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SG2000 (ish) build


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20 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

A teeny weeny bit of progress. Neck is glued in - my usual process that I ripped off PRS. Glue it on then scrub away at all the glue squeeze out with a toothbrush and hot water. 

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Duncan wanted ebony knobs, so I got the same ones I used for the last build from Hailwood. Bloody expensive when you need 4 of them, fortunately I'm not paying - took a photo so he could see what they looked like. I've also taped off the top so I could draw a new centre line (relative to the neck taper) for bridge location. Lots of dust on the top because it's been hanging around in the workshop a while. I'm tempted to denib the sealer so I've got less work to do with the clear coat, but I'm also terrified of the prospect of sanding that back.

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I'm using a tonepros tunomatic and tailpiece on this one. I've got the tail piece holes drilled (11mm) and studs and earth wire installed but I've just drilled 2mm pilot holes for the tunomatic location. I did install the outside tuners and nut to get that location right but forgot to photograph that.

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Note the proximity of the tailpiece stud to the volume. I was originally going with a wraparound bridge so the location of volume was perfect (this is a very small bodied guitar at 12.5" wide) but there was a change of mind and he wanted the same style bridge as the original sg2000, so I've moved the tailpiece back slightly - it's around 45mm back from the tunomatic. 

I had a bit of an issue with green dust getting on the sides when I was sanding back the stain with a mirka pad, no amount of wiping with mineral spirits was getting rid of it either so I ended up sanding the sides and area around the heel back with 230 which meant I had to reapply some sealer so while I was sealing the neck I applied another couple of coats of sealer to the body (back and sides too). Next up I need to apply grain filler to the neck and it should be ready for clear. Though the forcast says we're due bloody snow next week, so I don't know when the clearcoats are going to happen. I think I'm probably left it too late in the year.

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looking fantastic.  very nice!!

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  • 1 month later...

The last couple of days have a bit of a learning curve - After seeing the guitar, Duncan said he would like the top to be darker. No way I'm sanding it all off and starting again on the stain so I said I would darken the top up a bit with lacquer. So I gave the guitar 2 coats of clear then I mixed up some fairly thin lacquer with some angelus dye, didn't have any brown so I used some yellow, a dash or red and a dash of black and played around until I had a decent shade.

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The trouble with my syphon gun is that it requires so much paint in the tank in order to operate, so seeing as I had so much mixed up, I thought screw it, I will tint the mahog as well. So I taped off just the binding - bastard job, but the extra thin stewmac tape I got helped out a lot. Taping was not fun, peeling the tape off however was rather satisfying. Then I had to clean my one and only gun up and spray a coat of clear to protect it all.

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And the back

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Very happy with the front, not quite so much on the back, should have either gone with the grain or both, instead of just side to side. But Duncan liked it, he then asked if it could be darker around the edges 😆  

That was yesterday, today I got the brown back out and did another coat on the back, up and down to try and even out the colour. Then I added some more black, taped off the sides and sprayed my first burst.

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Over the moon with how that came out, I think it might have been beginners luck. I did however not do as good a job of taping off as I should have done, and I got a bit of black spill on to the binding and even on to the mahogany, and in sanding that off, I went into my brown tint on the sides. So I decided to give the top another couple of clear coats for protection, then after xmas I'll sand the back and sides back and do another brown tint. I've got a bit of orange peel but no way I'm doing anything about that until I've got about another tone of clear on top.

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On 12/24/2021 at 11:32 AM, ADFinlayson said:

I've got a bit of orange peel but no way I'm doing anything about that until I've got about another tone of clear on top.

Put a lot more clear over that before leveling. Leveling and polishing takes off much more than you'd imagine and trying to patch a burst is no fun.....and will end up using the extra clear anyway. The burst looks quite good. If you keep that up you may find yourself investing in an airbrush. They are quite useful.

SR

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31 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Put a lot more clear over that before leveling. Leveling and polishing takes off much more than you'd imagine and trying to patch a burst is no fun.....and will end up using the extra clear anyway. The burst looks quite good. If you keep that up you may find yourself investing in an airbrush. They are quite useful.

SR

Oh I intend to at least double it's weight with lacquer before I level any of it. I have sprayed a second burst since this one, really liking bursts

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i dunno... you might want to check your intonnation... I think that wrap around is way off (totally kidding).  guitar is looking great.  how come you didn't drill the saddle studs yet?  just curious.  flame is looking pretty good at the players view angle... I suspect as you level it out that is just going to get more and more lovely.  very nice build, kudos.

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On 1/3/2022 at 11:12 AM, mistermikev said:

i dunno... you might want to check your intonnation... I think that wrap around is way off (totally kidding).  guitar is looking great.  how come you didn't drill the saddle studs yet?  just curious.  flame is looking pretty good at the players view angle... I suspect as you level it out that is just going to get more and more lovely.  very nice build, kudos.

My intonation is find thank you very much! Nah the tone pros studs have a massive over hang so I didn't want to fit them prior because I knew they would be a pain to remove, just drilled the pilot holes and I'll drill the main holes prior to buffing.

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Well it's had a couple more coats and It's starting to build some gloss. Switching out to the high build lacquer is definitely making a difference 

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So much bloody orange peel though. It's directly under LED lights which are very unforgiving, but I feel like I'm just spraying orange peel. I did give it a quick denib before these 2 coats with a 340 mirka pad but it hasn't helped much and I don't want to go through that colour. 

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I'm feeling pretty fed up with my spray port, The control options are fan size and flow, and in order to get a decent fan without chucking a pint of lacquer on it I have to thin the paint to practically water, I feel like I should be getting runs it's so thin, instead I'm getting orange peel, I think I've got a few air bubbles too. I think I'm going to put another 2 coats on it tomorrow which should make 6 coats of clear over the burst, then I'm going to have to start doing some sanding.

I don't know why I'm struggling so much with this one, the special seems to be going fine 🤷‍♂️

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1 hour ago, ScottR said:

Do you have any Behlens Jet Spray or blush remover?

It can knock down the orange peel for you.

SR

I don't, this is a precat cellulose, I don't know about the compatibility. I'll look and see if Morrells have anything like that in their range (that's the lacquer I'm using). 

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2 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I don't, this is a precat cellulose, I don't know about the compatibility. I'll look and see if Morrells have anything like that in their range (that's the lacquer I'm using). 

If not don't sweat it. I've come to accept orange peel as just part of the process. The clear has to be leveled regardless  and orange peel certainly makes it easy to see when you've leveled enough.

SR

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8 minutes ago, ScottR said:

If not don't sweat it. I've come to accept orange peel as just part of the process. The clear has to be leveled regardless  and orange peel certainly makes it easy to see when you've leveled enough.

SR

yeah I know, I was so fed up with it today that I phoned up spraygunsdirect and ordered a 24L compressor kit, a LPH80 and a gun gauge. I'm sure it was an overreaction, but at least now I won't be able to blame the tools.

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Well I got my new toy and had a play with it.

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The compressor is only a cheap one, it has that deafening high pitched Chinese motor noise, but it does work well, and I've discovered I can spray 2 guitars without it kicking in. Really nice being able to spray and just hear the gun actually - The turbine is always on.

The kit came with the compressor, 2 hoses, connections and moisture trap. I chose the gauge/regulator and added that at the gun, although there is a one on both the filter and compressor.

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The gun though, sooooo good. Took me a little while to get the pressure, spray pattern and flow right. I find that just spraying some clear on some cardboard is difficult to get good visibility on what's going on some times so I added a drop of blue dye to some thinners and sprayed random items in the booth until I had it figured out. In the end I had it set at almost full fan and the gauge set around 10-12 psi - it was like gentle sideways rain landing on the guitar with barely any blowback/overspray and I could actually see the paint levelling out on the surface as I was painting which confirmed my suspicion that the HVLP unit was throwing paint on with way too much pressure.

I was amazed that I could paint 3 coats with that 70ml cup. So I got one coat on the special build as the first proper test, then 2 coats on the SG. Though this lacquer was mixed up from the last session when I was using the turbine - around 55/45 and I think I need to mix it up a bit thicker than this.

Obviously I've sprayed over existing orange peel, but I could already see a dramatic improvement to the painted surface. So I'll give it a good level sand over the weekend and see what else I need to spray to get it finished. BIG IMPROVEMENT

 

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6 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

it was like gentle sideways rain landing on the guitar with barely any blowback/overspray and I could actually see the paint levelling out on the surface as I was painting

The Holy Trinity of distance, flow and pressure... Well done!

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  • 3 weeks later...

On to wiring, I managed to mark the edge of the damn pot recess while I was tightening the nut for the toggle switch, very annoying but i'm hoping I might be able to polish it out. I've also been having real trouble getting the extra fine scratches out of it, They're only visible when it's laying down on the bench directly under the LEDs and no matter what polish I used they wouldn't completely disappear, rather just change direction so I've given up. I wasn't having this issue with the orange special so I wonder if it's the lacquer, I was spraying this much thinner and it was the last of the old lacquer, not that I know how that would affect it.

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For info I had a nice level surface after the last coat and wet sanded 1200, 1500, 2000 which gave me a perfect looking surface for buffing , then buffed on the arbour with medium compound which gave me even scratches all over in the direction I buffed, then the fine compound and polish got it super glossy but I just don't seem to be able to lose the swirl marks.

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Overerall quite happy with it, I was having a noodle earlier and it plays nice, low action and no buzz. I haven't made a 22 fretter at 24.75" scale before, can't believe how short the neck feels. I just need to wire the pickups and attach the jack plate, and providing there are no issues with what I've wired so far, we're done.

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4 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I just don't seem to be able to lose the swirl marks.

 

Have you tried any swirl removers from automotive shops? On my latest lacquered one I sanded down to 6000, jumping back and forth until I could see no scratches. At that stage the lacquer had a slightly milky hue. Then I used the finest Flexipads (R) named Zero Swirl. Guess I shouldn't have skimped there, the final process may have been easier had I bought at least the mid-fine compound to start with. And I did all the buffing by hand, using the cheapest microfibre pads. After several years I can see rotational mini scratches wearing +1 and +1.5 reading glasses on top of each other and an illuminated 5x magnifying glass.

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2 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Have you tried any swirl removers from automotive shops? On my latest lacquered one I sanded down to 6000, jumping back and forth until I could see no scratches. At that stage the lacquer had a slightly milky hue. Then I used the finest Flexipads (R) named Zero Swirl. Guess I shouldn't have skimped there, the final process may have been easier had I bought at least the mid-fine compound to start with. And I did all the buffing by hand, using the cheapest microfibre pads. After several years I can see rotational mini scratches wearing +1 and +1.5 reading glasses on top of each other and an illuminated 5x magnifying glass.

Yeah, I got some chemical guys swirl remover but it didn't work for me, it just made things worse. I need to try something else 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Calling this one DONE! Waiting for a case to show up then dropping it over to Duncan, hopefully I'll get time to record some demo noodling.

I had a bit of a mare with wiring. The switchcraft toggle was dodgy and would not engage both pickups in the middle position. I took it apart and put it together again and it still wasn't working so I had to use another one. Also the pickups refused to split with the push pull -  Checked stacks of times and it was wired just so, same pickup brand and same pots and same circuit as the orange special. So I swapped out that push pull and it worked perfectly. Really annoying having dodgy components as it's just eating into the bottom line. 

I have however got the best action I have ever managed on this build, the strings are practically touching the fretboard yet it sings. I don't know what I have done to make that happen as my processes were exactly the same as I do with any other fret job. 

Lastly, this is the first time I've used a pair of OX4 humbuckers, I've used a pair of his p90s and a mixed set HB/P for the last one - these sound amazing, fairly low output, bother under 8k but they sound so thick and bity, nor is there much volume loss when split - I think he offsets the coils slightly as they go down to about 5.5k - I put a resister on the bridge split but the neck just didn't need anything. 

Really happy with this one even though, on paper, I should hate it, being a pointy guitar.

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