The Charvel build project – part 6

The Charvel build project updates have been very quiet as of late. To get you up to speed, In the three months since I last provided an update on the Charvel build project I have sprayed clear coat on the body, and left it to cure. Two weeks ago I decided it was probably about time to get onto finishing up the body and putting the guitar together.

First up was wet sanding the guitar. I picked up a range of wet sanding paper, from 400 grit through to 2000, and let it soak overnight in a container of soapy water. The next morning I got started on sorting out the orange peel and couple of runs that were on the body with the 400 grit.

Unfortunately, very early on I realised that the clear coat was not nearly as robust as I needed it to be for a guitar body. Some simple tapping on objects was leaving dents in the clear coat. I was quite disheartened by this as I had spent so much time working on the guitar body, and for the clear to not work out was extremely frustrating. I don’t currently have the time or money to try and rectify it right now, so I just decided to give the body a quick once over with the sand paper and cutting compound and put it together. There’s still plenty of orange peel and scratches in the clear, but it’s not noticeable unless you look close up in the light.

Later on I’ll redo the clear coat when I have the time and the money to do so. But for now I’m just going to enjoy playing it. Check out the pictures below:

Charvel01 Charvel02 Charvel03 Charvel04 Charvel05

And here are a couple of shots that really show how bad the clear is. I hope at the end of the year that I’ll be able to rectify it.

Charvel06 Charvel07

The guitar is loaded up with the Floyd Rose from a Charvel Pro Mod series guitar and Killer Guitar Components 37mm Floyd Rose® Original brass tremolo block since the stock 32mm one was too short for the cavity. I also have a Killer Guitar Components Killer brass neck plate, which is a very nice touch.

The pickups are my customised Seymour Duncan Custom Shop IM1 in the bridge and Seymour Duncan Little ’59 for Strat in the neck. The IM1 sounds brilliant, although that might go back into my Strat build project guitar, which currently houses a Seymour Duncan Perpetual Burn Jason Becker signature humbucker that I’m testing for review on the Seymour Duncan blog. I originally got a Full Shred bridge for the project, and that may very well go in soon.

The guitar plays brilliantly. I was able to get some crazy low action with a shim in the neck pocket, and the only thing left to do is adjust the truss rod once I get a 4mm ball end t handle allen key that I have on order. I’ll try and get a quick YouTube demo of the guitar sorted soon.

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