More Explorer

I suppose it was about two weeks ago I went to a friends machine shop to drill the bridge location holes. Everything kind of fell together quickly after that. I'll try to detail what happened and where the project stands at this point.

Lack, at the time, a suitable drill press I made arrangements to go to a buddies machine shop after work and get my bridge holes drilled. I had spent some time the previous two evenings carefully measuring and locating where they would need to be. I even went so far as to mock up the guitar with a pick up and a high and low E strings so I could check out alignment. I propped the bridge up on some bits of scrap wood.

Once the drilling was done I went ahead and assembled the res of the guitar and ran into some trouble. The controls and cavity didn't all jibe correctly. I improvised a control layout and got a good Switchcraft 3-way switch and jack. It didn't take long to get everything assembled and playing, but I'll need to make some decisions about how to proceed with the electricals and a few other details. At this point, however, the guitar is together and after some attention to the nut slots, plays pretty well. The pickups are uninspiring, but that's OK as I have a set of Schallers for it. Very low string tension too.

I've procured some Behlins spray cans of nitro lacquer from Rockler for the finish work. Walnut, Natural (supposed to be like a light oak), some black and some clear. They run coupons for 20% one item almost every weekend. I need to make a habit of going by there to get a cheap can of Behlins clear every time they do that.

Eventually I'll get back to this, address the issues and start getting the grain filler on it in prep for the finish...but I have other projects going and the fun stuff is done now, so....sometime....soon...

From Explorer Kit