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Ahhh, been waiting to see this- the finished maple neck for my Cali Std project- code named HA! I am stoked now!

 

 

Maple Cali neck.jpg

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The font is wrong...

 

 

 

:D

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6 hours ago, diablo175 said:

:rolleyes:

 

 

Yeah, you post a pic of your new neck and everyone kind of piles on. That's so not fair. :(

When I saw the pic, my first thought was "Holy crap, that looks fantastic!" And that's coming from an admitted ebony snob. So, huge congrats on the new neck! It turned out great and I can't wait to see it on the guitar.

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1 hour ago, Spike said:

Yeah, you post a pic of your new neck and everyone kind of piles on. That's so not fair. :(

When I saw the pic, my first thought was "Holy crap, that looks fantastic!" And that's coming from an admitted ebony snob. So, huge congrats on the new neck! It turned out great and I can't wait to see it on the guitar.

Nah, it's all good. I didn't give it much thought beyond that was just a lil' jealousy being channeled.  ;):lol:  But thanks for the comments!  Kinda excited about this project.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On March 31, 2016 at 10:35 AM, DBraz said:

Jim your Cali's have to be among the most modded out there! 

It sounds like you are chasing that holy grail of guitar perfection and every mod takes you that little bit closer.  I watch with interest!

It's a fools errand, David. Nothing in terms of improved performance is truly gained as a result. It's one more frivolous distraction for someone who's too stupid to accept he missed the brass ring a long time ago.

SeeeeEEE,  its a trick question with a trap door.  Like when your wife asks "Does this outfit make my ass look big?".

lady%20on%20donkey_zpsdawn1iou.jpg?t=146

PWANG-G-G-G goes the trap door.   You didn't even KNOW there was a trap door!  And now you are "down the rabbit hole".  Say hi to Alice for me and the guy with the stupid hat.   "Does he look like Tom Petty?"  Yup, that's him! 

Cheers!

caddie

Edited by Caddie
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On 13. April 2016 at 2:46 AM, diablo175 said:

Ahhh, been waiting to see this- the finished maple neck for my Cali Std project- code named HA! I am stoked now!

 

 

Maple Cali neck.jpg

Fantastic work! Did you stamp a 4 digit serial number on the back of the headstock? B) 

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WOO HOOO! The neck arrived yesterday afternoon! I spent a few hours of the afternoon, evening and a few this morning prepping it for attachment- new Gotoh tuners and the locking nut installed. It looks as though the nut shelf needs to be taken down a bit as the nut looks to be a bit high.

Then it was time to prep the body- installed and wired up all the p'ups (SD Perpetual Burn and a Hot Rails) to a CTS 500K vol. and a WD toggle. Did a pretty good job on the soldering. Repetition/practice definitely helps! Only singed one wire (and the knuckle of my left middle finger :P) and dropped a bead of solder on the cavity edge. No biggie.  Installed a new input jack and ran a ground from the pot to the trem claw. Then, a new fat brass block on the LockMeister and installed that with new posts and she's ready for neck attachment. I will be enlisting Meatbomb's oversight as he has a real nice drill press and a bit more experience attaching necks.

Once it's fully functional, I have to disassemble it and send her out for finishing. During that time I'll get a proper truss cover.

 

HA Cali1.jpg

HA Cali2.jpg

HA Cali3.jpg

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How are you planning to refin the body?

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HA Cali1.jpg

I don't know man.  It looks quite cool just like it is in this pic.  Raw, dark, flat finish.  Very metal, very hard rock.  

btw, nice shoes and sweats too. :P  But seriously it looks terrific.  Well done grasshopper.  He shoots!  HE SCORES!!!  Cheers!

caddie

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3 hours ago, RobB said:

Jim, is that the Lockmeister on your test-fit assembly? I thought the shorter bolts were supposed to fit into the Schaller rout?

Yep. That's the Lockmeister but with the standard length bolts for a test fit.  Short bolts will be installed later next week. Some interesting items were discovered about the LM. It's essentially an OFR with a few minor improvements. However, it was touted as a direct replacement for the Schaller. The base width is a hair longer than the Schallers thus necessitating moving the saddles back in order to intonate it properly. So, even with shorter bolts, there's still some potential issues for clearance of the cavity.

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With the help of Meatbomb's fancy-schmancy drill press and his expertise, we attached the new neck to the Cali body last night. Fits like a glove! One minor issue became apparent- the height of the locking nut as well as the heel are a bit off- the fret board isn't as raised as it should be, setting up a slightly higher string height and action. So, a shim will need to be added to raise it up and I'll file down the locking nut shelf. Again, Meatbomb has kindly offered his services to effect the fabrication and installation of the shim.

I took it home to my bench and tweaked the setting of the trem and strung it up... only to find it wasn't conducting any signal. Zero. I have to admit I was bummed- I labored for hours and did what I thought was a pretty nifty job on Sat.. So this am I sent a pic of the cavity and guts to Meatbomb and he spotted the error right away- in closely following a diagram I had pulled from the internet, the wires from the toggle grounding lug and the center two toggle tabs were reversed- a quick and painless fix but a little disconcerting as it raised the question of how could something found on the internet be anything but 100% accurate and true? :P

The good news is: despite the high string height, I tuned it up and plugged it in and the SD Perpetual Burn pickup sounds fucking awesome! Yeah, I said, fucking awesome! This may be the perfect 80's hair metal sound I've been chasing over the last 12 years. Nice, full, rich mids, tight low end and just enough high end to make the harmonics sing! I need to set the action up and see how it sounds then. But I may have a bona fide winna-winna, chicken dinna! 

 

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13076817_10209142116740588_8176081846926

 

 

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Well done grasshopper!

Flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish..............

just my $0.02

caddie

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23 minutes ago, Caddie said:

Well done grasshopper!

Flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish, flat black finish..............

just my $0.02

caddie

:lol:   Noted, Caddie. Duly noted. 

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I'd send some cavity shielding paint to you, but I suspect TSA, EPA, and probably Homeland Security would object.  OSHA and ATF would probably get called in too. Damn govt regulatory agencies.  Always looking for a way to prove their value.

caddie

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37 minutes ago, Caddie said:

I'd send some cavity shielding paint to you, but I suspect TSA, EPA, and probably Homeland Security would object.  OSHA and ATF would probably get called in too. Damn govt regulatory agencies.  Always looking for a way to prove their value.

caddie

Very kind of you, sir! However, I have my own sources for shielding materials and should I choose to proceed, I'll use that. Typically, I don't bother to shield the cavity.

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Love the new neck!  When you posted the first shot of it on the grey body my first thought was "HUH?!?!"

I did a web search to make sure there wasn't  a sudden world shortage of day-glo paint 😀😀

is the new neck a direct spec copy of a Cali or some subtle changes?

Edited by mc2
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9 hours ago, mc2 said:

Love the new neck!  When you posted the first shot of it on the grey body my first thought was "HUH?!?!"

I did a web search to make sure there wasn't  a sudden world shortage of day-glo paint 😀😀

is the new neck a direct spec copy of a Cali or some subtle changes?

There are some almost imperceptible but significant changes -  head stock is a little different, stainless jumbo frets, slightly different radius, and sn oil finish.

Edited by diablo175
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  • 1 month later...

Hated doing it after putting it all together (and it played/sounded REALLY f-ing great)  but disassembled the Project Cali ( now to be referred to as the HA Cali ) and sent the body down to BC Guitars for finishing. This is the mock up they sent me based on my design. I'm looking forward to having this back in the herd!

 

HA CALI Mock.jpg

Edited by diablo175
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