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im actually not using nitrocellulose this time around because i believed the same cracking would happen. I read a couple of guitar painting books and used krylon spray paints. I know!! all u nitroheads looking down at me ! but i emptied like 4 cans of clear onto that baby (in additional to the sealer and the primer). btw, thats a great idea Blackdog! to fill the holes before wetsanding, i shoulda thought of that! so how long until a Krylon finish be buffed? (i see cars being painted with krylon, which means it must be really durable to protect it against rain and stuff)

ever since my previous buffing mistake, i lost a lot of time that should have went into my album recording process. I have repainted the guitar and put on the last coat of clear today. I have a question, I know its not "safe", but is it "ok" to assemble the guitar immediately with all the hardware and electronics and play it like a finished guitar? I will handle it with care and it will be in my studio the whole time so its gonna be pretty safe. Sweat wont do too much to the curing process right? 2 months down the line, ill take out the hardware and electronics... then wet sand and buff. Thanks guys!

OMG!! what happened??

i already removed the paint, i was too distraught to take pictures at the time

yeah ill try again!! thanks guys! another 2 months, here we go again lol

When you wet sanded you probably got water into the unsealed holes. Wood swelled cracking finish. Keith i actually washed the body and neck in water to clean the dust off.... oh god... im guessing thats a big mistake?

So i sanded my guitar.. I put sealer, color coats, and clear coats on my guitar and neck (all of em are the colortone spray from stew mac) I left it for 2 whole months. Then i wet sanded it up to 2000 grit, things were going okay... and then immediately buffed. I used the stewmac medium polishing compound and their buffing wheel thing that you put onto a drill. THE FINISH STARTED CRACKING EVERYWHERE!!!! Especially around the tuner holes and the screw holes. WHY?! it ruined the finish, all the hard work and the 2 months down the drain! can someone PLEASEEE tell me why the nitro finish started cracking like crazy when I buffed it? where did i go wrong?? I sanded out all the paint, but Im looking for an affordable place to have the guitar painted. Any recommendations would be awesome (located in NJ)!

thanks man i checked my wiring over and now i have sound, i appreciate it a lot, i think everything is working except... When the sustainer is off, the bridge pu doesnt have sound. When its turned on however, i hear output from the bridge pickup. Has anyone ran into this problem with the sustainer before?

am i all alone?

Here is the wiring diagram I drew out please help me. http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/8176/pict6616.jpg Problem: No Sound...lol, well just buzz when i plug it in to an amp Explanations 1. The HB pickup is soldered to a seymour duncan triple shot and those wires go to the sustainer board. 2. The SC pickup goes to the sustainer board. 3. The Sustainer pickup goes to the sustainer board. 4. The ABQ, SPC, and the Sustainer board are all battery powered. 5. From the board, it goes to the 5 Way PU Selector. 6. From the PU Selector it goes to the ABQ(Volume) Pot. 7. From the ABQ(Volume) pot, it goes to the SPC(Tone) pot. 8. From the SPC(Tone) pot, it hits the output jack. Assumptions 1. From the board, there is no ground output? Or I dont know which wire it is. - So I soldered the ground input of the ABQ to the sleeve of the jack. 2. Should something be grounded to the tremolo claw? I also couldnt get the sustainer's light to light up. Here are the other diagrams. ABQ: http://www.emgpickups.com/content/wiringdiagrams/ALXAlternate0230-0154c%20.pdf SPC: It has the same 5 pins (in an outs) like the ABQ SUSTAINER: http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7971/sustainerdiagram.jpg Please help me guys!! Thanks for your time.

A guitar im building uses active electronics and theres a battery ground coming out of the batteries. The output jack has a tip (hot), and a ring and a sleeve. Does it matter if the battery ground is soldered to the same part as the pickup's ground(sleeve). In other words, would it matter if the battery ground shares the same part of the jack as the pickup ground? Thanks guys

Im using the stewmac colortone sanding sealer. I thought they said to sand it to 220 grit? When you said clean, you mean removing the dust and particles right? and not the excess black stain on the back of the neck? Because i am planing to put gloss black spray from stewmac onto the back of the neck too so will it stick or doesnt matter?

ok ok hehe, after reading the comments i didnt realize how bad it was.. but i think i fixed it!! i held an orbital sander at an angle and sanded out all the scuffs all through yesterday!! Before http://img198.imageshack.us/i/pict6506.jpg/ http://img191.imageshack.us/i/pict6504.jpg/ http://img576.imageshack.us/i/pict6509.jpg/ After http://img843.imageshack.us/i/pict6513.jpg/ http://img855.imageshack.us/i/pict6512.jpg/ http://img198.imageshack.us/i/pict6511.jpg/ Pic of the output jack cavity on the long wing (extra long drill bit to drill it) http://img64.imageshack.us/i/pict6515.jpg/ http://img18.imageshack.us/i/pict6514y.jpg/ I used the black fingerboard stain (3 coats, wiping off excess after every coat) from stewmac to dye the fretboard yesterday. HOWEVER.... their TAPE... hahahaah.... ITS TERRIBLE!!! It would not stick when the dye was applied! You can see leakage and smudges all over the back of the neck and headstock... not intentional, a sign of my lack of experience eh?... but i plan to spray it black anyways and put clear coats on the back of the neck. BTW, what tape do u guys use to mask of parts of the guitar? Pics of Neck http://img571.imageshack.us/i/pict6529.jpg/ http://img823.imageshack.us/i/pict6519.jpg/ http://img684.imageshack.us/i/pict6521.jpg/ http://img42.imageshack.us/i/pict6522.jpg/ http://img138.imageshack.us/i/pict6523.jpg/ Can I start spraying sealer on the body and the back of the neck(masking off the fretboard)? All the wood has already been sanded to 220 grit. I can spray the sealer over the accidental dyed parts of the back of the neck and headstock or do I require sanding? (its gonna be sprayed gloss black and clear coated anyway) Thanks for the help and suggestions on the woodwork!! -Henry

oh crap i think i posted this in the wrong section. Can one of the moderators move it to "In Progress and Finished Work"?

I havent got to the coats yet, just the woodwork. Ok here are some before and after photos of the body. I forgot to take pics of the neck, my bad . 1. I routed a larger electronics cavity because my fernandes sustainer would not fit at all! Gonna put a pickguard on it. 2. I made a bevel on the larger wing because it kept getting in the way of my playing. 3. I made an AANJ joint i think thats what they call it and a cutaway. 4. I routed a floyd rose cavity and a battery box. 5. (you cant see it in any of the pics) but i drilled a jack hole on the larger wing with an extra long drill bit. (that was hard!) 6. I slimmed down the neck's width and kinda made it thinner too. (also added a bevel on the headstock for fun) Ill post the neck pic asap. I used only a dremel trio ($100), a hand drill(dad bought 10 yrs ago), an orbit sander($70), and a small jigsaw($45). There are scuffs on the wood that i couldnt get out with sanding as you can see in some pictures. Will the stewmac colortone sanding sealer work for those scuffs? BEFORE http://img121.imageshack.us/i/pict6478.jpg/ http://img830.imageshack.us/i/pict6480.jpg/ AFTER http://img543.imageshack.us/i/pict6500.jpg/ http://img87.imageshack.us/i/pict6499.jpg/ http://img84.imageshack.us/i/pict6498.jpg/ http://img143.imageshack.us/i/pict6501.jpg/ http://img217.imageshack.us/i/pict6497.jpg/ http://img835.imageshack.us/i/pict6507.jpg/ http://img830.imageshack.us/i/pict6505.jpg/ SCUFFS from original paint removal (used paint stripper and a chisel... ooo took a long time of hard painful work) http://img291.imageshack.us/i/pict6508.jpg/ http://img198.imageshack.us/i/pict6506.jpg/ Do you guys think the sanding sealer will work for those scuffs? I didnt want to sand any deeper since the cavity plates would be exposed. Please leave some comments! Thanks guys! -Henry

im using a 2.1mm pickguard from stewmac. does anyone know which bore bit i should use for the screw holes in the pickguard?

does anybody else have trouble with the templates on floydrose.com? they never print to size is there another copy somewhere on the internet?

thanks for the help guys, i really really appreciate it!

heh i understand it has to be 25.5 inches from the bridge to the nut right? please tell me im right or ill burn my guitar and tools right away!!.. or take it to a luthier

the tools i have for this job are a dremel trio, a small jigsaw and a drill for the holes, im trying to put a floyd on this guitar body, I dont know where to exactly put it though how can i be exact while routing the cavity? about how far should this cavity be from the bridge humbucker cavity? i have little experience but i can learn http://img513.imageshack.us/g/pict6478.jpg/ im am using a takeuchi trs 101, im sure it has the same dimensions as an original floyd besides the D tuna i have. what free template should i use? the ones on the floyd rose website dont print to size can someone help me out?

my guitar neck has pretty high frets (jackson neck jumbo frets) its impossible to press the strings down to the bare wood on this neck

ohhh, i never knew that glossy maple fretboards wear off fast, but heres something i dont understand, I have a ESP JH 600 stock from a factory. It has an alder body, maple neck thru, and ebony fretboard. The body and whole back of the neck is black lacquer, i had the guitar for 6 years and the finish on the back of the neck (the paint on maple) never wore off besides some dents. this means that maple necks or fretboards should hold paint and polyurethane finishes very well right? so should i just buy a maple neck and spray the whole thing black and lacquer it? dean guitars has something like it (Dean Custom Zone) http://media.photobucket.com/image/dean%20custom%20zone/tor3ro/IMG_7428.jpg i wanna go for something like this, but black not pink lol as for my rosewood fretboard neck, ill do as you guys suggest and post the results soon, when im buffing the fretboard, can i use this? http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Abrasives,_polishes,_buffers/Foam_Polishing_Pad.html should i tape up the frets? or let it buff to? (i dont know how much metal the buffing pad would take off the frets) thanks for the advice guys, it has helped me alot so far!

Hello, I want all around shinyness on my guitar so I am planning to spray black lacquer and clear coats on the whole body, neck and EVEN fretboard for a permanent glossy fretboard. the fretboard is made of rosewood, I dont need grain filler for a job like this right? (the neck already has frets on it, I bought it off ebay) Im planing to spray stewmac black lacquer, then use their aerosol clear coat cans on them afterwards. i have a few questions i really need help with. 1. Is this ok with a rosewood fretboard to have the same glossy polyurethane finish as a guitar body? 2. How can I spray the whole neck without with the black lacquer without spraying the white side dots? Its hard to tape those tiny dots up. 3. Should I cover the frets with something? 4. How many cans of black lacquer do I need for the whole guitar/coats? Im a beginner at building guitars but i really want to learn! -Thanks!

Here are the pics to my newly modified axe. THe problem is I used the black fingerboard stain from Stewmac and it seems to be getting on my fingers. I spent hours to keep wiping off the excess and there is still more stain. This will go away after i use it for like 2 weeks right? BEFORE!! AFTER!!!

Hi, when you spray a guitar neck with aerosol (black color from stewmac), how many layers is adequate? THe neck width at the twelfth fret is exactly 50 mm on my guitar. Will multiple layers increase the thickness drastically and affect the speed potential? And does anyone know where can get an ABS hardshell for a v guitar? I CANT FIND ONE!!!! been looking across cyberspace for like eternity..!! Or maybe a gig bag thicker than 30 cm padding? Thank You!!