Zebrano Wideboy 5

[neepheid]

Well, I've had this hunk of wood for quite a few months now, so I've gathered some hardware and will try to make something of it.



It's a nice bit of wood but it's a bit of a mess - pickup holes in particular and holes drilled for a bridge/tailpiece on stilts. Control cavity is too large.

The intention is to take a 6 string neck and modify it into a wide 5. Something approaching 20mm string spacing at the bridge and approximately 55mm nut ought to give me room. The intention is to get as close to the Warmoth Gecko Wide 5 neck as possible, but 34" scale - I don't want to stretch to 35" yet. It's going to have a Badass V bridge with choice of top load or through body stringing, EMG 40P5/40J pickups, Gotoh GB7 machine heads and nice simple controls - 3 way switch, volume, tone.

Well, I've kinda made a start (apologies to all the people who have been expecting progress on other projects, but I was getting bored of painting) so this is what I've done:






I filled the holes with dowels and sanded them flush, the Badass covers the area anyway as you can see so I'm not too bothered about the fact that they never had a hope in hell of matching the zebrano. Also bored holes for the neck screw bushings and strap buttons. I have a piece of zebrano ordered which will help fill in the cavernous control cavity at the back (it's so big that one of the bridge screws pokes through into it!). I'll also use the zebrano block to make a ramp between the two pickups, as I'm basically going to have to rout out a whole area to eradicate those ill-advised existing routs. Because it's a ramp, it won't look daft if the grain doesn't match.

Yes, I'm bad for starting something new when I should be finishing existing projects

Edited November 8, 2009 by neepheid

[7string]

I have nothing but admiration for people who can do this kind of stuff...

I can't even saw straight

[paul, the]

It's a sexy start! Zebrano's really grown on me. It used to conjure up thoughts of '70s sideboards, but now I'm really into it.

Will have a look what warmoth says about it. And will frequent this thread for updates.

Edited March 14, 2008 by paul, the

[neepheid]

Made a start to clearing up the mess at the back. There's far too much material taken out of the back, you can see the hole where one of my bridge screws comes through. Oops!

First step is to square off the hole.




It is fortunate that the area in question is a relatively featureless part of the zebrano, and I have a suitably plain piece about 15mm thick to glue in the void, covering up that bridge screw and giving me enough material to drill for through body stringing.

[neepheid]

Oh, forgot to mention - the donor 6 string arrived yesterday. It's a Harper SB-180, one of a myriad of eBay cheapy rebranded Chinese hypermassproduced jobs. Had a quick tune up and a play - it's actually not as bad as I thought it would be, neck is chunky (but I like that) and the pickups have a reasonable output. Some of the routing is a bit uneven, the bridge is a little flimsy and the tuners aren't the best (a lot of slack when you change direction). The neck is a little wider than I wanted at the heel (82mm at 24th fret vs 79mm for the Warmoth wide Gecko 5) but I won't quibble over 3mm. I'll get some pics up soon.

[neepheid]

Pics as promised:









I just thought I'd put it up for interest. It's OK, but I'm quite prepared to butcher it. After all, it was only £122 delivered. I should get some of that back flogging the spare parts on evilBay.

Got a Tusq nut blank ordered, spied some reasonably priced nut files and am making enquiries about maple dowelling for plugging the existing tuner holes.

[neepheid]

So, let the butchering commence!

[neepheid]

Little bit of work today - removed the existing nut and drilled out the tuner screws to 3mm then filled with dowel:



Once the glue is dry, these will be trimmed and sanded flush.

I'll be doing the same for the old neck screw holes, but I need a bigger bit than my miniature drill can handle.

The 14mm dowel is a good tight fit for the tuner holes (in fact I may need to sand the sides of the tuner holes slightly to get them in + glue)

[paul, the]

I like it!

Are you going to leave the headstock black?

[neepheid]

[quote name='paul, the' post='186000' date='Apr 26 2008, 04:39 PM']I like it!

Are you going to leave the headstock black?[/quote]

No, the headstock will be sanded down then a zebrano veneer will be applied. Might inlay my logo in maple veneer while I'm at it.

I'm also going to cover my tracks by applying a maple veneer to the rear. That volute is going to make life interesting, but we'll see how we get on.

[wotnwhy]

your build diaries are really interesting! and very very different to everything else out there.

keep it up, and i look forward to seeing this finished!

[Sibob]

I'll have the strap buttons and corresponding screws off the butchered 6'er if you're getting rid of them!

Looking forward to seeing more of this boyo!!

Si

[neepheid]

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='186010' date='Apr 26 2008, 04:56 PM']your build diaries are really interesting! and very very different to everything else out there.

keep it up, and i look forward to seeing this finished! [/quote]

Very very different - probably because I'm doing it wrong with the wrong tools but somehow ending up right

Had a wee play about in the GIMP and a maple inlayed logo [i]might [/i]look like this:



Dunno if it's too subtle - maybe a dark wood is the way to go here.

Thanks for all the support everyone, it is appreciated.

[Tait]

i like the logo being subtle, it just looks good to me. its not TOO subtle, but it doesnt stick out. IMO i think the pic above looks great.

[Jono Bolton]

Are you keeping the headstock shape? IMO it'd look pretty cool if you straightened it off, but at an angle, so it was like this: /, as opposed to this: l
Does that make sense?

[neepheid]

[quote name='lwtait' post='186212' date='Apr 26 2008, 10:59 PM']i like the logo being subtle, it just looks good to me. its not TOO subtle, but it doesnt stick out. IMO i think the pic above looks great.[/quote]

OK, I'll give it a go - got plenty of spare veneer for practicing!

[neepheid]

[quote name='jono b' post='186888' date='Apr 27 2008, 11:37 PM']Are you keeping the headstock shape? IMO it'd look pretty cool if you straightened it off, but at an angle, so it was like this: /, as opposed to this: l
Does that make sense?[/quote]

No, I was thinking that I would take the opportunity to change it a little. Dunno what to yet, your idea is interesting, but I'll have to have a play about with it first. Probably I'll draw around it on a piece of paper, draw on the new locations for the tuners then decide around that.

[Jono Bolton]

I just thought that wee extra bit sticking out on the headstock looks a bit crap. A 3+2 tuner config. would look good.

[neepheid]

[quote name='jono b' post='186915' date='Apr 28 2008, 12:11 AM']I just thought that wee extra bit sticking out on the headstock looks a bit crap. A 3+2 tuner config. would look good.[/quote]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I am going for a 3+2 layout

[urb]

Looking great man - good work fella! Love that body wood...

M

[neepheid]

Tuner holes plugged.



While waiting for the glue to dry I'll obtain a Japanese saw to cut those dowels to size. Also the veneer arrived

[neepheid]

Kumagoro!



Attack!




and smooth...



The saw is the business - cut through those dowels in double quick time. Wasn't quite as flush cut as I'd been led to believe, but any surface scuffs are sanding out and may have been caused by my inexperience with the use of the saw.

[neepheid]

Small update: I've ground a Tusq nut blank to fit in the nut slot, drilled/filled the neck screw holes and the truss rod cover screws and cut a piece of zebrano veneer for the face of the headstock.

[Golchen]

Fascinating thread!

[s_u_y_*]

Oooooooh. Love that zebrano. The idea of a matching zebrano headstock sounds great!