The Explorer is, essentially, done. When I got home from work tuesday I briefly considered reshooting black then clear on the edges to address the blushing problem. Rather, I commenced sanding and then polishing to see what I had before I started painting yet again. Glad I did, in a way. Once I'd gone through 2000 grit wet/dry using mineral spirits I got the buffer out and brought up some shine.
Oh. Worse than I thought:(
I had blushing EVERYWHERE. On the front, on the back, pretty much all over the place. Ugh. There would be only one way to fix it and that is sand it back down to the amber base color and start all over again with the browns, black and clear.
Bad blushing!
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| From Explorer Kit |
There was a time in my life I was enough of a perfectionist to do just that. Not any more. This guitar is just not that important to me to completely re-do. If it was vintage or particularly sweet in some other way I probably would, but it's a kit I bought on a whim. So...I pushed ahead and got her built.
My form of committing to the ugliness was hammering in the bridge and stop tail bushings. They where a tight fit before paint and are really in there solid after paint. It took a bit of grinding in the pup routes and some finagling to get the Schallers in, and the wiring was a very tight fit, but it all went together eventually. I installed some new CTS 500k solid shaft pots I picked up over the weekend, the Switchcraft switch and jack and the .047µF cap that came with the kit. The stock bridge, stop tail and tuners went on as well. I even re-used the strings I had on it before I started the finishing.
I decided to make a new nut from bone. I had one I'd made for a previous project that didn't go correctly. I'd gotten the string spacing wrong. Luckily it was wide enough and too tall. By sanding down the top, I got it to the right height and eliminated the original string slots. So it only took about 10 minutes to get the nut set up for slotting. I got it right this time.
Once it was all done and strung up I played it for around an hour before I went to bed. I really like these Schallers. They are bright (for humbuckers), articulate and pretty damn hot. They have more of a DiMarzio character than Seymour Duncan character, which is what I prefer in the end. Very nice. They're keepers.
This AM I fixed a little problem with the switch (I had wired it backwards to how I prefer it) and took some pictures in the not very bright light. They pretty much suck, but I will get some better ones on a weekend soon. I played it for a while longer through a different amp and was again impressed. Then I took the strings off and put a third coat of raw linseed oil on the fret board. It's been very thirsty and is darkening up nicely now that it's getting some oil. I like the figuring of the rosewood.
So, it plays quite well and sounds very good (aggressive and very 80's to my ear). The important stuff is right....it's just that it is as ugly as homemade sin. Oh well. I can live with that.
I am replacing the stop tail with a heavier one I have laying around to aid in strap balance. It's better than it was and almost acceptable now, so that might be the last bit that is needed. The back plate is a temp for now. I need to get some thicker, proper, pickguard material to make one from. I also need to decided if I will refret it or not. The frets are level enough for the kind of action I like, and they don't feel too bad, but I'd really like frets of my own choosing in there, especially ones that have not been over beveled, as these are. Last bit I think I will do is get a couple bottles of Grolsch so I can make some home made strap locks for it. (The washers on those flip top bottle caps make good cheapey strap locks).
In thinking about it, I have about $180 in the kit, about $25 in electrical parts and I think I paid about $35 for the pair of Schaller pups on ebay. Add in about three cans of lacquer (estimated total usage) at $8 per can and I have somewhere around...$265 in it total. I think that's pretty good. I have an all mahogany set neck Explorer with quality pups and a nitrocellulose lacquer finish for under $300. Cool.
Here's a link to the album (I'll post an update when I get better photos taken):
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| Explorer Kit |
And a shot of the front:
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| From Explorer Kit |
Lastly...I learned a lot doing this kit. Some of which went into the `66ish Corvette I'm "restoring". It shows too. The `Vette is currently is hanging and curing prior to the process of rubbing out the finish. It looks fabulous and will turn out 100% better than this did. I'm very happy to have made my mistakes on this cool Explorer clone and not on my vintage Gretsch.
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