Updates & modifications

 So this list is no longer really accurate but I'm keeping the sidebar up because it has some interesting pictures etc but as of last year etc there's been quite a few changes. Though I kinda feel you can never have 'too many' guitars.. I was finding myself really not playing several AT ALL because I simply ended up not liking the tones I was getting out of them or other reason where I would really never touch them again (ergonomics etc)..

so what has changed:

Sold the #8 Blacktop Tele (in parts - shipping a whole guitar is a Pain in the ASS - a neck or a body - easy peasy...)

Sold the #10 Flame Strat with KWS Neck (in parts)

Sold the #6 Tungsten Deluxe( in parts ) - HORRIBLE pickups those N3 ones were.. UGH

Replaced the neck on #9 because the frets were SO worn it was hurting my hands. Now has a nice new pale maple neck (Jimmy Vaughn Soft V) instead of the vintage poly looking neck. Still one of my fave guitars.. (though the body is start to get a little shiny in places because of use.. maybe it's time to whip out some steel-wool)

Sold the #11 American Blue Body only (kept pickups/neck)

Got a second flat black body and stuck the pickups and graphite neck on that making another 'all black' guitar. always hard to get a good picture of flat/matte black bodies, but I think I managed to take some decent pics here.

Also still REALLY like the tone i'm getting out of my Tele with the Mini Humbucker in the neck.. awesome clean tones and that tung-oil neck is still fantastic...

Here's a closing shot of the 2 matte black guitars side by side.. (should've gotten out my other all black strat haha)

#14 Ibanez RGA series RGAR42MFMT Electric Guitar Flat Blue Lagoon Burst

If you've followed my blog you know I simply LOVE a good maple neck.. so no surprise when I want a 'heavier' guitar (in tone , not weight) than a Strat (as much as I am a Strat Fanboy) I really wanted a Maple neck, which when you look at 'Metal' Guitars is... well quite uncommon...

I really was digging a blue guitar still, after my failed quest for that matte blue stratocaster body, and especially watching Al Joseph's custom Ibanez 7 string (those things are SWEET even though nowadays he's moved on to Kiesel it seems like) but what did I find as a 'guitar center exclusive'? a MAPLE neck version of a nice budget Ibanez.. I liked how it had a nice carved top instead of flat, pale maple neck, matte blue body, all good! Only nitpicky thing is the reverse headstock that I don't really care for. Frets were a little rough too so I needed to do some touchup work there including a full setup since well you know.. Guitar Center.. 

The 'flame maple' though seems.. well.. photocopied or printed on.. it just doesn't have any depth to it.. and it could be because the matte paint color, but I would NOT be surprised if that literally is just painted on... 

Pickups sound 'ok' - will probably consider some DiMarzios in the future but it plays very nice!

Here's some stock images with some I tried to take to show the different coloring.

#13 Jackson JS22-7 DKA-M

So I'd been searching for something 'new' and different for a while now and had been going into the direction of a 7 string of all things. As you can tell from my list of guitars I've got 99% Fender, and 90% Stratocaster, but for heavier/metal stuff I kind of felt it was... lacking...

What's important?
Well a headstock design that doesn't SUCK and still a 'S' type body with either a trem or hardtail.

Preferably cheap for a first intro into a 7 stringer

oh that nitpicky thing of a maple neck please...

Enter the Jackson 7 string Dinky JS22-7 DKA-M

#12 Ibanez Andy Timmons AT10PSB

So for the longest time I've been wanting to put together a guitar with some very specific qualities..
a) Andy Timmons Pickup set (Dimarzio Cruisers & AT humbucker)
b) Thick Maple Neck - As I've discussed in the past I would love the Ibanez AT10: Maple Neck, and 'somehow' get it to fit on a Stratocaster body
c) I'd love to put it all in a Satin Blue Stratocaster Body (yes still want one of those)
d) Slap on a VSVG Wilkinson bridge

Hmm yeah.. basically it's the Andy Timmons AT10P guitar in a Stratocaster body..

So then why don't I just go out and BUY one of those? well.. My reasoning was that really I didn't want to spend more than 600-700 on all parts combined, and putting it together myself with the above list basically would get me there whereas buying an AT10P usually runs about 1200-1300

I was browsing EBay one night , trying to see if maybe someone had a AT10P Neck for sale, when I see posted a 2013 Ibanez AT10P.. it still had the film on the pickguards and everything! The tuners had been upgraded to locking Sperzels - the same as my other strat with the Graphite Neck - and it came with a case, all for just a hair over my budget.. factoring in the cost of the case and the upgraded tuners it was just too good a deal to pass up so I actually didn't negotiate and just paid the full asking price.

This being the biggest Ebay purchased I've made to date I was worried I'd end up with a case full of bricks or something, but after some stupid paypal glitches (figures!) and waiting for a week the guitar showed up and was exactly as described!

For now I'll leave it as is, but I MAY still upgrade the bridge to the VSVG Model just because I want to try it out and would be the perfect guitar to put it on, but other than that, this is an AWESOME guitar!

Fender Stratocaster Mystic Blue w/ Moses Graphite Neck

This build is finally coming to an end with the last post being the Moses Graphite Neck preparations.
If you want to read the other posts here they are in order:

Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 1 - The Body
Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 2 - The Pickups
Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 3 - The Neck - T...
Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 4 - The Pickups ...
Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 5 - Moses Graphi...

I left off in my last post with putting the brass inserts into the neck. That went 'decently' well actually. (just a few tool marks on the back end of the neck, but that would be inside the neckpocket).
Next I had to get the neck on the body. As I started to put the bolts on they all lined up perfectly.. except for 1! "Oh No!" I thought to myself - I just ruined my awesome neck! :(

After taking it apart again and peering through the body screw hole I noticed it was off by just a hair though (must've had the screw to mark the hole at an angle ever so slightly). I also noticed that the hole through the body was extremely tight for these bolts. So I came up with a simple solution: I ran a screwdriver through the hole which cleaned it up just enough so it would line up. I then made sure that bolt went it first and grabbed, after which the rest went in nice and tight.

I tried to capture how the guitar looks, but it's really hard to get a proper picture of the Mystic Blue. It is VERY striking in person.

And all done!

I haven't yet plugged it in, but even acoustically the guitar plays wonderfully and feels great. The neck almost feels more like a 'super flat D-shape' to me, which I think feels amazing. I definitely recommend these Moses Graphite necks!

Project "Mystic Blue Strat": Step 5 - Moses Graphite Neck has arrived!

So finally, after about 4 months, and a few emails - which i'm hoping didn't start to annoy the wonderful folks at Moses Graphite - asking about status updates, I received my new Moses Graphite Neck. The Details are basically:

• Moses Graphite SK-27 'thinline' strat neck,
• Ibanez Headstock profile, 
• Floyd Rose Nut, 
• 'Ibanez' Vine of Life inlay in Paua Abalone. 

Now, as a point of reference, I basically was on a quest to replicate something like my JEM 10th Anniversary Neck which had a very nice 'Vine of Life' inlay into ebony.

Ibanez JEM 10th Neck Inlay Detail

When I first opened the package I was shocked how amazing this neck turned out. The headstock is spot on, and the Graphite has a very 'cool' feel to it, very smooth - almost like you get with a 'bare' neck (which I love). The inlay in my mind is actually even NICER than the one on the Jem. The vine seems a little more 'detailed' and 'thicker' so it's more visible. Also the colors are very rich and 'blueish' which will go great with the Mystic Blue Stratocaster body this is going on.

AMAZING Moses Graphite Neck

Beautiful Vine of Life Inlay

Look at that color!

Since to me part of a nice Ibanez headstock is the headstock logo I had purchased one from Best-Decals.com. As I had discussed in a previous post, I always liked how the Joe Satriani series had their headstock logo starting between the 1st and 2nd tuning peg, so what I did was order a 'Universe' / 7-String headstock logo in Chrome ('regular' one would have probably been too short) and lined it up like that, and cut off a little bit of the end. It came out very nice:

Chrome Headstock logo Applied

Very nice and reflective

Next up was the installation of the Tuning Pegs. The standard option was 10mm (13/32") pegholes, so I had several options. I decided to go with some locking Sperzels in Black from Stew-Mac. The cool thing is that they were not only Locking, But also Staggered or 'Graduated Height' which helps eliminate string trees etc (which may or may not totally work for this application because of the FR Nut). Lastly the other cool thing was that the inner part of the tuning peg was actually Nickel/Chrome, adding a nice splash of 'Color' to the headstock to match the logo.

I decided to simply install these with my small dremel. While I could not find the 'exact' drill size (2.7mm or #36) I found a 7/64" one which was 'close enough' at  2.77mm (so 'off' by 0.07 mm which is like a hair..). The box of tuners actually came with a drilling template. Simply push the bushing through, insert into the headstock, line up and drill. I actually marked each hole first and then drilled all 6 free-hand by marking the depth on the drill-bit with a piece of a tape.

Template to mark holes for tuners

Holes drilled

Tuners Installed!

I really like the splash of Nickel/Chrome

Here you can see the staggered layout

Next up was the more 'troublesome' step. The neck does bolt on with regular wood-screws, but with stainless bolts. To accommodate this the end user needs to drill whole and install self-tapping brass threaded inserts. It was easy enough to find the 15/64" drill-bit required to drill the holes, but I did NOT feel comfortable simply 'eyeballing' this with a hand-drill.

Step one was basically putting the High- and Low E strings on, lining the neck up with the body and marking the back of the neck through the body holes so I'd know where to drill. Easy enough. Next I took the drill-bit and by hand spun it around on the marks a few times just get a good permanent impression until I would know how to actually drill this thing.

After some asking around I found someone with a drill-press and they were happy to let me use is for 5 minutes. I measured the depth, drilled out the holes and went on to install the inserts.. Less of a headache than I thought it was going to be!

Inserts Installed! Don't mind the slight tool marks I left

Next the moment of truth: Installing it on the actual body!


(Looks like Moses Graphite put up a picture on their facebook too:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=759059364137864&id=158845657492574 )

MIM Plus Top w/ KWS Neck & Fat 50's Pickups

So I had finally gotten all my parts I needed to put this build together. It's nothing over the top, but should be a nice combination:

• Body: MIM Standard Stratocaster Plus Top - Flame Maple in Tobacco Sunburst
• Neck: MIM Kenny Wayne Shepherd Model
• Pickups: US Fat 50's that come out of my Mystic Blue US Body.

What I would end up with, visually at least, is basically what is depicted on the fender site:

Plus Top Standard Stratocaster

With the difference naturally being the pickups (+ they're 'parchment' or whatever this 'off-white' color is called nowadays), and the neck. So let's get building:

All the parts ready to go

I had to order the bridge, jackplate etc separate so the first step was to install the bridge.
For a couple of days I toyed with the idea of going with KWS bridge, but I settled on a standard MIM for now. 

Bridge Installed

Test fit of the springs

After the bridge I figured it was a good time to put some new leads on to the pickguard electronics, since I had cut them out of the USA Body (which received a Dimarzio Pickguard) . Now my first mistake was using the wrong soldering iron. I was using a tiny 15 watt , and that barely got anything moving. I switched to my 30 watt and that worked SO much better!

 I noticed that the screw in the middle of the cavity that nowadays holds an extra ground wire was missing too, so I put a new one in and tied a ground wire to it . Also fed a ground wire to the back Tremolo cavity and of course the signal + ground wire to the Jack Plate hole.
 

Just using some paper towels to protect the body before soldering

Jack Plug attached

Ground wire attached and springs installed

 Now an issue I ran into was that I did not have any correct screws to mount the pickguard. Since I did not feel like ordering them and then waiting another week or so, I found some screws locally that would fit. They are not 'oval head' like the normal pickguard screws, but I don't mind them. I can always swap them out once I do get some 'official' screws. But for now - these guys would have to do.

Having soldered everything up and all screws put in, gave me this beautiful looking finished body.

Next was to simply bolt on the neck. I had noticed in transportation the neck tuning pegs had gotten a little loose, but simply tightening the screws a bit solved that. So 4 neck screws later I had a beautiful guitar, ready to be played (well.. once i put some strings on it..)