Step 8 - Now Let's Bolt This Thing Together

It was touchy there at the end, but I was able to actually play it last night before going to bed late(r). That's the end of the story though...

I was able to get a nice shiny finish using 0000 steel wool and several applications of Maguier's Scratch-X. Here's what I ended up with:



The brown tint is due to the lighting, it's actually white. I topped it off with several coats of carnuba wax.

From there, you follow the directions. I put the string eyelets in before bolting on the neck, however, to avoid any neck damage. I was able to borrow a nice plastic headed hammer from work so nothing got scratched. Except the body, that is. GRRR! I dropped a tool on the edge of the body and earned a nice ding. Too late to fix without major surgery and it doesn't show unless you're looking for it. I wasn't happy, but I built this guitar to play, not hang on the wall, so it's bound to get some scars. Anyway, here's some progress pictures.





Carvin only stripped about 1/4" on the ends of all the wires you're supposed to connect, which isn't really enough. I have stripped back about 3/4" on the bridge's ground wire, just to be sure it makes contact. You can also see that I added some of the leftover tape to the top edge so I had good contact between the body and the back of the pickguard.


I soldered all the wires together as directed then used the wire nuts to cover everything up. Ease the pickguard on and screw it down, making sure you don't pinch any of those wires.



One of my changes was these chrome knobs. I think they look better than the faux Fender ones that came with it.


After, that it was string up, tune up, and play a while before bed. Tonight I set the intonation, which was perfect from Carvin with the exception of the high E string. I also adjusted the pick-up height according to the directions. Here it is resting in the classic tweed case.



I've really enjoyed this project, and since I got the Zoom G2.1U Effects pedal this evening, I'll be putting the pickups through their paces real soon. If you've read this whole blog because you're thinking about getting a Bolt, don't let the few problems I've had throw you off. The guitar sounds absolutely wonderful, and the range of tones you can get boggles the mind. I thought an SSH pickup would give me three or four new tones, but the switch combinations allow eight different pickup tones to come out of the same guitar. It's versatile, sounds excellent, plays great, and all the hard luthier stuff is already done. If you play guitar and have a modicum of woodworking skills, you can produce a great guitar.

If you have any questions, leave a comment or post on www.carvinbbs.com. If I'm not there, someone will be able to help you out.