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Chris Squire Electra Evolution

xilddx

By xilddx,
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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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Well, at last, the body made an appearance today! It's looking gorgeous! Just the pup and control route to do and he reckons it will be ready on Thursday.

He's never made a bolt on before so I was a little nervous about the neck socket. He cut the socket over the weekend and brought it in to show me today. He's very proud of it, the neck fits beautifully, perfect and very tight. I'm delighted! The body shape needs a little smoothing out and finishing the control route doing. It's a lovely thick piece of mahogany which, because it's a small body, looks really meaty.

We put the neck on the body and I'm over the moon to find there's no neck dive at all, it balances perfectly! So I'm really pleased I trusted my instinct with my design.

Really looking forward to putting this together over the next few weeks.

I hope no-one will be pissed off with me but I am going to finish this thread on Finnbass. It's a sort of bonding gesture :)

[url="http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=6608"]http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=6608[/url]

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Marvin Veteran

Marvin

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[quote name='silddx' post='940819' date='Aug 31 2010, 11:45 AM']I hope no-one will be pissed off with me but I am going to finish this thread on Finnbass. It's a sort of bonding gesture :lol:

[url="http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=6608"]http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=6608[/url][/quote]

Traitor. BTW I can't get that link to work you traitor :o :P ;) :rolleyes: :lol:

Oooo look they've got a big Bill Fitzmaurice forum bit! Tempting, tempting. :) :rolleyes:
(^I knew that was there already though :o )

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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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[quote name='Marvin' post='940967' date='Aug 31 2010, 02:05 PM']Traitor. BTW I can't get that link to work you traitor :o :P ;) :rolleyes: :lol:

Oooo look they've got a big Bill Fitzmaurice forum bit! Tempting, tempting. :) :rolleyes:
(^I knew that was there already though :o )[/quote]
:lol:

Pics now up on FB. [url="http://finnbass.com/showthread.php?p=113167#post113167"]http://finnbass.com/showthread.php?p=113167#post113167[/url]

Cheers

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Marvin Veteran

Marvin

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[quote name='silddx' post='944828' date='Sep 3 2010, 06:34 PM']:rolleyes:

Pics now up on FB. [url="http://finnbass.com/showthread.php?p=113167#post113167"]http://finnbass.com/showthread.php?p=113167#post113167[/url]

Cheers[/quote]
They won't let me look unless I join. :)

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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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[quote name='Marvin' post='944837' date='Sep 3 2010, 06:48 PM']They won't let me look unless I join. :)[/quote]
Oh, I didn't realise that, that's odd. Sorry.

Here you go ..

The plan I gave to my mate.


The raw unfinished body - it weighs 4.25lbs ..


As you can see, it needs some slight profiling work with the sanding block, but not much. He got a little overeager with his new routing pin in the control cavity which has eaten a little into the pickup route, but only by a few mm. Dead easy to sort.


The neck socket is as tight as a duck's intimate circle.


The whole ting. Just got to get the pickguard made by John Shuker now.


Close ups of the body and headstock, with the gold Hipshot Ultralites and the D-tuner, brass JANIII. The only issue really is the max string spacing on the Hipshot Ric Replacement bridge is kind of too narrow, stupid me hadn't even thought to measure it. I might get away with it. If I decide I want a standard bridge, I will flog the Ric one on here. The John East Pre is immaculately built.



Next job is to get the body ready for its Oly White nitro paint job.

Cheers :rolleyes:

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arsenic Enthusiast

arsenic

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That is looking really, really nice - The white body will really set it off.

Will the narrower string spacing on the Ric bridge have any effect on the string alignment over the pickup pole-pieces and along the neck to the nut?

Edit for managing to spell "really" - 3 totally different ways :)

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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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[quote name='arsenic' post='945406' date='Sep 4 2010, 02:20 PM']That is looking really, really nice - The white body will really set it off.

[b]Will the narrower string spacing on the Ric bridge have any effect on the string alignment over the pickup pole-pieces and along the neck to the nut?[/b]

Edit for managing to spell "really" - 3 totally different ways :)[/quote]
It does, but I think I can get away with it. The saddles are adjustable for string spacing so at their widest they are more or less acceptable.

Cheers.

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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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I've been taking my time and doing a little bit of reshaping and sanding every other day or so. I got a cork sanding block and double sided tape and used 80 down to 400 grade glass paper. Over the last couple of days I have grain filled it. It's now ready for a quick blast of white nitro as a sanding sealer and to spot any flaws that need sorting. I feel sure there will be a few here and there. I'm going to do that this weekend.

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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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K. I gave a good coat of the Tonetech pre-cat nitro Oly White to see what she looks like. And to see if the nitro-over-oil-from-the-white-spirit horror happened, thankfully it didn't, well not yet anyway. Jesus! That paint is touch dry in minutes! I'd also applied the Creative Cuts inlays earlier in the week, look nice don't they!

There are flaws on the body, I will get rid of them.







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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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Last night: Drilled the neck socket and used a countersink tool to make the holes for the bushings. Drilled the neck holes and fitted the neck. Fitted the Hipshot Ric replacment bridge. Put strings on. Ten minutes giving it a quick set up. Plays really nicely and with a few adjustments will be spot on. Now I know it all works, I will strip it down again and lacquer the body.

I sent the pickguard drawings and the mirror blank to Jon Shuker a couple of days ago.

All looking good so far.

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xilddx Veteran

xilddx

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Having a bit of a 'mare finishing this damn body. The grain filler is oil based as Bloodaxe has pointed out which could cause a reation with the nitro, and it hasn't filled the grain anyway. After sanding back the coat I gave it last week, I gave it another coat yesterday and there are grain pits all over the shop. I got impatient and thought I'll just over-spray and it might fill the grain, Nope, it just curtained and made a mess. I hasten to add I am using the nitro as a sanding sealer at this point.

What do I use for a grain filler? The grain filler on sale at Tonetech is spirit based and all their paints are nitro. This goes against what I've been told about applying nitro over oil (spirit is oil isn't it?) as a complete no-no. It's starting to become a pain in the arse and I'm not enjoying the build any more.

EDIT: Quick update. Although I only sprayed it yesterday, I just wet sanded with 600 and it's made a huge difference. It's looking ok and I reckon a flatting it back and giving a few more thin coats and flatting back again might do the job. I'm feeling a bit happier now :)

EDIT: Well, I am amazed! Encouraged by the above 600 wet sanding, I progressed through 1000 wet, then 2000 wet with a bit of Fairy liquid, then a little burnishing cream, then a final polish with Gibson guitar polish. It's smooth and glassy and very, very shiny! It's not even been 24 hours since the horrible thick curtaining coats of pre cat nitro I put on. I'm feeling very happy now, so I will cut it back for a key, get some more nitro, fill any pits and imperfections and off we go again. Result!



You can see how crap the other areas I haven't touched are.


Here it is with the bridge and strings on the other day, so I could set it up and see if there were any problems.

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daz Community Regular

daz

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[quote name='silddx' post='940819' date='Aug 31 2010, 11:45 AM']I hope no-one will be pissed off with me but I am going to finish this thread on Finnbass. It's a sort of bonding gesture :)

[url="http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=6608"]http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?t=6608[/url][/quote]

lookin very nice. But whats [i]Finbass [/i]?

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