Pretty cool

I went home after work for a couple hours friday and got the Corvette wrapped up so I could bring it with me for the weekend. Of course, I forgot my camera so I have no photos of it! I'm very pleased with the final result. It plays great, sounds great and looks fabulous. Those big old Grover tuners make it a bit neck heavy, but I think I can deal with that fine. The neck feels great, the frets are excellent, the Powertron Plus is pretty hot and I'm getting some interesting harmonics from the trapeze when I want, which is cool. The D slot in the nut needs a bit of tweaking, and I may need to fine tune a couple other things, but not much. I'll try to get some photos in the next week or so and post them here.


So last night I built the footswitch for my $100 Peavey Triumph 60. I cannot remember if I spoke of it here, but I picked up just the chassis on ebay for $103 shipped on one of those, put a bid in and figure you won't win deals. I won though. No tubes, no footswitch, no reverb tank, no cabinet. Guy said he thought it worked, but thought it might also have a problem. I threw some old tubes in it (2 X 6L6GC, 1 X 12AT7, 4 X 12AX7) that I had laying around and I knew to be good. Hooked up my Marshall 1965A cab and gave it a whirl (after a cursory visual inspection, of course).

From Peavey Triumph 60 amp

No footswitch meant it was stuck on the highest gain channel (Peavey calls it Ultra), but it worked fine with no pops, hums or issues at all. I sourced a schematic from the Peavey forum and, lucky for me, it included the schematic for the footswitch. I drew up my own annotated version and started gathering parts. I found a old three button footswitch on ebay that was ending soon and snagged that for $19.95 shipping inclusive and waited for it to get there.

From Peavey Triumph 60 amp

It arrived friday and I set to work. In gutting it, I was able to salvage the three SPDT (single pole double throw) switches, two of which I needed. The rest had to be bought and built up. Upon first completion, nothing was working right, so I took it back apart and realized I'd wired the diodes backwards! Short lead negative! Short lead negative! Short lead negative, dammit! Oh well, it only took about two minutes to fix that and then everything worked like a charm! I have around $45 in the footswitch. Apparently Peavey will build them for you at $75 plus shipping, so I did OK.

Pretty cool amp with lots of gain on tap. I need to mess with it for a while to find what sort of tones are available. I've wanted one of the older three channel Peavey's for a while and am thrilled to have found one on the cheap.

From Peavey Triumph 60 amp

While I was getting the various bits I stopped at a electronics parts store near me and really had a find! The guy turns up old tubes now and then and often prices them very well. I need to snap some pictures, but I got four mid 60's vintage American made Tung Sol 12AX7s new in the box (and even in the dislplay box!). $19.95 a piece! From what I can tell these usually fetch $80 per tube and up, so I got a helluva deal. I need to try one or two out in V1 of some of my amps see how they sound. Some claim they are the best sounding American made 12AX7, even better than the black plate RCAs that sell for stupid amounts of money.

Much better...

Last week I started sanding out the Corvette. I got through 800 and part way into 1000 grit before the weekend. Monday night I finished with the 1000 and did 1200 grit. Last night I used 1500 and then 2000, wiped it down and got the buffer out. It's not quite a mirror shine, but it's closer than I've gotten yet. I think I needed to spend more time with each grit to ensure the previous grit's scratches where completely eliminated. I have some fine swirl marks in the finish still. Overall though, I don't think I have a single sand through, it's smooth and shiny and it looks good.

This morning I installed the pickup, which required some wood removal on the floor of the pickup route. I decided to use the clear pickup ring. I also installed the bridge bushings and was able to route a ground wire from the treble side post to the control cavity. I have a aged bone blank for the nut and will start on that next. I also need to decide if I'm going to go with coil splitting or not. The pickup, a TV Jones Powertron Plus, is wired for it and I think I have a push/pull pot to use. Or I could go with a micro switch and drill a new hole in the non-original guard. Lastly, I dropped the output jack cup in a jar of lacquer thinner in prep for cleaning and installation.

I'll edit and add some photos when our mail is up and running here at work....

From 66 Corvette work

Hmm...not my proudest moment.

But I want to share the failures along with the successes. I learn from both, after all.

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!

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):

Explorer Kit

And a shot of the front:

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.

Eegads

I got four more passes on the `vette last night after work. Looking good! The humidity and temp have been almost perfect for painting, so it's gone very well. It's quite glossy already, so it will take little in the way of sanding and polishing to get it looking gorgeous. I doubt I'll put anymore gloss on. If I do, it will have to be next week as I have band practice tonight and will not have another opportunity to spray this week as it's too cold in the mornings right now. Probably just leave well enough alone and not apply anymore. It got three passes over the sand and sealer, then the color coats, then 10 passes over that. I think that should be plenty of clear. I want to let it cure for at least a week before sand out, maybe two.

I took a good close look at the Explorer after I was done spraying and started the process of sanding it out. It's not exactly my finest work. I was having a lot of issues with high humidty and blushing. Especially on the black bits. I get this kind of crazing in areas, like a lot of little white pits that essentially will not sand out. The Explorer has a lot of them on the edges. Nothing on the front or back of the body, just a small area on the back of the headstock.

I got the neck and headstock sanded out to 2000 grit this morning. The body has only been gone over with 600 so far. I think I will go ahead and sand the body out to 2000 and see where I stand. I could then polish it out with my buffer and start assembly, or I may consider respraying the black areas (especially the edges) and then starting again with the clear. If the weather holds I should be able to get a nicer series of clear coats on that would look more like my other projects (like the Corvette). I just don't know:

a) How important it is to me to get this one "perfect"
b) If the weather will hold for spraying
c) If I want to invest the extra time this will add to the process...probably three weeks.

I suppose the big stumbling block is it's difficult to get the bushings in and out of this one. I do not want to have to work around them when finishing. Once I reinstall them, they're going to be pretty much in there for good. So going back won't be much of an option. A plus side to having one that's not "perfect" is I am way less worried about the first dings and scrapes. It might be just the guitar to leave at practice as a backup to my Ibanez. I don't have anything there right now and no real prospect for something I care to leave there all the time. If I break a string on the Ibanez it will just be a pain in the butt and I'll have to make everyone wait while I fix it. With the Explorer I'd be good to go.

I'll ponder all this over the weekend and keep an eye on the forecast. I will also figure out if I want to refret the Explorer. The factory frets are overbeveled. That effectively narrows the fretboard by a significant amount. It didn't bother me too much when I had it together to test play for a couple months, but i I'm going to fix it, now's a good time. It would only take a couple days to do and I think I have some fret wire that would be perfect for the job. If the original frets are kept, I will still need to do a level, crown and dress on them.

Sweet!

Monday after work I made my final decision on color. I drug out and assembled my old spray rig and started back painting. First I used Behlin's walnut toner to shade the edges. Then I used their natural (kind of a golden oak) to warm up the center. I'm very pleased with the final effect. I started clear coating that night and got three passes done monday, three tuesday and will try to do three tonight. It's getting very glossy. I may put the three on tonight and stop. Overall I like that way things are going. The burst effect is pretty subtle in person, the grain still shows through nicely and I'm kinda glad I threw caution to the wind and followed my gut instinct to just start throwing color on it.

The spray rig. CO2 tank, beer regulator rigged to fit (thanks Eric!) and Iwata Eclipse.

From 66 Corvette work

Before clear coats

From 66 Corvette work