Semi Hollow S-Type hardtail with P90s

XWulfhere · April 2015

Bit of an experiment this one, a sort of what-if build.

Ash body and top, maple neck, rosewood fretboard. I've adapted a strat template, the neck now has a Jazzmaster headstock. P90s ordered from Mojo. Gotoh hardtail bridge (rear loading) and mini-schaller tuning keys. Did some prep work last week, but everything gets going this week - paint ordered from Rothko and Frost, blue sunburst fading to black. Just a master volume and tone control with a three way switch

Still trying to decide whther I should have F-holes. Originally I though not, but I've deviated so far from the Strat, plus I won't have to make a rear access panel if I do.

Will keep updating with photos through the weeks including any errors I make!

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/F97C6BBA-DB3C-481C-B872-B4C2EBEB1736_zpsfmpffwr3.jpg

(Hopefully the photo will appear soon :-)

Dalefty · April 2015

This looks interesting, though I would personally build in a rear access panel even if you do add f holes, purely for the simple fact that wiring up the guitar and installing the electrics through f holes is a huge pain in the arse, and having a rear access panel would make installing the electrics, repairing them and upgrading them so much more curse word filled free and quicker.

DaLefty

Andyjr1515 · April 2015

Dalefty said:

This looks interesting, though I would personally build in a rear access panel even if you do add f holes, purely for the simple fact that wiring up the guitar and installing the electrics through f holes is a huge pain in the arse, and having a rear access panel would make installing the electrics, repairing them and upgrading them so much more curse word filled free and quicker.

DaLefty

What @DaLefty said ^^^ with knobs on (if you excuse the pun) Interesting project!

XWulfhere · April 2015

Thanks guys. I still haven't made my mind up yet. I think the main consideration is how the controls line up - I'm going to have a master volume, master tone and the output jack in the position of the usual strat second tone knob. If the f-holes don't look out of place then I might do it, but I wont know until I've cut some paper ones out and see how it looks. I gather semis are a pain to wire up and I will shortly be replacing all the electronics in my Riviera... OTOH I am a broadcast engineer by day so feel qualified to at least have a bash at it :-) I don't want to have a rear access panel unless its absolutely necessary, but if the f-holes don't suit it then I guess I'll have to.

Neck and possibly fretboard today!

Dalefty · April 2015

You could always make the f holes wider than normal, or a different shape to make it easier to install, repair, and upgrade the electronics. But your project is seriously cool, and something I plan to keep a very close eye on.

And don't skimp on the knobs, please use decent knobs.

DaLefty

XWulfhere · April 2015

Dalefty said:

You could always make the f holes wider than normal, or a different shape to make it easier to install, repair, and upgrade the electronics. But your project is seriously cool, and something I plan to keep a very close eye on.

And don't skimp on the knobs, please use decent knobs.

DaLefty

Don't worry about that mate, I've got proper telecaster knurled ones and they weren't cheap...

Megii · April 2015

This looks like a great project - I love the concept - sounds like a guitar I'd like myself. Will be following this one anyway, and best of luck with it.

XWulfhere · April 2015

Well, here's where I've got to today - a prepared neck blank and a slotted fretboard. I've gone maybe a little too deep with the fret slots... fortunately I haven't sliced the board, but I'm leaving it stuck to the plank until it's ready to use.

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/431449D5-F17E-4CBE-A9F0-C5EA260951A0_zps7asgqdsb.jpg

Tomorrow I plan to route the truss rod channel, cut out the neck and if I make enough progress I'll be sticking the fretboard onto the neck. I might be aiming a little high, but I'd like to get the neck done by the end of the week...

XWulfhere · April 2015

A bit more done today, routed the truss rod channel and routed the neck. Bit of a cockup with some tearout at the heel, fortunately it hasn't removed any wood, just lifted it a bit. Shoved a bit of titebond down there and clamped it it, hopefully it will be good for morning. Tomorrow I'll get the fretboard cut out and glued onto the neck.

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/4D947507-CE53-4D89-9463-DD4C196E6578_zpssllajnat.jpg

Andyjr1515 · April 2015

Looking good from over here

XWulfhere · April 2015

Got a decent amount done today, the neck repaired fine overnight so I sanded it into shape using the dish sander, smoothed out a few points around the headstock, then bit the bullet and glued the fretboard on - which despite having cut the fret slots a bit too deep remained in tact!

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/FE6057F9-0468-4442-8F89-FE58830D6A68_zpsskiifyqa.jpg

I clamped it up and left it - it needs 24 hours, but as I'm busy from now until Monday it'll stay clamped up until then. As I couldn't do anything else on the neck I thought I might as well get the body blanks prepared. This took ages, the ash was about 65mm thick and I needed it at 41mm (the top should be 5mm or therabouts), so it was a heavy session on the planer thicknesser. Both the halves are now glued and clamped up, and there they will stay until Monday

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/1409DC08-7A02-492F-BDD5-5F694B550853_zpsqprhperg.jpg

Finally my pickups arrived from @mojopickups today - P90s (as well as PAFs for my Riviera). Thanks Marc for being able to send them so quickly, I was surprised that they came so soon!

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/C1B93BAB-2E3E-45E0-96F3-DAB660E69F95_zpsdrfjvdhm.jpg

That's it until Monday :-)

XWulfhere · April 2015

Got quite a lot done today, the fretboard has glued on nicely so I trimmed that up flush with the body, thinned down the headstock and put the transition in to the fretboard, then drilled the holes and test installed the tuners. Currently radiusing the fretbaord and looking forward to a few hours of sanding!

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/6D497039-D507-4EED-BEE6-7B2F3275090E_zpsewdk4jym.jpg

XWulfhere · April 2015

Bit more done today, the fretboard is radiussed to 10" (long tedious job), the dots are in the side and the freetboard which I've sanded to 600 grit, and now the frets are on. Hoping to get the neck carved tomorrow as it will be my last day working on it (I've got a long weekend of work ahead doing my real job!)

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/69C1C789-DD52-46C2-A445-E81D6500E3B7_zpsyno8k5xe.jpg

XWulfhere · April 2015

Final day for a little while, wanted to make sure by the end of the day I'd got the neck profile carved in and it's done. I use the faceting method, I learned this in the videos Dave Fletcher did (on youtube), here's some photos of the process:

Putting the facets in with rasps and filed

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/6FD03086-8D75-4735-96B4-38F3BBD52FDF_zpsnnd0tjfa.jpg

Neck is faceted and now ready for shaping

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/8F76FBC0-7CE3-46D4-8FA6-B62A062E5AB3_zpsouitd3zx.jpg

I was going to use my linisher to round the back of the neck - it was worked perfectly for the Jazz Bass I've done recently. But it was just a bit too big for a strat neck so I had to go with files and scrapers instead. Took longer, but I got where I wanted:

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/87A302CD-A94D-4D3A-BAA6-536986DE7BA4_zpsrvvaopcw.jpg

This neck is now ready for sanding and finishing. Next week I hopefully will have enough time for this and the Jazz bass neck which needs doing too. The plan is to do the body while the lacquer for the neck is curing...

XWulfhere · May 2015

Twas a busy week last week so didn't get a massive amount done, but on Wednesday I spent the day preparing the neck for spraying - filing and then sanding everything down to 600 grit in preparation.

I didn't mention before, but I have a Jazz bass copy in a state of near completion that I've been doing in between other tasks for the past 12 months or so. The plan is for me to complete the Jazz in parallel with the P90 S-type as soon as the the latter catches up with the former. So the J-bass got the neck sanded too, and today they've both had the sanding sealer put on. I'll be giving these the weekend to properly harden, then hopefully there will be some warm and dry days next week for me to start applying the lacquer. Yesterday I went to the local paint shop and bought all the grades of wet and dry that I need (600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000), I've also got quite a bit of micromesh lying around and some polising compound. Not to say I'll be any good at it of course, this will be the first time I make a proper attempt at it!

Here's a photo of the necks with 6 coats of sanding sealer.

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/3A0071A6-A524-4934-867A-C3985C6F973A_zpswemhiulo.jpg

XWulfhere · May 2015

Crikey has it been two weeks?

I've been super busy with work, but managed to snatch some time to work on the P90 strat. I've lacquered both the necks with 6 coats of lacquer. Apparently this should be enough, but I might do another three next week just to be sure.

Meanwhile, I've been able to spend a little bit of time on the body sorting the top out. I was originally intending on having an ash top, but the wood I'd got in mind for that had cupped a bit and I dodnt' think I'd be able to put it through the planer thicknesser. I've got some maple set aside for tops and this seemed okay so I'm going with that instead. This afternoon I jointed the two pieces together, thicknessed them and they're now clamped up. No real figure or grain on this top.

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/154BC517-6B2B-464F-8C34-0E62AFB04C79_zps75ijb6an.jpg

I'm feeling reasonable confident that I'll have 3-4 days free to work on this next week so hopefully I'll be able to get the bulk of the body done.

XWulfhere · June 2015

I've been so busy over the last month that there hasn't been a lot of time for working on the guitar. Also, being totally honest, I was a bit stumped about the best way to hollow out the body with the router so lost a bit of enthusiasm.

Anyway, realising that I really need to crack on becuase before I know it summer will be over, and as we want to move house in the autumn I really want to get this and the Jazz bass done.

Using the template I did before, I used a forstner bit to hog out most of the wood in the cavities

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/73DE0E0D-6125-40D9-97E7-7909A6DBDD97_zps8n7jn7m2.jpg

After much headscratching I found the best way to router it all out and thankfully it's now done.

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/1D0257BF-C114-4246-B893-8D223DBF5E18_zps9hhx4jji.jpg

By the end of the week I hope to have a bit more done, with any luck the top will be glued on :-)

TTony · June 2015

That's looking like a nice neat job. What was causing the head-scratching with the routering?

Just remember not to do too much belly-carving ... (been there, done that).

XWulfhere · June 2015

Thanks @TTony

It was nothing major, I've done a semi body before and found the hardest part keeping the router stable when doing the outer edges where there's little room for support. I made a large router base but that wasn't quite working properly. In the end I just stuck down some wood that was left from the body blank next to the outer edges and it seemed to do the trick. Basically I was just trying to make it harder for myself than it needed to be :-)

Andyjr1515 · June 2015

Very neat job @Wulfhere. Pleased this is progressing....I think it's going to be a stunner and well worth the effort

Jalapeno · June 2015

Really good looking job. Excellent work.

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Semi Hollow S-Type hardtail with P90s

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