Constructing a P90 Partscaster | Axe From The Grave

[Music] welcome to cs guitars the science of loud for less axe from the grave episode i want to do something a little bit different rather than taking an old dirty guitar and cleaning it up i thought we could do a parts caster build grab a neck and body throw some electronics and hardware onto it and see what kind of instrument we can get that way to that end i've teamed up with allegory.co.uk who have everything we need to build ourselves a nice stratocaster style instrument so let's jump across the website and see what they have to offer i've got the allegory website loaded up and we're going to build a shopping basket we're going to see what we can get for our parts caster and i should say up top as well if you do want to get anything from the allegory website after seeing this video there's a 15 off discount code in the description which will be active for two weeks from the date of publication of this video we'll start with uh the necks and bodies that seems logical we need those to start the guitar we'll start with an x there we are baked maple 9.5 inch radius 22 jumbo frets we'll drop straight into the stratocaster style bodies that they sell perfect we'll have one of those we have a few different choices of colors for the strap body they're all sss configuration routes we've got a couple of different uh sunbursts we've got a natural there and two flat colors um i'm very much drawn to that daphne blue i think that looks fantastic it's got a bit of a 90s green day vibe to it so i think i'm going to go for that one so next important thing is the pickups i don't want this just to be a normal stratocaster i want to do something a little bit different with it and i'm thinking p90s two p90s in a strat could be really really cool but i don't want to wind any pickups this time i want to try allegories hand down pickups and see how they are sea smoke just stands out just uh i've got that vibe from it's a sea smoke a modern take on the vintage style set that's sounds kind of like what i'm after i am going to add a couple of those to my basket now deciding to go for p90s does present me with a problem because uh when i go to the pickguard section on the site there is no pickguard for a twin p90 strat that's a slightly unusual thing so we'll have to make our own i think there are lots of pick guards um including pre-loaded pick guards with the uh pickups already in them and the electronics already wired which would save a lot of time if you're going for a standard uh standard style strat just drop straight in but i'm not doing that so i can i can't use those i'm going to have to go for some of the pickguard materials some of the blank material and cut my own pickguard and i think all the colors are available the mint green i think that is going to look fantastic against the light blue so we're going to add one of those sheets and uh we'll get a template and start cutting out our own pick guards unfortunately i can't really choose a wiring kit here because i'm going for a twin p90 stratocaster so i need a three-way switch um i suppose i can maybe go for the telecaster sets but they've all got solid shafts and i want to use the standard plastic strap knobs so i'm probably going to buy all these parts individually moving on to hardware i think i want to go for a traditional style bridge and traditional style split post tuners for this one i'm going to go for that style look for that so we do have a bridge here for 15 quid incredibly cheap for a bridge but perhaps it's good quality we'll find out so it's got bent steel saddles it's got the full size block it's got the arm sounds like a bridge to me we'll give it a shot and see how it is we're going to go for these japanese-made kluson style vintage tuners with the split posts these look really good they've got staggered posts as well which is going to help that break angle off the nut would perhaps even need string trees with it we'll still throw in the string trees as well just to be on the safe side though we'll also need a bolt cap for the output jack and a chrome neck plate and that will come with the screws moving into the plastic parts we've got the volume and tone control gonna add one of each of those and despite me never actually installing these i'm gonna go for one of the mint back covers to hide the trim cavity uh and that'll match the pickguard almost forgot to get the sprinkler and the springs with the bridge don't forget that and some s-style strap locks don't mind if i do i think that's me got everything now cart is all populated and we're coming in at just over 400 quids that's not too bad for a nitrocellulose finished body and a roasted maple neck and all the other parts to make it work especially with some handbound pickups and some top quality electronics in there we'll see how quickly it arrives oh wow that was quick right so i've got all the parts now in and laid out before me the quality of the neck and the body are superbly good that roasted maple neck smells just incredible the frets are gonna need a little bit of a polish to get them shiny that's okay i've got some brand new micro mesh polishing pads in for just such a purpose that light blue finish on the body is just beautiful it's a thin nitrocellulose finish um a bit gloss to it and i'm very very tempted therefore to do a bit of a classy relicting work kind of like what i've got on my friedman vintage tee i know that's gonna divide opinion but i like my guitars to look cold it's just an aesthetic preference you know it's okay if you like something different you don't have to get so insulted about it i've got all the hardware and parts in here too the pickups also look nice i can't wait to hear those got the mint green pickguard blank here as well nice and i've also got the templates very kindly supplied by crimson guitars one for the pick guard with the p90 routes in it and one to cut out and modify the routes on the body i'm going to be using quite a few of the crimson tools and finishing products in this project and there'll be an affiliate link and discount code in the description for them as well right so i think the first thing to do is get the pickguard cut out modify the body and cut the headstock shape of messing around with a little bit of a design for that sort of modern reduction of a classic stretch shape but i think will be very good for this man i love an unusual strap i'm really looking forward to getting this together [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] now this wouldn't be a parts caster build if there weren't some aspects that i had overlooked and some issues that i had to overcome everything was going smoothly until i went to install the tuners i had opted for these vintage style split post tuners with the pushed in bushings and when i went to install them i discovered that the holes pre-drilled in the headstock were 10 millimeters in diameter to match modern tuners and therefore were too big to accept the bushings had i opted for a modern grover style tuner with a 10 millimeter shaft and this wouldn't have been an issue at all that's clearly what these necks have been designed to accept but for the vintage style tuners i've chosen it simply wasn't going to work so i had to plug the holes with an appropriately sized dowel rod and re-drill to the correct size you'll notice that i had some copper foil as shielding in the cavities and you might have thought why have you done that when there's clearly black paint in the cavities that must be shielding paint well i thought that as well i thought that black paint was going to be conductive shielding paint but when i tested it with the multimeter i could get no conductivity through it so um shielding painted doesn't appear to be allegory don't currently carry any adhesive copper foil for shielding on their website but i think that's one thing they should seriously consider having on there because it's very useful to have access to that i also entirely forgot to order a black switch tip for the switch i kind of assumed that one would come with the switch but obviously that's not the case they don't you have to order those separately um so fortunately i do have a drawer of spares and the cream one will do for now the finished parts caster is about half set up at this point i've adjusted the truss rod to get the neck relief correct tweaked the nut slots as well but the thing that's preventing me getting it all the way is the bridge unfortunately the quality of the bridge that i've chosen isn't very good the saddles are very difficult to adjust the grub screws just keep splaying every time i try to raise the height of any of the saddles and that a string the thread keeps slipping on that a string saddle and i can't get it raised to the height it needs to be and the bar is utterly useless when we put that in here and it is a push fit which i quite like um it doesn't clear the volume control it touches the strings when you move it across there's almost no action on it um even if we pull it out to the point that it clears the volume control it basically falls out at that point so uh yeah you can't really use the arm with this i've already ordered a wilkinson bridge to replace this one in fact it came today and the quality difference is so apparent to see that back block is is much higher quality the saddles as well much better and all of those grub screws are going to function and the arm sets a position where it's not going to be obscured by the volume control or the strings this one is 30 pounds whereas that one is 15 pounds so double the price but well worth the additional investment for a bridge it's actually going to function correctly allegory have some wilkinson parts on their site like tuners and such but um they don't have any of the bridges at present and that confuses me these are really good algae get these ones these are the ones you want to sell it's a real shame about the bridge because it's the only thing that lets down the rest of these parts everything else here is superbly good quality i really like the tuners these are fantastic vintage style tuners they turn smoothly they hold their position the split shafts are great and the staggered nature of them means you barely even need the string tree the roasted maple neck especially is fantastic it's gorgeous to look at and it finished up lovely using the crimson melamine finish and i can't recommend this stuff enough it dries super quick you can get a few quotes in in half an hour and you're done once you're finished just go over it with some fine steel we'll get a nice satin finish you've got fantastic playing neck i'm very much considering picking up another couple of these necks so i can finish them in this stuff and replace them on my squiers this this is well worth buying the body and the finish were absolutely flawless it's a great body fits the neck really well so if you're buying the neck and the body as a pair you're not going to be disappointed in that my pick guard is a little messy where i sort of ballsed up cutting it myself in places but i like the mint green next to daphne blue i think that really works well together on this instrument the pickups and electronic parts here are top level quality i'm really glad i tried the allegory pickups rather than just winding another set of my own pickups because these are a nice change of pace they're a little bit different and i do i do like them they've got quite a bit of range this sea smoke set they'll go from a spanky strat coil sound in the middle position to rivaling a humbucker when you throw on the distortion so the bridges side what i've put together here is a killer stratocaster style instrument the construction quality is all very very good the neck feels like a premium quality neck and it sounds incredible through the proper signal chain we've got a nitro finish solid alder roasted maple neck hand wound pickups unique parts caster for a shade over 400 quid which is just crazy that's cheaper than a fender mexican player stratocaster and you can put this together over a weekend anyway let's get to hear how this sounds i'll be running it through a small selection of pedals on the floor into the front end of the orange ad30 and i'll be running the tape machine in the loop of the tube amp expander [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] um [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so there we have it a nice simple parts caster belt i'll probably do a part two of this when i come to put the wilkinson bridge in and give some serious thought to the accelerated aging process of the finish and you can get really angry at me in the comments about that if you like don't forget if you want to get any of the parts and supplies that you've seen in this video then affiliate links and discount codes are in the description and don't forget to click all the buttons you're supposed to make this video viable to the ever-changing whims of the youtube algorithm that's all for now keep it loud stay safe [Music] it's blue

Channel: CSGuitars

Views: 18,441

Rating: 4.9921103 out of 5

Keywords: CSGuitars, Colin, all the gain, scotland, pickups, science, will it shred, whats the difference, studio, recording, guitar, amplifier, pedal, scottish, metal, cs guitar, cs guitars, collin, science of loud, tata, too afraid to ask, axe from the grave, restoration, pickup, gain appreciation, partscaster, p90, fender, stratocaster, noventa

Id: MGBLvtj1xYI

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 29 2021