Swamp Ash Strat Project

[WAK Guitars]

So I will be doing a strat build. I came across a swamp ash Bernie Hefner body, so I will be using that.

I'm gonna take a crack at building my neck so that'll be a first. The body will be refinished using powdered analine dyes from Lee Valley hopefully. Heres some specs:

Bridge: USA spaced trem from Guitarfetish with a nice steel block and steel saddles.

Pickguard: Fully loaded B/W/B also from Guitarfetish

Pickups: Still fairly undecided... I was thinking maybe the noiseless Lace Holy Grails, I'm not sure though. I hope to go noiseless, if money comes into play I might go with something else.

Truss Rod: I was told that the HotRod from stewmac is very good.

Neck: I will be building.

Heres some other pics (the back and front are done sanding now, just have to do the sides and inside the horns):

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x26/WAK...rs/Dscf0015.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x26/WAK...rs/Dscf0012.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x26/WAK...rs/Dscf0013.jpg

Ok I do have some questions about using the dyes. I will probably be using these:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=...,42996&ap=1

I am kind of going for this effect (I forget were I found this picture, but this guy can do some pretty cool stuff):

So here's the plan that I've thought up (Correct me if theres mistakes):

1. Stain the bare wood with the ebony black dye.

2. Sand back so that just the grain is black.

3. Apply Grain Filler

4. Apply Sanding Sealer

5. Apply one of the amber-like dyes on the Lee Valley site, maybe a yellow, not completely sold yet.

6. Apply Sanding Sealer

7. Do a light burst with a darker concentration of the amber, or a brown.

8. Apply Sanding Sealer

9. Wetsand with 320 grit

10. Apply Clear Coats

11. Wetsand and Buff as usual.

Does that sound right?

NECK:

I might need a little coaching in this department when the time comes! I basically will be using the method in the Melvyn Hiscock book when he builds the tele neck.

As for headstock shape, I'm still pretty undecided. I do have a Fender decal if I decide to go that route, or I may try my own shape...

Also I want this to become a little more than the routine strat build, so I may add a homemade piezo or something like that. If you have any ideas on spicing the guitar up, please tell me!

Well thats all for now I guess!

[Supernova9]

1. Stain the bare wood with the ebony black dye.

2. Sand back so that just the grain is black.

3. Apply Grain Filler

4. Apply Sanding Sealer

5. Apply one of the amber-like dyes on the Lee Valley site, maybe a yellow, not completely sold yet.

6. Apply Sanding Sealer

7. Do a light burst with a darker concentration of the amber, or a brown.

8. Apply Sanding Sealer

9. Wetsand with 320 grit

10. Apply Clear Coats

11. Wetsand and Buff as usual.

Does that sound right?

Erm I think you've gone a bit too complex there - instead of the first two steps, just get a black-coloured grain filler. That way, when you sand that down till it's only in the pores it'll give you that effect. There's no amber dye on that peice you link to either, that's just the colour of Ash.

[WAK Guitars]

Erm I think you've gone a bit too complex there - instead of the first two steps, just get a black-coloured grain filler. That way, when you sand that down till it's only in the pores it'll give you that effect.

Ok that makes sense. Would it work if I did use the black dye though? Just because I do already have regular grain filler, so it would be easy if I could just use that.

There's no amber dye on that peice you link to either, that's just the colour of Ash.

Yeah I know that, I just meant the black grain. The amber thing was my own idea.

[Guerrilla Radio]

Erm I think you've gone a bit too complex there - instead of the first two steps, just get a black-coloured grain filler. That way, when you sand that down till it's only in the pores it'll give you that effect.

Ok that makes sense. Would it work if I did use the black dye though? Just because I do already have regular grain filler, so it would be easy if I could just use that.

There's no amber dye on that peice you link to either, that's just the colour of Ash.

Yeah I know that, I just meant the black grain. The amber thing was my own idea.

I think that if you dyed the pores black, then filled it, the filler would pretty much block out the black-ness of the pores themselves. Just my guess though, so don't take my word for it.

[anderekel]

I don't know, but maybe you could mix some dye into the grain filler to turn it black?

[low end fuzz]

there ya go!

thats a furlannetto F-bass from 15 min, down the road;

George is the man!!

but you guys got it; black pore filler;

just washcoat the wood first or the black will get into the smallest of pores and stain up the wood; which both ruin the stunning effect;

you want to see something cool, look at his ceruse!

fbass.com

[WezV]

yeah, seal the guitar, then do a black grainfill, sand back and clear

even if you did stain the wood first you would find it difficult to get the stain into those deep pores anyway

[WAK Guitars]

Ok starting to get it now. So here's the new plan:

1. Apply Sanding sealer

2. Apply Black Grainfiller (stained with analine dye)

3. Sand Back

4. Clear/Or ad brighter dye colours on top and then clear.

Edited April 29, 2008 by WAK Guitars

[low end fuzz]

Ok starting to get it now. So here's the new plan:

1. Apply Sanding sealer

2. Apply Black Grainfiller (stained with analine dye)

3. Sand Back

4. Clear/Or ad brighter dye colours on top and then clear.

2-3 things;

first off, let me know how dyeing the grainfill w/ analine works, i just never think about it, but it would open such a big world of colour for me ,thanx;

for the washcoat, use regular finish, its new wood so you dont need a buffer zone between materials, it will help to level your finish easily which is why its recomended, but (insert 3rd idea( if you want the wood(oposes to the grain) to be different colour, dye it first ,then seal))) if you spray regular finish as a sealer add grainfill then sanding sealer yada yada yada, when your leveling and all that jazz, you'll feel if youve gone too far into the finish if you pass the sanding sealer (soft) into your 'topcoat' material (hard); cause nothing sucks more than going back and refilling pores and at the same time recolouring the wood!

i do this on everything now color or not because i suck at sanding thru edges

[WezV]

i do this on everything now color or not because i suck at sanding thru edges

was having that problem for a long time, we solved it by not sanding the edges. when level sanding stay right away from any edges untill you are nearly done

[RGXDave]

Kai, that looks great so far. Why not buy my AllParts neck to finish it off?

[decadentjon]

another option i did when testing with a similar finish (also the first guitar i finished) was that while there is grain to be filled i wanted to make it as bold as it could be so i didn't just use the black grainfiller but i first used a wire brush on the areas of dark grain and because the grain there is softer than the white ash it removes the dark grain so the grain filler goes deeper.

heres a photo of the finished product (well, after a few coats of nitro, was going for a bit of protection, not a glassy finish)

[WAK Guitars]

Yeah thats kinda the idea I'm goin for. It looks like I might have do a couple of tests on scrap to understand this better.

As for pickups, I'm thinking of ordering a set of those new Neovin pickups from GFS, they're noiseless single coils. I might order a set of these or maybe the texas wound version.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/fvicanenopis.html

What do y'all think?

[WAK Guitars]

I ordered the Neovins, psyched to get em.

Anyway about the neck, I decided I'm gonna use some walnut that I have floating around in the basement rather than a 1 piece maple neck.

I still have a couple things to decide though. Heres a pic of the piece:

So theres a couple ways I could go with this... You can see I started to make a couple lines with a white pencil. If I were to cut those two rectangles, I would have enough to make the strat neck with a thin lighter piece as the middle lam (it looks like maple but I'm not sure), and a bit of mahogany at the head.

I would also have enough walnut to probably make 2 or three fretboards out of the upper left corner in the picture, cause the piece is over an inch thick. What I'm thinking is that after all that, I'd still have enough walnut for a couple lams that I could use for a future neck through.

Talk about using every last splinter!

OR I could make a solid neck with the walnut and use one of the fretboards, or make a 1 piece walnut neck. I figured it out and if I did this, I think I'd still have enough for the two lams for a neck through. The only problem with these is that the piece is over an inch thick, so I'd have to go get thickness planed. And I dont have a thickness planer. The other problem is that the piece of walnut is slightly warped at the ends, I dont think its enough to make it unusable, but its there.

ANYWAY... I am kind of leaning toward the laminate neck with the maple-ish piece running down the middle, because I think it would be easier to build in my circumstance. But I think a solid maple neck, either 1 or 2 piece, would look nicer especially at the head.

What do you guys think would look better?

[WAK Guitars]

OK, so I decided to go with the 3 piece neck. I cut the walnut lams today:

Closeup of the grain:

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x26/WAK...LamsCloseup.jpg

I have to cut the lighter piece another day, cause its about to rain.

[eljib]

looking good so far. I think it would have been cool to do a "reverse" neck, using a one-piece walnut neck with a figured maple skunk stripe.

[WAK Guitars]

Glued it up yesterday, hoping for the best! I clamped it using a vice type thing on a black and decker work table.

looking good so far. I think it would have been cool to do a "reverse" neck, using a one-piece walnut neck with a figured maple skunk stripe.

Thanks, yeah I actually may end up with something similar to that, minus the figured maple. I think I may do a scarf joint to have an angled head with mahoghany. Just remembered though that the tuning heads I have are made for non-reverse head. So probably wont do that now that I think about it.

[WAK Guitars]

Started planing the neck today. This is the truss rod I'm planning on getting:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods/Adj...75.html#details

From what I understand it shouldnt be too hard to install.

I'm trying to decide on whether to do inlays or not. If so I would probably go with abalone dots, just cause they seem the easiest to do. But I dont really have access to a drill press, so, i dunno. If I find someone I know who has a drill press I might ask to use it. I do have a rotary tool though....

Anyway I'm kind of rambling at this point, nothing much to report, just checking in.

Edited July 11, 2008 by WAK Guitars

[WAK Guitars]

I got three walnut fretboards cut today. They came out really nice.

I do have a question though, with the walnut fretboard, will I have to finish it? Could I use something like Tru-Oil or Teak Oil?

Thanks

Edited August 15, 2008 by WAK Guitars