Peet's Guitar Build

[Peetah]

Hello friends! old buddy Peets here.
Not sure if there are any geetarists in Rnd, anyways I was thinking about building one for some time.
Im going for an Explorer build through inspiration of the man himself, James Hetfield.

I plan on doing some stencil art over base color.
Here are my current ideas.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ill be posting build updates as I go. Wish me luck haha.

Session 1: Shaping the Body

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General Shape of the body






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I Used a hand file and orbital sander to get some sexy edgess

Session 2: Gluing the Neck

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Cutting in some bigger cavities to house the specific pickups




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Gluing neck, I also decided I wanted to bolt it through the back so I carved a slight groove so screw can be flush with the back




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Shot with the neck on. It is very important that you make sure the neck is straight with the body




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Using some magic Harry Houdini wood filler to cover the screw and hide any gaps




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How it looks like after some sanding

Session 3: Painting - Priming, Base Color, Stencils

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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I sprayed about 4 coats of primer. Wet sanded after it dryed.




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Fast forward, I sprayed 3 coats of gloss black, wet sanded. Takes up so much time... Also turns my hands african american.
Now im masking off for the edge accents.












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Moving on to the Stencil art.
Only spraying the front at the moment. Waiting for the paint to dry as we speak.

Session 4: Refining, Clear Coat, Polishing, and Electronics

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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After refining the stencils I proceeded to wet sand the entire guitar. (Very expensive sanding block lmao.)




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Sprayed 6 coats of clear. Fast forward 2 weeks of drying and I again wet sanded and HAND polished using uhh megiars polishing compound.
( Polishing took like 4 hours of physical work. I'm real jacked in the right arm now.)




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After checking that all the electronics worked I installed and wired them. Notice the yellow cable leaving the cavity to ground the bridge and strings of the guitar.

Complete: Sexy Lady Photoshoot

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Tungsten next to Paul. (Not a very creative name for Paul haha.)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. 

[Frank]

Looking great, bro! The colours and stencils look pretty good and the edges already seem sweet.

[Sabb]

asdf im jealous as fk
I was looking into buying some wood stock before without anything drilled or cut but after some time decided not to do the project. Only because I know I'll end up making it and never playing it unfortunately, but yours is looking good.

[Peetah]

asdf im jealous as fk
I was looking into buying some wood stock before without anything drilled or cut but after some time decided not to do the project. Only because I know I'll end up making it and never playing it unfortunately, but yours is looking good.

Haha yeh, I was thinking of picking up another guitar, but then I man'd up and deciding to build one.

I bought a blank neck and blank body with only routed holes. Do you can cut your own design and I
simply didnt have a router and this was my first time doing something this complex with wood.

[Sabb]

Haha yeh, I was thinking of picking up another guitar, but then I man'd up and deciding to build one.

I bought a blank neck and blank body with only routed holes. Do you can cut your own design and I
simply didnt have a router and this was my first time doing something this complex with wood.

Yea probably best to get that stuff already done then lol. Like your design you're doing though.
How are you cutting the shape into it btw? I thought of a few ways I'd do it myself but not actually certain how it's supposed to be done.

[Peetah]

If you talking about the body, I simply used a goddam handsaw   because I dont own a jigsaw.

For the angles, I used a really rough hand file like this

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

and really low grit sand paper or else it would hand taken forever.
If a magical genie gave me a tool I would used a belt sander like this

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[coolzeldad]

o wow badass

I had a friend who made guitars but he would do a dipped design, where you mix more than 1 paint together, and make some sort of crazy shape in the paint bucket, then if you insert it right it wraps around the guitar. Pretty sick designs too.

[Sabb]

o wow badass

I had a friend who made guitars but he would do a dipped design, where you mix more than 1 paint together, and make some sort of crazy shape in the paint bucket, then if you insert it right it wraps around the guitar. Pretty sick designs too.

That's exactly what I wanted to do with mine lol. Called swirling I think, they look so awesome imo. Wanted to do some badass black and white one.
SWIRLING(Yellow & Black Custom Guitar)
Kind of like that but not yellow.

[Peetah]

Session 2: Gluing the Neck

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-
Cutting in some bigger cavities to house the specific pickups




-
Gluing neck, I also decided I wanted to bolt it through the back so I carved a slight groove so screw can be flush with the back




-
Shot with the neck on. It is very important that you make sure the neck is straight with the body




-
Using some magic Harry Houdini wood filler to cover the screw and hide any gaps




-
How it looks like after some sanding

I will also be updating the main post.
Damm I wanna jam on it already! 

[Peetah]

Session 3: Painting - Priming, Base Color, Stencils

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-
I sprayed about 4 coats of primer. Wet sanded after it dryed.




-
Fast forward, I sprayed 3 coats of gloss black, wet sanded. Takes up so much time... Also turns my hands african american.
Now im masking off for the edge accents.












-
Moving on to the Stencil art.
Only spraying the front at the moment. Waiting for the paint to dry as we speak.

[coolzeldad]

:O coming along smoothly

[Frank]

It's more beautiful than Verne Troyer!

[Xrain]

Did you clamp down the neck to the body when you were gluing it?

[Peetah]

Did you clamp down the neck to the body when you were gluing it?

I was going to, but The neck was centered as it was and there is one screw holding the neck in place.
So its like a bolt on neck with glue haha, just no back plate and the bolt is hidden with filler.

[Peetah]

Session 4: Refining, Clear Coat, Polishing, and Electronics

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-
After refining the stencils I proceeded to wet sand the entire guitar. (Very expensive sanding block lmao.)




-
Sprayed 6 coats of clear. Fast forward 2 weeks of drying and I again wet sanded and HAND polished using uhh megiars polishing compound.
( Polishing took like 4 hours of physical work. I'm real jacked in the right arm now.)




-




-
After checking that all the electronics worked I installed and wired them. Notice the yellow cable leaving the cavity to ground the bridge and strings of the guitar.