twangmeister

Very nice work so far ! Can't wait to see the maple pop when you hit it with stain

I built an N4 type guitar a while back - luckily I had a reject N4 body and neck core I bought off ebay that I used to make templates from. Check out my photobucket account, there are quite a few photos of the build there. Cheers Dave http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/uu98/davidjfletcher/N4%20Test%20Build/?start=all

G'day Chris, I wish is was some secret formula but its pretty basic ! I'm using the stewmac pigments - White, green and blue Mix a white lacquer, add enough green to get the depth of colour you want then add a drop or 2 of blue until it just starts to turn that seafoam colour ( go easy with the blue, a little goes a long way)

As mentioned earlier, a variation is to add a tint to the Timbermate before you fill the guitar - I do this when I am going for a tinted finish. In this case, I've added some black tint ( it looks gray until its sanded back and hit with some lacquer). Build thread referenced in these posts can be found here - Seafoam Strat - http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/uu98/da...itar/?start=all Cherry Red Tele - http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/uu98/da...itar/?start=all

At this point, I can still faintly see a ripple efect of the grain telepgraphing thru the finish - DON'T PANIC ! Start your clearcoat schedule now and build up a decent amount of clearcoats on the guitar ( approx 5-6 coats ) as we are going to level the finish and see gauge where we are up to. You need to wetsand the finish now but we are not going for an aggressive sand, we just want to level the finish out and see any dips or low points that need attention. Keep water away from any holes. If you see anything that is going to be a troublesome to fill with the next 3-4 coats of clear, you can drop fill them now. You will also eliminate any signs of grain with this sand. All you will see after this is completed are random shiny spots that indicate we still need to build the clear coats up some more. At this point, I can see that its nearly there, I just have a few shiny spots that are still visible. I now spray another 3-4 coats and let it sit. Repeat the wetsanding process this time eliminating all of the shiny spots and buff thru your compounds.

Now I spray a base coat of white nitro over the sanded body until its completey covered. Mix my colours up for Seafoam green And spray

When its completey dry, sand the filler back with about 600 grit sandpaper. Keep a vacuum and dust mask handy, its messy work. Its pretty easy to gauge how much sanding to do. This stuff is a pleaure to sand, it comes over very easily ! This is the back complete Sand the entire body smooth and then hit it with another sealer coat of nitro. I'll then repeat the above process AGAIN. So thats 2 lots of grainfilling and sanding back.

Hi Guys, I'm a new poster here but I have been lurking for a while. I wanted to jump in on this pore filling thread as I have a bit of experience over th elast 3 or 4 builds and I think I have it down pretty good. Firstly, poor filling isnt rocket science. Its just a metter of a couple of techniques which will produce glass like finishes everytime. The stuff you want to use is called Timbermate - Its an australian product that Stewmac now sell. Prep and sand your body and spray a sealer coat of nitro ( about 80% thinners ) - Scoop some into a bowl and add enough water to make a slurry like consistency that you can roll or brush onto your guitar. You can add a tint at this point if you wish to make the grain fill a feature on your guitar and use transparent color-tinted coats. I use a small foam roller to roll the filler onto the guitar , you can also brush it on if youi prefer. It dries quickly as the coats are thin.

There's a pretty comprehensive tutorial here on youtube - worth watching the whole series IMO

Nice tutorial !! Thanks

That looks fantastic - how did you do the carve ?