PRS-style Project Thread - Recommendations Welcome

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geetarguy85geetarguy85 Frets: 51
edited August 2020 in Making & Modding
Hi all,

I am currently planning a PRS Custom 22 style project.

Graham over at @GSPBASSES is going to build a body a neck which I will then finish and assemble.

I'll use this thread to track the project's progress but in the meantime, I'd welcome some hardware recommendations.


The specs are:

Flame maple neck with rosewood fingerboard

Swamp ash body with flame maple cap

Bridge - Grainger Guitars Hardtail

Pickups - Oil City Black Knight in the bridge and Scrapyard Dog Plus in the neck, though I am considering an HSH configuration so in that case would need a recommendation for a nice single coil for that twangy middle position sound.

Controls - will be 1 volume, 1 tone (push pull for coil split), switch tbc.

Tuners - to be confirmed, would like locking tuners of some sort.

Nut - Graphtec Tusq or a bone nut, tbc. Probably tusq.


Questions:

1. If I were to go with the HSH configuration, what would be the best switch? The design doesn't include a slot for a 5 way blade so the options are either:
A) 3 way switch where each position only selects either the bridge, mid or neck, or;
B ) 5 way rotary switch where position 1 is bridge, 2 is bridge plus middle, 3 is middle, 4 is middle plus neck and 5 is neck.

2. Any recommendations for a single coil? @OilCityPickups ?

3. Any recommendations for locking tuners? I don't like the big vintage Gibson style tuning machines and buttons, and I'll be going for black hardware so needs to be available in that colour. Looking to spend under £100 on them if possible.

Hopefully this will turn out to be a great guitar!
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Comments

  • sawyersawyer Frets: 732
    edited August 2020
    I had a rotary switch on my Custom 22 and hated it. Some like them,but you can't flick from one pickup to another quickly, or without hearing all the other pickup combinations inbetween two different positions. Had it replaced with 3 way and coil splits. Sounds a cool build! Looking forward to updates and pics :)
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  • SteveRobinsonSteveRobinson Frets: 6915
    tFB Trader
    Why can't you have a slot for a 5-way switch? 
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  • gjonesygjonesy Frets: 145
    I went with hipshot recently, don't know if they do black (I think they would) but they do a range of different buttons and open and closed gear options
    They came with no drill mounting plates so easy fitment
    V happy so far
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  • @gjonesy ; do you know what model tuners you have?

    @SteveRobinson I may be able to but waiting for confirmation.

    @sawyer good point about quick switching with a rotary.
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  • gjonesygjonesy Frets: 145
    I went with these: https://www.btnmusic.co.uk/product/hipshot-6-in-line-grip-lock-closed-tuners/
    theres 3 a side sets and they do them in black
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  • The guitar in question is in this thread: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/196141/last-orders

    I'm now planning out how I'm going to finish the guitar. I will be staining the top then will be sending it to someone to spray both the body and neck with nitro and polish to a high gloss. This is the plan I'm thinking of:

    1. Sand the body, top and neck to 320 grit; would it be appropriate to go 120 > 240 > 320 grit?
    2. Lightly dampen to wood to raise grain, wait to dry, then sand again - do I need to go up through the grits again or just go straight to say 320?
    3. Tape off the edge of the maple cap to avoid getting grain filler on it
    4. Grain fill the swamp ash body as per @SteveRobinson 's guide
    5. Potentially stain the body on top of the grain filter
    6. Pre-stain some of the top in a dark red (see my thread about the dragons breath pattern)
    7. Sand back the top to remove a lot of the dark red so that it just highlights the grain - what grit(s) should I be using here?
    8. Stain the top with the colours
    9. Go over the body and top with a very fine grit paper e.g. 1500 to remove any raised grain caused by the staining
    10. Remove the tape around the natural binding
    11. Use either a tool made from a razor to gently scrape the binding and create a thin clear line around the edge of the top OR gently sand the binding to round over the edge of the top and create the natural binding effect

    After step 11, would the body be ready for spraying? Or will I need to apply a sanding sealer?

    For the neck, following step 2 above:
    1. Tape edges of rosewood fretboard
    2. Pre-stain with light brown
    3. Sand back to highlight the grain
    4. Stain neck with amber
    5. Go over neck with a very fine grit paper

    Same question now about sanding sealer.


    I am also considering using a paint pen to draw a design on the headstock. It's an ebony veneer. I'd like to do this before the guitar is sent for spraying, so that the design is protected by the lacquer. Is it okay to use paint pens on bare wood, or will I get better results if say I were to apply a sealer or something on the veneer before I draw the design? If anyone has recommendations for a pen and/or technique pointers, it would be much appreciated :)
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  • Electronics wise I'll be using two humbuckers, most likely a pair of Oil City Scrapyard Dog Plus. I'll be using push pull pots for both the volume and tone, and am trying to decide between either having independent coil splits for the two pickups, or one control split both pickups, and the other control be a phase reversal switch.

    What do people think would be more interesting?
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  • SteveRobinsonSteveRobinson Frets: 6915
    tFB Trader

    1. Sand the body, top and neck to 320 grit; would it be appropriate to go 120 > 240 > 320 grit?
    Won't Graham have sanded it to 320 already? 120 grit is quite coarse!
    2. Lightly dampen to wood to raise grain, wait to dry, then sand again - do I need to go up through the grits again or just go straight to say 320?
    You should only need to sand lightly with 320 to denib it. 
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  • normula1normula1 Frets: 640
    are you using a toggle or blade switch?

    My CU22 has a blade and is wired Bridge, Bridge & Neck Partial OOP (series cap on the bridge), Bridge and Neck in phase (additional 500k resistor and, 500k resistor and .022 cap in parallel with it to ground), Bridge and partial split Neck (voices screw coil), Neck. 
    Tone control has a push pull which partially splits both pickups voicing the screw coils. When in split mode, positions 3 & 4 are very similar but there is a small but discernible difference. The extra components mirror the extra vol & tone pots in a Gibson style guitar and for me at least help position 3 sound more like it should.

    If it wasn't such an expensive instrument and these days avoiding non-reversible changes, I'd actually use two mini toggles for the splits.
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  • @normula1 I'm using a 3 way toggle. 

    @SteveRobinson I assume he will but haven't yet checked what grit it will have been sanded to. Thanks for the clarification on the de-nibbing :)
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  • FlipFlip Frets: 68
    edited December 2020
    My project is much more a self-build than yours; the only outside work I had done was the fret dressing. Because it's a PRS style I signed the headstock myself - clearly establishing that it's not passing off. I used about four very thin coats of polyurethane clear gloss - 4:1 - which was all I used on the whole neck after sealing. I then signed the instrument headstock using a white 0.7 Posca pen, allowed it to dry for 24 hours then gave the front of the headstock ONLY two coats of 4:1 mix with the elements reversed ie 4 poly to 1 white spirit.

    FWIW when I carried it into PMT to buy a gig bag (the instrument's for my grandson) the manager took it for a PRS original until I drew his attention to the signature.

    Hope that helps

    With final photos yet to be posted my construction blog is at: kitguitarbuilder.blogspot.com
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  • Beautiful @Flip !
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  • Has anyone had experience of using paint pens e.g. posca pens on bare wood? I want to draw a design on the headstock veneer before it gets sprayed as I won't be able to draw after the spray then send it back for another couple of coats.
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  • FlipFlip Frets: 68
    I did a test on an offcut of untreated oak veneer - real wood not plastic - before I signed my guitar. As you can read on my build blog I signed the headstock of the guitar after it had been given about six very thin coats of poly mixed with white spirit. When the Posca was dry I gave the front and sides of the headstock two thicker coats of poly mix to fix and there's no evidence of anything coming off.

    On the test strip with no further protection, the Posca pen can be scratched off with a fingernail.

    I think my experience suggests that as long as you're careful how you handle the dry Posca-on-bare wood, the further sprayed coats will fix it. Have you asked your sprayer?
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  • Thanks all for your help so far.

    Next newbie question: is there a particular sanding sealer I should be using if the top coat is going to be clear nitro? In particular, if I can use a brush on/wipe on sealer I'd prefer that as don't really have the space to spray anything, otherwise I'd be doing the clear coat myself too!

    Thanks
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  • geetarguy85geetarguy85 Frets: 51
    edited February 2021
    I'm making slow progress sanding the body. Hoping that I might get round to grain filling towards the end of next week!

    Photos are here for anyone interested: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eJ8mn91eunkwKxSBA


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  • PeteCPeteC Frets: 409
    looks really great  -  while you are sanding would it be worth smoothing the recesses for the controls a bit more? 

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  • @PeteC indeed I plan on doing that. I've found though that it's quite tricky to sand inside the recesses!
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  • PeteCPeteC Frets: 409
    Yep ! I came across the same issue on my current build.  Noone seems to make a good ball shaped sanding tool - which would be perfect. 
    Progressively going through the grits by hand does it fine. Just takes a while.

    On my 94 McCarty the recesses have their edges smoothed a great deal and are much more blended into the top than some others i have seen.  I think this because the earlier PRS’s were done by hand and there were variations between guitars.  
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  • PeteC said:
    On my 94 McCarty the recesses have their edges smoothed a great deal and are much more blended into the top than some others i have seen.  I think this because the earlier PRS’s were done by hand and there were variations between guitars.  
    Afraid not, they were all dupli-carved until ~92, then CNC’d. The hand-sanding that happens after that allows for some variation though, and they’ve tweaked their carves etc over the years too and sharpened things up here and there so it might well be intentional.
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