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Winter Build Off 2023 - Lieutenant Cushing

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Affable Sociopath
Gold Supporting Member
Supporting Member
Sep 2, 2001
32,358
87,044
Vestal, NY
Disclosures
Received a gift from Sire* (see sig)
Assembly build from the lower of these two sets:

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A Bass VI type, 30" scale conversion neck from DC Kunkle on ebay, generic doublecut thinline tele body off ebay, routed for Filtertron pickups. Got some nice pickups from TV Jones, spent some time today on the first pass of finish staining, here's a little dress-up mockup:

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Kind of a turquoise - aqua - teal burst with navy edges.

Geek aspect: Named for Lt. Alonzo Cushing, Company A, 4th Artillery, whose cannons were stationed at "The Angle" on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Bore the brunt of Pickett's Charge. Unit was overrun and destroyed. Famous for standing to his guns despite being grievously wounded, ordering double canister until shot through the mouth. These were the same cannons which Confederate General Armistead ordered his charging troops to turn on the Union forces (just before he got shot himself and the assault foundered).

Tied in with my D&D character, who was a junior artillerist in Company A of the 4th Artillery during the Seige and Fall of the Svirfneblin city of Delverholm. "We lost the battle, we lost our homes, but we won the War." Delverholm was lost and destroyed, but so was the entire attacking army.
 
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Oh, and FWIW, Cushing was finally awarded the CMH in 2014, almost 150 years after his death. "Faithful Unto Death".
 
Just ordered a custom headstock decal for this one, too. No preview on this one though, have to wait until it arrives.
 
Attached the pickups and the output jack, stained the inside of the switch slot, playing a little dress up:

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Now, the question is, does anyone know where to find circuit diagrams for the 10-way Freeway blade switch for two humbuckers? I'm not finding anything...
 
One more time sanding back then overwashing, this time with yellow. Much brighter than even the light rose, much more what I'm looking for. Not sure the camera will do it justice, but really getting there now...

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haha, wrong thread! that's for Sergeant Buzkill!
 
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Got the bridge mounted last night. Will have to remove for some routing and drilling when I add the piezo bridge saddles later. Required drilling 5 new bridge mount screw holes, the body was set up for a Fender 3 screw bridge - used the string-through holes for alignment.

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