Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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CROSS_guitars
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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:57 pm

Cutting Aluminum is stressful AF!
But way easier than I was expecting. And I still have all my fingers.

I've seen mixed results from people making their own aluminium pickguards.
It can look cheap and crappy. But I think this turned out pretty good. Just needs a bit of a clean up.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by HNB » Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:39 pm

Nice! I dig it.
Christopher
Lilith Guitars

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:09 pm

CROSS_guitars wrote:
Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:57 pm
Cutting Aluminum is stressful AF!
Seeing those pics conjured images in my head of the drill bit catching, violently spinning the newly cut guard & taking out your small intestine! :wtf:
You think you can't, you wish you could, I know you can, I wish you would. Slip inside this house as you pass by.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:43 pm

PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:09 pm
CROSS_guitars wrote:
Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:57 pm
Cutting Aluminum is stressful AF!
Seeing those pics conjured images in my head of the drill bit catching, violently spinning the newly cut guard & taking out your small intestine! :wtf:
I was just worried about slicing my hand open but now you mention it.....

Also, a giant black spider climbed out from under the workbench as I was cutting this, which didn't help my stress levels at all!

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Mon Jul 05, 2021 10:04 pm

I fashioned a thumb rest from a piece of walnut.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Mon Jul 12, 2021 7:08 pm

Just received these pics from the owner.
The maple neck is only temporary while he waits for the actual neck to arrive.
Looks cool with maple though.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by smjenkins » Tue Jul 13, 2021 5:45 am

That build looks great. Very unique set of choices and perfectly OSG. Do you know what kind of headstock the neck will have? JM, CBS, XII?

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Tue Jul 13, 2021 6:13 am

It will have the Maverick hockey stick headstock.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:33 pm

I finally drew up the plans with inkscape.
I'd say it's fairly accurate but not 100%
The nut width is undetermined.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by JVG » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:28 am

That looks pretty accurate to me.

On that note…..

I’ve been looking at a bunch of pictures to compare Maverick/Custom and XII headstocks. It’s well known that the XII headstock was chopped down to make the Mavericks, but i’m also wondering if the curve at the top of the headstock was trimmed/sanded down.to my eyes, the tops on the XII headstocks look a bit bigger/more bulbous.

I’ve got a few images which i’ve added reference lines over, in an attempt to work it out. Unfortunately i couldn’t find a lot of pictures taken straight in front, so the perspective is a bit skewed on some.

I dunno. Maybe i’m imagining things, but i’m interested to know what others think.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:35 am

Yeah, so the "hat" bit is completely chopped off so the overall length of the headstock is shortened.

But when they glue the hat back on, they have to compensate and glue it on an angle, other wise it won't match up, if that makes sense?

Damn, I'm gunna have to make a diagram to show this.

It also seems in other models, they haven't been modified at all. Maybe the ones made afterwards were made from scratch and not from old XII necks?

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:59 am

This is a bit of a rush job.

But you can see, if you were to chop the hat off, cut a bit off, it's not got going to fit back on because the tapering of the headstock.

So, the bit that is removed, its cut on angle so it reaches the length of the join, which changes the angle of the hat bit. My diagram doesn't prove this very well, however.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by JVG » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:53 am

Ahh yes. I hadn’t considered that the hat could be glued back at a different angle. It seems obvious now you’ve pointed it out - thanks!

Regarding your comment about it not always being the same shape, i recall reading somewhere (perhaps on this forum) that the later Maverick/Custom necks were made from scratch, as you suggested. Presumably because they had more leftover XII bodies than necks?

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by CROSS_guitars » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:48 pm

My Kmise neck arrived yesterday for my Budget Maverick.

I've roughed out the headstock.

The rest of the neck won't be recognisable once I'm finished with it.
WIll most likely re-radius and refret the fretboard.

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Re: Cross Guitars - projects and restorations

Post by blimpage » Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:11 am

New OSG merch idea: XII headstock hats.

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