gummibearheadsA blonde woman visits her husband in prison. Before leaving, she tells a correction officer: “You shouldn’t make my husband work like that. He’s exhausted!”
The officer laughs and says, “Are you kidding? He just eats and sleeps and stays in his cell!”
The wife replies: “Bullsht! He just told me he’s been digging a tunnel for months!”
I did the wiring on the guitar. I never get it right the first time. In this case it’s kinda good.
The original pickup selector switch was a mini toggle switch and I bought a new one to replace it. The wiring for them is really weird and the switch is small. I decided to replace the switch with a toggle like is used on a Les Paul. That means I need a bigger hole!
I used a wiring diagram from the excellent Seymour Duncan website. They provide wiring diagrams in the style of the old paperclip in word.
The new toggle works but it’s silver, too silver. I wanted a black one to match the rest of the hardware. Amazon to the rescue.
A couple days later I get the black switch and finish the wiring. It’s kind of a mess and I’m not proud of it, but it seems to work. The kill switch even lights up!
The to do list is getting smaller!
Ok, that’s a big list still
Time to finish the neck (sorta). The sorta comes in because I’m still waiting for the new headstock decal.
I sanded the neck nice and smooth and removed a few scars. Then time to seal it up with some clear. I dig a satin finish the best so that’s what I’m gonna do. A few coats of Krylon satin finish clear should do the trick.
Next is to assemble the hardware. I installed the locking nut for the tremolo system, the tuning machines, and the holder for the hex keys that work the tremolo and locking nut.
I tested the polishing on the back of the guitar. It took a few tries and going back to do some more wet sanding, but I got it to a place I’m happy with.
My brother let me borrow his dual action polisher and some products to use made by Meguiars.
I was and still am nervous. I’m not going for perfect, but I want it too look good from a few feet away and not have any huge oopsies. I think I accomplished that.
You can even see the sky in it!
The next step is to wet sand the front and polish the sides and front.
I started to wet sand the guitar body today. I’m super nervous about it so I started on the back. I put more clear purple on the front and top side than I did on the back.
I’m using 800, 1500, and 2000 grit wet/dry paper. I’m using some water with a bit of soap to wet the paper and flood the surface. I’m wrapping the paper around a pink eraser.
This area shows what a couple passes with 800 looks like. The dull surface is the high spot, and the shiny is the low spots.
A few more passes and the low spots mostly disappear
1500 and 2000 in opposite directions take care of the scratches from the rough papers.
2000 paper
Next I’ll use some rubbing compound to remove scratches from 2000 and then some polish to make it shine!
What do you call an orphan taking a selfie?
A family portrait!
I opted to use my phone a friend lifeline for the frets in the Vangaurd neck. Kevin at Coyle’s Richboro Music does some cool stuff. One of those is tossing my neck into his refretinator machine.
He shared an update on Instagram, check it out here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cha8qlSuYGe/
The frets are stainless steel and jumbo-ish size. I have stainless frets in another guitar and I’m never going back. Bending is sooo smooth and they stay clean longer. I hear they last a bujillion years too.
I’m super happy with the work he did, and highly recommend them to anyone looks for fret job. I think he has a mail order service on his reverb page where you can mail a neck and he will do the work and send it back.
There are a few more small jobs to do on the neck and then it’s ready to go.
This is a cool documentary about the beginnings of Charvel/Jackson guitars.
You must be logged in to post a comment.