Zack

I think we have a winner! It's the best finish I've pulled off yet. The flaws are pretty minimal. I will say that the primer, silver flake, and top coats don't melt into a seamless lacquer even though they are all lacquer based. Primarily the sliver and primer create a weak point and I had a pretty nasty chip when sliding the switch into the body. Am I going to show my lackluster patch job? Heck no! I like this angle too much!

That is beautiful! Really great design and I love the satin and roasted maple. How do you roast the neck? In the oven?

This is where I'm stopping for the day. Actually have to do something that makes money. It's all tuned up and just needs solder.

I took pics of the dents too

I get over disappointment pretty quickly. I guess I have always been the problem solver because dwelling on it doesn't change anything. At the same time, there are battles can't be won. This isn't one of them even though I contemplated some Olympic guitar toss action.

I also chose this path for my shallow pickup route I used to keep as much wood as possible in the neck joint:

It either makes you stronger or....kills you! I think this time around the guitar can keep the character and I'll keep my sanity. Thank goodness this one is for me and not a customer.

There are days that I want to never build another guitar, EVER. I had several of those days in the last week. While finishing and polishing this one, and being so close to perfection, or my loose version of it, it was one disaster after another. First there were two mystery gashed in the finish of the neck that went all the way to the wood. I tried to sand it out but had to cut through the blue and airbrush repair. It doesn't quite match. Then 2 mystery dents appeared on the top, THEN, the Gotoh 1996 tremolo does NOT fit in a standard Floyd pocket as advertised. It fits but doesn't retain that symmetrical gap around it. so I'm having to plug and re-drill the posts as far forward as possible.

It usually takes me a week or two to build and an eternity to get the finish right. I like the Stewmac #3 glue. For some reason I had trouble with the binding glue but I can't remember why. Post-traumatic stress maybe?? Coming along nicely! I love the digital level idea for the neck angle.

I sold a motorcycle and decided to shore up my collection of metal guitars to cover every tuning I've been needing. One of these was a LTD MH350FR. When I unboxed this thing, my jaw almost hit the floor. It's beautiful. It was when I set it up and really inspected it that I really became upset. Made in China. This used to stand for something sub-par, something that's cheap for a reason. "You get what you pay for". Nope! This guitar is absolutely amazing down to the rounded fret ends. What's disgusting is that it costs me double the price of this guitar just to buy material to make one just like it, and I'm not sure it would be as good. It makes me thrilled as a player, but as a builder it's rather disheartening.

#2 seems to be more interesting and #1 has a slightly more subdued "classy" look. I guess that's not much different than smelling the color blue, but my opinions are always worth what you pay for 'em.

Boom!! Thanks for the tip!!

Thanks, Scott. I don't see humidity dropping below 80% in the foreseeable future. Gotta love Mississippi. As a result I cannot promise not to start spraying with reckless abandon knowing full well that it will only lead to more misery. Whatever happens, I will promise more photos 

Thanks for your vote of confidence, but I still have much to learn. Case in point: sand-throughs. I have yet to finish a guitar without 1 or 5:

ALSO: I should have used a whole can of sanding sealer so there are no low spots or pin holes that the lacquer can "fill in". It just will never work that way. That thing has to be flawless before any finish coats. I realize that NOW!! It almost would have been easier to scrap the black and start over the right way. Here is round 2 of spot filling:

One huge plus is I discovered my scraper works much better than sanding for the sides. I have better control and can see the progress in real time vs sand and wipe, sand and wipe.

Oh well. I repaired the sandthrough spots with the airbrush yesterday. The humidity is crazy high this week. Would you spray any way and use blush eraser or wait a month for the humidity to drop? I can't spray indoors anymore because the fumes linger far too long.

30 minutes ago, ScottR said:

It does.

Is your logo a decal or something else entirely? That would be a crazy complex inlay......in paint no less.

SR

It's a chrome mirror vinyl decal. It's funny you mention that because I had one cut to inlay in the Orion. After a few practice attempts, I admitted defeat and ordered decals. DePaule did a fantastic job cutting it!

Here is a sneak peak. I am giggling like a school girl. I have always loved this color.

5 minutes ago, SIMpleONe89 said:

Those are tiny abalone dots! 

But twice as big as the plastic ones. You have to use tweezers without a doubt.

Color turned out spot on!! Although, I was so happy with the silver that now I want to build another one just to paint it silver. I also decided to use some leftover abalone dots and replace the micro plastic ones.

34 minutes ago, SIMpleONe89 said:

Damn bugs! 

Guitar works bring 'em out of hiding!

17 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Silver looks good.....and yet it seems to be gone in that last shot?

SR

Yeah, it turned into snot. Pretty nasty but made short work of it. The last shot was me trying to photo those little bugs that come from out of nowhere.

So, after not learning my lesson 3 times in a row, I finally ignored the instructions and used nearly and entire can of sanding sealer and make 1000% sure I filled and sanded every possible imperfection out. Then I hit it with Reranch nitro primer and sanded it with 400 to silky smoothness. Next came the silver which is a little trick, especially from a can.

On another note, does anyone else have these little bugs that flock to fresh lacquer?:

I finished this one about a year and a half ago. To save a buck I bought cheap rattle cans of "lacquer is lacquer".  It was a nightmare of Deft, Valspar(Lowes) black lacquer, blushing, sandthroughs, and not enough beer to wash away the pain. So even after all this time, I pulled it out and there were imprints of the case fabric all over it and the strap that wrapped around the neck completely melted through the finish . That killed me because it plays like a dream (yes, I'm tooting my own horn dangit) but it was looking so crappy.

I'm attempting a jewel blue with Reranch silver and the same blue I sprayed on my Orion.

This stripper worked very well and the stripper wash(sounds so naughty) cleaned up the rest. It was pretty pain free. What was awesome is the stripper attracted at least 20 flies that landed on it and died. That was very rewarding! So next time you have a fly problem, spray some cheap lacquer and stripper in a jar and watch the magic happen!

36 minutes ago, Woden said:

Yeah, veneer is really easy to make conform to an arm contour. Much easier than a thicker top as above.

My homemade vacuum press for my walnut veneer RG build I'm doing worked great. I just used a cheapo vacuum storage bag, a baseboard with some channels in it to assist air escaping and some thin foam material to protect the veneer itself. That said, I did have a tiny amount of air getting back into the bag due to a poor seal on the valve so I had to vacuum a couple more times for peace of mind during the first four hours or so. I got away with it and achieved an almost perfect seal all the way around. Only during staining did I find a couple of tiny areas around the edge that opened up, but nothing a little CA glue couldn't fix. I'd highly recommend buying a proper vinyl bag and metal valve if you want to do it properly though.

 

It would be the greatest thing ever if you showed a little video on how you made the press. I've been wanting one forever but can't pull the trigger because of the high price. I have a few RG's that could use a veneer

If you really want to get cheap, you can buy ink jet printable sheets for around $8 for a 3 pack. The main problem with those is that you are limited to black or RGB mix. No white or metallics of course, but for a single guitar they are fine.

I did this to a Kramer Voyager that had the same problem. It was really easy. I cut a hole in a square mdf that was slightly larger than the neck pocket and used the flush cut router bit to follow the profile of the pocket. The mdf creates a stable platform for the router. I would clamp and use double-sided tape for extra stability. That said, check your pocket angle. Based on the pics and style of guitar, I am assuming there isn't any.

I would say the veneer is much easier to bend but also much harder to glue evenly without a vacuum press. I want attempt this soon. I saw a guy steam wood for bending inside a towel with a hose coming from a tea kettle. The glue-up of the top would have to be epoxy I'm assuming. The last one I bent did with a lot of clamping but I wouldn't do it that way again without heating the wood.

It's this blue 3M tape. One of the things I picked up working at the body shop as a teen.