Guitar Project: Custom Build

A while ago my camera fell off my desk, and now it doesn’t work.That means this build is going to be rather truncated in terms of photos and blogging.In fact, I’m doing it all in one entry.To be honest, I wasn’t getting a whole lot of feedback from people, and it was a little disappointing considering how many hours I put into the entries.The build itself was pretty similar to the Les Paul Junior; multiple pieces of wood glued together to make the body and neck.Actually, this neck and the Junior’s are cut from the same piece of wood.I used a design I had previously built, though this one was modified from the original.The body is slightly thicker than usual, because it is also slightly smaller than the original.It is a design I created myself, and it is much more comfortable than it looks.I used a 3/4″ roundover on the back (except where I put the input jack) and a 1/4″ on the front.The neck has 24 frets (instead of my usual 22), and uses two EMG humbuckers.  The guitar has black hardware; 3×3 tuners and a Gotoh 510 hardtail bridge. It’s pretty light and it rings when you tap it, so that’s always a good sign. I used a Warmoth truss rod that I had in the parts box.I painted it white:But it seemed a little… blah.I had a blue strap, so I painted it blue:Hmmm… not feeling it.Back to white:But that wasn’t going to do it.Let’s try fuchsia:Let’s not.Let’s go back to white.I know! Fluorescent green!I always wanted a green guitar, and I already have fluorescent pink and orange guitars.On this guitar, I managed to make a pretty nice volute on the neck.It seems kinda silly to go to that effort and then paint over it.It’s no more silly or meaningless than putting a volute on a quartersawn neck.Even so, I’ve been wanting to improve my volutes, so to speak.The neck-body joint came out nicely, but the fluorescence of the green paint nuked the iPhone camera.This guitar also uses a design feature that I like because it helps make sure the guitar stays plugged in. The guitar cord gets plugged in on a horizontal plane into a recessed jack plate like Stratocasters have.That’s a little hard to see, so let’s use another photo.  That’s not much more helpful. Hmmm… One last try.Okay, maybe I’ll wait until assembly. It should be clearer then. I hope. I’m just glad I settled on a color for the guitar. “Why don’t you stop lying to these people, Sean?”That’s Vernon Reid, the guitarist for Living Colour.Their 1987 debut,  Vivid, was one of the defining records of the 80s for me. I first heard about the band via an interview in  Guitar Player magazine:  Included in the issue was a ‘flexi-disk’ that you could play on your stereo. It had the bands first single, “Cult of Personality.” I can’t describe how it sounded, so see for yourself:As much as I loved Vernon’s playing, I also loved that ESP guitar. Say what you will about the 80s, but they were a great time for guitar design and especially graphics. People were doing new things and breaking new ground, and ESP was at the forefront. It wasn’t a very common finish, but ESP did a few guitars in it:The process involves layering paint in a specific sequence, and then gently wet-sanding back through the layers to create the effect.So that if I wanted to re-create the finish on Vernon Reid’s ESP, I would have to paint my guitar white-blue-white-fuchsia-white-green. I can tell that by looking at the pattern on his guitar.The guitar below uses the same colors:You can use any combination of colors, though let’s be honest: it looks best with bright colors. And it’s actually a very easy finish to accomplish. All you need is some water and some sandpaper.And a guitar painted in layers…Let’s make a mess!!!I had a selection of sandpaper grits, because I wanted to go slowly at first, to get used to the technique and see which one worked best.So there it is. The first mark. I learned a while ago that when you’re trying something new, START ON THE BACK. That’s what I did here, and I have to say I was kind of nervous.I started with 600 grit, but it wasn’t cutting fast enough.I ended up going all the way down to 150 grit, but still used water with a little bit of dish detergent in it. It makes the sanding much smoother and more predictable.I took as many pictures as I could remember to, and my hands were water-logged and covered in soapy paint-powder, so I didn’t want to wreck my phone.   As I worked my way around the guitar, I got much better at it, and learned how to manipulate and predict the results.As you can see, I’ve worked my way onto the neck. I wasn’t really sure how to go about this whole process, so I just kind of guessed.The volute ended up being a pretty good spot for the process.   Even though the back of the neck is generally unseen, I wanted to be thorough.**** This is a good representation of the actual colors.The face came out pretty well, I think.  By the time the back  and neck were finished, I was ready to move to the front.   The only hard part is the first spot, but once you do that one, the rest of them just sort of follow.   I wanted to see if I could get a large spot of one of the lower colors, and I managed to do it:The iPhone camera doesn’t like the green. In real life it’s much more even, but even so it doesn’t look too bad. Once assembled, the guitar plays well and sounds good.I made the neck typically huge, and I find it very comfortable.  This neck has 24 frets instead of the usual 22. I wanted to have at least one guitar with 24 frets, even though it puts the pickups closer together. The 4 uppermost frets are smaller than the rest. Billy Sheehan does this on his signature Yamaha Attitude basses to make playing in the upper register easier.I did it because I ran out of the bigger fretwire, but it all works out anyway…  Maybe now you can see what I meant about the input jack.Eventually I’d like to put in matching green pickups.I have the D Sonic for the bridge, but I’d need to get the neck pickup.Considering my current financial realities, that will probably take a while.Until then, I’ll just practice my Metal Face.