Les Paul Florentine: Polishing Done, Hardware Installed

Well today was a big day for the Gibson Florentine. First the polishing was finished using the 'fine' and 'swirl remover' ColorTone compounds from Stewmac. The finish has come up nicely indeed. Not sure I'm going to be able to use my right arm for a couple of days, but hey - that's what it costs!

As soon as the polishing was complete it was on to the shielding of both pickup cavities using my old friend copper foil with conductive adhesive. The ground wire was added to the bridge post, the bridge post hammered home and the ground wire soldered to the bridge cavity wall. Additionally the neck and bridge cavities were joined eletrically with a second lengh of wire soldered at both ends to the cavity walls.

After the shielding was complete, it was time to install the three-way switch. The switch was soldered to some 4-core shielded cable from Stewmac and then placed inside the body using the tried and trusted 5mm aquarium pipe method. You can see how this works in the photos below.

Amazingly, the switch went in relatively easily - it only took three attempts!! Once the switch was in, I just had to get the rest of the hardware in to see what it looked like. I had to widen the hole from the bridge cavity to the outer body to accomodate all the wires, but everything fitted in the end.

I think it is looking pretty damn good, don't you? The gold hardware really sets off the cherry dye job. Anyway, just the wiring to go now. I'm planning on using 50's vintage wiring with the independent volume and treble bleed mods - just like I did with my 335 12 String build. Should sound great with these Dream 180 humbuckers from GFS!

Les Paul Jnr Double Cut: Polishing & Cavity Shielding

After a lovely christmas break, I finally got back to the Les Paul Junior today. First task was to polish the Minwax wipe-on poly finish using Colortone swirl-remover now that it's had time to fully cure. This process didn't actually add any more shine to the surface, but took away the 'plastic' feeling from the poly; making it beautful and smooth to the touch.

Once the poly had been polished, it was time to get the cavities shielded using adhesive copper foil. The pickup cavity and control cavity were completed with no issues. I also got the grounding wire from the bridge post installed, and soldered it to the control cavity.

All that is required to do now is to solder up the electronics and get the hardware installed. Should be well worth the wait!

Jackson-Style Flying V: Poly and Shielding

The Jackson-Style Flying V was my first kit; a project that was not only a learning experience, and one that produced a great guitar, but which cemented new love for guitar building. All those months ago, in those naive early days of my burgeoning new hobby, my knowledge on the subjects of finishing, electronics, and many other aspects of the luthier's craft was sadly wanting. Consequently, there are a few things about the build that, with hindsight, I could have done a good deal better. Whilst the guitar came out remarkably well given my lack of knowledge and wood working skills, there were 3 key areas in which the guitar could have been improved.

The first was in the finish itself. I used Behlen vinyl sealer and nitro lacquer to apply clear coats over the automotive acrylic colour coats. Whilst this is not in and of itself a bad idea, my execution was found wanting. The clear coats were very thin and after sanding through a couple of times, I was too timid at the end of the day to polish them properly to give the mirror finish the paint job deserved.

Secondly, although the electrics were all professionally wired and soldered (I can at least wield a soldering iron with some confidence) the wiring was not properly grounded to the bridge and there was no shielding at all in any of the cavities. In my naivety I tried to solder the ground wire to a bridge post (which I eventually suceeded in doing) but the act of hammering in the post cut the wire. As far as shielding was concerned, I didnt even realize such a thing was done, let alone how important it was for noise elimination. Despite the noise introduced by the combination of these two factors, the Entwistle Dark Star pickups really sounded excellent. But alas the noise was there buzzing away in the quiet moments.

Lastly, although the action straight out of the box was impressively low and comfortable, I did not perform a fret level and re-crown on the neck. In addition, the neck was badly in need of a shim as the tune-o-matic bridge had already been reduced to its lowest setting leaving no room for fine tuning.

And so, desiring one of my beloved guitars to play and sound even better, I thought it high time that the Jackson-style V went back on the bench and receive the finishing touches that it so richly deserved.

First came the poly. Using minwax wipe-on poly, I applied around 15 coats, wet sanding every 2 coats with incrementally decreasing grit sizes: 1200, 1500 and 2000. The body now has a nice thick build up of clear on it, and the sparkle in the metallic auto paint is dazzling. After the wet sanding I went on to the polishing compounds, with Stewmac Medium, Fine and Swirl Remover called in to apply the final touches. The V now has a lovely mirror finish!

Second came the shielding. I used copper foil with conductive adhesive to coat both the pickup and control cavities. Even the plastic control cavity cover got the treatment (this is important if you want to create a complete Faraday cage around the controls). The shielding in each cavity was soldered to the next using joining wires, and the wire from the bridge post was correctly inserted (with vertically hanging bare wires this time) and the connection duly tested with a multi-meter.

The next step for this bad boy will be the re-wiring of the pickups and controls, as I had to completely un-solder all the components to remove them for shielding. After the body has been completely re-assembled and re-wired, the frets can be levelled and this baby can sing again. Stay tuned for the next instalment! I may even make a bone nut if I'm feeling particularly enthusiastic. Yes, I think I will. That's something else I've had experience with since moving on to other building projects and the V could definitely benefit from it.

Siena's Stratocaster - Shielding the Pickguard

Today I shielded the back of the new perloid pickguard I bought for Siena's stratocaster. For this I used adhesive copper foil purchased from eBay. I gotta say, I love this stuff! It's awesome to shield both flat surfaces like this, and pickup/control cavities. If you are buying this stuff from eBay or whereever, it is very important that you make sure it uses conductive adhesive. If you don't, the overlapping strips of foil won't form an electrical connection and your shielding will be useless. The whole surface you create must be one large ground conductor!

The secret to effective shielding is to create a complete Faraday cage around your hot (signal) wiring. The faraday cage is grounded so that any estraneous EM radiation in the playing environent is collected by the cage and directed to ground rather than being accepted and transmitted as noise by your guitar wiring.

To create an effective faraday cage, a good conductive surface must be created above, below and encasing the whole cavity, with as few gaps as possible. This means that the shielding from the walls of cavity must overlap the edge to make sure the top shielding (ie on the back of the pickguard) is electrically joined to it. Also, the shielding must be electircally connected to your circuit's ground (along with the grounded bridge, output jack, and control casings). What I love most about this copper foil though, is that it makes this job much easier by allowing ground wires to be soldered directly to it!

The next job I need to do is to work on shielding the walls and floor of the cavity itself. In the next few days I'm going to trial some Stewmac Conductive Shielding Paint to see whether this can do as good a job as the foil. With a cavity as big as the one on this strat, it's pretty expensive to foil the entire thing. The question I have though, is just how many coats of conductive paint do I need to create a good shielding surface? If it's more than 3 coats, then I'm not sure the paint will be an effective solution.

I will attempt to answer this question before deciding whether to use the paint or not, so stay tuned for trial results!