IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS A MUPPET
To say I'm not exactly practical is probably being kind. I'm a technical cripple, it's as simple as that.
With this is mind, you would probably find it unlikely that I would have spent many years dreaming of making my own guitar, and more so that I am finally - more than a quarter of a century after the cassette-box-fiasco - taking the plunge, but that is exactly what I am attempting to do and I thought it might be fun to record my 'progress', assuming I ever make any.
This series of articles then is my record of what happens when a complete no-hoper tries to build his own guitar, in the hope that there will be a happy ending and that 'if I can do it...' for once means that truly anybody can.
PICKING A KIT - MOTIVATION, DAHLING
First things first, I should say that I've been thinking about building a guitar for quite a while now. Certainly a decade, but in hazier terms for twenty-five years. Even before I could play a guitar - not that that is an area where I have managed to excel either - I wanted to make one of my own, but frankly didn't have a clue where to start.I think what finally pushed me to get my act together and do this, was that I came across a web site called Music King, selling guitar kits from a company called Saga alongside a number of their own. Not just Strats and Telecasters, which I'd seen elsewhere, but Les Pauls and Rickenbackers, Jacksons and Explorers, Thinlines and Les Paul Semis.
OK, in the main they all appeared to be cheap kits, but who am I to complain? This was a chance to at least try to make one and the kits, “with everything you need to make your own guitar” seemed ideal. And yes, it is a kit, but I see this as a good starting point. If I manage to get through this, maybe I'll buy a router and try making the bits myself next time, but one step at a time seems a good idea.
Over a month or so then, I bounced between different options. I've never liked Strats and Teles, mainly because they are so ubiquitous, and I've always liked my guitars to be a bit more interesting. My 'number one' guitar is an old Jazzmaster, and my first real guitar was an SG. OK, still pretty mainstream really, but better by degree than a Red Hank Marvin Everymancaster to my mind.
But which to go for? I was torn between building a guitar I really wanted, and one that was a little easier to put together. The idea of a maple capped mahogany-bodied Les Paul was appealing, but the Music King one seemed to have a bolt-on neck which somewhat killed the dream of ‘authenticity’ never mind infinite sustain. A Les Paul Junior or Explorer could be more fun, as could the Ricky of course, but then the Thinline or, or... Well, I was spoiled for choice.
Of course, it didn't help that most of the kits were out of stock at the time, and I started to look around at other companies before coming across one called DIY Guitar Kits. It's all in the name, of course, and they caught my eye with a couple of their offerings.
As I mentioned earlier, the idea of spending an age (blood, sweat, tears and all that) on a Les Paul with a bolt-on neck didn't really appeal but DIY did two variations on the Les Paul - one with a flamed and another with a spalted maple top, and best of all both of these had glued necks. They also looked cool, it had to be said, and I was pretty much sold on the idea although a tad reticent as they both needed a fair bit more effort in the woodwork department than the Music King kits appeared to.
Dilemmas, dilemmas, and I was back to square one - did I try a simpler build as a first attempt to see if I could do the basics before even starting to think about chopping or sanding or whatever it is you do with wood, or should I just go for it and die of frustration if it proved beyond me?
I'm still not sure what I would have done to be honest, but as luck would have it, I noticed that a slightly damaged DIY kit was being sold on eBay for next to nothing. Cheap enough that I could have a go and not worry too much if it didn't work out, yet a good 'proof of concept' if I did manage to complete it, and a valid step toward something more taxing.
So I went for it, and after all my protestations, it was always going to be a Strat, wasn't it?
ARRIVAL - LIKE ABBA, IT'S HERE
And so I made my bid on eBay (at the very last minute, naturally) and won the auction. I stumped up via PayPal and two days later the kit arrived; my Strat-to-be-built, and seeing the list of parts and multitude of screws, I have to say I wasn't feeling so confident that the easy option was living up to it's billing. Looking at the kit, I was pretty impressed though. The neck is nice and has no dodgy frets, the body is neatly smoothed and the neck and body fit firmly into place without too much fuss. No woodwork needed there, a bonus.Given my Strat prejudices, I would point out that I didn't totally sell out. Although a Strat it most definitely is, I did manage to throw myself one curve ball. I bought a left-handed kit, when I am of the right persuasion. Why do that, you may wonder quite reasonably, and I can only say that I've always fancied a Hendrix 'Monterey' Strat - where he played a right-hander upside down, so I figured I'd do the same in the reverse. I never make things simple for myself; it’s a well known fact of life.
So there I was, box of bits before me, wondering where to start. As it happens, I did the obvious thing and checked off the parts in the box with the list that came with the kit. A couple were actually missing, but the super-helpful chap at DIY promised to sort out replacements so it proved to be no problem. Always worth checking up front though.
As an aside, I was a little worried about DIY Guitars as a company, as I couldn't find anybody initially who had built one of their kits, but I have to say they have been excellent despite me trying my best to confuse things, which I often do.
But to the guitar, for the fact junkies. The body is Basswood on the leftie kit (it was Ash on the right handed one. Not too sure if it makes much of a difference or why they differentiate, but it probably isn't my biggest concern right now.) It has a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard and everything is well presented and tidily finished. Pickups and pots are already installed on the scratch plate (I should say 'loaded' I expect, but I'm not really a guitar nerd and the language doesn't come easy), with this already fitted to the body.
With screws.
Why does that worry me?
Taking it off to paint the thing, I guess.
Hmmm.
All the other parts seem as you'd expect - tuners, strings, plates and trems and stuff. I've never taken a guitar to pieces before of course, so it is actually quite interesting to see what goes on 'under the hood' and I'm surprised how little that really is. I was expecting loads of PCBs I guess, but no it is still very 1950s in there and I suppose it was always going to be given guitarists wish to stop the clock in the '50s.
Luckily for me, the other thing in the box was a set of instructions which having read them, somehow haven't managed to leave me in a daze although I did glaze over here and there, but more due to my lack of an attention span than their writing style. These break the whole process into four quite logical steps:
1. Finish The Body
2. Customising & Finishing The Neck
3. Assembling The Body & Neck
4. Basic Setup
Sounds simple, lets give it a go...
MAYBE A BIT OF RESEARCH BEFORE WE CHOP SOMETHING
Well, since I opened the box, I've been reading around and putting a little bit of a plan together. Since I'll be converting the left-hander into a rightie, and therefore swapping the nut around (I don't fancy trying to fill it and re-cut the grooves) I figured I might as well get a 'better' one. The reason for this is that I'm told that a bone nut will make the whole thing sound better than the cheapie plastic one that came with it, and as I am bound to knacker the existing one when I try and take it off, now seems the time to invest a couple of quid in my first 'upgrade'. I easily found one that looked likely to fit at Axerus and it showed-up the next day in the post - lovely. Think we'll be using them again.The second thing I thought I'd do, is buy some sticky-backed-copper-foil-tape as plastering it on the back of the pick guard and in the control cavities is meant to reduce the hum on a single coil guitar. Worth a go anyway, so I found some on eBay and placed an order. That never showed up, so I ordered some from Direct Products (look for the slug tape) which did. One thing I found out with this is to make sure that you buy the one that has 'conductive adhesive' as basically it means that you just have to overlap the tape and only have to connect one bit to the 'ground'. Otherwise I presume there is more soldering involved. I'm not sure how much it will help, but when I was a nerd-for-a-living, shielding of cables was something I spent a lot of time ticking on lists, so it makes sense to me. Anyway, I can use it to keep the slugs off the pots in the garden if nothing else.
One other change, which has proved to be more fundamental is that my Hendrix-esque design ideas for a groovy Monterey Strat have gone somewhat out of the window as my son (who is 6) has decided that it would be nice if we spent his summer holidays building him a guitar.
Him,
not me.
To this end then there has been a rethink in the design department, and after a visit to Halfords, we are now the proud owners of three cans of car paint - underseal, clear lacquer and star of the show Nissan Micra Red Paint 013.
So a Red Strat which is my ultimate nitemare, but then it's not my guitar anymore so there we go.
I am very calm about all of this.
I am very calm about all of this.
I am very calm about all of this.
He did make one good point though. He suggested that once we have finished his guitar, 'Mom' would be less likely to complain if we did another one for me, and I could even pick the colour.
Bless 'im.
BODY FINISHING - HERE'S WHAT YOU COULD HAVE HAD
And so to the body finishing step. I have to say that the instructions for this part were a little thin, but understandably so as there are so many options. As I explained before I had a change of plan, but what I had originally intended was a little more traditional.Looking around on the net for inspiration, I had come across a site called 'The Manchester Guitar Tech' which had a section on finishing guitars, and I'd pretty much decided on following his advice. He also sells a range of nitro cellulose paints in aerosols, which are perfect for guitars, including a beautiful sparkly blue Fender colour and it was this I had planned to go for, although a can of undercoat, one of the paint and one of the clear coat was going to come in at fifty notes (including P&P).
I think when I finally do myself a guitar (assuming I manage to complete this one) I'll definitely go for a nitro finish as they age beautifully. With this one, something harder wearing and easier to wipe jammy fingerprints off seems a good idea. I've got no hang-ups about tradition though, so time will tell.
Either way, I think we'll follow his instructions as they are aimed at kit building and he seems to know his stuff. Before we got to the painting though, there were a couple of other jobs to sort out.
REPLACING THE NUT - ANOTHER FIVE MINUTE JOB THAT TOOK AN AGE
As I mentioned earlier, I had got hold of a new nut, and assumed that replacing the original one would be a moment's work. Should have known better of course.To remove the existing nut, I'd read that I should find a little bit of wood the same size as the nut (about 1/4" square) and holding it next to the nut hit it with a plastic hammer so that it gently and professionally dislodges from it's position. Well, that sounded easy enough, and if I had a bit of wood or a plastic hammer maybe it would have been, but as will no doubt become a sub-plot of it's own, I didn't and it wasn't.
Instead of the wood then, I figured that a screwdriver would be a good bet, and a traditional claw hammer would work lovely too. And as it turned out, it did work, although 'gently' never came into it and the nut ended-up with the screwdriver embedded in it, so it was probably best that I had a replacement to hand. Still, out it popped much to our surprise.
Just a case of dropping the new one in then, simple.
OK, maybe not. As you have probably worked out by now, none of this is going to be that easy. Getting the new nut in seemed to start quite well, but for some reason it would never sit flat. So for a while we had a cycle of scraping the wood in the slotty bit with the screwdriver, sanding the nut on a helpfully provided piece of emery cloth by those DIY blokes (must buy some of that stuff, I think it might come in handy) until, finally, I was able to knock it into the slot with my claw hammer and a quickly disintegrating coaster which was used as a buffer, and is now hidden behind the settee.
It was at this point that I read somewhere that I should have used some 'Nut Glue', but I'm starting to think that all this talk of Plastic Hammers and Nut Glue is a bit like Glass Hammers and Rubber Nails - somebody is having a laugh and I'm not popping to ask for either of them in Homebase.
So that was that, and it doesn't seem likely to fall out too easily, but if it does I've got some Poundland Super Glue somewhere, that should do it. In summary then, I'm happy enough.
PREPARING THE BODY - EMBALMING FOR BEGINNERS
As I mentioned earlier, the kit had arrived with the 'loaded scratch plate' already screwed onto the body of the guitar. This, I'm sure was somebody being nice when they realised I wasn't the most savvy technician they had ever run into, or maybe it was just to keep the parts together. Either way, I figured that I'd need to take it off if I was going to paint the thing and so I set about unscrewing the scratch plate.I hate unscrewing things. I did mess about trying to raise the humbuckers on an SG once and was mortified when the pickup suddenly disappeared into the body of the guitar as I'd managed to turn the screw the wrong way and had to pay somebody to fish it out. So trying not to show my lad that his dad is a wuss, I left the screws next to the pickups well alone and undid the ones that didn't seem to be close to anything else. I felt quite proficient when I remembered to take the knobs off as well. Not that they will be used again, I don't think, as the latest design plan is a variety of skulls to handle the volume and tone duties.
Anyway, the scratch plate came off, and I even remembered to take a foto of the bits of wire that had been fed through to the hole at the back (I'm guessing it is a ground wire) and through to where the output socket will be - which I'm guessing might be the, err, output. At least I'll know where to put them back now.
And with that being tucked back in the box, the body was clear and ready to undercoat. Just one more little job to do before I cracked open the Halfords primer. Again, I'd read somewhere that it was a lot easier to paint the thing - firstly, if it was hanging up, but secondly if there was a bit of wood attached to the neck joint - something you can hold onto without touching the painted surface of the guitar. This seemed a good idea, and so we braved a timber yard up the road from us (they said 'no-no-no') and then the local Homebase, where we got a few feet of wood for a couple of quid. Another first, buying wood, was followed by a rather poor attempt at cutting it with a hand saw. But cut it was, and then screwed into place so that the guitar body became a guitar lollipop. Lovely.
OK, truth be told, the wood wasn't wide enough, so only two of the four screws could be used, and it split a bit on one of them, so it isn't the strongest, but will have to do.
So all in all, I think we are ready to start spraying some paint around - or at least undercoat - which will be fun. We even bought face masks so we can look like we're on the Tokyo tube while we are doing it...
HEADSTOCK DESIGN - THREE LITTLE STEPS
OK, I'm putting off the paint a little, as I'd like to tell you about designing the head for the guitar. Looking around at other kits, it seems to be pretty standard, but when we opened the box the headstock was not really what you would expect - and doesn't look like one from a Fender Strat. This is due to copyright or trademark issues apparently, and so the guitar-maker has to fashion their own out of what is lovingly named a 'paddle'. I'm guessing that Fender won't come-a-kicking the doors in if you make your own 'for personal use' headstock that in some way looks like one of theirs, but I can see they would probably be more annoyed if you started selling them, even as kits.Fair enough then, but the idea of woodwork naturally didn't really appeal.
So the point of this is that it leaves us with the tricky decision on the shape. As I said before, I was thinking Hendrix when I started this, and so a 70's large Strat shape would have been my first choice, but given the new designer involved is thinking 'Dragon' as his motivation, we're going for something a little more 'unique', complete with teeth.
To do this then, we first of all traced around the 'paddle' onto a piece of A4 and then photocopied a few copies of it. After that it was a case of playing around with felt pens until we had something that looked the part.
Next we cut this shape out of the paper, and then traced around it onto a piece of cardboard (as it would be a better stencil), which again we cut the headstock shape out of.
Thirdly, we drew around the template onto the headstock using a pencil and there we were. Ready to try and find the jigsaw in the garage - hidden since the 'take an inch off the bottom of the door' fiasco, after we had a new carpet fitted a couple of years back.
So basically, we've reached the point where we've either got to paint something or chop it with a jigsaw, and there can be no more prevaricating around the edges. This will be where something goes pear-shaped I expect, but time will tell.
FINALLY DOING SOMETHING - SHAPING THE HEADSTOCK
Well, maybe I found one more way to delay any kind of commitment. As you have probably realised, power tools aren't exactly something I would claim any level of experience with, and as cutting our 'design' into the headstock of the guitar is a bit of a one-chancer, I thought that perhaps a bit of practice on our Homebase bit of wood may be in order.First of all, the question 'where to do this?' popped up. Our garage is full of junk, and our house isn't exactly the place I want to sever any limbs, so finally, I decided the cutting would have to happen in the back garden (can you get blood out of sandstone tiles?) and that I was going to have to invest in a workbench. Looking in the Argos catalogue, I realised that the Black and Decker was a bit out of my price range, and so went for the own-brand 'Challenge' model, reserved it on-line, revved up the Astra and nipped down the road to the Superstore.
All very rock 'n' roll, my life.
Now, I have to say I was a little concerned when a long thin box was handed over, and I hadn't exactly realised I was going to build the thing before I could use it, but an hour or two later and there it was done. OK, it looked twisted and one leg was shorter than the rest (or maybe three were longer) but it had a vice-like grip and it would have to do. I could put the leg on the right way another day.
So finally, block of wood, Challenge jigsaw plugged-in (no instructions to be found, but I managed to work out how to put the bit of hacksaw blade in) and an outline drawn on our scrap of wood, and guess what? It wasn't quite as hard as I thought. Well, I say that, but after a couple of tries I soon realised that keeping the saw flat on the wood helped and that the arrow on the front was actually pointing 1/4" to the left of where I was cutting, not straight down the line, but it got better. It took a few goes, and then a couple more and if I wasn't exactly proficient, I was looking less likely to kill myself or total the guitar.
And so next, I finally bit the bullet and went for it. Bugger it, I thought, I can always buy another neck. Though I will admit that briefly I did wonder about taking DIY Guitars up on their offer, as for £12 they will carve the headstock for you. But no, I needed to get over this... and maybe I could turn it into a Tele headstock if it didn't quite happen right.
And so I did - the first cut - and you know what? Yep, he blade broke on the jigsaw and nearly took my eye out.
Maybe it is a sign, but I'll still go and buy some new blades in the morning. When Peter at DIY Guitars said that this guitar building was addictive, I think he might have meant in a masochistic kind of way.
CUTTING THE HEADSTOCK - PART TWO
Well, no Astra to rev this morning, so it was a walk to Argos to buy a pack of jigsaw blades. Luckily I found that they were cheaper next door in Homebase, which was handy as I also meant to pick-up some sandpaper of various grades as I've realised that if we are going to get this thing finished during the school holidays, I'm going to have to get my finger out and start the painting as I've put it off for three weeks now and have the same left.It was that sort of breathless morning, and when I got home I realised that I had forgotten the sandpaper, obviously.
But back to the headstock, and after one more quick practice with a new blade (well, you can never practice enough now, can you?) I went for it, and although I think it has got to go down as a wee bit rough...a week or two of sanding might just redeem it.
As for the design itself, we've gone non-traditional but not at all complicated - there are just a few straight cuts and a couple of curves. The straight cuts were OKish, but the curves proved more tricky and I think if I was doing it again I'd go for the electric sander approach for those or maybe a hacksaw or something handraulical like that. I might still cock it up, but at least it would be in slo-mo. But there we are, another job jobbed.
PAINTING THE BODY - PLONKING ON THE PRIMER
It has been a long time coming, but with the headstock chopping out of the way, I've girded me loins, bit on a bullet and basically retired to the garage to be alone with my undercoat.As I said before, I’d been searching around the internet to find the best way of doing all of this, and when it comes to painting, there are a multitude of instructions. This means I'm really not sure how many coats of primer, paint and lacquer I should be using. Some places suggest a couple of the first two and a few more of the glossy bit, others talk ten of each with a week or two between. To be honest, given that I'm not expecting the world with this, I'm thinking that I'll go for the former, but basically see how it looks as we go along.
First things first though, I've given the body a light sand. I think I read somewhere that you should do this for no other reason than to give the primer something to stick to. (There was a name for this, but I forget it now – nip it? Nubb it? Dunno.)
Next, to get rid of the dust I should apparently use 'Tack Cloth' which is cheesecloth impregnated with beeswax. Obviously I haven't got any, and though I found it on the U.S web sites, couldn't get it in Homebase, so instead I've gone for a damp and well wrung-out sponge. I know this is probably counter productive, but to be fair the garage is hardly dust free anyway, and I'm expecting to be removing Jurassic-park-like insects from the lacquer as it takes a while to dry. Just have to get creative with the sanding I guess.
So... I left it to dry for a little while after I'd finished with the damp sponge (not that it looked wet, but you know, good form and all that) and then set about it with the can of undercoat.
Thinking about how you actually put the paint onto the wood, the Manchester guitar tech site suggests that you should start from the outside and gently build up the paint, moving towards the centre of the guitar and this is what I tried to do. I'd got the guitar body (still screwed onto my piece of wood) standing vertically in the workbench which was good as it meant that I could spray all the way around in one session. One thing that made life simpler was that we'd decided to go for the same colour on the back as on the front.
Out of interest, the Manchester fella shows how to do a simulated gold top on a PRS-a-like kit, and what looked really good, but I couldn't see it happening with a Strat shape - too many curves to have a chance, I reckoned. Well, no doubt he could do it, but I'm trying to be realistic about my capabilities in all of this.
Anyway, not quite sure the first coat was a brilliant job, but I think I covered all of the wood (although not much into the cavities as I couldn't see the point) and so I left it to dry.
This of course was the next problem. How long to dry it for, and advice varied yet again. Some say a couple of days, others fifteen minutes. Eventually I gave it a couple of hours, a quick sand and sponge before emptying the can with another coat, and finally leaving it over night to dry.
Next day, I was a wee bit surprised to see that it actually looked relatively decent, even in daylight. (did I mention that we haven't got a light in the garage, and so all this is being done with whatever scrapes it's way in through the door?) As I had run out of primer, I figured that two coats was going to have to be enough, and so gave it a nice light sand with some sandpaper I'd found in a drawer. I have been meaning to buy some 1200 grit (?) as recommended somewhere or other, but keep forgetting. The stuff I found described itself as 'fine', so I'm hoping that is close enough, at least for the primer. Maybe I'll treat meself to some kosher stuff for the paint and then, no doubt, throw money at the lacquer when it looks horrible.
I've kind of been here before, in life.
PAINTING THE BODY - TIME FOR THE PAINT ITSELF
OK, I admit. It has been a long time coming, and I have avoided this for lots of reasons, though mainly because I know it will look shite, but I'm finally about to put the paint on the guitar body. No further delay or turning back. I'm really going to do it.Now.
Well, today anyway.
To fill in though, I've given the primer a gentle sand and it is quite smooth as it happens, kind of chuffed with that I am, and very, very shocked. There are a couple of bits that could have done with a bit more primer, I think, on the upper horn on the edge mainly, but I gave that a touch up later on last night and it now seems generally OK. We'll see in a minute though, I expect.
Doing the first coat of paint, I really tried to take it slowly and keep things smooth this time, and in the main the results were a lot better than with the primer, with the one exception of the bit where the primer was thinnest, which I somewhat over compensated for with the paint (i.e. gave it a good blast until it covered up the latent whiteness below) and I have the worlds' worst 'run' in one of the dents (or comfort contours, depends how you see these things.)
Still, that seems to be the worst of it, and over the next couple of hours I'm going to give it a couple more coats before leaving it over night to dry. Then it will be a sand and second coat. Lovely stuff.
PAINTING THE BODY - TIME FOR THE SECOND COAT
Well, it dried overnight and I've given it a wee sand to smooth things down a bit. I have to say maybe sorting out the primer would have been better than handling the problem at this stage, but there we are. I did bite the bullet and go and buy a selection of wet and dry sanding paper from Halfords, and a Tack Cloth - called something else - that I noticed on the shelf next to it. I also bought another can of paint as the first coat pretty much did for the original.Speaking of the first coat, it actually looks quite decent. OK, the runs were a pain, but generally it looks like, well, a Red Strat body, with whatever that happens to mean to you. The boy is pleased anyway, though getting fed-up of standing on the other side of the garden from the garage, with his sister, wearing their Osaka tube masks.
This kind of entertainment only has a limited shelf life.
Anyway, not much to report other than we sanded with 1200 grit (well worth buying as the one I used on the primer did a bit of damage, I see now, and though smooth isn’t in this one's league), we tacked the dust away like magic and then gave it another coat or three. It's drying now and I'll have a proper look at it tomorrow, see if we need to do more sanding and painting or whether we can sidle ahead and into glossy lacquer territory.
I live in hope.
*
As it happened, the second coat wasn't quite the finished article, but another sand and paint exercise, followed by two days festering in an overheated garage seems to have done the trick. Not that the finish is exactly glossy, but then I can't honestly say that I know what it should look like. It looks even and sort of shiny, so I'm working on the assumption that the lacquer and polishing will give us the 'deep and glorious luster' we're hoping for.
Well, we'll see.
ELECTRONICS & SOLDERING - PRACTICE TIME AGAIN
Now, I can imagine that you are fed-up with hearing me whine about how useless I am at anything practical, but you're going to have to hear it one more time. Another thing I've become aware of, is that I am going to have to do a little bit of soldering when we come to put the guitar together. As this is something I've managed to avoid for the previous 40+ years of my life, I figured that maybe I should do a bit of research and then practice on something that matters less than the insides of the guitar.I've kind of got the horrors that I'll set it on fire or something...
Anyway, loads of useful advice on-line as ever, and so I've bought a little soldering kit off Amazon - a 30W soldering iron, a stand with sponge, some solder and a desoldering weapon of some sort. I presume this is the 'Undo' option. On top of that I've got some more solder in case I run out and a heat proof mat to do the work on without burning things I guess. All of which was less than 20 quid, so not bad at all. The guitar actually only needs a couple of wires joined together, but I figure that if I do some more of this DIY bobbins, it will come in handy.
As we haven't got to the assembly stage yet, I am actually thinking about replacing a few of the parts on this guitar, as I quite fancy putting humbuckers on it, rather than sticking to the single coils. Maybe not straight away, but soon enough. The other alternative is to add a treble boost. I saw one on the Axetec site for about fifteen pounds which acts as a tone control replacement, but gives a range of effects - an overdrive, fuzz, full on metal and utter nutterness. I know, I'm getting a little ahead of meself here, but no harm in thinking forward a wee bit, is there? I also fancy putting together a DIY overdrive pedal at some point, so in summary I've justified this expenditure on future DIY adventures.
Now I just need to learn how to use it, so maybe a bit of scrap wire could be useful.
FINISHING THE NECK - DECISIONS, DECISIONS...
After we chopped the headstock into its new shape, I never mentioned where we were going with the neck from there, and to be totally honest it is because I'm really not sure.My initial thought was that we would simply lacquer it on the headstock and back of the neck so that it is a light contrast to the glowing Nissan Red of the body. I suppose we could stain it too, but I have a cheapie guitar somewhere that is black bodied with plain neck, and that has always worked well for me. The alternative though, is painting the neck/headstock red to match the body, or perhaps black. This, I've really got to say I don't fancy and awakens all of my cheap-Strat-prejudices.
Obviously, I need to think about this some more, or maybe ask the lad what he reckons, but that could be a whole can of worms. What I do know is that we're getting close to the lacquering, one way or another, and if we are going to put a name on the headstock and anything else, we've got to get some decals sorted out.
DIY DECALS - STICKERS ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
I guess with any guitar you build yourself, you end-up trying to come up with a name for the headstock. It's easy enough to find a Fender or Gibson badge of course, but you'd have to be a right nobber to build your own and then try and pass it off as one of those, but what do you call it, and from this numptie's perspective, how do you put it on there apart from by using a Sharpie?So, again, off to do a bit of research and I was pointed to a couple of companies who make decals. The first is a UK-based company called The Decal Shop, whose wares look quite classic and classy. The second is an American one who are called ‘Best Decals’ and are more brash and swish, and have lots of other options too, including the ability to design your own logo on-line, which they will then print for you. Which was handy-looking. I actually tried this a couple or three weeks back, but haven’t received the decal yet, so don’t know how good they are.
Typically though, neither of these really offered what the boy had in mind, which takes me to the 'how to do it yourself' angle, which I'm pleased to say is pretty easy (in theory).
What we're going to have on the guitar, is a name on the headstock - this is yet to be decided though 'Fiery Dragon' or 'Fire Dragon' seem favourites at this moment in time. All attempts by me to introduce 'caster' into the equation - Dragon-o-caster etc. - are just earning me looks that question my sanity. Also on the headstock will be a Dragon's eye - as a kind of logo, I guess, though as we've chopped chunks out of it as a kind of buzzsaw teeth look, I'm not quite sure how it will fit.
The other decal we need is going to be a Dragon on the body itself - you can see why I was struggling to find one, I hope. As it is an upside down Strat, I'm not quite sure where this will go, but I'm figuring that under a few coats of lacquer is probably a good start.
That was the 'What' though, but now for the 'How'. This is surprisingly easy as it happens, as all we needed to find were some 'Waterslide decals' on eBay. These basically let you come-up with a design on your computer, and then print onto some special paper using an inkjet printer. This you then let dry, before applying it to the guitar with a bit of help from a damp sponge. Oh yes, you print it in reverse, but the paper came with instructions so I’d just read that. Simple, stuff, I reckon, and it takes me back to Airfix models years ago. (though I'll let you know how the reality goes.)
One thing worth mentioning. There seems to be two types of these decal papers. Some require you to buy a fixing spray, which you treat the printed-paper with before you can use it. This is just an acrylic varnish that makes the design waterproof so that the ink doesn't just disappear when you get the paper wet. The other type, and one we bought doesn't need this varnish. Of course it seems to be dearer to buy, so maybe you'd buy the cheaper one and the aerosol if you were doing lots, but this one if it is just something you'll use once or twice. Take your choice, I guess.
We paid a fiver for two A4 sheets, or could have had five sheets of the other type for that, but then needed to spend six quid on the spray. Which works better? I hope I don't have to find out.
Right, the boy and his Mom are looking for Dragon pictures on Stock Photo sites... so I'm off for a cuppa.
REPLACING STUFF
As I said the other day, I've been thinking about replacing a couple of the parts that came with the kit, and looking around it seems the most common advice people give - 'I bought a kit, and replaced all the parts to make it into a decent guitar'. Typically then, I was thinking tuners, pickups, some kind of effect to give it all a bit of a boost, the new nut we already did and I don't know. Everything else as well. All of which will no doubt be worthwhile, but I'm coming around to thinking about why I am doing this and I guess, the real point for me was to learn how to do things such as replacing pickups or soldering bits of wire together, and god forbid doing a bit of woodwork without knackering up my own guitars. And whilst it would be nice to put Gotohs on, and replace the pickups with something funky and maybe fit a Floyd Rose or something (which is what every six-year-old needs, of course), I have to ask myself, do I need to do it now?And the simple answer is that I'm going to learn more if I go with the stock parts and get the guitar working, and if I want to upgrade or refit later on, well, I'll learn how to do that too. So that is the plan, I'm going to go with the kit as it is, and see how the guitar sounds and plays without worrying too much about other people's 'must have' upgrades.
Plenty of time for that later.
Man, I'm growing up,
kind of sad really.
PAINTING THE BODY - LACQUER
One bit of advice the DIY folks gave me, was that to make sure that I chose the Acrylic lacquer as it was a lot more forgiving, or maybe easier to work with. It was one of the two, I forget which. I'm presuming that this is compared to the nitro cellulose types of finish, as that is meant to be a lot thinner, but to be fair your guess is as good as mine really.Whatever the truth of it, it was a big old can of the acrylic lacquer I got from Halfords as I'm expecting to have to do a few coats before we're finished here. I'll also probably use it on the headstock and neck as well, unless I think of something better to do. Which I haven't yet.
To prepare for the lacquer, I've given the body yet another light sand with the 1200 grit wet and dry and then a bit of a polish with the tack cloth. Made by Oakey it was, still can't remember the name they market it under, but it is good stuff and doesn't leave a residue, apparently. OK, I just checked and it has the rather catchy name of 'Sanding Dust Cloth'. I presume they have trademarked that as it obviously has household name potential.
But getting back to the important bit, with the lacquer, I'm working on the assumption that I'll keep it light and smooth and do lots of quick coats rather than getting heavy with it. I'm not sure whether I'm meant to sand in between them though, so I think I'll do half a dozen or so, then leave it overnight and see how many bugs get caught in the goo.
Knowing at which point to put the decals on is tricky. I'm guessing that it will be best to do nearly all of the lacquer coats, and then put them on last, with a final coat or two after we've got to the point where we don't need to sand them back anymore. I'm not sure that sanding on top of the decal is too great an idea, if you see what I mean, so yeah, leave it until last I think.
Those people at Axerus are costing me more money, by the way. I was having a look for some screws for the neckplate (as I've managed to paint over the ones holding my piece of wood and it looks shonky), and I came across some 'graphic design' scratchplates. Anyway, for a few quid they have a variety of bald eagles and wolves and the rest, but one with a red tongued demon caught my eye and had a colour scheme that seemed to fit with an upside down red guitar. Obviously, I clicked on the Buy button, and there we are.
Now I know all these demons and skulls and dragons and the rest probably aren't for the guitar purist out there, and to be honest they aren't my kipper tie either, but for a six year old I think they are going to be pretty wow. It will distract from the lack of quality of my workmanship too, of course, which is always good.
Now don't get me wrong, he can't play the guitar yet, but he has 'expressed an interest in learning' and having a guitar that he thinks is cool, I can only see helping. After all, that's what all us grown-ups do isn't it? We buy our Les Pauls and Fenders and kid ourselves that we are gunslinging rock 'n' rollers. And why not? Real life isn't a great place to live, much better having stories in your head.
Of course, the pickguard showed up next day – Axerus are well recommended, by the way – and it looked brilliant. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten the guitar is a leftie and the scratch plate is a right handed version. As it would be.
Still, I’ve found an alternative in the US of A, and will order one of those. Never simple.
PAINTING THE BODY - LACQUERING AGAIN
Well, the first coat looked OK, and so did the second, but man did the third one kill the sequence. I have to say, I've read back over the last few days' entries and it sounds like it has been going well, so I should have known something would screw-up sooner or later.And what a pain it has been today. Basically, if you remember a while ago I mentioned that the piece of wood I used to fit to the neck so that I could spray 360 degrees, wasn't quite wide enough. This meant that I could only use two of the four screws, and I think I also said that the wood had split a little. Well, no great drama with it, other than that the wood split good and proper, and so wasn't really stable enough to use anymore. No harm done at that stage, and to be honest I couldn't be bothered to cut another piece and fit it, as there were just a few coats of lacquer to apply. I figured that I'd do one side first and then do the other. It would take a little longer but be fine. No hassle. Fun even.
And so that is what I've been doing with the lacquering, few coats on the front. Let it dry, then a few coats on the back. Lovely.
Apart from, of course, that the last coat of the front managed to overrun onto the newspaper on top of the workbench and the back of the guitar stuck to it good and proper.
So in summary, the front looks excellent, a much better job than I ever hoped for - a good shininess before we even get to the T-Cut and polish stage. The back on the other hand has a rather dodgy looking ripped newspaper design, as of course the paper shredded when I picked the 'dry' guitar up.
La-di-da-la-laaa.
But what to do? To be honest I haven't really got a clue. The extra paper will come off with water I expect, but some of it is entombed under lacquer,and very much won’t.
Dumb dumb dumb. I kept expecting bugs in the lacquer - tsetsefly in amber - but I didn't expect to have to deal with the North Somerset Times 'Bargain Buys'.
FINISHING THE NECK - KEEPING IT SIMPLE
I wouldn't say that the paper-in-lacquer fiasco made the decision over how to finish the neck, but it certainly helped me want to keep it simple, and so that is what we've done.Rather than mess about too much, we've gone for a bog-standard Ronseal tinted varnish - Antique Pine - which will hopefully take the edge of the paleness of the wood and give it a nice glossy finish. We could have gone for a darker, yellowier colour, but this seemed far enough and the boy is happy enough.
So to applying it, and a quick sand, and a wipe of the tack cloth has left it ready to go. The headstock is nice and smooth now too, and the misshapen teeth have grown on me. OK, not overly dragon-like, but it makes a change from the usual Fender copy headstock.
Applying the varnish is simplicity itself, three coats with a brush, half an hour between each and then leave it to dry over night. Not sure if it will need a sand and another coat tomorrow, but that is fine. Oh yes, I was careful to put some low-tack masking tape on the fingerboard (it's rosewood of course, and so doesn’t need to be varnished) and over the nut, which came from Homebase for a quid.
Speaking of tack, I got some more tack cloth from Renault Wolverhampton on eBay. Why does that sound funny, somehow? Hilarious or not, it was only a couple of quid for five cloths (so I bought ten) which was excellent. I think I'll put supplier details for all the parts I've used at the end, as some of them might be handy if you do this kind of thing.
Apart from what to do with the back of the body (I know, I need to sand it all back, but I'm kidding myself there might be a different solution right now), we're practically ready to start putting things together soon, which is a good thing as there is only a fortnight of the school holidays left and I'm already resigned to over-running a wee bit as the lacquer is meant to need a fortnight to harden.
Well, back to the garage for the last coat of Ronseal on the neck. Nice colour, like it says on the tin.
FINISHING THE NECK - THE TOUCHES
Nice surprise this morning, as when I remembered to pop in to the garage, I found that the neck had dried to a nice honey coloured finish. It is a little bit darker than I expected, but all the prettier for that. I almost convinced myself that I’d spent the last thirty years smoking 60 Marlboro a day whilst playing it. As was more expected, there were a couple of bits that need tidying once I took the masking tape off, so I've used one of the kids paint brushes to fill in the gaps and it is drying nicely as I type. I guess looking closely, it isn't exactly a factory finish, but I think that lends a charm to it all and the boy is happy, which is the main thing.
On the paperbacked body front, I finally accepted that it wasn't just going to disappear if I ignored it, and have sanded the back of the guitar back quite heavily using 300 grit, and then 800 and 1200 to make it smooth. To be honest, it was probably a blessing in disguise as it has forced me to deal with a couple more imperfections that I would otherwise have lived with. Nothing drastic and barely noticeable, but they are gone now too and the final result will be better for it.
Anyway, the front is fine so it will just be a case of painting and lacquering the back and we should be there. Obviously, this means yet another trip to Halfords for paint, but there we go. At least I'm be well stocked with tack cloth.
All of this finishing malarkey has made me think about future projects though, and I am coming to the conclusion that unless I sort out somewhere better to do the spraying etc. it isn't really a runner, and maybe oil and waxes would be a better bet. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I do really fancy doing one of DIY Guitars' Spalted Maple topped Les Paul kits, but haven't got the dosh right now. But there we are, nobody said it was going to be easy being an international playboy luthier.
FINISHING THE BODY - GOING DOWN FOR THE THIRTIETH TIME
Well, as I said before, the only solution to the papering of the back of the body was to sand it back to next to nothing, and so that was what I did. I must be getting better at it, as it was smooth all over this time, not just in patches that I could point at to people and say 'touch that, beautiful finish innit?'
Anyway, a few coats of Nissan Red 013 and an overnight dry, has been followed with a selection of fine coats of lacquer, which have gone on simply and nice and flat-like. I don't know what the problem was first time around.
Oh, and to overcome the sticking-to-the-newspaper problem, I have the guitar balanced on a couple of sponges (the sort you wash your car with. Well, the ones I used to wash the car with, as it happens, but perhaps not in the future.)
So other than a dry and a check for any need for a bit of sanding, the body is really ready to be left to harden for a couple of weeks, after which I believe I will be using T-Cut and then guitar polish to create a 'glass-like finish.'
I do believe, really I do.
Speaking of guitar polish, I got some of that off eBay too, along with a bottle of Lemon Oil, with which I'll be treating the rosewood fingerboard. This was a new one on me, and to be honest I'm not sure whether it is really needed or not. I mean, I've had lots of guitars with rosey fretboards, but have never had to oil them before. Saying that they have all split or flaked off, so maybe I should have.
(That last bit was only in there for comic effect and isn't true. Apologies for that.)
Anyway, I got some Lemon Oil free with the polish so I'm going to have a crack at it, can't see it doing much harm.
Other than that, we'll be sorting out the decals for the headstock and the body now, so once they are on I will give them a couple of quick and fine coats of the lacquer too. Just to seal them in like.
Once that is out of the way, there isn't much to do I guess, until the lacquer has set, apart from a couple of little jobs like fitting the tuners and maybe having a bit of a practice with the soldering kit. That should keep me out of trouble. The only problem with that is that I hate not actually doing something real, so maybe I'll look for something simple (and cheap) to learn on. Got to keep it all interesting now, haven't you?
PUTTING THE TUNING PEGS ON
Do you call them pegs on an electric? I've never been sure.Whatever, although we still don't have a logo for the headstock - a subject which is getting heated to be perfectly honest - I thought that we might as well put the tuners on as I can't think of anything else for the boy to do five weeks into his summer holibobs (as they say down this way.).
As it happens this was amazingly the first genuine five-minute-wonder of a job that we've had with this kit, and the lad himself did all of the work. Which is probably telling you nothing new.
All we had to do (and sorry if I sound like some kind of wide-eyed child realising how a feat of magic was enacted) was put the post part of the tuner thru the hole, and then screw a washer and a bush (?) onto the back of it with a socket or spanner or whatever those things you stick on the end of something that looks like a screwdriver, but isn't, are . After that it was just a little screw to screw in and as it was him not me, not screw up.
And the whole thing took him five minutes. Naturally, I shrugged and told myself that it was an easy wee job, but there is this burning shame within me that won't die down.
The reason for this was that a few years ago the boy managed to knock over an acoustic of mine and one of the tuners broke off in a cheap die-cast kind of way. In a total sulk I didn't touch it for a couple of years (and this was my every day strummer of a guitar) before finally bracing myself for what I had built up in my head to be a massive expense and took it to our local guitar shop - hoping I must admit that the bloke there would tell me to forget it as it was a right-off and that I should buy something new. I had my eye on a Dobro or National or whatever those biscuit tin clad blues guitars are called.
Naturally, he didn't even charge me for the fitting and gave me the peg for free. He even managed to put the original strings back on, so it was quite literally a zilch quid repair, and I hadn't played the thing for a couple of years getting around to it. I felt pretty stupid, it has to be said, and more so now that I see how easy the 'repair' would have been. Especially as I now know how cheap tuners are and all that.
And this really sums up why I wanted to do this guitar kit build, as I have this weird fear about trying to fix guitars. I mean, not just guitars, anything really although perversely I can throw a PC together in half an hour. But hopefully, even at my age this will get me moving in the right direction.
So there we are, tuners on and still no decals. Maybe it is time to teach the brats how to make cookies..roll on term time.
OILING AND POLISHING
Well, as far as the woodwork side of things goes, I guess we're in the home straight with this wee guitar. The red dragon scratchplate has been ordered - and I even managed to remember to order the leftie version this time, much to the boy's surprise - although my spontaneous decision to order some of Rick Parfitt's 'Fender Facelift' flames didn't prove so wise as they were right handed.Madness being defined as the ability to repeat dumb behaviour over-and-over.
Bibble.
The boy came up with the solution for that one though, and we're going to put the flames on the back of the guitar. He's actually putting me to shame big-time recently, think I'll have to stop his pocket money. Though I'd have to start giving him some first, of course.
Where was I? Oh yes, while we wait for those sort of things to show up, it is back to the finishing.
For the neck, as I mentioned before I'd gotten hold of some lemon oil, which I've applied using an old T Shirt. Pretty easy as it happens and it does leave me regretting that I didn't just oil the guitar in the first place. Anyway, couple of coats of that on and we'll see what it looks like in the morning. No big deal and screwing that up seems to even be beyond me.
As for the body, it has been a while now and I'm guessing that the lacquer is solid and so it is time to try and make it shine. To be honest it doesn't look awful, but a bit of a gloss would be nice and I'm willing to give it a go, even if I'm not expecting Smokie Robinson and his mates.
First up then, the now obligatory very light sand with a bit of a wipe with something tacky to clear up the mess. After that I went for a bottle of T Cut which will give the thing a bit of a polish before we get serious.
Being honest, I'm not exatly sure what T Cut does, other than remove the top layer of the paint - or rather it did on a car I once had resprayed with Hammerite about twenty years ago. I guess it levels everything off and then when you polish it properly, it makes a difference, though I haven't got a clue, just following orders. Saying all that, I put some T Cut on a cloth and made nice whirly-swirly patterns all over the red of the guitar, then left it a while so that it would dry. It kind of looks like the windows in shops that have closed down - you'll see a few of them around at the minute, I would imagine - or maybe a paisley pattern if you squint a bit.
Once the T Cut is dry, it is a case of using a lot of elbow grease to polish it off and get a bit of a shine going on. It's still drying as I type this though, so I'll let you know how it goes.
*
OK, T Cut gone on, T Cut taken off. T Cut put on again, T Cut taken off again. Looks a bit better, but I don't think I'll push me luck, so I'm going to move on to the polishing before I remove too many layers of paint and all of the lacquer.
I think I said before that I got some guitar polish off ebay, along with the Lemon Oil. I must admit, I wasn't really sure whether I needed something specific, I mean at the end of the day we're polishing wood aren't we? But, for the sake of good form I looked around and it seemed as though anybody with a slight interest in guitars made their own polish or 'polishing system'. Everything seems to have a system these days. Maybe I was just being awkward then when I didn't go for the Fender, Gibson, Jim Dunlop or PRS polishes and went for Dr Stringfellow instead. They were all over the odds for what they are and I don't know. Maybe I've been ripped off again, but if it doesn't work out, there is a can of Pledge or Mr Sheen in the cupboard and so I'll use that.
But to the polishing, and following the instructions it seems to be as simple as spray it on, thanks to Dr Stringfellow for his 'spray applicator' and then rub it with a cloth until it shines.
So that was what I did
and after a fair few coats and a lot of elbow grease we have ended-up with something vaguely nice if not quite lustre-filled.
I mean, it looks OK, but not glass-like, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, it is presentable and everything, and I'm sure if we spent the next fortnight polishing it, it would look a bit better, but we are into the last three days of the school holidays now, and I think putting it together is more important than making it glow-in-the dark.
So that is the plan. We're going to assemble the guitar now, and maybe come back and tidy-up later. The old 80:20 rule, a bit of pragmatism. Oh and Dr Stringfellow's much vaunted applicator broke on about the third use, which was annoying.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Well, I don't know about you, but it feels to me as though we've spent forever getting this far (and if you have read my babbling, you have my apologies.) However, we are now at the point where we can start to put the guitar together and as the end of the school holidays is pretty much upon us, it is about time.First things first - the decals. As I mentioned earlier on, we still haven't got these sorted, and so have decided to add them later on. They aren't really something that needs the guitar to be in pieces, so it isn't the end of the world. What is more of a pain, is that that dragon scratchplate still hasn't showed up and so we have to decide whether to go with the standard white one, and change it later, or hang in and wait until it does arrive. I'm thinking that maybe we'll go with the basic one and swap over to the cool one later. I know it will mean taking strings off and desoldering and resoldering and everything else, but there we are, not such a big deal and if I use the strings that came with the kit initially, I won't be weeping over replacing them too much.
As to what we will do next, well, I've returned to the DIY instructions and will be following them, so hopefully we'll be somewhere near the right order and looking through I am thinking that we can at least get the guitar assembled before he goes back to school, even if the setup might take a wee bit longer. I've also got to remember to sort out the shielding with my copper tape and aluminium foil and everything, but again, I don't think that will be a killer really. I still haven't had a go with the soldering iron, mind you, so that could be fun.
Bizzy, bizzy and bizzy then, and I need to go and get the boy's feet measured. Stress.
CLAWS AND MORE
Before I start this section, I should point out that the curtain rail fell down this morning, having lasted less than a couple of months.Anyway, first things first then, we started by putting the bridge and tremelo system together, and as it happens this was quite smooth. First of all, we got the 'claw' and fitted this into the hole in the back of the guitar. Quick couple of screws, neither of them going in too far, a bish, a bash and a bosh.
Lovely.
Following quickly on the heels of the claw, we flipped the guitar over, dropped the bridge unit into the nicely cut hole and then put six screws in, again not all the way, but tight enough to make the bridge lie relatively flat on the guitar.
I have to say, I've been really impressed with this kit in terms of the holes all being exactly where they are meant to be. I mean, all these years of MFI and IKEA, it doesn't half make life simpler when things are drilled proper-like.
Anyway, once that was in nice and straight, the next little job was to connect the claw and the bridge with the tremelo springs. This, I wasn't actually sure about to be honest. They were easy enough to connect (once I eased off the screws in the claw and bridge so that there was a wee bit more space), but as the guitar will be upside down, I can't see the trem being used as it happens, and to be honest wasn't sure whether there was any point fitting it together. In the end though, it seemed simpler than trying to stop an unconnected bridge flopping around (not that I know it would have, just playing it safe).
Well, trem all connected and it was time to move on to some of the little bits.
The easiest of these seemed to be the strap thingies, and it took a minute to put the one at the back of the guitar on - mainly because there was a helpfully drilled hole there waiting for us. On the front of the guitar, we had to pick our spot of course, but again no big deal and putting a strap on to test it the guitar balanced quite nicely. That came after we'd put the neck on, of course, which was the next job and quite literally only took a couple of minutes.
It is odd, but removing the neck from a guitar was something I wouldn't have dreamed of doing - but four screws and we were staring at something that suddenly looked very strat-like. Most odd, it almost felt real after all, this guitar building lark.
Well, this leads us to a special moment in our little adventure, perhaps even a watershed moment or something similar. The thing is, we're now at the point where I have absolutely no choice other than to solder something. Apart from setting the guitar up, all there is left to do is to break out the soldering iron and wire it all up.
Bugger.
SHIELDING - CUTTING THE NOISE PRAGMATICALLY
As I probably whinged earlier, the fancy leftie dragon scratchplate hasn't arrived yet, and as school is now a reality I've decided to go with the stock white scratchplate, and then swap everything over when the new one arrives. It is a bit of a pain, but not the end of the world. If I get this to work once, hopefully the second time won't be any harder.I also mentioned before that I was planning to use some copper tape to shield the guitar, in the hope that it would reduce the classic single coil hum, and I thought it was maybe worth talking a bit more about this.
Now, I'm not going to get too technical (as you can imagine) but the hum problem is basically interference, like you'd get with a radio or TV or something. All this talk of shielding then is basically aimed at wrapping something around the guitar circuit that blocks this and lets the guitar get on with what it is meant to be doing - taking the vibrations from the strings and turning them into a signal that the amplifier can amplify.
As I said before, I've been doing a lot of reading around this subject, and to be honest most 'experts' seem to make it all quite difficult. Loads of theories and arguments, and schematics and everything else, when really it seems to me that it can be quite simple and that there is probably a balance to be struck between how much effort you put into the shielding when compared to how much 'hum' you are willing to accept. Bottom line is that single coils will pretty much always make some kind of noise, and if that bugs you the answer was discovered a long time back, and you can buy humbuckers just about anywhere you'd care to look.
For this wee guitar then, I'm going for a pragmatic middle ground, I think, and trying to kill off most of the dodgy noise, without getting anal over the final few percent. I'm also trying to get my head around the safety aspect too, which even having read my way around the subject I can't say I'm 100% on the understanding scale of enlightenment.
But what to do...?
Well, first things first I'm looking at the big hole in the front underneath the scratchplate. This I've covered with adhesive backed copper tape (from the slug people, remember), making sure that the strips of tape overlap each other so that there is a common connection between them all. I said before that making sure that the tape uses conductive adhesive means that overlapping the tape is enough for the bad stuff to flow on through. If the adhesive isn't conductive, you need to solder a connection between each bit to make sure it all works together, which sounds a lot of pointless work to me. I've also made sure that the tape goes over the top a wee bit, so that there is a lip of sorts around the cavity.
The reason for this (and one I took a while to cotton on to) is that we'll also be putting a shield on the back of the scratchplate, and having the lip means that the scratchplate and the copper tape clad compartment will make a connection and again you won't need to try and figure out how to connect a wire between the two. For the back of the scratchplate, instead of the copper tape I've used sticky backed aluminium foil, which is a bit thicker than the tape. This came from Axerus and as there was enough to cover four scratchplates I'm happy to try it on the white plate as I'll still have some more for the dragon scratchplate too. If there hadn't been enough, I must admit I'd have probably left the shielding until everything was here.
Like I said, once I'd covered the scratchplate, the lip of copper tape meant that when we nail the scratchplate on, the aluminium will come into contact with the copper and that will mean that the entire cavity is surrounded (well apart from where things stick through it like pickups and pots and the rest, but close enough.) In case you are interested this ia called a Faraday's Cage.
No, news to me as well.
So there we are, copper cavity covering pressed against aluminium, makes a connection and any dodgy signals are captured. Brilliant.
Well, brilliant apart from that they have got nowehere to go, which is the next thing I had to understand.
You see the thing that confused me about this shielding and all these grounds (that is what these signal capturing bits are called,) is that with a guitar's pickups, they output two signals, the hot one, which is the good stuff - the notes - and then you have the ground which is the garbage, with the grounding wires being the waste disposal system. It is these grounding wires that we're going to plumb the signals captured by the copper and alumium into, so all the rubbish goes down the same plug hole. Easy enough to understand, really, I just can't get my head around why people make it seem so difficult.
Saying that, one thing that did confuse me was that there seems to be two outputs for these grounds. i.e. Two plugholes. The first of these (and most logical) is via the output socket, which goes to the amplifier. Now *that* I understand. Amps are earthed and the earth takes all the dodgy stuff away.
Brilliant, lets use that.
But, for some reason a lot of guitars seem to also have a ground lead connected to the bridge (or in our case the claw which amounts to the same thing as it is connected to the bridge) and so whoever is playing it ends up playing the part of the earth.
Now, I'm probably paranoid, but what is that all about? Doesn't make much sense to me at all, and even in (what is becoming my bible at the moment) 'Guitar Electronics for Musicians' by Donald Brosnac, it doesn't seem to give a straight answer. What he says is that this is a crap idea and that you shouldn't do it as it is dangerous, but then in the next paragraph says that you have no choice but to do it.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but having two outputs to ground sounds barking to me and as I don't fancy the idea of me or mine being an earth I think we can skip the ground to heart idea.
All of which is a long way around about saying that I'm going to route all the grounds to the output socket, and that includes running some sort of ground wire from the copper tape cladding too.
Before I get to that though, I should explain what I'm not planning on doing, that maybe I should do at some point in the future. Getting back to shielding, the copper/alumium approach is the major problem addressed, but other than that we should also really be looking at how we can insulate/shield all of the individual components. Now, if you rip open an upmarket Gibson these days, you'll see that the knobs and pickups are all individually shielded - mostly stuck in pretty little tin pots. The same came be done with the output socket and of course there are umpteen varieties of wire we can use that have better shielding than the normal. Saying that though, I'm not going to think about that until it proves to be a problem as to be honest it seems a lot of effort (and probably cost) for very little payback.
Going back to the ground to output socket thing then, what I'm going to do is take the easy option and put a small screw into the inside of the cavity, through the copper tape and connect this to a wire, which will be soldered to the rest of the grounds on the bottom of the volume knob. Or Pot, or whatever it is.
And that will do for now.
SOLDER BLUE
Well, it had to come and despite the fact that the amount of soldering required on this guitar is miniscule as the scratchplate assembly thing was pre-done, I still can't say I fancy it much. I still haven't had a practise either but I've got some wire and will have a play around with that before I go for it.As to what I've got to solder, really it is quite simple. First of all is the output lead, which needs threading through a little hole and then connecting to the output jack socket. One wire to the positive output and the other to the ground, or negative output.
And secondly, there is a wire from the copper tape which again I'm going to connect to the volume pot.
And that is it, I think. Obviously, when the new scratchplate shows up I'll have to redo some of this, but that is OK. To be honest I'm actually thinking that I will take the opportunity to put some replacement pickups on, and new pots and a switch as that could all be done on the scratchplate as a single job. There is no big reason for this, other than I fancy having a go at completely wiring a guitar from scratch rather than just fitting a 'loaded' scratchplate, without the pressure of having to get the guitar finished. That is maybe for another day though, it will just be nice to finish this and get it working, wrong scratchplate to start with or not.
Well, I guess I'd better get on with it then.
*
A bit of an update - I managed it without burning the house down or trashing the guitar. OK, maybe not as clean as it should have been, but nice shiny solder (which is apparently the aim) and there we go and if I wasn't quite a dab han at the end, I was certainly hppy enough with what I was doing. Actually, to be honest once the iron had heated up (which took a lot longer than I thought it would) the whole soldering lark is pretty easy really. Don't reming me I said that at a later date.
Of course, once I had soldered the wires it was a case of fitting the output jack and plate, which was just a quick twist or two with a socket and then a couple of screws to taste.
In reality then, it is just a case of putting the strings on now and seeing if it all works, but I had come across one little trick that may be worth knowing, which let me test that the pickups worked before I put the strings on.
Basically, it is as simple as plugging the guiitar into an amp, and using a tuning fork, just let it vibrate over the pickups, and though I'm writing this quite laid back, as though it was always going to be this way. I've got to say, I got a real buzz when I heard a noise coming through the speaker. (Boom boom.)
AND FINALLY...
And so we come to the final assembly and setup and the moment of truth. What will it sound like?Well, I had one little problem to contend with at the death,which wasn't the biggest surprise, lets face it. Basically, I had screwed everything back together, and started to put the strings on, when even I couldn't help but notice that the pickups were quite high. Not the end of the world, I always knew that there would be a fair bit of adjustment to be done, but maybe the strings lying on top of the pickups was pushing things.
Reaching for my screwdriver, I started to lower the neck pickup using the little screws either side, and sure enough the magnets started to disappear from view, but the plastic case thing stayed exactly where it was.
As you can imagine, there was a fair bit of swearing, but I finally realised that I'd put the springs in the wrong place - in between the plastic case and the pickup, instead of between the scratchplate and the plastic thing.
Luckily, when I unscrewed the scratchplate again, the wires didn't need to be resoldered and I somehow managed to swap the springs around without taking everything to bits, but I've got to say it felt like a bit of a sting in the tail.
Other than that though, the final put together was quite literally a breeze, and even once the strings were on, there were very few issues. It was probably typical but before we started this build, basic setup stuff was something I was confident I could handle, and naturally then, the guitar needed very little apart from the raising of the strings via the bridge to remove some buzzing, and a few tweaks on the pickup heights, which I'm guessing were more down to the leftie guitar being used right handed than anything. The intonation was pretty close to perfect and the truss road was left unmolested, which was a nice surprise and the replacement nut has proved to be fine. I only had to file one slot a teeny amount deeper, and to be honest that was down to an unlikely search for perfection. I could have easily left well alone.
Incidentally, everywhere I read talked about nut files which are a hundred quid per set where you can find them (though there may be cheaper ones, I just never found them.) Obviously, I didn't buy them, and a piece of folded emery cloth proved fine for my little change.
But what does it sound like? Well, to be honest the pickups are OK but obviously were never going to be world beaters, but they are are certainly usable and Strat-like. The guitar chimes quite nicely without being plugged in to an amp, which I always figured as a good sign, but when it is wired-up it has a nice bluesy sound when you push it and clear as a bell on the clean.
One thing that did strike me was that it is pretty quiet for a single coil guitar, though whether that is really down to my copper tape cladding or due to the individual pickups, I couldn't honestly say, and I'm not going to reverse it all to find out.
The finish, well again it is not the best, and the dragon scratchplate is still yet to arrive and so that will be another job to do if it ever does, but it looks nice enough and will end up looking like a proper 'relic' soon anyway, it already has a couple of dints and scratches and I'm sure there will be plenty more soon enough.
One thing we have done though, is give the guitar a name on the headstock. This was simple enough - found a nice font in Word and outlined it in black (one of the options on the font menu if you look for it). After that it was as simple as printing it out on the ink jet at high resolution, letting it dry and then applying according to the instruction on the decal paper water slide stuff. The only tricky bit is geting it in position before the water starts to dry and the sliding stops. No big deal though in the end.
Once that had dried, I just gave it a couple of quick coats of lacquer to protect it and seal it in a bit. I was a bit worried about putting this over the Ronseal, but it worked OK in the end and so I was a bit relieved.
the other thing we did with the decal was find another dragon picture and do a decal of that on the body too. It was 50:50 whether to bother really, but minus the scratchplate I think it was looking a touch underwhelming for the lad and this perked it up a bit. I haven't lacquered that one as of yet, as when the scratchplate shows up we might be wanting to take it off again, but we'll see.
Other than that, the only other thing we were going to do was put the 'Facelift' flames on the back of the guitar. this proved to be a none runner though as it basically didn't work with the cover plate and so we gave up on it. As it didn't fit the only other Strat clone in the house either, it is now pinned to the boy's bedroom wall, and he is happy with that.
Speaking of happy, is the lad?
Sometimes it is hard to tell, but yeah, I think so and overall it was a cool thing to do, even if we didn't quite fit it into the summer holidays. I learned a shed load as well, and will no doubt do myself one sometime soon and not shy away from upgrading and repairs in future. Before that though, I've got a couple of ideas for other projects - which will hopefully be a bit quicker to finish and shorter to describe.
Anyway, if you have followed this mammouth tale, I hope you enjoyed what you read and if you fancy doing a kit yourself, you'll realise that it really isn't beyond you. I think there are very few people who have less technical nous than i do, and eve though it has taken a few weeks, most of that was to do with either waiting for paint to dry or for parts to be delivered from somewhere or other. If we had gone with the kit as it was, and not messed about turning a leftie right, it really wouldn't have taken much time at all, and finish apart you could quite easily put a kit like this together in a day or two.
As for the DIY Guitar kit specifically, I'm not on a retainer or anything, but I would recomend it. I know some other kits apparently don't need you to do any soldering, but it is genuinely easy so don't let that put you off. Overall the quality is good, all the holes were in the right place and the instructions didn't assume too much. The parts were better than I thought they would be, and whilst you might end-up changing some of them over time, intially there really isn't much of a need to. I think that is one of the strengths of these kits. Given the cost of buying even a basic neck or body, you can get a kit with all the parts thrown in often for a cheaper amount. The people at DIY were helpful too, which goes a long way and if I do another kit I'd certainly be paying them a visit.
As for getting replacement or upgraded parts, well Axerus and Axetec have provided most everything that was worth having, and I'll do a list further down of what came from where and how I rated it.
Other than that, I hope you enjoyed reading about this, and maybe you'll pop back in sometime and see what this dunce tries to do next.
LINKS
During this project I obviously blew a load of money in various establishments:The Guitar Kit came from DIY Guitar Kits and very good it was too.
Paint, Undercoat and Lacquer came from Halfords. This was OK, and easy to use.
If you want to do it properly, the only person I've found to sell nitro in cans is the Manchester Guitar Academy. He also has some helpful advice if you are doing a kit on his site - well worth a read.
Copper tape, which was used for the shielding within the control cavity came from XXXX, although is available from lots of places including Axerus and Axetec.
Replacement Jack plate, black pickup covers, skull knobs, various screws, aluminium foil (used to shield the scratch plate) and all sorts of other stuff came from Axerus who deliver quick and are nice as well. I also had a scratchplate off them that I misordered, which wasn't their fault.
I got the bone nut (perfectly cut) and some other bits from Axetec. As with Axerus, service was excellent and they are well recomended.
The DIY waterslide decal paper came from ebay, just search for 'Waterslide ink jet decal paper' but there are plenty of options, just watch out whether you need a fixing spray or not.
The dodgy workmate came from Argos, although it may have been better and less wobbly if I had put it together properly, so I can't really blame them for that.
Various bits of wood, sandpaper, Ronseal varnish for the neck and I can't remember what else came from Homebase - oh yes, blades for the jigsaw. There was probably more than that, as it seemed like I lived there for a few days, but I can't remember right now.
Dr Stringfellow's Lemon Oil and Guitar Polish weren't overly brilliant, so just look for them on eBay, but there are plenty of alternatives.
And that is about it.
Oh, and you can buy my books on Amazon.co.uk, 'God's Game' has got guitars in and Robert Johnson and Leo Fender gets a mention too, you'd like that. I also have a blog: adayinthelifeoferikryman.blogspot.com which is probably out of date, but crafted with love.
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