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CV-V
"Custom Variax – Five"

This will be my main playing guitar. It will incorporate all that I have learned so far. This will be my carved top, Custom Variax design as CV-II with tremolo, It will have a deep set black korina / flamed maple stripe neck from Soul Mate Guitars with a birdseye maple custom rose vine inlay fretboard, the body will be black korina with 5A quilted maple top. The color will be a redish-orange to black burst with natural body binding and magnetic covers. CV-V will have the 7-way switching strat pickups along with gold hardware, Planet Waves Auto-Trim tuners and brass Earvana compensating nut. I will put midi in this guitar along with a single coil sustaniac and an internal cordless system. All this with 25 guitars at the turn of a custom Variax knob. Ohhhhhh Yeahhhhhh!!!

If you have questions I can be reached at

rose@exit45.com

Scroll down for build details

Mon. Jan. 8th 2007

Ordered birdseye maple custom Rose-Vine inlay fretboard from Custom Inlay.

Tue. Jan. 9th 2007

Picked up the black limba body blank and slices for the rear covers from Exotic Woods.

Sun. Feb. 4th 2007

5/8" Birch router template for tremolo and Strat pickups.

1 Hr.

Sun. Feb. 4th 2007

5/8" Birch router template for rear cavities, tremolo, battery and electronics.

1 Hr.

Sun. Feb. 4th 2007

5/8" Birch router template for chambers.

2 Hrs.

Mon. Feb. 5th 2007

9/16" 5A quilted maple top.

Tue. Feb. 6th 2007

Cut the body and routed the chambers.

2.5 Hrs.

I routed down 1-3/16" leaving 5/16" on the back. Most solid body guitars are 1-3/4" thick, this one will be 2-1/16", I wanted the extra space for additional resonance and places to put all the electronics.

Tue. Feb. 6th 2007

Cut the top.

.5 Hrs.

Thur. Feb. 8th 2007

Chambered out some more.

1.5 Hrs.

Routed the battery and electronics cavities.

2 Hrs.

I needed to make a battery box so the batteries are secured in the cavity.

.5 Hrs.

Fri. Feb. 9th 2007

Trimmed and edged the top for carving tomorrow

2.5 Hrs.

Sun. Feb. 11th 2007

Started the carving process today.

Completed carving the top. Actually I didn’t do any carving

It was all sanding.

6 Hrs.

Tue. Feb. 13th 2007

I’m waiting on the neck from Soulmate Guitars so I can do the neck mortise, pickup and tremolo routs. Then I can set the neck and glue the top.

Thur. Feb. 15th 2007

Both tremolos arrived today from WD Music. I think the Baggs X-bridge trem does not look like a aestheically finished piece. So I had been seeking a good looking replacement for it. I found this Deluxe Gold Fulcrum Tremolo bridge. I totally went for looks on this one. I will add the Baggs saddles and piezos to this bridge.

New Piezo bridge

2 Hrs.

Fri. Feb. 16th 2007

I’m just testing here for fit. This is the board for the wireless system.

Add the GK midi board.

Add the Variax board.

Add in the Variax jack and the 13-pin midi jack. There is plenty of room left for 4 pots, 4 switches and a sustaniac board. The only thing left to figure out is where to put the 2AA batteries for the cordless.

1.5 Hrs.

Sat. Feb. 17th 2007

It’s a guitar stand. The design is by John Page.

7 Hrs labor not included in build Hrs.

Sun. Feb. 18th 2007

Talk about putting 22lbs of stuff in a 5lb bag. I don’t think it will be much problem. My only concern is the sustainiac board. Sustaniac tech support told me to make sure the board is 1” from other boards and wires if possible. I can fit it all in but it will be tight. I might just tuck somethings up into the body a little.

1.5 Hrs.

Sun. Feb. 25th 2007

Made a new larger battery compartment. This one will hold the Vax 6-pack and the wireless 2-pack also.

1 Hr.

I aligned, then taped and clamped the top to the body so I could sand the edges even.

2.5 Hrs.

Tue. Feb. 27th 2007

Neck arrived today from Soulmate Guitars and it is absolutely gorgeous. Jason from Custom Inlay in Kentucky designed the inlay with me and he did a fabulous job on the actual inlay work on the premium birdseye fretboard.

Gold frets from Warmoth Guitars.

The neck is figured black korina with flamed maple stripes.

Wed. Feb. 28th 2007

Calculating neck mortise and tenon dimensions.

Neck mortise.

2.5 Hrs.

Neck tenon.

2 Hrs.

Thur. Mar. 1st 2007

Cut the mortise in the top.

3 Hrs.

Neck heel contour.

1.5 Hrs.

Fri. Mar. 2nd 2007

Glued in the neck sand and prep.

1.5 Hrs.

Cut channels in back for pickup leads, preped, sanded and glued top.

3 Hrs.

Sun. Mar. 4th 2007

Cut trem recess and cavity.

1.5 Hrs.

I could not find my old strat pickup rout template, I had to make a new one and they kept breaking. I thought I was never going to get these completed today. This was 4 long hours.

4 Hrs.

Tue. Mar. 6th 2007

Sanded out the headstock.

1.5 Hrs.

Sanded the glue that oozed out from glueing the top on the back. Sanded the edges down to 100 grit.

2 Hrs.

Wed. Mar. 7th 2007

Mock up for electronics position in the cavity. There is actually lots more room in the cavity then the outline of the template shown here because of the chambers.

1.5 Hrs.

Here is the sustaniac board, tucked up into the cavity out of the way..

Thur. Mar. 8th 2007

Made new jack plate out of black limba, with 1/4” out and 13-pin midi out. No VDI jack.

1.5 Hrs.

Fri. Mar. 9th 2007

Pilot holes for switches and pots.

Pot holes with recesses, switch holes and jack plate access completed.

3 Hrs.

Sat. Mar. 10th 2007

Cut 5-way switch slot. Rewired 2 pots for length. Extra routing depth for pots and switches. Test fitting of electronics. There is lots of room now but when all the wires are in place I am sure it will be plenty crowded.

2 Hrs.

Sun. Mar. 11th 2007

Finish sanding. 120, 180, 240 and 320 grit.

6 Hrs.

Since I am doing natural body binding and a black burst, the taping for the first binding coat before stain is not critical and much larger then the taping for the final burst and body binding.