is attached below (sorry for the lack of tuning and sound quality; recorded this on my phone and because new strings, they went out of tune very fast).

Stay tuned (no pun intended (or did I?)

Firstnotes.mp3

 

[19_blackie_73]

Another small-ish update
First off, I put in the side dots: glued in ....

 

and sanded flush:

What I need to find out is how the get rid of the ebony dust because it tints the dots gray...
 

Also filled in the crack on the headstock, so now everything that needs to be filled in is filled in.

Glued the wood in....

 

.... trimmed most of the part with a saw ....

 

and sanded everything flush:

 

Last thing: I drilled the hole for the ground wire of the bridge:

 

I also did some sanding on various pieces, but that's very hard to show on camera
 

 

Now I'm waiting for the pickups and the order from crimson guitars with fret leveling equipment to arrive. Crimson said the send the stuff somewhere this week so it should arrive few days later. Pickups should arrive mid to end of this week too. Also waiting for a friend of mine to bring me some oil based finish over, but that is not that urgent as I need to route the pickup cavities first before finishing. Also ordered from Crimson is a set of scrapers, so this should eliminate a ton of sanding work (hopefully).
 

I went for a set of Häussel 1956 P90s in the traditional soapbar format, I'm really interested how they will sound.
 

The only things I can do right now is waiting and maybe doing the plate to cover the trussrod access hole. other than that, not much more to do.

[19_blackie_73]

hello one and all huuuuuuuuge update time

 

First off, the order from Crimson Guitars arrived mainly fret levelling stuff and a few other random bits and bobs. I ordered their essential fret levelling kit:

 

quality is indeed outstanding And of course, took it to work allthough I messed that part a bit up (more on that later)

 

 

After that, on to the pickup cavities:

 

aaaaaaaaand they are test fitted:

 

Most of the work in the last days was sanding, so not much to show.

After that, oiling the body:

 

 

the difference between the middle part and the outer parts is less than I expected, but honestly, I'm fine with that. Oiling and waxing finished:

 

 

After that, on to the electronics:

 

First off, copper foil to reduce the hum:

 

After that, adding all the parts and soldering all together:

 

 

for all that are wondering, what parts I used on the electronics side: I decided on 250k linear potis for volume and 500k logarithmic potis for the tone knobs together with 22 nF capacitors. The switching I used is following:

 

Last step before final assembly: oiling and wacing the covers and other random bits:

 

 

with all that stuff and the magic of blogging, it's FINISHED

 

 

I'm very, very happy how it turned out. And compared to my strat, the sound is fat as hell. I didn't even know my amp was capable of such a fat sound.

 

After initial setup, I found out that I overcorrected the neck angle and height, so I probably need to shim it to get the action lower. But even with the really high action I get fret buzz on the low strings, so I guess I should redo the fret levelling part as I noticed after the first attempt, I had a slight curve in the neck. I thought they are level after checking the frets with the fret rocker, doesn't seem so.
Another thing is I need to change the pickup screws as they are too long and I stripped two of them, these small philips heads are a pain in such a hard wood.

I may give a short update when it is done.

If anybody wants to see a full part list and a rough list of costs, also what I had to order for tools, I can add that later on too.

 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

On 6/17/2019 at 5:26 AM, 19_blackie_73 said:

 

Great job dude! The finished product looks like it was professionally built.

[Enochian]

congrats ! very nice ! I guess it's quite heavy, right? 

At first i was just going trough the screens and waiting for the moment when you'll add pc components inside and was wondering how you will fit them xd

[19_blackie_73]

On 6/19/2019 at 4:17 AM, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Great job dude! The finished product looks like it was professionally built.

Thank you very much, I'm very very pleased how it turned out and more than suprised that it worked out that good

2 hours ago, Enochian said:

congrats ! very nice ! I guess it's quite heavy, right? 

At first i was just going trough the screens and waiting for the moment when you'll add pc components inside and was wondering how you will fit them xd

Thank you It's kinda heavy for a strat style guitar, that's true, with its 4.4kg (for reference, my strat has 3kg), but Les Paul Type guitars can get even heavier than that.

Maybe the next one will have rgb and a rasp pi for control

[.Apex.]

On 6/17/2019 at 12:26 PM, 19_blackie_73 said:

 

Holy fuck this turned out amazing I love the dark natural finish, you did a fantastic job

[19_blackie_73]

13 minutes ago, _Syn_ said:

Holy fuck this turned out amazing I love the dark natural finish, you did a fantastic job

Thank you very much can't wait to start my second build this year. And still playing this beauty, even if I will reshape the neck a bit to make it more comfortable

[19_blackie_73]

Hello one and all; it's been a while, but one last update with the final changes:

 

After playing it for the last half year, the neck was to uncomfortable for me. So I went hunting and found 1.) some awesome japenese smooth cut files and a saw rasp 2.) a template for a fender vintage soft v and a modern v profile and 3.) a lot of time (ok that's sorta a lie, was the counterweight for studying and procrastination )

 

I can't show you the reprofiling as it is hard to convey on camera, but I perfected a few touches that bothered me since day 1.

first of, making the neck volute nice:

 

Second, I found some apple wood scraps and supported the tuner for the d string as it hang in the air mostly:

 

 

Third: I made the cover for the trussrod access way smaller and sleeker:

 

While I'm there, the nut hang in the air so I fitted a new one that sits right:

 

As you can see in the cover photo, I sourced some nice black screws. Not only for the trussrod cover, but also for the cover on the electronic cavity and some shorter screws for the neck, so I don't need that stupid wood piece to raise accommodate the to long screws:

 

And last but not least: I finally added a logo. That was the tough part to figure out: If you lacquer your guitar, it is no problem to use waterslide decals between two coats of paint and get your logo this way. But, multiple forums and suppliers suggested that that wouldn't work on oil finishes. Sooooo not an option. Having no access to a cnc and being not skilled enough and not having the time to deal with a finicky coping saw or something like that, I went hunting for a pickguard material that is usually used for acoustic guitars (this type of pickguard is less than a mm thick, standard electric guitar pickguards are most times plys of three layers and around 2-2,5mm thick). I was able to cut it out with a simple scalpel and stick it on with double sided tape. for the logo I went with my initals with a 1 for my first ever completely self-built electric guitar.

 

 

That concludes the build log as I consider it now done, it's time for the next one starting in March. Thanks for everyone that followed or read through the story on how to be a lunatic

[mr moose]

Very nice work man.  Very Nice!!

 

 

 

[19_blackie_73]

On 6/5/2020 at 1:54 AM, mr moose said:

Very nice work man.  Very Nice!!

 

 

 

Thanks