Sgtswampy Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Hey all so I just love throwing myself in the deep end, so with absolutely no real experience at all I'm looking to build a kit flying V. Buuuut I am not just intending on doing your basic kit build, where's the fun (pain, stress, misery) in that?! I've bought my own pickups, Seymour Duncan humbucker set (SH4-JB and SH2-N) and I also brought some sheets of diamond pattern metal...my intention is to use the supplied plastic pickguard as a template to cut a new pickguard. The main colour is going to be a distressed, dirty sort of grey and then I'm going to look at getting the metal all dirty and patina'd as well. Really it's not that original, just saw the Schecter V1 Apocalypse 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 V builds appear to be popular on these pages. I look forward to witnessing your progress. Here's a link to another V build amongst our brethren. https://www.guitarchat.co.uk/topic/1154-tartan-terror-flying-v/?tab=comments#comment-5118 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgtswampy Posted July 17, 2021 Author Share Posted July 17, 2021 25 minutes ago, ezbass said: V builds appear to be popular on these pages. I look forward to witnessing your progress. Here's a link to another V build amongst our brethren. https://www.guitarchat.co.uk/topic/1154-tartan-terror-flying-v/?tab=comments#comment-5118 Very cool, I'd love to have started from scratch but I just don't have any skill in cad type stuff nor the bigger power tools needed to start from some lumps of wood. +1 for a mention of Blues Saraceno. I do love a bit of Southern bluesy-dirty rock type stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgtswampy Posted July 17, 2021 Author Share Posted July 17, 2021 Ok so first things first I wanted to cut my new pickguard out... Plan A was stupid as I clamped the original pickguard to the textures side of the metal which meant it didn't sit straight and my lines were messy... Plan B I engage what little brain I have and clamped the original PG to the back of the metal sheet...where it's nice and smoooooooth! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Sgtswampy said: Very cool, I'd love to have started from scratch but I just don't have any skill in cad type stuff nor the bigger power tools needed to start from some lumps of wood. Likewise, I can assemble and modify (see butcher), but building from scratch is beyond my skill set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 On 17/07/2021 at 14:50, Sgtswampy said: Ok so first things first I wanted to cut my new pickguard out... Plan A was stupid as I clamped the original pickguard to the textures side of the metal which meant it didn't sit straight and my lines were messy... Plan B I engage what little brain I have and clamped the original PG to the back of the metal sheet...where it's nice and smoooooooth! Spot teh deliberate mistake? Or are you building a lefty? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgtswampy Posted July 31, 2021 Author Share Posted July 31, 2021 Hi all. Apologies for vanishing, I've had some issues where I totally underestimated just how tough cutting 2mm aluminium would be. I've been waiting to get hold of some better bits, so I now have a proper jigsaw to attack it with. I've also purchased a proper workbench instead of trying to clamp it to the garden seat! Also I'd realised I'd purchased wood filler, not grain filler so had to get some of that as well! I've also had the stomach bug from hell the last fortnight! And yes, there was an umm deliberate mistake there. Err well done for noticing that if I'm flipping the metal to draw the template on the back then I need to reverse the template!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgtswampy Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 Ok so I've spent a bit of time today on prep work. I've redrawn the pickguard the correct way round and also added in the switch guard and truss rod cover. I've then mixed my wood grain up with IPA, as the tin says, and rubbed that into all the mahogony bits. Start sanding that back up tomorrow. As is often the weather on the UK, it's raining, and has been raining on and off all day. Supposedly it's supposed to stop for a few hours this afternoon so my plan is to get out there to start cutting the pickguard out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgtswampy Posted August 8, 2021 Author Share Posted August 8, 2021 Ok so more done today. I've been sanding the wood back down again - going from a 220 to a 400 to a 600. The instructions with my guitar said that was fine enough for this stage. I then started to cut out the pick guard with a mix of the jigsaw and some hand saws. Unfortunately the WD40 I was using as a cutting lubricant was slowly dissolving the pen'd outline to the shape, in the end I had to call it a day. I'll have to reattach the pickguard to the metal sheet and draw round it again. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
