Double-neck update - The Almighty Smiley Thor is born

Kalimna

Greetings folks,

Sorry it's a wee bit late (i.e. Christmas was a while ago now), but here is the final instalment of my double-neck build. A few photo's and a hopefully brief description of the finished guitar.

Spec : 
mahogany body with rippled ash cap
cedrella necks with book-matched anjan fingerboard, 22fret
Oil City Forces Sweetheart and Blitz Spirit pickups
standard 2xtone/2x vol controls, neck selector switch, 3-way pickup switch
nitro rattlecan finish from Manchester Guitar Tech
headstock decals from GuitarDecalsUK
scale - 24 3/4"
weight - small neutron star

The main bodywork complete, polishing by hand through to Farecla G10. It's unfortunately a little obvious where I sanded through in a few places. However, I thought I would leave it rather than go back to bare wood again. The blue/green contrast is much more severe in the photo than real life.

https://i.imgur.com/S7Py69A.jpeg

One of many *eeeeeek* moments. And my first foray into ToM style bridges..

https://i.imgur.com/7jIWSGx.jpeg

Obligatory fretwork photo - not much to say here.

https://i.imgur.com/7fcCmnK.jpeg

Installing one of the bridge ground wires. Routing the various wires through the body was a non-trivial job, and required a little bit of bodging and head-scratching. Ground wire was easy. the rest wasn't

https://i.imgur.com/5MzuvWm.jpeg

I always write something in the neck pocket before gluing. The pocket's were not perfect, and the holes you see correspond to small panel pins inserted into the neck heel and used to stop the neck sliding when glued. 

https://i.imgur.com/5vCXDgy.jpeg

Gluing the necks

https://i.imgur.com/DeLFNzF.jpeg

The wiring. I used single coil wire passed in reverse through the cable channels to then pull the pickup/control wires in the 'forward' direction. The wire path was pickups-->neck selector-->vol/tone controls-->3-way neck/bridge switch-->output. 

https://i.imgur.com/oj9KsQX.jpeg

Close up of the neck selector prior to soldering. 

https://i.imgur.com/gFuOr6Q.jpeg

Close up of the control cavity. No reason for the tropical fish beyond the fact I like the colours.

https://i.imgur.com/W0kBGiq.jpeg

Full frontal

https://i.imgur.com/eVTY9w1.jpeg

All my guitar builds get names, and this one is after Isaac's (my 8yr old, and recipient of guitar) leopard gecko, who had a really smiley face!

https://i.imgur.com/ktSjOho.jpeg

And lastly, my boy with his new toy.

https://i.imgur.com/l62fixS.jpeg


Overall, Im extremely happy with the result. It's far from perfect - the neck selector switch needs replacing, the fret ends need work, I sanded through in too many places, neck pocket on 6-string a bit sloppy, weighs too much, nut slots/width not 'right', choice of cedrella for neck too flexible?,
However, it sounds great, the wiring worked first time, it looks the biz, neck profile spot on for my hand, action not bad at all (haven't measured it) and a very happy little boy.

As always, I welcome comments, queries, criticisms

Cheers, and thanks for looking,
Adam

PhilKing

That looks really nice.  How much does it weigh (just thinking that double necks are usually quite heavy and he isn't that big).  It is a great gift for him though.

Kalimna

I knew people would ask about the weight However, I haven't got around to weighing it yet. Considerably more than my late 80's LP Custom, that much is certain. I really should have used a thinner body, or weight-relieved it before gluing the cap.

Cheers,

Adam

PhilKing

I did wonder.  @WezV has made me a double neck Alembic style bass and 12 string, however one of the feature cuts is just where it rests on your leg, so it really digs in and nips your thigh, to the point where you can only have it there for a short while.  Fortunately I'm mainly going to use it standing (for just one song!), and I'll use a really wide strap.

Kalimna

That is a stunning of quilted maple, and the blueburst is perfectly executed  The cutout's aren't really my thing, but that is my own taste. Looks to be an extremely well crafted instrument. Lovely.

I will get around to weighing Thor, but after 5-10mins of standing with it on a strap it was getting a little achey!

Cheers,

Adam

WezV

Phil's doubleneck weighs in at 15lb altogether.....its not bad considering its 2 maple and purple heart through necks.   The body wings are very light

Both basses and 12 strings tend to be a pound or so heavier than a normal electric.

I would have liked it a couple of lbs lighter, but I don't think the weight of 2 light guitars is too bad.    I was hopeful it was going to be lighter at the finishing stage, but it has a lot of hardware pushing it up