Rabin Spectrum 12 string replica

So only about an hour and I have the rough shape of the neck. lots of fine tuning around the heel and headstock to do.

awesome!
are you copying a particular neck profile or shaping it to your needs?

Sgt. Vimes wrote:awesome!
are you copying a particular neck profile or shaping it to your needs?

I'm just going by feel, but making sure it is thicker than the previous neck - kinda like the "baseball bat" strat necks of old. I don't want to make it too thin because of the extra tension. I think I will go a bit thinner than it sits currently, we'll see.

Neck is carved, and no I did not use the sander - all hand carved, feels good, neck is straight.

I did however use the spindle sander to do the little Westone curves at the top of the headstock - I think its close to the Westone look.
Gotta order up some tuners so I can drill the tuner holes.

Very tricky stuff Pat! I'm amazed you're doing it by feel alone.
"We don need no steenkin' CNC routers!"

Barry wrote:Very tricky stuff Pat! I'm amazed you're doing it by feel alone.
"We don need no steenkin' CNC routers!"

CNC??? is that short for Candian National Copyaguitarmachine?

We stand impressed yet again Sarc!

how did you shape and smooth the back of the neck.
i saw 2 large rasp files...
did you use anything else for fine tuning the shape? scrapers or something?
then just sandpaper for finish

gittarasaurus wrote:how did you shape and smooth the back of the neck.
i saw 2 large rasp files...
did you use anything else for fine tuning the shape? scrapers or something?
then just sandpaper for finish

I started with a coarse rasp and fine tuned with the fine rasp. Then for the detail areas around the headstock I used sandpaper from a spindle sander that I glue over a wood dowel so that I can do it by hand and still have control. I did also use a scraper after most of it was done which has a straight edge, a semi circle edge and concave edge which was helpful in finding some small high spots. I ended up using the scraper on another project for removing the finish off of the guitar - a lot faster than sanding and suprisingly controlable - no scarping the wood - just the paint.

That looks fantastic, good stuff sarc

Ok so I got my tuners finally and did my preinstall to see how it would look. One issue when using a drill press on a neck with an angle is I could not do the lower (closer to the nut) tuners with the guitar flat without a block underneath. So it slipped a bit on the second to last tuner on the treble side (the first high E) and that is just a bit out of line with the rest. Nothing that will affect it's purpose, but is noticable at a close look - maybe 2-3 mm off from the rest. I'll have to find a better solution than what I did so in the future it is perfect, but once this neck is painted, it will be barely noticeably if at all unless you already knew it happened. Also cool to see the original Westone/Electra neck that I used to make a template for this neck - didn't notice when I took the pic that it was there - but what a difference eh? You can also see on that neck, that I pulled some frets for practice prior to doing my first refret. If anyone wants that Westone/Electra neck - it goes for shipping cost only - it has served me well.





And in the background ya can see my strat build body which is going very nicely from some great alder I got. A shame it isn;t going to be mine, but instead my son has plans for that one. I really wanted a classic sunburst, but he wants to paint it - either way, theat is going to be a great strat.




Next up - fret markers, and the frets, truss rod cover, and then back to the wonderful world of sanding, painting, sanding, logo, clear, sanding, electronics and hopefully this bird flys.
Still haven't decided on PUPS for this. TP says the PUPS were custome for Rabin so I gotta go with what I want as I will never match the original.

Another thing - There is not much room for the logo - I think I may just go with the bird logo. But I'll print both the bird and the bird with Westone underneath and see what it looks like

Exciting, eh!!

Why not do your own logo with a bit of a Westone edge? Looking great by the way.

grogg wrote:Why not do your own logo with a bit of a Westone edge? Looking great by the way.

Thanks! I'm going to try to get it to look as original as possible - a lot of it is still going to be guesswork since I can't get trever to let me borrow his to compare

Coming along very nice sarc

What do you reckon it says on the truss cover, 'Trevor Rabin'
twelve

Westbone wrote:Coming along very nice sarc

What do you reckon it says on the truss cover, 'Trevor Rabin'
twelve

I do believe it says Trevor Rabin, but not sure what I want it to say on mine. Maybe my name, maybe sarcaster (although that really is meant for my strat), maybe Poser Rabin? Maybe nothing? Actually hadn't thought of what to put there yet.

No, no. What do you think it says on the original...twelve or custom ???

We know it says TR but the smaller writing on the cover.

It's hard to tell. I have a copy of the magazine with it on the cover, I'll see if I can tell

Installed the Abolone inlays. I used a small forstner bit which made the cirlces perfect and left them protrude just a bit above the fretboard rather than take the chance of drilling too deep. A filed off the bit extra with a nut file.









StewMac makes this cool fret bending tool. I can't imagine doing this by hand with any consistency











I cut the ends of the fret that go into the slot so when they are installed, the fret will not be seen on the side of the fretboard. Later I will fill the empty slots on the side of the fretboard with ebony dust and glue and it should match up pretty well.







Clipping the ends off:







And there ya go. It really looks like a neck now. I still need to level them off and then do all the little detail work.





Looks like it it almost done, but still lots of work to do. Side dots, slotting the nut, drill the set screws for the back of the headstock, fill the side of the fret slots, make a truss rod coverfinal sand, paint, make logo, clear coat and then off to sanding and painting the body, install hardware (find the right PUPS) and anything else I've forgotten - yikes, still a lot to go

Excellent work!
did you go with stainless steel wire in the end?

Sgt. Vimes wrote:Excellent work!
did you go with stainless steel wire in the end?

thanks !

I wanted to, but did not. All I read is that it tears up the tools and at this point I think its ok to go with the standard stuff. Maybe I'll try it on one of my builds that I'm working on

This is the neck after using a sanding block to take the outside edges off, and then beveled a bit. Used a sharpie to mark the top of the frets before I level them so I can see if anything is too low. It was all pretty close, but did need more work then the strat I just refretted.


Then after leveling the frets, I speant a lot of time crowning and shaping the ends. Sanding with a few grits then polished up. Looking nice and shiny. This came out much better than my strat - which was ok, but I'm getting a new bridge for the strat at which point I'll put more time into the sanding/polishing part. Gotta say the fretwork takes a lot of patience, but the more you put into it, the better the results. I'm pretty happy with it.

Hopefully tomorrow I can drill the holes for the tuner set screws, then finish sand the neck and get ready for paint!

I find fret work really rewarding, and you're right, it takes lots of patience!
I found using a black ink really hard to see the hair-thin crown line, I use red now and it's so much clearer on the nickel.
Also I love using the micro mesh sanding cloths, it might be a little bit OCD, but I give each fret 10 strokes back and forth right the way through the 9 grit grades for a uniform finish.

I can imagine Trevor Rabin having fun himself following the progress on your project. What a beautiful neck and how entertaining to watch this topic! Can we have a slideshow when it is finished?

Sgt. Vimes wrote:Also I love using the micro mesh sanding cloths

I had some of those that I use for finishing the clear coats, so I used them as well on the frets just to get a bit more smoothness to them - works great!

jim wrote:I can imagine Trevor Rabin having fun himself following the progress on your project. What a beautiful neck and how entertaining to watch this topic! Can we have a slideshow when it is finished?

I wish Trevor would follow it, maybe he would send me his so I can do a proper replica. Not sure about a slideshow - but maybe a video of how it sounds when I'm done?

So I sent a message to TR on his facebook page:

"Any chance you could send me a clear picture of your Westone 12 string guitar? I'm attempting to replicate it, and can't quite find a clear picture of the headstock."


And I got a reply. Not sure if it is him or an assistant or something but got this back:

"sure, real busy right now, but i'll get to it soon."

How cool would that be?

Very Very Cool Indeed.

Glad you reached out to him.

during your correspondence with Trevor (or his representative), perhaps you could solicit his comments on the guitar you are emulating.

I did reply with a thank you and sent a pic of the guitar as it is currently and maybe he'll like it enough to trade for his

Very cool - Trevor Rabin sent these pics back to me with the caption "not the best quality"



So it may still be someone else doing this for him but cool either way, but that is definatley the current studio he has as seen in his new video.

Not the best quality as he says, but I'm not going to bug him for better pictures. Pictures were reversed as shown. I think the truss rod cover says Trevor Rabin Model. Very cool - made my day

Fixed.

Thanks Barry!

Dyslexicor of the Borg uses his mighty inverto-ray, and, zooooop!

So you think the small word on the headstock is Model?
His headstock is a bit wider towards the neck than mine - damn I feel like starting over. I did send him a pic of mine, but no comment - no news is good news?

So looking closely, the truss rod cover mimics the shape of the headstock.

Westbone wrote:No, no. What do you think it says on the original...twelve or custom ???

We know it says TR but the smaller writing on the cover.

Weird, when I upload these pics they are not as clear, but the pics I got I think I can confidentally say its Trevor Rabin Model

I want that SO badly it hurts....

If you need a tr cover..TR model. Give me a shout.

Westbone wrote:If you need a tr cover..TR model. Give me a shout.

What's your method? I was thinking of making it myself, but not sure how I want to do the text. Paint pen maybe, or maybe dremmel out the text and paint it so it is recessed a bit?

Yes, please Arthur tell us how it's done! I always assumed a sign shop could do a perfect engraved piece, they do it on nameplates all the time after all. e.g. http://www.signsationstrc.com/name-plates-header/ but I never got to checking it with them since I have no urgent need for one.

They probably wouldn't cut or saw it in the right custom shape and bevelled edge but that shouldn't be a problem for Pat to deal with I reckon. What material are they made of anyway, acrylic? Same as pickguards? (some one some two ply). Sorry to high jack this thread btw. but It intrigues me and since it's brought up...

There is a guy put there that can do TRC and has done several for my fellow Electra forum members. I will search the forums there and see if I can find the link.

TRC suitable plastic comes as a 2 layer laminate in any color combination you might imagine. Then it is only a matter of what size, shape and what you want written in it to be.

A CNC VMC or computer engraving machine can crank them out at a rate of a couple hundred an hour once the code is written.

Your on the right track jim.
My buddies a jeweller, he engraves them and I finish them off.

Now that is nice work...

So I think think I will try using the dremmel as my engraver and give it a shot. I have a few sheets of pickguard material so I have plenty of material to make mistakes on

Those TRC's look very good West