OffsetGuitars.com

Good looking progress you've got there, you can't go wrong with a blackguard.
Are you going to paint the headstock black to match it?

I thought about that but decided against it. I'm kind of under a time crunch. I'll be out of commission with shoulder surgery and want to get it done or as close as possible before the doc gets ahold of me (I'll know more about that in another week). As it is, the neck only needs the nut slots cut. Painting a headstock would put me quite a bit behind. It would look good, that's for sure. Maybe at a future time.

Rgand wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:41 am

The pickguard is made. Everything fits except that the pickup opening is still a bit tight. I'll relieve that a bit and it'll be fine. The pickguard screw holes are located with a pilot hole. Those will get transferred once everything fits properly.

That looks amazing!

Fender Addiction wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:28 pm

That looks amazing!

Thank you. I was fortunate enough to get a great piece of mahogany from a guy on the Warmoth forum. Without that, It wouldn't be as interesting.

I've been waiting for some small parts. Everything is here, now. To transfer the PG mounting screw pilot holes to the body, I drilled the opposite corners first then used drill bits to keep the PG aligned while I did the others.


Then I drilled out the holes in the PG and counter sunk them.





I then mounted the PG and neck to make sure everything fits correctly.



I have another neck destined for the Bobber build. I put that on to see if I wanted that instead but the RM/RM neck looked better. The other one was nice but two colors of wood detracted from the body.

Next it'll come apart and I'll wire it. After that, I can cut the nut slots and mount the tone block springs. Then it'll be time to string it up and adjust everything.

It's really coming together! Looks fantastic.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to getting this one done.

Most impressive work.

I really like your attention to details... For one -aside from the obvious exquisite craftmanship throughout the instrument- I'm very fond seeing you've put a black nut on your maple neck.
In most cases, esp on light coloured guitars with said type of neck, such a detail enhances the structural definition as I see it as "the end of the road defined by the fret dots". If the colour of the dots don't match the nut's, I feel something is off.
Same goes with dark fretboards when they sport a black nut, it just gets lost without giving the due emphasis it should.

Amon 7.L wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 07, 2019 2:23 am

Most impressive work.

I really like your attention to details... For one -aside from the obvious exquisite craftmanship throughout the instrument- I'm very fond seeing you've put a black nut on your maple neck.
In most cases, esp on light coloured guitars with said type of neck, such a detail enhances the structural definition as I see it as "the end of the road defined by the fret dots". If the colour of the dots don't match the nut's, I feel something is off.
Same goes with dark fretboards when they sport a black nut, it just gets lost without giving the due emphasis it should.

Thank you.

I'm in total agreement about the nut and spots matching. With the black PG, they pull your eye right along to the nut then back. In fact, the white nut and spots are another reason I didn't like that other neck on it.

It looks really fantastic overall, but I'm most excited to see the plastic come off the pickguard I can't keep that stuff on there for very long. Nor on any electronics either. I love peeling that stuff off.

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 11, 2019 8:19 pm

It looks really fantastic overall, but I'm most excited to see the plastic come off the pickguard I can't keep that stuff on there for very long. Nor on any electronics either. I love peeling that stuff off.

Isn't that the truth! That'll happen soon.

Today I had a few minutes so I drilled the body for a ground wire from the spring claw (only one for 10-46 strings plus the tension bar spring) to the center cavity and wired it with a connector so if I leave the plate off, the chrome won't be all trashed. Not a lot of progress but progress nonetheless.





Then I had to decide how to wire it, since that's the next step. This one will be simple. 2 pickups, 1 tone, 1 vol, 3-way switch. Bill Lawrence PUPs can hold their own without any fancy wiring.

Ooh yeah. That's looking good. I've never messed with Bill Lawrence pickups, but I've heard a lot of good things. Definitely interested to see how this one turns out!

Thanks. This will be my third guitar with Bill Lawrence pickups. The other two are/were really to my liking. One needs some work (after some 40+ years, one of the pickups went dead from accidental exposure to a 4500 gauss magnet) and I swiped the neck off the other one.

Damn! That's beautiful. Really good job on the finish, that's the best way to treat mahogany as far as I'm concerned, and the way the pickguard complements that curve in the grain is insane - reminds me of a freshly fished Rainbow trout
Hope your shoulders get better soon - all of those upper-body parts seem useful in one way or another (says the guy who almost had his thumb torn off by a football thrown by a very enthusiastic quarterback recently).

Thank you. I was really fortunate to get such a beautiful piece of mahogany. Most of it doesn't have that much personality. I want to get it all assembled in a few days.

Yeah, the shoulders will do fine. Time and some fiddling by the doc on the right one will get things in order. At least I have time to get some work done before that. Bum deal about that thumb. I've bent a few digits backward before. No fun, there.