I was able to add all the coats of Tung Oil I needed, which amounted to six coats and one application of Lemon Oil. I didn't take pictures of each coat out of fear that the bored would run away.
After that, I was able to add all the hardware and actually the thing entirely today, although I am currently using the Carvin pickguard while I wait for the true one to arrive. The steps include putting the tuners in the neck, sheilding the body cavity (so the guitar won't pick up radio stations,) putting the bridge into the body, putting the neck and body together, putting in the jack plate, and wiring and installing the pickguard. I'll go over a few technical problems I had just for the sake of those who are planning on building one of these:
-The instructions on the Tung Oil say to use cheesecloth (basically soft bandage dressing) to apply it, but I found that such an aproach left dusty spots, as the cloth would break apart and wind up drying to the finish. Thus, I have found that a good ol' paper towel is actually the best way to apply the tung oil. Of course, this was after the first few coats dried, so I am forever stuck with a few spots that permanently look like they need to be dusted off.
-No matter how crazy you are about a girl, don't give her your toolbox. There actually is a chance that she will rip your heart out of your chest, put it in the toolbox, and leave. Six months later, you will have neither that girl nor your toolbox, and you might want a screwdriver from that toolbox really really badly so that you can put a guitar together.
-Carvin kinda messed up a little and made the neck too big to fit into the socket. This almost became a large problem because I almost broke part of the wood putting it together. Instead, I sanded it down a lot and got it to fit. Close call, though.
-I have completely assembeled it and played it a little, and there are some neck adjustment problems. No matter how I set the curvature on the neck, I get buzz. This may be blamed on the neck assembly problems, or on the fact that the truss-rod screwdriver I used to put it together couldn't quite get the neck securely fastend. Hopefully once I find a real screwdriver and really put this thing together, I will see this end.
The neck, with the tuners installed:
A little signature in the pickup cavity:
Check out the back end on THIS thing:
With everything installed but the pickguard and strings:
I was able to get ahold of a real screwdriver and fix the neck problems, so now she sounds like a dream. Once I get the real pickguard and knobs in, I'll post a final photo. It will be at least Monday, if not later.
2 comments:
Okay now I'M drooling. Maybe I'll have enough pictures to put together that blog, after all. But I have a question: how does buying a kit compare with just buying a guitar, cost-wise? Not asking for exact numbers here, just wondering if it's that much cheaper or if it's just worth the experience.
The base price is about half what the same pre-built guitar is, while all the options are exactly the same. That guitar would have cost about 800 if they had built it, wheras it cost about 500 that way.
The experience is great too. Both were big incentives for me.
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