150611
The 15th of June 2011
The custom Plagiarist guitar is pretty much complete.. though still without a beating heart!
The control layout is drilled
the cavity shielded
and I make a start on wiring the magnetic side of things.. it helps to keep these processes modular where possible
I shield the bottom of each pot to stop the contacts shorting out on the shielding.
The grounding is wired in
and the postman arrives.. gold coloured fretwire and some composite stone inlay material.. oh yes!!
Testing time!! The magnetics are just perfect!
Now to the ghost acoustiphonic preamp and all of it’s associated gubbins. A really top notch system in the end and not too crazy to install.
Although looking at it it seems pretty damn scary! We’ve opted for an internal battery here, the unsightly plastic battery boxes that are the only other option are, well.. ugly and just doesn’t suit this guitar!!
Magnetic volume and tone with a coil tap on the tone pot and a three way toggle. The piezo has a volume, tone Mid/dark switch and a piezo/mix/magnetic toggle selector.. with the bespoke P-90 in the neck, the humbucker and piezo options this is one incredibly versatile guitar and I am in love!
All our guitars now ship out in Hiscox cases.. superb craftsmanship indeed!
Sawdust over software any time but I need to record some video demos as each guitar is completed…
And here is one very very happy customer.. I on the other hand am actually rather sad to see this one go!
The next guitar in the build list, a twin neck design with a seve string neck on the bottom with twin humbuckers and a fouteen string neck with piezo’s and an acoustic chamber layout on the top, all based on one of my favourite guitars of all time, the Ernie Ball silhouette.
the seven string headstock is designed
and then one of my earlier guitars comes back in for a pickup and scratchplate.. I was rather hoping to build more jazz guitars..
Though in the future I’ll be the one doing the finishing!!!
In the meantime the fourteen string headstock is drawn up.. long!!!
The necks are also not going to be built along the lines we normally follow, both will be constructed from just one piece of solid mahogany and will be bolted in place instead of multi-laminate and glued in.. should be fun.
The two blanks are roughed out from a single plank
and, again, my plane is sharpened
using a truly sharp tool is like carressing the wood.. I love my job!
Computers are much less fun but the Gallery needed an over-haul.. now as well as the drop down menus you can browse the thumbnails on the page..
I’ve finally got to cutting out the photo’s of this Robert Fripp slim and adding them to the gallery too..
Back to my day job and the neck dimensions are marked out
The truss rod channels are routed, dual action of course…
We’re going Dimarzio with the seven string side of the build.. I’m finding myself wondering why I’ve been so hard on mass-produced pickups.. recieved wisdom is not the best thing to base ones proffessional opinion on now is it?
The excess neck material is bandsawed away
and I slowly plane the sides of the neck blanks down to the required dimensions
x 2!
The ebony fretboards go through the big drum sander
and then the fret slots are cut into each of them
Finally the truss rods are covered with masking tape to protect them from the glue and the boards are glued in place.
After a few hours the fretboards have cured and the excess is bandsawed away
and then planed flush with the necks.
The radius, a non-compound 15 inch radius, is planed in by hand
With some help from this radis guage through the process of course, you can’t have too many toys in luthiery!
The radius is finalised with the big random orbital sander.. it is surprisingly easy to keep things nice and level when using one of these.
Behold the inlay materials, a composite reconstituted stone material that I’ve not used before
The printed inlay design is taped to the material
and then the outline cut in with a scalpel
before using a jewelers saw to cut the final design out..
Slowly..
but surely I get through the inlays.. I can’t wait to see the finished article, especially since we’re using gold coloured frets!
All my best,
Ben
Crimson custom Guitars UK