Pics of the Megii Wave Guitar with new pickups

Megii

Got finished doing a bit of work to my Wave Guitar build, which I originally put together in 2013 - some of you may remember the build thread. There were just a few niggles that I'd become aware of - problems with the clear acrylic finish on the headstock front, which had cracked and clouded over time, also the bridge saddles could not quite be adjusted far enough forward to get spot on intonation - it was so close you'd never notice, but it still bugged me. So the headstock front has been re-finished with a few fine coats of Tru Oil, and I found some longer adjustment screws to use with the bridge saddles.

Main thing though was the pickups, which just weren't quite what I wanted in the end. In particular, I had an SD Lil' 59 in the neck position, which I found a bit cold sounding somehow. Anyway - have now fitted a new set of Entwistle XS62N single coils, which have neodymium magnets and adjustable poles - strat sized but done with a P90 type of magnet arrangement. Bit of a punt on my part, but I just had a hunch - and actually I think these are the right pickups for the guitar. They sound nothing like normal strat pickups - kind of a much deeper voice, although with a nice balanced, full range kind of aspect to the tone as well. Lots of output, but a very clean, "hi-fi" kind of thing going, and quite sweet-sounding. The bass response is not too heavy, which is an issue for me with some pickups. Hard to describe tones, but anyway, I'm really really chuffed. Took a few pictures today - I do think the guitar looks nicer now with a matching set of pickups.

Love this guitar to bits - the body is an amazing bit of swamp ash - I sent my design as a full scale plan, to Phil at www.guitarbuild.co.uk and he did a superb job making it. The neck came from a 90s Japanese made Starfield guitar (a long and sad story). Planning to use this guitar at a gig tomorrow evening. Anyway, just wanting to show it off again really I admit!

paulnb57

Very nice! Im a fan of Entwistles pups...

equalsql

That's a beauty Megii, I love the shaping, it reminds me of the styling that the up-market bass makers go for, a wood/organic look. 

Megii

paulnb57 said:

Very nice! Im a fan of Entwistles pups...

Cheers! I'm a fan of these particular pups certainly, especially for the money - I would say a great choice for anyone wanting a bigger, deeper tone from a strat sized pickup, but still single coil.

Megii

equalsql said:

That's a beauty Megii, I love the shaping, it reminds me of the styling that the up-market bass makers go for, a wood/organic look. 

Thanks @equalsql - it's been on the forum before, and even made the fretboard.co.uk calendar, so self-indulgent of me to put up more pics I know. Do feel like I've got the guitar properly finished now though.

Funny what you say re up-market basses - I was looking at various images of natural-finish basses when considering how I would like the guitar to look. I should say that the finish on the body is a natural Wudtone satin kit - no colour or tint used at all. I was trying to keep the ash looking as light and natural as possible, to get a contrast to the black chrome hardware, and the clear Wudtone worked very well for that.

equalsql

When I was looking at the finish I thought it might be Wudtone as there is a slight matt look where the light catches the contours. Your right about it working well, from your photos the final effect is outstanding. The hardware...and the offset marker-dots give it a really classy finish.

I think I'll be looking to Wudtone as a finish when I build my Telemaster next year.

Megii

equalsql said:

When I was looking at the finish I thought it might be Wudtone as there is a slight matt look where the light catches the contours. Your right about it working well, from your photos the final effect is outstanding. The hardware...and the offset marker-dots give it a really classy finish.

I think I'll be looking to Wudtone as a finish when I build my Telemaster next year.

I really like Wudtone - the other choice I might have made would have been Tru Oil, which I like too, but having used that on 2 other swamp ash guitars, I knew that it would give the wood a slightly darker, honey-tinted look, which is nice enough, but not what I wanted for this guitar. I'd also say that Wudtone is easier and quicker to do than Tru Oil, not that either is all that difficult. I did think of doing a blue Wudtone finish, because of the wave theme, but in the end I'm glad I stuck with the natural wood idea.

mudslide73

Lovely stuff. I love the black hardware on oiled guitar look. The pickup surrounds look good too.

Megii

mudslide73 said:

Lovely stuff. I love the black hardware on oiled guitar look. The pickup surrounds look good too.

Cheers - I did kind of nick that whole look, having seen it used on various guitars and basses. I did consider not having surrounds, and had some slight concern they would look too heavy, but I think the result is not at all bad, and glad you agree.

Megii

The back of the neck and headstock is actually finished with 3 or 4 thin coats of the Wudtone clear base coat btw - smoothed the wood down up to 1000 grit first. Once I had the finish on and dried, I just buffed it up with a sheet of copy paper and elbow grease - the result is a really nice, satin-finish neck that's nice and fast to use.

xHymnal

Looks awesome!  

steamabacus

You're right, that looks better with the matching pickups. Did you end up going with any advanced switching shenanigans or did you go for straightforward 5-way switching?

Megii

Hymnal said:

Looks awesome!  

Cheers, appreciate it!

Megii

steamabacus said:

You're right, that looks better with the matching pickups. Did you end up going with any advanced switching shenanigans or did you go for straightforward 5-way switching?

Ah - well...  ">  , embarrassed in a way to say this, having started that thread, and I do apologize, but in the end I went with my original idea - so there is one push-pull which keeps the bridge pickup on whatever else is selected (so allowing the n+b and n+m+b pickup combinations) and the other push-pull puts the bridge pickup out of phase. Actually, these are already pretty powerful pickups without putting them in series, and as noted, quite a lot thicker and darker sounding than standard strat pickups too - so I think my choice was perhaps right for this guitar. All the sounds I can get are good, use-able and distinct, including the out-of-phase ones. But sorry not to have gone with the bridge in series idea this time - actually, I have a strat I'm planning to re-do the wiring on soon, and I think that will be the one to do the series bridge pickup circuit on.

Re the matching pickups, I think TTony said he thought it would look better like that when he first saw the guitar, and (of course) he was right there.

Spikeedog

so is the Wudtone an oil or a lacquer/varnish? can I use it to seal in a decal on a headstock?

Megii

Spikeedog said:

so is the Wudtone an oil or a lacquer/varnish? can I use it to seal in a decal on a headstock?

Good question - I don't know, is the honest answer. For me it was just a wipe-on type of finish that I felt I could handle, and would give me the result I was after. I do seem to remember a thread on this forum where Andy said that you can indeed use it to seal in a decal, though I've not tried that. Speak to the man himself though I guess!

Andyjr1515

Fantabuloso, @megii ! Good grief....did I really just say 'fantabuloso'? Must be the varnish fumes getting to me....

Megii

Andyjr1515 said:

Fantabuloso, @megii ! Good grief....did I really just say 'fantabuloso'? Must be the varnish fumes getting to me....

Cheers @Andyjr1515 - careful with those fumes though.