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Post subject: Saving a trash body - FINISHED!
Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:49 am
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Location: Peckham: where the snow leopards roam
OK. This one is down to Forum User Orvilleowner: about a week ago he mentioned that he'd like to see the cut of my jib, guitar buildingwise. So happens, I have a project in hand, so I may as well share it...

Warning: this one is going to involve lots of pictures, and is likely to be strictly for the geeks!

The backstory. A few months ago I developed a hankering for a Strat with a certain set of features which Fender do not precisely provide. So I started pricing some body blanks with the idea of building from scratch. At that point I happened to stumble upon a bare Strat type body for sale on Ebay for an attractive price, and in a moment of fatal laziness I bought it.

I am away from home a lot and it transpired the Ebay package arrived just as I was walking down my front steps to go away for a few weeks. I quickly ran back inside with it, glanced in the top to see it was present and correct and rushed out the door. Whilst away I left positive feedback for the seller. Then one thing and another got in the way and that body sat in a corner unexamined for months.

Finally got round to my delayed building project, hauled out that bod and had a proper look at it. It was claimed to be an ash body from a reputable source. Let's see what I actually got. Here's the front:
Image

And the back:
Image

First thing we can see is that it is mahogany, not ash. How did I not notice before? Look closer. Oh my, the pickup and trem cavities are all irregularly shaped and crooked:
Image

Working from a center line I've penciled working lines onto the body at carefully produced right angles to show just how far off the routing is:
Image

Similarly on the back:
Image

And take a look at the quality of this routing:
Image

Most seriously of all, the neck pocket is badly crooked. A neck placed in it is about two degrees off the centerline, and the shaping of the cavity is bodged:
Image

Further examination reveals that the neck cavity is also routed too deep. A neck bolted into it is never going to work with the bridge, no matter how high it's shimmed.

It is perfectly plain that I was badly rooked. Far from being the commercially made body that was claimed this is clearly some kid's first attempt at building a guitar gone badly wrong. Rather than throw it on the fire where it belongs he has sold it under false pretences to a guy who in turn wasn't sensible enough to look at it closely when it arrived.

What to do? Many months after the event I could complain to Ebay and see if I can get redress. That's what I should do.

OR: I can see if I can rebuild this bod, reclaim a shred of self-respect, and put one over on the kid who thinks he's made a fool of me. Which is obviously the route I'm going to go. Lot's of detailed little repairs and adjustments, some tricky rebuilding and routing... And then, since there's been several people on the Forum asking questions about finishing guitars, I'll finish this bod in the full glare of your scrutiny and finally build that Strat.

Frustratingly - I have to go out now and meet my wife for dinner! I'll log on later and show the beginning of the project: rebuilding the neck pocket.

See y'all later...

Cheers - C


Last edited by Ceri on Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:05 pm
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Sorry that happened to you Ceri! I am however looking forward to following this thread and watching your progress. It's going to be a learning experience for all (or most) of us. Thanks for posting and good luck!! 8)


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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:10 pm
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Sorry to hear you got burned on this body, however I do look forward to seeing what you can do with it.

Swimming pool route, 7 or 12 string, extended fretboard?

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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:30 pm
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Maybe cut a 1/4" plate to sit in the pocket. Check the heel depth, is it 1 3/16?

Kavanagh?

If so your going to find a few other things too. Check the overall thickness of the body. I struggled to get my pickups in place and the controls. The finish in the neck pocket was so thick and uneven it took weeks of sanding then try then re-sand to get a good contact between neck and body. That process did help get the neck angled right though.

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Last edited by nikininja on Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:43 pm
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Ceri, Sorry you got burned. I am looking forward to your progress, and I wish you good fortune with this endeavor.


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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:10 pm
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OUCH!! :shock: Hey that looks alot like my woodworking project in 10th grade shop class...circa 1974 actually it looks better if thats any consolation...

Look forward to seeing your progress

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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:30 pm
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Sorry that happened Ceri, but it sounds like you have a Fun project ahead to think through and apply. :wink:

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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:07 pm
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Thanks for the thoughts, fellas. Most encouraging!

Niki, I'm sure it's not a Kavanagh body. I've never used them, but I've mostly heard good things about them. Yours is the first adverse experience I've come across.

I'm sure this is just some over enthusiastic child's first attempt. The thickness is right: he's bought a legit blank but then put his templates on all askew, and judging by what you see in the pics he's never used a router before.

That's fine - but to then sell the result for money under false pretences is not. In fact, he claimed he'd bought it from Axes R Us, a well known website over here. Axes R Us are certainly a rather "kitchen table" outfit - but I've never had a problem with any of their goods. This body ain't theirs.

Give me a minute and I'll show you the first stage of the rebuild...

Cheers - C


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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:16 pm
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dunno mate there are a few things about mine that were off. It was marketed as mahogany but turned out to be sappelle. Its way too thin making it feel like a burns to hold. Claimed to be nitro finished but its some form of polyester or urethane quite thickly applied. Your offskew trem cavity is pretty identical to mine too. The extra route for the pickup screws is identical and i think to accomodate the thinner size. It appears to be nothing at the moment but wait till you try and sink a pickup below the scratchplate.

The mistake on the trem routing is a giveaway. Cant you get the sellers address and go and beat em round the head with it.

AxesRus are great. Their about the only people i'll use for bits these days. I'm not too far from them so get the stuff next day or the day after at most.

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Last edited by nikininja on Thu Jan 28, 2010 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:21 pm
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Right: big Chinese meal eaten, pints of Hong Kong beer drunk, wife happy. Chapter two.

Started on the neck pocket, cos if we can't get the neck joining the body correctly there is no point going any further with this thing. Two options: carve a block of wood to exactly fit and then entirely re-route the pocket. Or try rebuilding it section by section. I did the latter.

First, correct that awful curve at the heel end. I used small strips of veneer to build it up where it's lacking, and then reshaped them with a mixture of a scraper, chisels and sandpaper wrapped around a little dowel. Also, some gentle re-angling of the sides of the pocket to correct the off center angle the neck sat in it before.

Next. As you recall, the pocket was routed too deep. I wonder if that was the point when the original builder gave up on the project, realising he was never going to get a neck to fit with the strings running above the pickups. I built a little piece of wood and carved it to fit the reshaped pocket. In other words, a new "floor". Here it is being glued in place:
Image

And here it is with the clamps removed. You can see the rebuilt curved end in this pic:
Image

Now, I should be able to just cut it off flush and have a decent pocket:
Image

I used the router to trim that end absolutely square, because like everything else on this body it was slightly wonky (as we say on the Forum). And this was the point where I took another look and realised that on top of everything else that neck pocket was about 3 mm / 8th inch too short. Hmm: could just ignore that - but somehow I feel I'd always know it was wrong.

So I cut a little piece of cross grained wood - actually, the very first tiny piece of my own ash, felled and seasoned on my own land! Here it is being glued in place. I have a couple of sash clamps somewhere which would be good for this - but they are at the opposite end of the country right now. So instead the Royal Mail elastic bands the postman kindly scatters on our front steps will do instead:
Image

And, after a bit of shaping and sanding, here's the (more or less) finished neck pocket:
Image

Phase one, complete!

Cheers - C


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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:28 pm
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Are you sure you're not a carpenter Ceri? Impressive work so far mate! :wink: I like your ingenuity.


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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:35 pm
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So far it is looking really nice !! :)


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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:54 pm
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Excellent, thank you!

Hop, no, I'm not a carpenter: just a bumbling amateur with plenty of enthusiasm.

You can see now I'm a little way into this job already. Well, I wanted an idea it stood a chance of working out before showing it to y'all!

Right now, I am well into the next stage, which is sorting out the pickup cavities. I think we can improve the situation there a fair bit...!

By tomorrow or the next day I shall hopefully have some more to show you. Naturally, the plan is to pull it all off successfully, and then dig out the guy who sold me this pig-in-a-poke and send him an email with a link to this thread and say: "there you go, you lying little toad! Sorted!"

Well that's the fantasy, anyhow...

Cheers guys - C


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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 4:05 pm
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Excellent work, man!!

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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:02 pm
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Quite impressive indeed. I'll be "staying tuned" for the next installment.

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