I came across this kit at what appeared to be a decent discount, so sucker that I am for a sale, this kit was dropped off today.
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I am considering minwax onyx stain, but just ordered 5pk of aniline dye. So may go for a burst of some sort.

Ordered locking Grover 406C and a TUSQ XL nut for kit upgrades.  I have some Seymour Duncan HB's from the 90's in a guitar that rarely gets used for other reasons, so may pull them and use them in place of the kit pickups.

love the grain on the body, it would look nice clear.

Installed the Butchie Bar ($40) on my Bigsby today.  If you order one of these, read carefully:
Outer pin measurement of 47mm takes the "all US Bigsby Models" and 50mm spacing takes "all Licensed Bigsby models.". Mine is a licensed Bigsby which means imported and it fit the one for US Bigsby models.  The owner was nice enough to send me the 2nd one to try when 1st one didn't fit. This is a really well finished and designed device, with great chrome work.  Probably not as quick for string changes as the Vibramate String Spoiler UNLESS you are changing a complete set as you can string up the Butchie Bar before placing it on the main bar of the Bigsby and pull all the strings around the tension bar at once. It is much easier to restring than a stock Bigsby. It's barely noticeable once installed. US product manufactured in NJ. I highly recommend this if you want to make string changes easier.  If you like the stock setup, the StringRay($10?) is pretty handy and cheap to help keep the ball ends seated.

Only issue I had was that a couple ball ends didn't want to seat when string was tightened but a little nudging with the end of a plastic pen (to prevent marring the paint) popped them into the countersink easily.


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Also put some foam cut in a wedge under my pickups since the neck angle puts the pickups at an odd angle with the strings, making one coil slightly farther from the strings.  I'll have to redo the one for the neck pickup later as it didn't cant the pickup enough.

Here I go again . I just purchased full size plans for a Lloyd Loar F5 mandolin. This one is going to be a real challenge. I have an awesome piece of quilted mahogany that I'm planning on using for the back and sides. The top will be the standard spruce of some variety. I've still got ebony leftovers from the last guitar I built. This is what I'm aiming for

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I'll probably use abalone for the fret dots because I already have some and I like the look of them. I'm going to try to use my initials on the headstock like the last build but instead of block letters I'll try to use cursive script letters. This will be my first time doing binding as well. Once I get going on it I'll start a thread showing my progress. The best part no electronics to deal with

F style?  Go big or go home?

I'm impressed.

Setting up my Mando about drove me nuts.  So much tension...so many things to adjust.

Relevant to this thread...modded cheap Hohner used as main gigging guitar (never heard of the band)..

A couple of my partscaster builds. Attached File

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And my amp build. It’s a Mojo JTM45 clone in a custom Sourmash cabinet. The speaker cabinet is a 2x12 Marshall with 2 12” Celestians.

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Love your use of pine.

The tele with the Squier neck is one I should have never sold…. It sounded so sweet.

New mod to my Schecter PT Fastback IIB... I was curious what was under the
hood of fake WRHB covers. Turns out all the poles are screws and the ones hidden were screwed way in to clear the covers...which isn't a good thing. Wax potting was pretty poor which explains some of the squeal I was getting with higher gain amps. Covers were soldered on with something that my 700 degree soldering iron wouldn't even melt so ended up cutting the cover off with a Dremel disc. The covers were brass. Still working at getting some of the wax off the pickup but results as you'd expect with cover removed. More clarity, handles high gain with less mud. I was considering replacing this pickup with a Duncan Distortion but this will hold me off.  

Recently modified one of my Tele's to just a bridge pickup, volume and tone knob only. I just found myself never using the neck pickup.

The pickup is a Seymour Duncan vintage 54. Really nice sounding pickup. Very bright.

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Finally finished up my latest build with the GFS body and pickups. Went for a Jimi Hendrix Monterey strat clone. I used GFS "Jimi" reverse stagger pickups and a pickguard with the bridge slant reversed.

I like the neck ferrules, but should've ordered a 15 mm forstner bit. All I could find locally was 5/8", and it's a little too big, but it's just cosmetic

Nice work. I really like how it turned out.

I love that and you killed the neck joint!

Next up, I'm giving my Schecter a more Duesenberg look, with open pickup covers.  Ordered a nickel silver ring for my bridge PU and an Artec neck humbucker size P90 (8k) that has an open cover...this look:



On this guitar...



From what I can tell, a P90 should do just fine with the 500k pots and .022 cap that's already in there for the stock humbucker. Always found Artec pickups to be hidden gems:

After the slow boat from China arrived with my Artec pickup...looks like Musiclily out of Shenzhen is now the distributor for Artec, which I don't fully comprehend since they are supposed to be a South Korean company and I thought I'd be getting SK manufactured pickups.... The mockup looks good anyway...

Old:
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New:
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Replaced all the Cosmo black hardware with gold, put in the SD SH-4 and SH-2 pickups, brass tone block and noiseless tremolo springs.

Parts:
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Finished guitar:
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Done with the pickup dress-up and swap.  At least it looks good, haven't had a chance to crank an amp up and check the new pickup out yet. I was having trouble with the OEM unbranded toggle also so upgraded that to a Switchcraft while I had the soldering iron warm

FYI, if any of you were planing on building a Black strat, Amazon has the Fender Classic 50s Series soft-V necks on sale for 25% off right now. ($224, regular $300)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TH94BAK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheapest I've seen them in nearly 4 years.

For my next trick...  Black Fender Tele Deluxe witch hat knobs to replace the very heavy chrome all metal OEM knobs. This guitar has always been on the heavy side so anything lighter is better. Requires adapter sleeves from Amazon.

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For something sort of like this...

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Shaved 3 oz off the weight of the PT and the Fender knobs really do look better.

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Latest personal build.

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I’ve been working on this lap steel build.
I’ve never played one, but I got a wild hair one day to get one, then decided to just make my own.
How hard can it be?Mock up

Got it 1000 grit flat sanded. I’m going to go over it with 1500, 2000, then start polishing.

Nice!! where did you get the key pan?

$14.22. Replace.

Musiclily 3+3 Guitar Semi-closed Tuners 3R3L String Tuning Pegs Keys Machine Heads Set for Epiphone Les Paul Style Electric Guitar or Acoustic Guitar Replacement, Chrome https://a.co/d/eynLJS4

eBay, Kluson is making them and the blank 3 on 1 tuners again.
All done.

I will never again recommend Kluson.  The South Korean 3 on a plate reissues for my J45 were nice and tight when installed but only after a few months some had 90-180 degrees of backlash. I'm probably outside my warranty. If I go to Gotoh Klusons they won't have the proper text on the back but it's player grade and I have the originals still. Originals were soaked in naptha for a week and brake cleaner sprayed inside and everything else and still bind up from caked up grease inside.

Has anyone here installed a Tune O Matic bridge on a Tele style guitar?  Just curious if the neck needs to be tilted to accommodate the bridge/ saddle height?

Edited to add:  Never mind.  I see the Tele with the Bigsby kit.  Looks like it can be done without tilting the neck.

I decided to go for a higher output pickup in the bridge, same Artec HXT I used in my red Ibanez ARX that appears to be a knockoff of the DiMarzio X2N. Moved the open pickup covers over to the Artec and I'm. bypassing the tone knobs while I'm under the hood. Not a great match visually with the H90 like the OEM humbucker was but I really like the bite of this ceramic pickup and we'll find out if the  Chinese version of the HXT is the same as the MIK one I bought for the other guitar a couple years ago. More pics once finished.



ETA: Done. I'm banishing all the tone knobs from here.  Bypassing the tone knobs made a noticeable difference for both pickups. Backing the volume knobs back on the bridge takes a little edge off and the H90 really sparkles at 10. The new pickup has exactly what I was looking for.