Guitar build number three...

[David Falkner]

And a fine job you did, Jim! Looks nice. What's next on this one?

David

[Jim Becker]

And a fine job you did, Jim! Looks nice. What's next on this one?

David

I had to order a different bridge for this build due to a miscalculation on the scale when I designed it...I now need a top-loader. Once that's here, I can do the final work on this instrument and hopefully, it will sound like a guitar. I have another build currently in progress that I haven't posted about..."brotherhood build" event in the TPDRI forum...a taste:

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[David Falkner]

Now THAT is going to be gorgeous!!

David

[Jim Becker]

Thanks, David. It's a clear white pine core capped front and back with Koa that I scarfed out of the $2 a pound bins at Hearne Hardwoods last fall. Double bound with black binding. And the body came in at an extremely light 3.155 lbs. (interior relieved)

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[David Falkner]

Not too bad at all, Jim. I just love Koa; my Takamine that I play in our Praise Band is an all Koa guitar and it's gorgeous.

Will this remain stable with the White Pine core? It's going to move differently than the Koa, I would imagine.

David

[Jim Becker]

The Koa is only 3mm thick "veneer". No worries.

[Jim Becker]

I have a bunch of setup work to do, but otherwise, this beast is built. Lined it with copper foil, replaced the jack with a Switchcraft that threaded into the Electrosocket jack mount properly, installed the tuners and got it strung up. Wow...I love locking tuners. Easiest I've ever had to go from unstrunk to in tune (prior to stretching) ever! Once I do the setup stuff, I'll get the "beauty shots" that the folks on the TPDRI guitar forum appreciate and will also post them here, too.

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[David Falkner]

Looks great, Jim! Nice guitar bench, too. So what does the copper foil do? My assumption is shielding but I'm an acoustic guy all the way so very little knowledge on this side of the fence.

David

[Jim Becker]

Yes, RF shielding to make things quieter. Even though the pickups on this particular build are "humbucking" designs, there is always the possibility for injecting noise. Shielding paint or foil tape with conductive adhesive helps deal with that. For instruments with single-coil type pickups (more traditional for Fender designs, for example) shielding is not optional in most cases. I have both the conductive paint and this foil product...this was the first time I tried the foil.

BTW, I have this instrument reasonably setup at this point with a little more fine tuning (pardon the pun) to go.

[Mark Rainey]

Gorgeous guitar Jim! Reminds me of a Paul Reed Smith guitar Carlos Santana plays. That should be a joy to play!

[Jim Becker]

Finally got a couple of outside photos of this build...

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[David Falkner]

That looks really nice, Jim! I like the small waist, too. But since I don't play electric that may be common...

David