Looking For Advice

[whoofnagle]

Last summer/fall I started working on my first tele style guitar. Due to various reasons, kid, school, work, etc., I have progressed very slowly.

I am finally, about ready to get to the finishing of the body. The specs are as follows:

1. Tele style body

2. Color - I want to do blue - and yes Maiden I wil make sure I do the black sand back and then blue - by the way your GOTM is beautiful.

Here is my first test piece Blue

3. Neck - Warmoth maple/rosewood

Now I have two questions:

1. The neck pocket is cut to a depth of 5/8" just like the warmoth site says. However - when the neck is installed and strung -I really have to increase the height of the saddles much more than I would like. In fact, I still get a bit of fret buzz. Have others had to go much deeper than 5/8". I am using a WD bridge.

2. When sanding back - what grit - just use 220 or start at say 120 and go to 220?

I hope to get cranking again this weekend.

Thanks,

Bill H.

[thedoctor]

Do you have or want ANY relief in your neck (front-bow)? If the neck is at the flatness you want, you may wish to carve the pocket slightly deeper at the bridge end of the pocket with a really sharp chisel. In other words, only deepen the pocket at the bridge side. It changes the angle instead of the depth so you might want to give it some thought. NICE blue! Is that dye or stain?

[Doc]

The what do I start with question begs another or two.

How much do you need to remove and how much do you like to sand?

If you don't have any scratches or tool marks to remove you can start with the very fine stuff. If you have planer marks, etc you can take 'em out with 220 but you are gonna have really large forearms.

I start finish sanding with 120 go to 150 then 180 and rarely sand raw wood any finer. Occasionally I go to 220 on hardasabrick stuff or endgrain.

I know that puts me in the minority around here but that's how I have learned to do it

I am also using a random orbital sander for most work.

[orgmorg]

Doc, I think he's asking about sanding the black stain back? If so, I am interested in the answer, as well.

[Maiden69]

Just follow the instructions here

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...ndpost&p=169239

[whoofnagle]

Thanks to all the responses.

Maiden - thanks for the point - I must have missed it when I was fliiping through the threads.

The color sample I linked is using blue and black water based dyes. I do not have any spray equipment - so I plan on using Myka's method of wiping the dye on the top. I also, plan on going with the faux binding look. This leads to my next questions:

Maiden - Is that a faux finish? If so - what technique did you use to ensure that the blue did not run on the sides?

I am thinking of brushing some shellac on the binding area before masking it (taping).

or

Is it possible just to spray Deft sanding sealer prior to taping the sides - to minimize having to sand-off excess blue on the faux binding?

Bill

[Maiden69]

Yes, mine is a faux binding, I used Davids method (Myka), link to his sites faux explanation.

He brushed the laquer, I just sprayed Deft Sanding sealer.