Blackdog Posted March 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 Very slow progress...Finished the sanding yesterday… All going well I will start the lacquer spraying tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris G Posted March 8, 2015 Report Share Posted March 8, 2015 Big Fan of the Vs!! Keep the great work coming!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Good news, the pointy thing is finished. A few in-process pics, not really many… I'm no finishing expert by any means. Matter of fact I'm learning a bit more with every single guitar I'm finishing… But this is my process: I final sand with grit 320 after the pore filling, and spray a good few coats of clear to seal and have a bit of build-up. I use Clou nitro lacquer (pretty much the only nitro still available in Europe) dilluted to 2/3 with the dedicated thinner for most of the process. It flows well and still builds up decently. Let this dry for a couple of days and level sanded with 320. Now it's time for the color. In this case is just a heavy amberish lacquer. This was colored with StewMac transtint products: Vintage amber and a touch of medium brown. The originals were sprayed with Canary Yellow and then the clear went amber with the years. I just went for the right color from the start. After this, some more clear build up coats, a few days drying and level sanding again with 320. The final touch is a few coats of clear dilluted 50/50 with my best gun. This, and some careful spraying, produces a very fine orange peel. Now the usual recommendation for nitro based lacquer is to let it dry for at least 4 weeks to get the maximum solvent evaporation (I have no clue why people refers to this as curing. There's no such thing, this is an evaporative finish). This produces a lasting glass like surface after polishing. With this guitar I was after a "thin finish" look, one that gives the impression of being thinner than it actually is. This looks specially well on these vintage inspired models. You need to start with a reasonably thin finish to begin with, of course, but the trick is to let it dry for a week or 10 days . By then the surface is hard enough to take a polish well without much sandpaper blocking. The orange peel I get is fine enough to allow me to start wet sanding with grit 1500. I use Micromesh with the supplied rubber block, and naphta as a lubricant. Good ventilation and a mask are recommended, otherwise it can be an intoxicating experience, but not in a good way... I use 1500 to get rid of the orange peel, then 1800 and 2400 to finish off. I clean the guitar well and move to the buffing wheels with the different Menzerna solid-paste polishing compounds (pre-polish, intesive-polish, final finish). Here it is important to have a wheel dedicated to each grit and to clean the guitar well (paper towel and naphtha) between grits to avoid contaminating the next wheel with a coarser paste. This produces a mirror finish at the time, but since the surface of the lacquer has been broken it will accelerate the evaporation of the solvents still there. During the following couple of weeks the lacquer will slightly sink and delicately follow the grain of the wood on the surface. This effect makes it look like a very thin finish, as opposed to the "dipped in glass" look of polishing a fully hardened lacquer. But enough blah, blah ! Time to assemble the thing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 I will eventually wind pickups for this guitar, but in the meantime I tried some reference pickups to get an idea of the sonic signature of the guitar. First I put a set of Bareknuckles The Mule (PAF-ish wind, unbalanced coils, Hi 7K Lo 8K Ohms DCR and alnico IV magnet) which were a bit nasal and slightly harsh. Alnico IV is probably the wrong choice for a Limba guitar, which will naturally enhance the upper mids and have lighter lows. So I changed for a set of Gibson Classic 57 and 57+. These are Alnico II's, 8K and 9K Ohms DCR and the balanced coils give them a smoother sound which suits the guitar much better. For the custom pickups I will stick with balanced coils and Alnico II, maybe just make the pickups slightly hotter, but that should work. Better, more professional pictures will come, but the very basic "Look mum ! It's a Vee !" pictures are here: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwedishLuthier Posted March 24, 2015 Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Very Nice. Is the neck oiled? Locks like no lacquer at least... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Very Nice. Is the neck oiled? Locks like no lacquer at least... Hi Peter, thanks ! The neck is lacquer finished just like the rest of the guitar, I just gave a slightly lighter amber shade to the shaft. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 Regarding the general cosmetics I'm still not sure if I will stick with the antique white pick guard. This is 1958 correct for what is worth, but maybe the 5-ply black pick guard will look more "correct" with the black pickup rings and knobs (and the black ribbed rubber atrocity). I may try that when I install the final Blackdog pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 24, 2015 Report Share Posted March 24, 2015 That looks like it was built half a century ago and stuck in a vault. Very classy classic. SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 That looks like it was built half a century ago and stuck in a vault. Very classy classic. SR Thanks Scott, some better pictures of the finished product. Not the best lighting conditions but still much better than the utilitarian pictures I usually take... Can I post porn in this forum ?? Cookin' with classics…. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 25, 2015 Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 Cookin' with classics…. Man you do display some sweet old amps in your shots. I'll bet that Princeton sounds sweet. Which is your favorite? SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 Cookin' with classics…. Man you do display some sweet old amps in your shots. I'll bet that Princeton sounds sweet. Which is your favorite? SR Well, the Princeton is the only "real one". It's a '64 that I have modded (in fully reversible ways) into a Princeton Reverb, added a Deluxe Reverb output transformer and replaced the baffle with a 12" ceramic Jensen. All this to make it a bit more useable, the non-Reverb BF Prince had one less gain stage and sounds a bit weak and the original Oxford 10" farts a bit on the low end… It sounds great for low volume situations, you can crank it up to 8-10 for a sweet break-up without rendering people deaf or killing small animals. The one on the left is a prototype I built (before I started building guitars). It's a 20Watter with 6V6s and Marshall style PI, two fully independent preamps, one is a pure Plexi and the second is pure Blackface. It's kind of an old school dual personality disorder amp. The Vibro and Marshall 18Watter are actually clones I built. I'm an engineer in electronics and I don't really believe in vintage amps. Electronics don't age well, electrolythics dry-up, carbon composition resistors shift in value by as much as 50%… By the time you replace all that to make the amp dependable, it's not "vintage" anymore… So I just built the clones to original specs, point to point wiring, the best available iron and correct components. IMO it's the best solution: much closer to the vintage ones than the "brand" re-issues and fully gig-able. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 25, 2015 Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 Wow, I did not know that about you.....although your attention to detail in all your builds does kind of shout "engineer". I'd love to build an amp, but I'd need to further my education a bit. Maybe I should say I'd love to understand everything needed to build an amp. Isn't it fascinating how often the sound of a vintage amp is used as the basline for comparison when judging how a new amp sounds. My go to amp is a boutique that sounds like it uses the same concepts as what you build. Two amps in one, a blackface and an old brownface are the sounds it chases. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 I'd love to build an amp, but I'd need to further my education a bit. Building a tube amp is hardly rocket science, but it is not for beginners. Any tube amp can kill you if you do not know what you're doing. Not trying to be mysterious here, just warning you that the risks are serious and real. I started with this electronics business when I was really young. I was a technician before I became an engineer, and to make a buck while I was studying I worked as a TV repair when they were mostly tube (Yes, I'm THAT old !). So I learned my way around old school electronics many years ago. Now that I think of it, pretty much everything about me is old school…. Gee, I think I'm Vintage ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 25, 2015 Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 I think I'll stick to buying amps. My dad worked for the electic power company all his life and gave me a healthy respect for the power of electricity. And an awareness of how much I do not know of things electrical. I've always been a fan of old school and am of a similar vintage as you. Old guys rock! SR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 Sick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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