NGAMD - Purple Haze

[Don O]

Thanks all. Did the pup cavities today.

 

[syscokid]

Nice job on the shielding.

 

[SG John]

That is freeking gorgeous! Congrats!

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Dono, What John Said. NICE NICE NICE.

 

[Don O]

Electronics cavity shielding today. Did the Don-dowel-forstner bit counter sinking for the concentric pots. Also gloss painted the Purple Heart pup rings.

 

[RVA]

Electronics cavity shielding today. Did the Don-dowel-forstner bit counter sinking for the concentric pots. Also gloss painted the Purple Heart pup rings.

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Nice!

Can I see the bit you use for the countersink? Do you eyeball the depth or do you use a stop?

Thanks!

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Electronics cavity shielding today. Did the Don-dowel-forstner bit counter sinking for the concentric pots. Also gloss painted the Purple Heart pup rings.

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I see Lesters......

 

[Don O]

Nice!

Can I see the bit you use for the countersink? Do you eyeball the depth or do you use a stop?

Thanks!

Ray, the drill bit type is called a Forstner bit. I used a 1 3/8” for that round one you see and a 1” for the one close to the side. Had to use a Dremel to get the clearance for the solder lugs on that one. Here‘s pics from another build. I put the dowel up through the hole and then pull it slightly side ways instead of just pushing up against the drill.

For depth, the body is usually a different wood than the maple top. I drill slowly and when I get through the body wood I stop. In this case it was a mahogany body and it was easy to see when I got to the maple.

 

[Don O]

I see Lesters......

Chilli, them’s the Epiphones I posted the other day. The studio is pretty sealed up now and dust free, so I keep a couple out to”see”.

 

[Don O]

I had hoped to have this finished by now but turns out the black humbucker mounting screws I had were metric thread and these DiMarzio pups are American thread. Got the screws on order.

 

[Don O]

Got the black screws today. Got the pups mounted. Gonna start some wiring tomorrow. Still need a All Parts set of black concentric knobs, they’re like finding hens teeth for some reason. And Chilli, I had to cut the screws as the cavity was not routed for humbucker screws.

 

[Astral Traveler]

New Guitar And Mod Day

Well I teased this a few months ago. When I saw this guitar online I knew I had to have it. The highly quilted blue and hints of purple maple top, the killer birds eye maple neck and custom DiMarizo purple and blue pups just sucked me in. Bought it from a guy in Greece. After I made the purchase the seller texts me that he had to, er, mis-inform in the ad. The fret board was not Indian Rosewood, but Brazilian rosewood. He couldn’t ship it out of the country as Brazilian rosewood; Bonus!

My first thought was to put a Purple Heart fretboard neck on it and name it Purple Haze. It is a 2009 Warmoth custom ordered body and USA Custom Guitar’s custom ordered neck. I contacted Warmoth and explained I’d like to do a Purple Heart neck with a Purple Heart fretboard and could they match a quilted maple veneer on the headstock to match the body. That said they didn’t have the recipe for the 2009 body finish but would try matching it from the pictures I sent them. 12 weeks later I got the neck. It’s been sitting a few months and today I decided to take break from construction and have some guitar building fun.

The interesting part is, as nice as the guy picked out great wood and colors for it, he knew sh#t about wiring. Take a look at the wiring. The second tone pot has no connections. The first tone pot has an I-don’t-know cap, BUT no ground connections! WTF. I took all of that out today, swapped the necks and will start on the re-wiring next after I shield the cavities.

In my tradition of naming Warmoth builds by having a W name, this one is named Purple Waze.

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Oh my! I'm not sure about the pickup colors but the rest of that thing is gorgeous! HNGD!

 

[eSGEe]

mmm Purple Haze............

 

[Don O]

Wiring is complete. Gonna string it and do the setup tomorrow!

 

[steveb63]

That is as much fine furniture as instrument.

Looks fantastic.

 

[Don O]

I finished the wiring and setup today. These DiMarzio pups are hot. The neck, an Air Norton comes in at 12.6K and the bridge, a Tone Zone dials in at 17.3K. I also got a spare DiMarzio in the deal, a Liquifire, at 10.7K.

I used 500K vol pot and a 250K tone pot (CTS concentrics) with a .015uf on the neck and a .022uf on the bridge. It can go from nice and clean to heavy distortion with the volume knob. Had it plugged into the Kemper using a Mark V clean patch. Will need to record some clips.