Lefty Explorer build

Self built and self assembly ;)

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Delayman
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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by Delayman »

NippleWrestler wrote:I made the neck a couple of years ago and the body was for sale. It was a Gibson scale neck so made sense.

Necks are actually pretty straight forward. It's a plank of wood with a channel routed into it, and then another piece of wood glued on top. Nothing to it.
Ha - I could definitely wreck that. One man's "nothing to it" is another man's rocket science. On the other hand I'm sure there are things I can do that would confound other people. None that I know of that are positive though :shifty: .
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
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NippleWrestler
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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by NippleWrestler »

Well I thought it was some crazy voodoo before I tried it, then realised it's pretty basic and a lot of fun shaping your own neck to your own hand and after you've done a couple and got familiar with the feel of the router and that kinda jazz you can crank them out.

I know what you're saying though, a mate of mine builds amplifiers and speaks in voltages and reads schematics like he's reading a kid's book. It's like magic.

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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by NippleWrestler »

Image

Is finished.

Wired and strung last night and wanted to give it a day or so to adjust to the tension of the strings. This humidity will surely help things (!).

The controls are bridge vol w/ master coil split, neck vol, and then master tone. The switch is just your regular 3 way toggle thing. H/w is all 1980s Gotoh stuff off my MIJ les paul.

And yes, the strings are the wrong way round. I play like Dick Dale, Albert King, the bass player from Kyuss, Anika Moa, and some other cool cats.

Image

Neck is 5 piece - mahogany, kwila, purpleheart, kwila, mahogany. Rosewood fb with paua shell side and front inlays. Headstock is agricultural looking due to the pieces of wood for the neck being rather short so I made do. I quite like it.

Image

Image

Even has a little volute going on where you can just see the scarf joint at the bottom of the pic. I sandwiched some kauri veneer in the scarf joint because I like the way it looks when carved back. The shiny bits in the pic are the weird silica deposits in the kwila, the finish is smooth as a smooth thing.

Sounds good. Looks good. Feels good. It'll be a week or so before I properly dial in the setup but after tuning to D standard last night and playing for 10 minutes it sounds like a monster, perfect for classic rock or classic metal with the 15k/A5 pickup in the bridge. Tis a fine thing.

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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by Aquila Rossa »

Grain in that shot of the back of the neck looks really nice. Looks like an offset skunk stripe there too (edit, just the photo angle making it look offset).

Not got the patience for these things myself. Fiddly stuff gets me spitting tacks. Just planing down a piece of wood for blocking my trem is too much.

I do want to build a 50 watt Marshall clone amp tho, but know that it would drive me up the wall. I enjoy the idea more than the doing.

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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by olegmcnoleg »

Seriously impressive work there, well done that man!

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GrantB
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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by GrantB »

Agreed - well executed.
"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible god and destroys a visible nature. Unaware that this nature he's destroying is this god he's worshipping." - Hubert Reeves

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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by AiRdAd »

Well done!!! :-)
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Jay
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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by Jay »

Lovely neck, kwila is a great timber for guitars. Watch out for splinters though.
When faced with quality, I recognise it every time.

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jeremyb
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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by jeremyb »

Super nice work man!
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Re: Lefty Explorer build

Post by Cdog »

Hot!

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