cukaracha

is it possible to polish the whole guitar by hand? what are the results like compared to using the proper tools? how can i tell that its time to move on to the next compound and how will i know if i've completely cleaned off the previous compound before starting on a finer one?

I'd have a slim body made out of mahogany with a 3pc maple neck.

can you pls teach me how you arched the top so perfectly?

"Teach" is a big word, I can tell you how I did ;-)

I first started by tracing a line with a pencil on the side delimiting the natural binding (in my case 7mm). This is a very important line because it defines the level you have to reach by removing the material. It's also very impotant that you, using the chisel, leave 1mm from that line: you will trim it with sand paper later in the carving process.

Then I traced, on the top, the "flat zone".

Here is a picture where you can see the rough curving with the chisel and you can also see the line I traced to delimit the "flat zone":

Picture 1

You have to remove the wood in excess without going too near to the limit you traced (1mm). When you have reached a sufficient level of rough curving use the sand paper (I started with a 80) to complete the curving removing the famous 1mm of tollerance you left. I decided to do all by hand because if you use a sanding machine you don't have the sufficient control as you do it by hand.

At the end, it is important that you remove all the sanding erregularities carefully: when you have a glossy surface you will notice all them as a kick in the stomac. To do this I used a tangental strong light source to identify all the points to be sanded.

I hope my explanation will help you.

There are also other techniques.

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

that really helped! thx, capu! but one more question, when you carved the body (between the edges and flat zone) using a chisel, did u carve it flat (not curved) first and then contuored it (to make it curved) with sandpaper or what?

can you pls teach me how you arched the top so perfectly?

this is quite a dumb question... how do you remove and attach a neck? is it as simple as screwing in the screws or is there any glue or whatever else involved??

any suggestions on how i can get a good curved edge and not a 'flat' edge?

I have another question. Is there any substitute for a drill + foam pad to be used with the polishing compound?

once again, whats a microplane and rasp? Pls excuse my lack of knowledge of tools. i'm quite a beginner with no one else to help me.. also, all the tools that i learn and use in school are in Malay language.. (eg. sandpaper is kertas(paper) pasir(sand))

Erm.. i took a look at the links and honestly, that spokeshve thing doesn't even look like anything.. most probably because i've never seen one let alone heard of it.. could u pls explain how it works...? cuz from what i understand, it kinda works like a potato pealer, right?

sure its possible, and much easier if you plan to refinish it. and you should check the trem rout first, sometimes a floyd will fit in standard trem routs, but very very tightly.

erm.. could you pls explain a little more on what you mean by 'fit very tightly'?

thx a lot, man. really appreciate it. But just a couple more questions. that much sanding would require many clear layers. how many layers should i have? and what is defined as 'one layer'?

i plan to do it on an electric guitar. i'm gonna buy a freshly cut basswood body thats more or less the shape of an Ibanez RG Series but with slightly curved edges. so i'm actually gonna mod a stock body. any suggestions on what procedure i should follow?

i plan to make it look from this:

to this:

Note: the first pic isn't exactly the guitar body i have / what the real one looks like. and the second one is how i want it to look, not exactly like that, just more or less. emphasis on the curved edges and slim body, not the input jack.

I have a few questions:
1. whats the difference between dry sanding and wet sanding
2. when sanding the clear coat, how much presure should i use
3. what TYPE (not brand) of polish should i use after sanding until 1500 / 2000 grit
4. when spraying metallic colours, is it advisable to sand every coat (i read somewhere that sanding metallics affects the
reflective properties)

i plan to fill those holes up with epoxy then spray then black. sure, it won't look perfect, but who's gonna notice anything unless they look closely? anyway, conclusion = its possible, right?

i was thinking of arching a flat-top guitar (by sanding, guess). is this even posible? if it is, is it advisable and what kind of tools would i need to do this?

yup. thats what i did when i was waiting for a reply and it worked great!

My bridge isn't a hardtail bridge. And since i don't plan on floating the bridge, will it really take a lot of routing on the top to make it fit? i was thinking that i'd only have to route a possibly bigger hole for the tremolo block and springs? am i right..?

Yea, its like the one in ur pic. its a strat type bridge, the bridge found on an Ibanez GRX40..

So i take that as a 'no'?

Is it posible to change my Ibanez FAT6 bridge (its a 'normal' bridge) to a Floyd Rose (NOT floating)? What are the positive and negative effects of doing this mod?

Have any you heard of 'Perma Glass'? Its some sort of polymer sealer, i think. Would that be ok to replace the 'Meguiar's No. 2 Deep Crystal System'?

Erm... not exactly sure what to elaborate about.. but anyway, I used black hi-build lacquer and clear hi-build lacquer. Sanded with 600, 800, then 1000. After that, was going to polish it and it done. Btw, pls note that this is my first time doing a refinish, so i started 'small' by refinishing only the headstock. What I want is for it to look like a regular 'factory-finished' guitar whereby the whole thing has a glass-like surface thats smooth and no scratches can be seen at all..

I recently refinished my guitar and when i sanded the clear with 1000 grit sandpaper, all that happened is that it totally lost its shine. What am i doing wrong or what should i be doing?

I'm just finished making a custom logo on a piece of transparency film (I followed the tutorial and used waterproof metallic markers, but without the Mod Podge). My question is, what type of glue should I use to glue it onto my guitar headstock thats been refinished (i used lacquer-based aerosol spray)?