Through neck DC junior build

WezV

lights going so pic is a bit crap- but this is with the first bit of wood stain on the bare wood

I am using a mix of dark and medium oak stains with a touch of walnut thrown in.  Mahogany stain always looks like dark red mahogany furniture

Andyjr1515

Yes - coming together nicely, @WezV ;

WezV

Thanks Andy... looks like everyone else is waiting to see what it turns out like.

I have wired it up today.   it sounds absolutely amazing unplugged, and thankfully that comes through the amp pretty clearly.   I am starting like like thin, lightweight guitars a lot

Danielsguitars

I'm with you Wez on light weight guitars
Love the juniors 

I've just got a limba hard tail set neck strat strung up and it's bloody lovely 
Great tonally and I love the weight

Adam_MD

That looks excellent how does the mojo pickup sound Wez? 

paulnb57

Looks good @WezV, not everones cup o tea, but I like where this is going....... 

DrBob

Yep, love everything about it except for not owning it ! 
Big neck ?

Adam_MD

DrBob said:

Big neck ?

I didn't want to ask that because it will only increase my jealousy if it is :-)

WezV

The Mojo pickup sounds really good.  I am not going to try and describe it too much because I am crap at that.  It has a bit more bite than a comparable P-90, but this may be due to the closeness discussed before as much as the pickup itself.  I plugged it in, strummed and I was very happy.

I think the neck is 23mm thick, but with a chunky profile that makes it feel bigger.  There is not much taper on the thickness.  I will get some measurements later.  It certainly feels big, but I have done bigger than this before.   I don't stop and measure on builds like this

WezV

right time to take some frustrations out on this guitar and cause some damage.

I spoke to Marc about the height of the blade on the pickup and he suggested he could extend the slot on the cover to lower the blade to the bobbin.  Didn't seem worth sending it back for him to do that when I could just do it myself - and age the cover a bit at the same time - so i did that myself and its worked really well. 


damage - basically i bashed it around a lot with various things.  no tool used too often.  

checking - first time trying to do this with a blade.  Tom Murphy says it will look shit at this stage, it certainly does.  Biggest issue was deciding where to start and finish  and i think i starting thinking of spiders and zebras as my mind wandered.

So all that was done with the parts on and looked like this


Tom Murphy is right!

The next stage is the one that starts to make it.  I took it all apart and rubbed it down with a mix of black/brown stain with wax - gave it a good rub and buffed out with a microfibre cloth   I also aged the parts at this stage. and i added cream backing to the plate to pop the colour






I am about 60% happy with the checking.  I got close enough to realise how I can do it better.  More flexible blade, think about how the dents affect the cracks more , and think about the start and end points... might have a go on my les paul deluxe top

FYI, none of the colours are right in the iphone pics above.  the wood is actually quite dark at this point

TTony

That's really how a DC Jr *should* look.

Like it's had a life and would have many stories to tell ...

Danielsguitars

What wraptail did you use, I should've got one like that.

I've just got a rockinger to try but I like the look of the mojoaxe better, anyone know if there's a cheaper type of mojoaxe wraptail I can try.

WezV

An old uncompensated one.  I think it's actually a genuine 50's Gibson one as it matches that in almost every detail. Weighs exactly 1oz.

Danielsguitars

Thanks

Does it intonate ok?

ThePrettyDamned

Wow... That's amazing. Lots of build steps, it would be nice if forum members tool up a couple to give you a break, for the baby, you know? 

I volunteer for step 22.

Andyjr1515

Interesting stuff 

Fascinated by the checking process, especially the toning down of the original assault with stained wax.

Also, it's fairly universal how bad all finishes look at the middle stages of the process. It's why I tend to not publish the photos at those points and certainly not show a customer those particular stages so they don't go "Oh Holy C**p!  THAT'S not what I was after.....)

As it happens, I have to break that rule this morning.  I'm building an EB-3 bass for our old-gits-band's bassist that I need to show him at the very early stages of staining.  I think he's going to be horrified

I like very much this build @WezV.  That bridge is also the dogs wotsits....

WezV

I am happy to show the middle stages. I do worry it may ruin the magic a bit though.  I never showed any of the stages in my moderne build and everyone seemed impressed with the wear.  I am not sure the same will happen when everyone can see exactly what I did.

i didn't need to colour the wax for the post damage rub down.  I think on the moderne I did a wipe with stain followed by a buff with natural wax


Does the bridge intonate?  Better than you would expect, better than a lightning bar bridge with the incorrect strings.  Close enough for rock and roll  

WezV

The other thing to remember is this isn't just about the steps to make this guitar... it also becomes a step towards the next relic finish.

i have been trying to decide whether to age my deluxe, and doing this has me nearly convinced to do it

Jez6345789

Hi interesting and great build again very much enjoyed it.

i am interested as to what difference you think the neck through the body made. This technique was widely used in the 80's by Japanese builders but it was always on a form factor that had a pretty thin body and I alway felt it hard to gauge if it did all the things people claimed like improved sustain, dynamics etc as they were always so removed from what I was playing at the time (les Paul).

with your design its a slab les Paul with a p90 variant. Do you immediately notice a difference.

again thanks for a great build thread like the relicing ideas

WezV

TBh i don't think it would be fair to assume the differences are just from the neck construction

I have made loads of neck through's, but never an un-laminated one-piece neck.  I have played lots of normal juniors, but never one with such a thin body. The wood is also a lot lighter than the mahogany I have used before. 

....


in other news, I have killed the pickup.    not sure when or how but it gave good readings after modding it yesterday, but was dead a a dodo by the time i came to wiring it up today.  Checked the usual things and tried unwrapping a few coils but its dead.  Just sent an embarrassed email to Marc to fix my mistakes