5150 build.

Henry said:
Somewhat related: Andy, did you have a chance to try Seymour Duncan's new 78 model pickup?
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Yes this has been a custom shop pickup for years now and I can only speak of this one. I really like it, it has a slightly hot PAF sound with a bit more sisal in the treble, open sound and nice mids. Great for classic rock or riding the volume control for cleaner tones. I can't fault it as a mid output pickup.
 
Andy Eagle said:
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So is this the end of the thread ?
I could get a vintage arm on this trem and fit a steel block, I could get the right string tree or even pay the £750 for a repro FRT5.
I suspect I may add the string tree and the block on this one and call it finished.
The other one is the issue now.
I have now got a projector and the stripes are not in perfect alignment because I positioned them using a photo tracing that contained slight distortion ( all photos do.) I now have a true 2D model of the top with no distortion for stripe position because I used it on this one with the projector.
If I was to build these in any numbers I would probably get a laser cut mask of the whole top in one piece as this is the ONLY way to replicate it exactly. Cumulative error is the problem and the difficulty of a true overview before it is too late to correct. All you can do is look at every intersection and the subsequent negative space polygon and it's comparison it to the original. Even with the projector you still need to do this.
Relic work too would be so much better if done with the projector. My paint is satisfactory and the colour is as close as I believe your going to get. BUT it is either too fragile and soft ( the acrylic lacquer I removed ) or very hard and durable which makes the relic work very difficult and potentially look laboured instead of natural.
On balance I will probably sand the Relic version down to white, use this as an undercoat and repaint using the projected 2D model and then relic with the projector as the source instead of having to work by eye. Also having this one finished I will take my time and reflect on the lessens learned so far in this. This guitar is now mostly just a professional challenge . Its extreme damage coupled with terrible information, how poorly it was done in the first place and poor photos make this very difficult to get the look. Trying to accurately copy random rushed half ass processes can't really be done unless you can figure out exactly what happened in the first place.
So more to come but probably quite slowly.
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It may not be 100% accurate for you, but to me, it looks absolutly awesome and closer, then my replica. I hope, my next builds will get more accurate.
 
I just got hold of this super rare picture of 5150 with the neck off;
IMG_2664.JPG
This is when the Charvel neck was fitted and shows clearly that it was only 4 neck screws in spite of Ed saying that it had six with two under the neck plate as on Frankie.
It also shows that the pocket had been modified to fit the original neck AFTER it had been painted. This suggests that the neck was not specifically intended for this particular body. This helps with my thinking that Ed took a bunch of parts away and screwed it together himself.
 
Found this interview today from when the striped series 5150 came out and Eddie said that the woods on that one are accurate to the original, being basswood and maple.

“The HUB: How does the new Striped Series 5150 compare? And what about it excites you the most?

EVH: It compares very well. It’s very close. We used the original one as the guide to build this one, so it is very, very close. That’s what excites me about it; it’s a high performance guitar. It’s speedy. It’s easy to play. It sounds really good. All the body and neck woods are accurate to the original. The neck is shaped like the original. It’s built for speed.”
 
bruzanhd said:
Found this interview today from when the striped series 5150 came out and Eddie said that the woods on that one are accurate to the original, being basswood and maple.

“The HUB: How does the new Striped Series 5150 compare? And what about it excites you the most?

EVH: It compares very well. It’s very close. We used the original one as the guide to build this one, so it is very, very close. That’s what excites me about it; it’s a high performance guitar. It’s speedy. It’s easy to play. It sounds really good. All the body and neck woods are accurate to the original. The neck is shaped like the original. It’s built for speed.”
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This highlights one of the problems with this guitar . Ed's information here is mostly wrong. The EVH 5150 is actually not accurate at all . The body shape is wrong, the pickup rout is different, the control rout is different, the headstock is wrong .The construction of the neck is different. the nut width is not even the same, It uses R3 nut instead of R2. The profile is different, the radius is different ,the frets are not the same size. You literally couldn't make a maple neck more different in all things that matter in tone or feel.
All this makes it impossible to trust the body wood claim.
 
Very true. I only thought it was interesting since it's the only time I've heard him say what the thing was made of. Usually he contradicts himself with his gear talk. But I've never seen him mention anything contrary to this claim about woods on the 5150. Also, at the point in time in this interview, he wasn't as into misleading people as he was in the 70s and 80s.
 
bruzanhd said:
Very true. I only thought it was interesting since it's the only time I've heard him say what the thing was made of. Usually he contradicts himself with his gear talk. But I've never seen him mention anything contrary to this claim about woods on the 5150. Also, at the point in time in this interview, he wasn't as into misleading people as he was in the 70s and 80s.
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This guitar is very difficult to get information on that you can trust. Everyone who was around at the time says different things and most of them can be disproved just by looking at the guitar it's self. From the style of the build I think I can make a good case for Ed screwing together parts that others part finished . Unkert did the neck conversion some time earlier, Feliece painted it and the rest is Ed either in the factory or later at home. I think The body was a lightweight second that Ed had painted without prep.
 
bruzanhd said:
Found this interview today from when the striped series 5150 came out and Eddie said that the woods on that one are accurate to the original, being basswood and maple.

“The HUB: How does the new Striped Series 5150 compare? And what about it excites you the most?

EVH: It compares very well. It’s very close. We used the original one as the guide to build this one, so it is very, very close. That’s what excites me about it; it’s a high performance guitar. It’s speedy. It’s easy to play. It sounds really good. All the body and neck woods are accurate to the original. The neck is shaped like the original. It’s built for speed.”
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410536-5107902515_gtr_frt_001_rr1.png
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It's as wrong as my first attempt.
 
Andy Eagle said:
One at 15.37 , I surprised there isn't more because he played this guitar longer as number one than any other.
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Yeah, I thought it was a little odd. At least the pic shows a good representation of it's early state. They also didn't show any of his Danelectro necked abominations. :smiley:
 
No new pictures yet but started to sand the relic body back to white. I have learned a lot in the process of this thread and this guitar needs to compete with the best replicas out there to satisfy my professional competitiveness. I don't want to be looking at it and thinking "you missed a bit."
 
Ok to show you the competition. Here are two of the best I've seen ;293776546_5220669081313764_6857843125750938210_n.jpg
and ;
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The seven tuner one is massively better than the bottom one but they both give you an idea . Same guy painted both but the one on the case was no expense spared. I don't know how many he has painted but it is a lot.
Mine needs to equal the one on the case or I am not happy:tearsofjoy:
 
Back to white and an incredibly thin dust of 2k primer
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You can see my progress in the grain carve here. The pencil is the low parts that retained the red in the wear on the original. The whole pattern was projected from photos of the original.
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I need to scrape out these shapes in to the replica so the red will correspond with the wear pattern .
 
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