Norris Posted March 1, 2016 Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 I cut a piece of 3/4" MDF large enough to fit 6 sheets of sandpaper, then used spray mount adhesive to stick them on. After fixing a batten on the back, I could clamp the sanding table in my workmate. It does flex ever so slightly, but with some scraps of wood strategically packed underneath that can be minimised. I initially used too fine grit sandpaper, which was taking forever, but got much better results after swapping it out for 300 grit. Then after 3 to 4 hours of sanding, using pencil squiggles to check, you end up with a very flat surface 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 I probably should level the back, I'm thinking about it quite a bit because it will probably just eat at me if I don't do something about it. Thank y'all for your suggestions I'm gonna mull it over and see what I can come up with. im starting to rethink my finish for my body, I was originally planning on just clearing it with a nitro lacquer but I've came across this mayoness body and I'm kinda in love with the finish on it. Do y'all think something like this would be achievable with the spalted hackberry? It looks like it's stained black then sanded down and stained blue. I just don't know how it will mix with the spalted hackberry having the black/blue grain in it already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted March 1, 2016 Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 That finish is only possible with ash, I fear... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psikoT Posted March 1, 2016 Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 On 28/2/2016 at 11:01 PM, 2.5itim said: Well, looking at this picture... it seems like it is possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 That's what got me thinking about this finish is that area on my guitar, only issue is only half the guitar has grain like that, the treble side of the top is very straight grain with no curves so I'm just not sure how it would look on only half the guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 And that blue looks very opaque so on the rest of the guitar I would probably lose my natural blue and black streaking. I might better just stick to my original plan and try something like that at a later time on another guitar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 Having a wood whose early wood is far softer than the latewood is essential. It's feasible that Wengé might work, but far harder than Ash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a2k Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 On February 27, 2016 at 10:44 AM, 2.5itim said: I'm also wanting to do some inlay work on the headstock, could y'all give me some pointers? The end of the headstock is kind of an important part on this because if I do end up putting a name to this and end up making more guitars the swoosh would be an important part of my "guitar name" so I was just wanting to inlay a swoosh to follow the end of the headstock I just have no idea how to do inlays so if y'all could give me some advice or tutorials I'd be greatly appreciative!! I asked some similar questions of @komodo in his Uber build thread. He provided a lot of great info on his process. You can see his answers here: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 Ash, certainly in my very limited experience, has a tendency for texture. The darker grain tears out easily whereas the lighter grain is a lot tougher. The texture allows for effects like the black & blue guitar, as you can either dye black/sand back/dye blue, or use a black grain filler - using the small grain height difference. Sanding back also depends on the openness of the grain i.e. having areas where the dye will soak in more than others, to leave pigment when sanding back. Although you might be able to emulate it to some extent, to get the very stark difference in the black & blue guitar would really require ash to achieve. If course, I am a complete newbie at this so I could be wrong, but this is my experience having worked with ash a bit, and having prepared a few dye samples. NB: I am still not getting quite the effect I am hoping to achieve (a more even, translucent colour), as the lighter & darker areas of grain do not take the dyes I have been using to the same extent - and I have tried both water & alcohol based dyes. I may end up spraying it with a tinted lacquer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 That's about the long and short of it. The early/spring wood is ridiculously soft, open and porous. So much so, that pieces can easily be sandblasted to exaggerate growth rings expressing on the surface (I hate to say "grain" or "grain lines" since these can be somewhat vague terms). The late/summer wood is far more resistant to abrasion and less porous in comparison to the earlywood. Structurally it is very similar to white Oak, however the distinction between early and late wood density/strength is far more apparent. I'm unsure of the relative hardnesses between the growth rings in Oak and Wengé, however turning them on a lathe and polishing them with soft clothes and compounds accentuates the difference a lot. My leg vice hub is Wengé (actually, I broke it last night) and that became very textural when polishing up up to 2000 grit and compounding it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 Wow that was a lot of really great info, thank y'all for that! @a2k thanks for that link, I'm gonna read over that thread today while I have some downtime at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 You can accentuate the grain/growth rings by using a dark pore filller as Norris said. Doing so would feature the pores in away similar to the black in the sample you posted. Then sanding it back till you are back to bare wood with only the pores filled would have you ready to clear or oil and take advantage of the nice colors of your spalted hackberry. It's a good look IMO. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 34 minutes ago, ScottR said: You can accentuate the grain/growth rings by using a dark pore filller as Norris said. Doing so would feature the pores in away similar to the black in the sample you posted. Then sanding it back till you are back to bare wood with only the pores filled would have you ready to clear or oil and take advantage of the nice colors of your spalted hackberry. It's a good look IMO. SR That is a great idea! To just fill the growth rings black, sand back and then clear. It wouldn't be a blue painted color like I really like from the mayones guitar but still make it pop! I think that's what I will do, thank y'all!! I was able to get some work done today since I was off from work, some of it good and some of it that makes me wanna punch myself in the face. I got my riser back from powdercoating and they got the color match just about perfect but then again It is black so I guess that was pretty easy. I got the bridge mounted, string holes drilled ( the part that makes me wanna punch myself), and strung up the e strings so I could figure out how much higher my nut is gonna need to be, I think the best route to go from here would be to make my own nut because it took 3 pieces of .023 veneer to get the nut high enough to get them off the frets. The riser put my action just about perfect by the way, pretty happy about that! So about the string holes, I'm so pissed off at myself!! I don't have a drill press here at the house (have 3 at work and should have just waited till Monday to drill them)! So I decided I could do this with my hand drill, well I could but not very effectively. When I installed my string ferrules some weren't far enough apart and the lips ended up sitting on top of each other, I took my sanding block and leveled them with the body and I will paint them black before clearing the body. While this is purely an aesthetics thing it really bothers me but oh well to late now, live and learn!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 I also went ahead and drilled the holes for my pots and test fitted them, I don't really care for how close they are together but because I couldn't make my cavity any longer than it is this is the way it has to be. I'm sure it'll be fine for me! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 String ferrules are tough to get lined up perfectly even with a drill press as the narrow bits tend to wander a little when they run into varying timber growth patterns and hardness. One of the best ways to do it is to drill halfway down from the top side using your bridge as a guide. then make a jig by fixing a plywood base onto your drill press and drilling a hole into it with the same bit. leaving the base in place since the hole is lined up perfectly to your bit, make a pin of the same diameter and fit it into the hole leaving about 1/8" proud. Now turn your guitar over and fit each of the half drilled string holes onto the pin and drill the rest of the hole. The back side spacing will be the same as the front side spacing and the holes will meet in the middle as long as your set up is square. If what you have here bugs you too much, you can make a string block at your shop and inset it into the back of your guitar replacing the ferrules. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 54 minutes ago, ScottR said: If what you have here bugs you too much, you can make a string block at your shop and inset it into the back of your guitar replacing the ferrules. SR Ahh, that is a great idea, i don't know why I didn't think if that! I will see what I can come up with on Monday. Are the string ferrules hard to get out after being put in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Do y'all think having a magnet near the pickup would cause interference issues? I'm having a hard time coming up with a way to be able to adjust my truss rod. I've came up with a pretty cool idea that I think will work as long as a magnet being about a 1/2" away from the neck pickup wouldn't cause issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 I was originally planning on going with bareknuckle pickups for this one but have been wanting to pull the Seymour Duncan invader out of one of my sabers to replace with a Seymour Duncan jb, I figure the invader would suit this guitar well so I pulled it out of the sabre and ran to guitar center to pick up a Seymour Duncan jazz for the neck. Got them all test fitted, my pickup routes will work for this build but in the future I'm gonna have to make new templates to makes them a little bit wider because it's a super tight fit!! The only black neck pickup ring I have here is off a Gibson so it's a slant type, I'll need to find a black flat style before I finish this thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 My ocd wouldn't allow me to leave the pickup routes the way they were since the pickups barely moved and was a pita to get in and out, so I took a chisel and squared up the corners. Much better now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 What do y'all think? Should I veneer the headstock with walnut? Only reason I ask is because there's no dark wood on the front of the guitar so I don't know if it's throwing it off or not. Also im not doing a binding so there's no way of hiding the edge of the headstock and veneer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 After lots and lots and lots of sanding I got the back of the body completely level, yalls tip about taping down sand paper on a flat surface worked great!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted March 6, 2016 Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 Since there is no dark wood on the front, I would not go with a walnut headstock cap. Take it with a grain of salt though, it is just my opinion and you do have walnut in the back, so it would not be completely out of place. On my own builds I like to have my headstock match the top or the fretboard. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 6, 2016 Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 I think that it's just about using different strategies. It's possible to continue a theme from the body to the headstock or simply use it as a balance, even if that involves contrast. No real hard and fast rules, just a good eye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5itim Posted March 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 I think that I agree Scott, after looking at it for an extremely long time I just don't think I'd be happy with the end result, the neck wood, headstock wood and fretboard wood is all ambrosia maple (although the face of the headstock has no ambrosia in it and looks more like Birdseye than anything) so I think my best option is to leave it alone. Only reason I was planning on veneering it was because I didn't plan very well when tacking on my router jig and didn't put the tack holes where the tuner holes would go. Could I make up a super glue/ saw dust concaucstion to fill them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted March 6, 2016 Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 I wouldn't. Superglue wicks into woods and discolours Maple. If the headcap is to disguise misplaced holes, so be it. Fill away and get that cap on there ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.