New headless build… might be a long thread :-)

[Beej]

Is the fretboard getting colour too? I can see it...

 

[Barticus]

Is the fretboard getting colour too? I can see it...

Hmm, I hadn’t considered that…
Would that dark Macassar Ebony take color?

 

[Beej]

I imagined more of the berry tones along the board No idea how well it would work.

 

[J Posega]

I thought this was a bass, not a berry-tone.

 

[Beej]

I thought this was a bass, not a berry-tone.

 

[Barticus]

The blue finger ramp was really bothering me because it didn’t look right with the rest of the buddy since it was a lighter woods to tint from. And even though it was only tinted the blue was covering up the beautiful grain of the flamed maple and it was killing the wood’s chatoyance.

It’s a bit overcast today so it’s hard to really see the three dimensional grain that’s popping through now. In direct sunlight the colors are pretty cool looking and show some nice depth.

 

[Barticus]

I’ve also sorted out the electronics for a nice-n-clean 4 pots (no switches) with the proper parts and wiring diagrams so I can begin soldering this weekend.

1. Stacked pot with push/pull volume for active passive and bottom passive tone control that will always be active
2. Pickup blend control
3. Push/pull mid pot 400 Hz and 800 Hz
4. Stacked bass/treble pot

 

[Reedt2000]

The blue finger ramp was really bothering me because it didn’t look right with the rest of the buddy since it was a lighter woods to tint from. And even though it was only tinted the blue was covering up the beautiful grain of the flamed maple and it was killing the wood’s chatoyance.

It’s a bit overcast today so it’s hard to really see the three dimensional grain that’s popping through now. In direct sunlight the colors are pretty cool looking and show some nice depth.
View attachment 4750685

Good move

The blue was too different than the body color and didn't blend well. The new color should sit nicer in the middle of your burst.

 

[Barticus]

Good move

The blue was too different than the body color and didn't blend well. The new color should sit nicer in the middle of your burst.

Yep, it was bothering me a lot so this change will fit much better. Bad picture with no sun but you can see how it fits that purple middle fade better. I thought about blending a little bit of blue on top to make it more purple, but the bright Bordeaux color really pops nicely with the grain.

 

[Reedt2000]

Gonna make some matching maple knobs?

 

[Barticus]

Gonna make some matching maple knobs?

Good idea, I’ll wait until it’s all done and then figure out something cool to fit this.

 

[Barticus]

Finally got my frets in and neck is clamped.

 

[RichterScale]

That grain pattern was pretty cool before frets.
The frets make it look ****ing amazing now.

 

[Barticus]

We did get pretty close on the 12th fret (to your comments earlier) it almost hit perfectly

 

[RichterScale]

22 hit perfectly

 

[Barticus]

Control covers done now with Neo-mags for closure.

Working on shielding the cavities and soldering the electronics next.

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

It's looking incredible so far can't wait to see it in action

 

[Barticus]

Got the brass inserts in the pickup cavity and mounted the pickups/ramp, then finished the shielding and glued and adjusted the neos on the covers so everything fits nice n snug. Then dry fit batteries, pots and pre to ensure good for before soldering. The output was a lil too snug so had to drill/adjust - things are very snug overall with the petite body and cavities.

Controls:

1. Stacked Volume push/pull active/passive with active/passive tone control
2. Pickup blend
3. Push/pull mid for 2 frequency bands
4. Stacked bass/treble

All of the little detail work seems to just take longer than I expect. Once the electronics are done, I’ll get back to leveling frets and polishing the neck for final assembly.

 

[Barticus]

Armed and ready… the Aguilar pickup box is the perfect helper, it even props up at an angle as needed

 

[Barticus]

I sanded/slimmed the neck a bit more today and resprayed it (love this new sprayer).

Not sure why they went to the effort of creating/including this key chain, who would use this?

Then finished the electronics and installed ramp, changed up the controls a bit.

Strung it up and test drove. I’m super happy with it for my first full scratch and neck build. However, I’ve decided I’m going to slim the heal and the volute a bit more and respray tomorrow, about an hour of work to fine tune to my taste.

Since this will be complete tomorrow, I’ll be jumping over to the SBO single cut to make progress on it finally.