How bout an Explorer build?

[failsafe306]

Hey guys, here are some pics of my 3rd Explorer build. It is based on a ‘58 body shape with my own neck dimensions and headstock. The other big difference is I prefer the no pick guard look of the ESP explorers, hence no pickguard.

Here is where I’m at so far. The trussrod is a rip off of the PRS two-way turnbuckle design. The reason I prefer this over a SM or LMII two way rod design is,
A- less wood ia removed
B- less metal in the neck
C- cheaper (once you factor in the cost of reverse thread tap/die

I capped off the channel with a piece of scrap mahogany, and planed it down flush.

 

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Here it is glued up and planed down flush to the fretboard surface.

 

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Now it’s time to joint the body. I squared up the edges on the jointer and glued up the two pieces.

 

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Out of the clamps.

Band saw and spindle sanded you shape.

Now to route it to final shape.

 

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Next, I routed out the neck mortise, pickup cavities, and control cavity.

 

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Rear control cavity.

And this is how I make my neck tenons. I made a jig that allows me to use my router table to create the tenon with a perfect 3* angle on all 3 sides.

 

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And that’s where I am at this point. I’ll update again as I go. Thanks for watching!

 

[theprofessor]

Love it! Keep the pics coming!

 

[RodeoTex]

You've got some nice jigs and templates going there. Gonna be nice.

 

[RickyRicardo]

Looking great!

 

[RiversQC]

I love explorers. Is that Korina? Nice job and thanks for sharing your jig setup.

 

[failsafe306]

I love explorers. Is that Korina? Nice job and thanks for sharing your jig setup.

Nope, just plain old Honduran mahogany.

 

[failsafe306]

I’ve been slowly chipping away at this one in my spare time. Job, wife, kids, band all take up too much of my time these days, haha.

I used a chisel to angle the end of the body to match the neck angle.

Gluing on the fretboard.

Routing neck taper.

Shaping the back of the neck.

Sanding the fretboard before fretting.

 

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Freshly installed and beveled frets.

 

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First coat of my home brew shell pink.

 

[Slowtwitch]

Some neat work there

 

[Fatcat211]

A shell pink explorer is something else!