Walnut Hollowbody Build

[Bob411]

Ill probably put another firebird pickup in the bridge. We'll see how the neck pickup only does for a while til I have the $$ to buy something. I suspect I'm gonna want the bridge pickup, though. It's nice to just flip the switch and get a different sound.

I like it even more now. Assumed it was 1 vol., 1 tone, and the third hole was for the switch. Have a soft spot in my heart for Hamers.

 

[Alex W]

It's getting there. A little streaking on the first top coat. I coulda went a little heavier but I don't want runs. Another coat will even it out.

Nobody likes the runs.

 

[Elias Graves]

It's getting shiny! Finished all the sanding last night. 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit. Then I switched to my liquid polishes and finished the first-medium cut. Started a little on the fine cut but it got late.

Won't be long now.

 

[Punchy]

 

[Elias Graves]

This is getting hard to photograph. See the scratches running top to bottom? Those are there from the medium cut cleaner and its maybe as wide as a baby's hair. Very tiny. But they ALL have to come out. That's very hard to do by continuing to polish in the same direction. What I do, then, is switch 90 degrees and go left to right on your screen. That way the smaller scratches left by the fine cut polish contrast with what was there before. The perpendicular scratches become very evident so they're easier to track down and eliminate. It ensures you get all of em. If ou look closely at the second pic, you can see the smaller scratches left by the fine cut.
Then the machine glaze polish goes back to original direction.

 

[Elias Graves]

The pickup fits.

Now the tele is in pieces.
I've already cut a new pickup surround for the tele and I'll be putting in the neck pickup that came in the set with the bridge. I believe I'm also gonna raise the action some and start learning slide with it.

 

[telecaster911]

Looking great

 

[Elias Graves]

Damn, that was tedious. Got 99% of the shellac off the board. I taped it, but the shellac is so thin it seeped right under the tape.

Looking good now.

 

[Elias Graves]

Ok, I'm quitting there. I still see a few white specs but ill work on those later. Time to get back to polishing paint.

 

[Elias Graves]

Tuners!

 

[Phil513]

that's lookin' schweeeet!

 

[irishstu]

Those tuners are so cool.

The rest of the guitar looks great too!

 

[Elias Graves]

Thanks. I like the tuners, too.

Anyway, I decided to go ahead and assemble it even though the paint isn't fully polished. The plasticizers in the lacquer really slow down the hardening process and its still the slightest bit gummy. You don't notice it when handling it but the wet sanding reveals that its still a bit soft.

So I'm going to get it together and get the setup tweaked. Haven't heard the firebird pickup through the guitar either so I kinda want to give it a shakedown run.

I'll finish up the polishing at a later date.
Really doesn't look bad now; like a satin finish. You have to look pretty close to see the remaining scratch marks.
Hoping to get it up and running tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Punchy]

Very cool man

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Cool!

Great work. I can't wait to hear it.

 

[Elias Graves]

Thanks, me too. I'm getting really impatient.
It's so close!

 

[BoomBoomBigelow]

You're doing a super-duper job there, young feller. Give yourself a pat on the back.

I love those tuners!

 

[MonkeyZero]

Looking hot! Tuners are awesome.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Elias Graves]

Thanks.

Two mismatched potentiometers, a toggle switch that does nothing and an output jack.
All wired up. The volume pot is a 1 meg that reads 600k. The tone pot reads 460k and is a push/pull type that is set up to do a coil shunt on the humbucker. I wanted the pots to read as high as I could get em, since I don't presently have a bridge pickup to consider.

 

[micwalt]

Gettin' there!