SJE-Guitars Posted July 20, 2023 Report Share Posted July 20, 2023 Well it's been a considerable amount of time since I have been on here and this is a project that has been sat around for quite some time, initially intended to just do a clean up and be done, but my daughter (10 year old) has been pestering for a guitar and she only does pink! I actually found this abandoned Samick whilst walking back to my house from town when someone had put it out front of their house for trash. I forgot to take a photos of it when I found it, but here's a few of it before I started the major works: As can be seen it lived a bit of a hard life before ending up being thrown out on the pavement as rubbish! Next before work begins - I soon discovered the lacquer used on the neck was tough and thick! But also looked nasty and an oiled neck in my opinion is far superior so - As you'll notice I have masked off the from of the headstock since I intend to keep the finish and Samick logo on the headstock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted July 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2023 Rather than attacking the fretboard immediately I decided the next thing to do is strip the body back: As I stripped the pockets back I use the router with tracing bits to strip the bottom of the pockets and after taking a mm or so discover that the humbucker pocket has an about 2mm of wood and when I finished it was paper thin! So I had to fill it in with additional material, not the same timber but hey under paint it won't make any difference! It's already progressed beyond this - but I just need take photos. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted July 20, 2023 Report Share Posted July 20, 2023 Our local musical instruments dealer is a man whose words have to be heavily filtered. I mean, half of his marketing jargon can be immediately ignored and the other half must be taken as highly questionable. But even after that Samick guitars seem to be of good quality. Economically built rather than wood porn as the example above shows, still good workhorses. And the finish seems to be very durable, Other than gunk I couldn't see any damage! How did you get rid of the paint? You mentioned using a router for the cavities which sounds very clever, but sanding the thick finish off the entire body sounds like lots of carcinogens in the air! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted July 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2023 This is what thicknesser are for! I ran it through both side the smallest about off possible (around 0.3-0.4mm) off each side and what was left I then sanded with the orbital sander and hand sanding around the edges and body cutouts. In general there was quite a few chips and scratches on the back - cosmetic stuff - really if I was just going to refresh it and keep it for me then I would have kept it as was - but since it "needs" to be pink, the original finished had to go! The thing I am mainly surprised about the guitar is just how poorly fitting the neck pocket is - one job that is outstanding to do on the body is to add some extra material to the pocket and route it to fit the neck snugly. There is a literally 2 or 3mm gap between the neck and pocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted July 20, 2023 Report Share Posted July 20, 2023 2 hours ago, SJE-Guitars said: The thing I am mainly surprised about the guitar is just how poorly fitting the neck pocket is - one job that is outstanding to do on the body is to add some extra material to the pocket and route it to fit the neck snugly. There is a literally 2 or 3mm gap between the neck and pocket. The original finish on the heel of the neck most likely wasn't quite that thick despite you having said that you "soon discovered the lacquer used on the neck was tough and thick!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted July 20, 2023 Report Share Posted July 20, 2023 18 hours ago, SJE-Guitars said: That looks a lot like oak to me. Ash has a similar grain, but isn't nearly as dark. Please tell me it's not oak. It would prolly sound good, but it'd be a shoulderbreaker. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted July 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2023 9 hours ago, Bizman62 said: The original finish on the heel of the neck most likely wasn't quite that thick despite you having said that you "soon discovered the lacquer used on the neck was tough and thick!" Yeah lacquer was tough but definitely not that thick! I have been very carefully to be removing as little of the actually wood as possible particularly with the neck pocket, you'll see on the photo's of the body I didn't even fully remove the finish out of the pocket. Anyway - primed body - will add the material to pocket and put a finishing primer coat: The said gap in the pocket .... Neck strip complete and a down to 800 grit ready for oil: However before oil takes place gotta fix up this damage found on the head stock finish: That's brings things up to date. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted July 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2023 6 hours ago, avengers63 said: That looks a lot like oak to me. Ash has a similar grain, but isn't nearly as dark. Please tell me it's not oak. It would prolly sound good, but it'd be a shoulderbreaker. I think it's ash, it's not very heavy, the darkness in that photo I am pretty sure was take after I had wiped it over with the damp cloth to bring up the grain for the final sanding before priming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted July 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2023 just when you think things are going perfectly Just levelling the clear coat to the old finish and discovered the logo is not under the finish as I had assumed: I guess they put the decal on before the finishing coat, since there is still plenty of the old lacquer finish left yet. Maintaining the old finish and logo was taken as the de-facto aka easiest path - so this now requires the full job to be done - a new decal will ordered, finish will be stripped and the headstock will be sprayed to match the body, On the upside the pocket is nicely shimmed out and the the screw hole of the old tuners filled - photos to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted July 26, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2023 Whilst waiting for the decal and finishing material, the neck pocket is much better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted August 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2023 Well stripped the headstock . . . still looking a bit rough in this photo . . but didn't take an any other Masked it up ready for its initial priming . . The reveal: So a nice initial prime before it's levelled, next is to hard shellac the rest of the neck and leave it to cure for a few weeks then it'll be back to masking around the headstock to do the finishing coats. At that point this will be applied: Free ad for the seller if you are looking for decals Slowly coming together, 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted August 17, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2023 (edited) First coats of hard shellac: A bit of a levelling out and polish to ready for more coats but fretboard is already mirror finished: Another few more coats and fully polished to the 12000grit micromesh and it'll really be mirror finished Edited August 17, 2023 by SJE-Guitars 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted August 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2023 Fun little update . . . had little time to spend on progressing much (spent the weekend tidying up the garden ready for spring as winter is nearly over down here) but did several coats of hard shellac and then polishing with micro mesh . . . just reached 6000 grit in what I intend to be the final polish and got a pic: I will most likely do the 8000 and 12000 tomorrow ..... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted August 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2023 (edited) The last photos before it gets colour, thought I might well get a photo of it together in it's primer . . Back of neck . . and of the finally shiny view : now to get the paint and give it some colour loving Edited August 22, 2023 by SJE-Guitars 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akula Posted August 22, 2023 Report Share Posted August 22, 2023 How's that U-Beaut Hard Shellac go for you? I've considered using it a few times but never took the jump - it's gotta be better than the "French Polish In A Bottle" crap from Bunnings, right? - Jam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted August 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2023 Hey,I mean the results speak for themselves. I have used it for numerous years and numerous projects from guitars to furniture and it does exactly what it says on the tin (well bottle) At just over A$70 for 500ml (shipped) it's relatively on the expensive side but it's way better than anything you'll get from Bunnings! The 500ml does become 1 litre when diluted with methylated spirits, which I do, but then I'll do numerous coats (I think I did 10 or more on this neck). Then polish it with micro-mesh, as with anything the final finish will always come back to how well the wood is prepped in the first place. I've used traditional shellacs before and it's way, way, easier than doing an actual french polish - but also is way harder wearing - but in the same way as normal shellac it takes a few weeks for it to fully harden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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