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Grounded to the trem and threaded that wire to the control cavity. Also did this:
Also decided to hang onto the guard and ordered an angled one. I'll wire it up in anticipation of the tuners' arrival Friday.

Looking good!

Number 9 on the list:

http://re-how.net/all/1107885/

so $1050 US, which is about what i paid warmoth for the body, neck, (the wrong) pickguard, trem, bridge, and control plate. adding (the right) pickguard, pickups, switches/pots, knobs, tuning machines (twice), decals, strap locks, and strap, it pushes it closer to $1,400 all in. my guess is the import tax would creep pretty close to that as well, so i probably did okay, if only a bit longer winded of a project.

have enjoyed it even with with the minor frustrations along the way... enough so that i'm heavily considering a duo/stang-esque project to use the other guard (and pickups i bought for it). was thinking copper on an alder body, and it would also let me use those F tuners. i'd go hard tail on this one, and the bridge would be a stacked humbucker with a coil-splitting push/pull.

Got the humbucker and single pair I ordered from GFS and loaded them into the straight-cut pickguard and just taped it and the control plate onto the body after wiring. I think I soldered to the wrong posts on the switches as they always stayed on plugged in. Didn't matter to me much since I gotta tear it down in a couple days when the replacement guard is in.

I mostly did this tonight to intonate and set the action. Got that going solid and gave myself a chance to really try out the neck. Feels great, the satin was a good call. Looking forward to getting this one locked in with its final parts this week. I have Thursday and Friday off (heading to LA), so I'll take Thursday to drill some holes and put this thing to bed.

Bacchus wrote:Number 9 on the list:

http://re-how.net/all/1107885/

Dot is now making guitars for Fender Japan. A way to step up his game

dots wrote:Got the humbucker and single pair I ordered from GFS and loaded them into the straight-cut pickguard and just taped it and the control plate onto the body after wiring. I think I soldered to the wrong posts on the switches as they always stayed on plugged in. Didn't matter to me much since I gotta tear it down in a couple days when the replacement guard is in.

I mostly did this tonight to intonate and set the action. Got that going solid and gave myself a chance to really try out the neck. Feels great, the satin was a good call. Looking forward to getting this one locked in with its final parts this week. I have Thursday and Friday off (heading to LA), so I'll take Thursday to drill some holes and put this thing to bed.

Sounds like a good way to utilize the pickguard(is it a single sized bucker or a regular size?) Neck is really what makes a guitar, if it's good the rest can be modded to one's likings. Do an photos of the results and in between.

yes, i suppose it's been a few days since my last photo. the one below is current: lil killer rail in the bridge, '64 texas grey bottom in the neck; white switches; tuners installed.
you'll also note the decal is gone which i accidentally damaged when installing the tuners (note to self: do it last next time). *facepalm* replacement will be here by the end of the week, maybe before i head to LA friday, so i can put up a final photo.

new guard arrives today, and i'll have to resist doing anything else for a couple of days so i can spend all the time i need drilling for the final assembly.

i'll also get a black robroe cover for the neck pickup when/if i do the next build (i prolly will).

It’s funny how your mind expects something and how odd it looks when it’s different - the straight singles in this case. Are you putting a black cover on the neck pup? The guitar itself looks awesome.

Thom wrote:The guitar itself looks awesome.

It does. Great stuff, Dots.

thanks, dudes.

yes, i'll have robroes for both this guitar and the other. between that, the white switches (duh on my part), the association between "vintage" bore width and "vintage" F tuners, the decal debacle... i've learned a bit, and i kinda want to "get it right" on another project. this one i want to be as aesthetically similar to a fender orange comp stang as possible while the next project i can let my hair down so to speak.

It looks oddly sexy with the straight pickups. Has some strange Jag vibes to me all of a sudden

Actually that's a good shout. Somehow straight pickups look more Jaggish.

Put Jaguar pickups in the straight guard, call it a Cy-stang? Mus-clone?

Preview, ran outta time, but I snapped this before I headed to rehearsal...

Will post more tomorrow!

Much improved, looks great!

PHOTO BOMB!

i'll do the artsy ones for roober once the decal is in (maybe by the end of the week?), but this gives a good review of how it ended up.

twas a really fun project, and i learned a lot... mostly to slow down as when i took my time, things worked out great. it's interesting for me to compare my results with the guitars i have, and the slight mismatches that show up on this guitar are on them, too: a control plate will have a gap between the guard here, a bridge will look slightly out of place there. i was so nervous when i first pulled out the drill to poke holes in this beautiful finish since i hadn't done this much before and have no drill press. just made sure to tape off the bits for the right length, took my time, and it actually got easy.

overall, i'd say warmoth does some great work. this neck feels amazing out of the gate. i won't know for a while whether i need to shim or not as i'm just kinda letting the neck, body, strings, and bridge settle into their tension for a few weeks for good measure. even at that, it plays as well or better than anything i've taken home from a shop or ordered online. it blows their website underwent such a dramatic upgrade a month after i bought mine as i might have avoided some of my mistakes with the newer, clearer user interface, but even that doesn't really bother me much. i had no problem putting their decal on the back of the neck. will do business again with them soon.

my least favorite part of this build was installing the tuner bushels as it required more hammering than i expected. used several folds of blue tape to cushion between the hammer head and the bushel, but there was still some wear from that experience that showed up around the very edges of them. meh... just means they'll "relic" sooner than later? i've read up since, and supposedly this can be lessened by lightly sanding out the edges of the bores, so i'll try that next time. the bridge mounts went in much easier and more smoothly.

one funny bit -- i didn't realize the aged alnicos i ordered from GFS also included aged mounting hardware. the rust was all over my fingers, the phillips bit, etc., but i don't mind the contrast. and my line for the tuners is a little wonky on the back, but they look mostly straight from the front. =]

gonna work on recording some kool sondz tomorrow, but until then...

Looks amazing! What a birthday gift to give yourself, Dots.

Looks really nice, congratulations on a fabulous job!

Awesome work buddy! . Looks really cool!

Looks great - you did fantastic!