Wez venables guitar build - Done and dusted!!

[WezV]

here is what i am thinking:



why i didnt just draw that on the wood and take a pic i will never know.  would have taken half as long and looked twice as good - but you get the idea

[Woogie]

I would make it slightly more rounded on the end bit. It looks like an ESP headstock now.

[WezV]

picture tells a thousand words woogie!!

 

[WezV]

bit more progress today.

neck is fitted to body -




obviously still some tidying up to do in the cutaways but tis getting there!

I still need to sort the neck angle out which i will do by putting an angle onto the heel of the neck.  I was going to angle the pocket but the templates i have for a strat wont really allow that so i will have to approach it from a different way - both work just as well

Also i am leaving the body a bit thick at 2" so it will be a bit of a chunky strat.  The wood is light enough that it wont be too heavy and i reckon the extra girth will suit it  - but i might do some subtle bevels around the edge rather than go for the usual roundover, will see what takes my fancy .  I will also do something with the heel to add comfort but still havnt decided what.  might be a AANJ - might be something more subtle

i reckon i will order pickups this week so am now open to suggestions for what to go for.  The overall tone of this should be similar to a mahogany bodied guitar but with less muddiness and i want something that will be a good all rounder.

[Transcend]

I think what hate growth meant by that statement is that the Fender headstock shapes are often imitated by the vast number of strat copies etc on the market. And it is this imitation that has made them much less distinctive than they once were. And therefore people that use the Fender shapes on custom guitars are giving themselves a less individual instrument by copying the thousands of other similar guitars on the market.

That was my interpretation :P

Got it in one :D

[Transcend]

hmmm just a thought a boxing glove was mentioned as a inlay because its made from ideas on theis forum....... two words spring to mind BARE KNUCKLE

so maybe a fist...... just like the one on the st anger cover but upwards rather than downwards.....


jsut a suggestion.

[Will]

I like your headstock idea, maybe do it similar to a birds beak?

like the buzzard bass but different

I am sticking with the idea of different pickups! mini humbuckers!!!!! :D

just curious, why do you have the whassit stripe on the back of the neck?

[Transcend]

I like your headstock idea, maybe do it similar to a birds beak?

like the buzzard bass but different

I am sticking with the idea of different pickups! mini humbuckers!!!!! :D

just curious, why do you have the whassit stripe on the back of the neck?

i believe its the routing for the truss rod

[Will]

hmmm just a thought a boxing glove was mentioned as a inlay because its made from ideas on theis forum....... two words spring to mind BARE KNUCKLE

so maybe a fist...... just like the one on the st anger cover but upwards rather than downwards.....


jsut a suggestion.

how about a fist coming at you? so you mainly see the fingers?
I am sure i have seen a guitar with something similar in brass on the 12th fret and it looked GREAT

[WezV]

goo d ideas for the inlay  - i will sketch something out later.  I am curently routing for two humbuckers so thats gonna be what it has.

the skunk stripe on fender necks is traditionally because the neck is made out of one piece of wood so you have to route for the truss rod from the back rather than hide it under the fretboard. - although there are quite a lot of fenders in the world with a seperate fretboard and they still have the skunk stripe but we dont need to get into that.

this is a solid indian rosewood neck without a seperate fretboard so the truss rod has to go in from the back as i dont feel like getting clever like G&L do!!

[WezV]

i have now drilled for the bridge and routed the humbuckers.


You may notice i have gone for a full T-O-M + stopbar combo.  It was just because i found an extra stopbar in the bits box, bit of an impulse really - although in the pics i have a chrome bridge and nickel stopbar because i must have grabbed the wrong one.  they will match on the finished guitar.

Mock-up with parts:



They are some el cheapo epiphone chrome covered humbuckers - but i reckon its gonna need something that looks more interesting that that.

[WezV]

i wasnt happy with the muddiness of the spalt so i have cleaned it up and redone the hardening process.

much nicer definition on the spalt now

[dave_mc]

looks really nice so far...  :twisted:

[Will]

thats almost ok for a strat!
although I prefer the spalt before you re-did it or whatever you call it lol
nice job
raw nickel for the metal?

[WezV]

the problem would be getting hardware to match raw nickel and bright chrome might not work - i want to use what i have which limits us to chrome for the hardware, but i am considering camo or somehow aged pickups.

The spalt has much more definition in the black lines now and that cant be a bad thing.  If i dislike the colour when its got a coat of lacquer on it it may get tinted slightly - possible make it all a shade or two darker