Burley 335: Finally Complete

Well, the Burled Maple 335 is finally complete and I couldn't be happier with it. The finish, being a combination of Tru-Oil to both pop the grain and provide a subtle amber colouring and Acrylic gloss for a deep shine works really, really well. That burled veneer from DIY Guitars is so freaking amazing! Obviously the secret for combining these two finishes is not to go too far with the Tru-Oil; making sure that you leave enough tooth in the surface for the Acrylic to bind to.

Tru-Oil + Acrylic Gloss - a god damn winner for beautiful wood.

IMO the chrome hardware works really well with the natural colouring, much better than gold would have done, and the chrome humbuckers with chrome surrounds are a great replacement for the original cream dogear P90s.

Chrome GFS parts really complete the perfect picture.

Speaking of the humbuckers, all the GFS hardware here works extremely well and really looks the part. The full chrome Dream 180 pickups sound awesome - from a crystal clean tone to a punchy growl when needed.  The roller bridge combined with the XTrem tremolo system provides a great tremolo solution, keeps the guitar is tune (even with heavy tremolo usage) and really looks the part.

Glamour shots in the daylight

But with all that said, it is as a playing instrument that this guitar really comes into its own. It is light, has great tone, and the resonance that this thing produces is be felt to be believed. Even unplugged the guitar generates a beautiful acoustic tone that is a feast fro the ears. Either plugged or unplugged, you can really feel the chambers vibrating as you strum a note. And all this with the stock plastic nut! Interestingly I haven't had to adjust a thing at the nut end of the fretboard. The string height at the 1st fret was perfect with the supplied plastic nut (unheard of) and so I haven't had the courage to change it out yet.

With this project completed, I am now officially in love with 335 guitars again. I can't find the words to describe how amazing this thing is to play. I have another 335 kit in the stack and now I'm itching to get it started!

Burley 335: New Hardware & Clear Coats

Was finally able to get back into a little building today. With travel for work followed by a couple of weeks holiday OS, there 's been precious little time for building of late. It's great to be back in the man cave, even if it is just finishing up some long overdue projects.

On the table today is my 335 kit with Ash Burl veneer that has been bumming around the man cave for about 12 months. In between bouts of coding the last few months, I've been able to get some White Knight acrylic clear coats on her, and my OS trip gave the coats plenty of time to cure. Today I rolled up my sleeves and with some 1500 grit, 2000 grit and Meguiars Ultimate Compound, polished the crap out of it. Pretty happy with the results - that White Knight sure is the easiest way to clear coat a build, and the results can't be argued with. Yes, it's a bit cheaper using you own spray equipment, but with no mixing and no cleanup I'm happy to spend a few extra bucks on the cans.

Acrylic clear coats. Very happy with the results.

I immediately followed up with the hardware. This time around I'm rocking a GFS xTrem similar to the one I used on the Thinline Cabronita build. To this I added a roller bridge and a set of GFS Mean 180s. I was very happy with their sound on the Les Paul Florentine build, so thought I'd use them again here for a little extra chrome, and a little extra punch. I gotta say, I'm very happy with how she's looking!

GFS hardware installed. Now for the electrics.

Just the electronics to go now. That's no simple task (at least the insertion) but hopefully I'm an old hand at it by this point. She's going to look really sweet hanging with my other 335s! I think I'll get back to Jeremy's Les Paul first though - that's a build that's long overdue (sorry Jeremy!) and the thought of getting the fish tank tubing out again is giving me the willies.

Les Paul Florentine: She's Finished!

I made the finishing touches to the Florentine build today - with the custom truss rod cover being finally screwed into place. The cover still isn't as "cream" as I would have liked (I was aiming for the same colour as the Dream 180s) but in a pinch it will do.

 

I think that this build turned out beautifully - with that cherry quilted maple and all gold fittings really catching the eye. The Pit Bull Guitars kit (ES-2T) is a great kit - with a quality maple cap - at a very reasonable price compared to other semi-hollow kits. The guitar is very nice to play as the semi-hollow body is very light compared to your typical mahogany Les Paul. To be honest it's a revelation! The tone that the semi-hollow body it creates is warm, even without the guitar plugged in, and in conjunction with the Dream 180s it can really scream when it wants to.

All in all I couldn't be happier with this build. I'm seriously considering purchasing another one of these to finish in a different colour (tobacco-amber burst?). There's so many different kits out there to explore, but I've particularly enjoyed this one every step of the way.

Anyway, let me know what you think peoples! I think it's stunning, but how about you??

Les Paul Florentine: Sound Demo

OK, so for those of you interested in how this beat sounds with the semi-hollow body and the GFS Dream 180 pickups, I have done a quick sound demo. Please excuse the crap playing. The guitar is being played through a Fender Reverb amplifier with no additional pedals or effects other than those provided by the amp itself.


In addition to the Dream 180s, I have added a bone nut, switchcraft jack and 3-way switch, CTS pots and orange-drop caps. The entire demo is with the tone all the way up.

I gotta say, I love the way this baby sounds. Quite a large tonal range to play with, and the light body fells great in the hands. It looks so awesome, and sounds so good, I'm sorely tempted to make myself another one!

I've still got the custom truss-rod cover to go before I call this one completely finished. Just waiting on some supplies from eBay!! 

Les Paul Florentine: All Soldered Up

With new heat shrink in hand, today I soldered the pickups and switch connections to the wiring harness. Viola! There were no issues at all with the wiring harness, despite the violence metered out to it at times yesterday in my attempts to get it seated properly.

Now this baby makes some serious noise! There's a lot of wire in the cavity (if you look from the right direction you can see it) but who's worried about that? I'm not about to fool with it at this stage. I guess I *may* go back and trim the wires up at a later date, but who am I kidding?

I still have a couple of things to do before I can call this build finished. I have a full fret level and re-dress to do. Also, I need to create a bone nut for this baby. I have ordered a new tool from Stewmac - the 'Safe Slot Nut Guard' so I'll wait for that to arrive before I get started on the bone blank. I also need a truss-rod cover that is fitting for this baby. I am thinking of a hand-cut cream perloid cover, but I'll have to find the right pickguard material. Sounds like i have some ebay trolling to do!

Les Paul Florentine: Vintage 50s Wiring Harness

Today I finally got the wiring harness done for the Les Paul Florentine. It's all but complete, although I haven't actually tested it with the pickups and switch. I *did* test each wire as it was soldered into the harness to make sure there were no shorts, so fingers crossed it should be OK!  I used all custom parts, including 500K CTS pots, orange drop caps and a Switchcraft output jack for the harness to give those GFS Dream 180 pickups no excuse to sound anything but awesome!

As far as the circuit was concerned I used the so-called 50's vintage wiring scheme, with the addition of the independent volume mod. The circuit (without the mod) is shown below. The independent volume mod simply swaps the volume pot tabs so that the input from the pickup is on the middle (swing arm) tab and the output+tone is on the outer tab.

50s Vintage Wiring Schematic for Gibson Les Pauls, 335s and so on.

It came together pretty easily, and it's a neat job if I do say so myself. This is the first time I've used 'Shielded Push-Back Wire' from Stewmac to build a wiring harness and I've gotta say that once I got used to using it, I quickly fell in love with it. So much easier to ground the shielding than the plastic coated 'Shielded Circuit Wire' from Stewmac that I have used on my last 2 hollow-body builds. You just solder the shielding straight to the back of your pots. Brilliant!

With the harness complete, did I stop to test everything before shoving it into the body? Nah! Instead I charged ahead and attempted to man-handle the harness into the body of the guitar. I really should have stopped to test everything first, but what the hell. I'll probably pay for it tomorrow. Anyway, after 5 attempts I was about to give up. The CTS pots are much higher than the stock pots that came with the kit and they would only move inside the body cavity if they were laying down just so. My 5mm aquarium pipe wasn't helping much either.

But, on the 6th attempt, i finally got it in there! I'm not sure what damage I may have done to the wiring (some jimmying of the pots was required at certain stages) but fingers crossed everything is OK. I *really* don't want to have to pull these buggers out again!!

 

With the harness in I was finally able to set my gold knobs and screw in my oval jack plate from GFS. More than a touch of awesome I reckon!

Now all there is to do is to connect the pickups and switch to the harness and heat shrink the lot. Sounds like tomorrow might see this baby completed! Fingers very very crossed!