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Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:58 pm
by NippleWrestler
First pic and I'm nearly done.

Yes, it's a lefty.

Image

The body was Adrian's last from the workshop, made from white korina. Light as a feather and beautifully resonant and as always with AshCustomWorks stuff, beautifully made.

the neck is a 5 piece I made from mahogany/kwila/purpleheart/kwila/mahogany with an Indian rosewood fingerboard. Sanko fretwire (the biggest I can find), paua shell inlays front and side.

There was a thread I started here about the 'luthier' who carried out the routing of the body. It was deleted and not reinstated despite it being 100% factual. Anyway, the guy did a very average job and was largely unprofessional about the whole thing. Basically he made a big booboo routing the explorer from the back, despite it intended to be top routed. He didn't look at any pictures apparently, just cracked out the router and made it up on the fly. Awesome. He situated the neck somewhat crudely (lots of gaps around the join) but the pickup routs are pretty sweet, as is the rear cavity (if you know what I mean).

So, the channels were 'routed' by me at home with a forstner bit for the wiring channels which works but isn't the preferred choice. Since I have no router but do have a drill though, it was the only option. The pickguard will cover all that stuff up anyway.

The finish is a wipe on 'rustic walnut' poly stain and then 3 coats of thinned wipe on poly on top. So a poly finish, but very thin.

The pickups:
I've got a set of custom made humbuckers (a5/16k bridge, a3/8k neck, zebra coil). The pickups will be splittable via a push/pull on the first volume pot for some versatile explorer action.

Hardware: some old tarnished gold gotoh hardware from the mid-80s and am going for a 3 knob tone/vol/vol setup using black speed knobs.

Next step. Finish the finish, dress the frets, wire, setup, play.

Watch this space!

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 2:35 pm
by GrantB
Looking good! Did you grain fill first? If so, with what? Korina is quite grainy.

With regard to the thread about the luthier that did the work you're not happy with, no-one here was suggesting your post misrepresented the situation. This forum is in the public arena and we do need to be mindful of potential risks - we don't have a legal team here at the ready to deal with any potential litigation. But I think you got your message across oK.

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 2:44 pm
by NippleWrestler
GrantB wrote:Looking good! Did you grain fill first? If so, with what? Korina is quite grainy.

With regard to the thread about the luthier that did the work you're not happy with, no-one here was suggesting your post misrepresented the situation. This forum is in the public arena and we do need to be mindful of potential risks - we don't have a legal team here at the ready to deal with any potential litigation. But I think you got your message across oK.
Nope, I don't grain fill. I'm a fan of open grains, hence the dilution of the finish. Too thick and it just gums up the grain anyway.

It's a shame my thread won't stand as a warning to other people looking for a guitar tech in the Auckland region and no libel/slander charged can be laid against the forum because I'm pretty sure I prefaced everything to be a personal viewpoint. Either way though, that's not the main topic of this thread.

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 2:51 pm
by Danger Mouse
GrantB wrote:we don't have a legal team here
Really? I just naturally assumed with Conway's taste in guitars he was a lawyer...

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:29 pm
by Conway
Danger Mouse wrote:
GrantB wrote:we don't have a legal team here
Really? I just naturally assumed with Conway's taste in guitars he was a lawyer...
Bastard! That is libellous. I would get myself a lawyer to sue youse fellas, except I hate frickin' lawyers. :evil:

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:44 pm
by Mattallica
That photo looks great, good stuff! My brain can't undo the left handedness though so it seems a bit strange

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:56 pm
by Aquila Rossa
Yay. Explorers. Always wanted one, but never got around to it. Korina.
My brain can't undo the left handedness
^^ yeah, left handed sometimes does not compute. Watching Hendrix did not seem weird, but that lefty guy that does demo vids for Marshall just does my head in with it looking like it was recorded by pointing the camera at a reflection in a mirror

I am left handed but when I first picked up a guitar I just played right handed. Made fretting easier, but picking harder. My rhythm is better in my left hand

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:58 pm
by NippleWrestler
I'm right handed in daily life but when I picked up the guitar 20 yrs ago I played it lefty. Stuck with it and here we are!

Gibson don't really make lefty explorers because they're a bunch of jackasses, so I made my own. Sometimes you just need a pointy guitar.

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:11 pm
by Aquila Rossa
NippleWrestler wrote:I'm right handed in daily life but when I picked up the guitar 20 yrs ago I played it lefty. Stuck with it and here we are!

Gibson don't really make lefty explorers because they're a bunch of jackasses, so I made my own. Sometimes you just need a pointy guitar.
Huh. The exact opposite. Did you ever consider re-learning right handed in order to have better control of rhythm and picking etc? I did but nah.

Not interested in the hockey stick headstock? Current one looks like an acoustic guitar's headstock to me.

gat I got today has locking Schaller tuners. i am sold on them. Smooth and stable tuning. Gearing feels really good. Took me no time at all to tune it back up to 440.

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:57 pm
by NippleWrestler
Better control? It's fine where it is and my dominant hand is on the frets. I don't question it so much, i just play the things.

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 6:12 pm
by StrummersOfThunder
Danger Mouse wrote:
GrantB wrote:we don't have a legal team here
Really? I just naturally assumed with Conway's taste in guitars he was a lawyer...
Conway has taste ??

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 9:37 pm
by Conway
StrummersOfThunder wrote:Conway has taste.
Fixed your typo.

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 7:04 pm
by NippleWrestler
Finished with the finish application, now to wait for it to cure then wet sand it.

In the meantime I made a leather pickguard:

Image

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 2:04 am
by Delayman
Wow - you had the body pre-made and did the neck yourself? I will probably never build a guitar but I imagine I would do it the other way around - can't imagine getting a neck right. Skills.

Re: Lefty Explorer build

Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:10 am
by NippleWrestler
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.