Scott Blackham-Hayler - SBH Guitars - Kit Build

Completed Guitar

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Demo Video

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Scott Blackham-Hayler - SBH Guitars - Kit Build
I caught the bug of all things guitar building and maintenance after bringing my own guitars back to life. All it took was a set of Seymour Duncan Blackouts and an EMG Solderless conversion kit.
  
  
  
  
I would like to support the Crimson School of Luthiery Scholarship Fund & Jessie's Fund:
   
CSL Scholarship Fund Small Banner 
  
Jessie's Fund Banner
  
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Videos

  

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Photographs

 



Here are some more photos of what I have been up to.

Well after test routing on the practice body I made before GGBO last year it was time to route the Floyd Rose cavities onto my build. The front block hole perfect, rear cavity perfect, recessed front cavity perfect but the mounting stud holes... not so perfect.
I got the high E side in the correct place but the low E side was off by about 3-4mm, which would mean the string would be complete off the neck and render the guitar unplayable. So I plugged it, went to drill it again in the correct place and because of the soft dowel I used it went straight back in the same place. Rather than doing the same thing and expect a different result I decided to plug the front of the cavity and pretty much start again, the videos of which are on my socials.


I got the pickup cavities routed and the channel I routed in the body before adding the top worked as planned so I could get the pickguard made and do a test install of the pickups. I'm using a signature Alexi Laiho EMG Pickup in the bridge paired with their passive S3 single coil for the neck.c

So much has happened since my last upload, I've been hard at work on the build and my full time job has been busy due to the warm weather.


The guitar was sanded up to 320 grit ready for staining, then I added the extra pieces of Alder to the sides of the paddle headstock to make it big enough for the veneer. This was reduced down to a manageable 2.3mm before being glued on and shaped once it had cured.


Then came the most fun part, adding the stains and finishing oil to the front/back of the body and headstock, this was achieved with a combination of Crimson Guitars black, aquamarine, phthalo blue and green stunning stains. At the moment there is only one coat of penetrating finishing oil but I am in the process of adding more coats as we speak but I am so happy with how this turned out.

 

My build is now complete and delivered so here's the final beauty shots of my guitar, SBH Phistail MkI. Seeing Crich's face when he opened the case and saw the guitar for the first time made the entire process worth it, then I went and surprised him again. Me, my wife and his girlfriend chipped in together to get him a brand new 30W Line 6 Spider V seeing as he didn't have an amp of his own anymore. He had a Spider 3 in the past so now he gets to play around with the newest model as they have so many more sounds compared to what he's heard in the past. I have a full sound demo/highlight video scheduled to go live on my YouTube channel on Friday, to say that he hasn't played guitar in I don't even know how long it all came back to him. He kept saying he was "rusty" but some of the stuff he played is insane, I will be posting sections of this on my socials the days after the video has gone live too.