ScottR

Beautiful guitar Peter. I really like the neck join and rear cutaway. What did you use for the clearcoat? SR

I'd say I like the shaping of the wood the best. Something about taking those disparate pieces of timber and working them together into a single unit that flows under my fingers into a shape that's just as obvious to my sense of touch as the sight of it is to my eyes is what cranks my scooter. (That would be a term my wife liked to use before she was my wife) . Finishing would be a close second though. Once I've got the wood looking its best to my fingertips, I want it to look its best to my eyes. The best finish I can pull off is what does that. SR

Decided to give the good old rustins a blast here. comes up realy well if you burnish it correctly. As for my own gitirz, I want to get a bit done on my green JS. Im not selling that one for less than €4000. so that should deter too many would be spur of the moment punters I'm going to have to give Rustin's a try on my next go round. I've seen and heard nothing but good about that stuff. It will be good to see the green one done. I think I may have mentioned that I'm looking forward to that in the past.... SR

Had to blend the front to the back somehow. This was the best option, Suks having to cover the heel but it just didnt look right without the heel stained ou aswell Im not sure how long to leav it cure. Ill be levelling it a little tomorrow so I will get an idea of how long It has to wait then. Probobly cut it from 320 to 6000 if all goes well. But this stuff usually goes off fairly quick. Might give me a bit of time to get one of my own finished. I had another look and see what you mean about blending the front to the back. I didn't pick up on that when I first looked. What are you using to clear this? That sounds faster than nitro. I don't believe for a minute that you'll get time to get one of your own finished. And If you do, someone will walk in the next day and buy it. SR

I'd say back it with some veneer and fill it with some colored epoxy or an inlace type fill...ala Drak. The color or metal flake/crushed stone etc. type fill will reduce the bubble problem. Pick a color or fill to complement your color scheme or hardware. SR

It's funny you should mention that. I was just telling Hook literally few minutes ago that I was glad to be spraying and then letting it hang for a few weeks. I was starting to get a little tired of spending so much time with it. (Insert variety is the spice of life--time for a new girl joke here). The cure time will let me recharge my lust for it....so to speak. SR

I believe you've got it exactly right. The guys I've had the pleasure to see using them are definitely on top of their game. oddly enough, I went to a local club this past weekend and saw a band I had never heard of...and they were using Cat5 amps. I went back to the site and saw that the lead guitarist was a featured artist. Small world. I do love that kind of thing.....but don't have the wad . SR

Paulie, if you told me you were going to burst the back and neck, I might of had to come to Ireland and throttle you for covering up that nice walnut.....but i must say i like it. I agree with Wez on the neck join, just because its a single piece, but even so that is going to look really cool when you're done. I also agree with Prostheta. How long are you going to let it cure before leveling and buffing? SR

I did get this thing hung up and shot with the first days lot of lacquer. I thinned down the first load a bunch and did about 5 layers of mist coats. I say 5 layers...but it went on in one session as they land pretty much dry. The next load was not cut as much and started to get wetter. Same with the last. Tomorrow wet coats for real. You cant tell a thing from this shot...but I just liked it. SR

Here are a few shots reminiscent of Killemal....who has been missing for several months now. I'm starting to like the toes shot. SR

I got my pore filling done. My wash coats of shellac are finished and leveled. I went ahead and took John's advice and put a couple of coats of shellac on the cocobolo to seal off the oils. since it was already fretted, that was a serious pain in the ass to clean up and level out...not to mention keeping the metal from the frets out of the grain. Oh well...I've learned to make that decision earlier in the game next time. I even put a couple of wash coats of shellac on the neck and head stock to keep everything even. The neck will not get shot with lacquer except at the join.Then that will be sanded/feathered and the neck will get oiled. So yeah the shellac will get mostly sanded back off the neck and back of the headstock. To what degree will depend on how the feathering looks. Anyway, it's been several weeks since I posted any pictures, so here are some gratuitous shots just for the fun of it. SR

I'm a little surprised at the lack of comments. This is a beautiful build for any number or experience level. I'm not a fan of the headstock, but am a big fan of the neck join. The detail work is first rate as well. Great job. SR

I'm discovering that when I go see guitarists play these days, the ones that sound the best to me often turn out to be playing through category 5 amps. There are a bunch of artists on that artist page that I listen too regularly and see whenever I can. So have any of you ever played through one of these? My skill level comes nowhere close to justifying the cost of one of these.....but dang they sound good. SR

I love the way that grain comes out of the body and points right up the neck. I looks like you may have done some more contouring on the back in addition to that smooth neck join. Very nice Paulie. SR

Jennifer Garner will probably turn 39 again for the next 6 or 8 years...how about you? Sr

I seem to be making a habit of under estimating the number of details I want to clean up before spraying lacquer on this thing.I got the pore filling leveled and wiped on a couple of thin wash coats of shellac. And I dressed the ends of my frets and went back over them double checking to see if they are still level. I ended up tightening up the level and re-crowned them again. My plan was to get all that completed and take a couple of shots prior to spraying.....I didn't quite get to that completed part. I compounded the issued by smoking up some of my world famous (in my house anyway) Guamanian chicken, which required me to get out of the garage every half hour or so and wander back to the back yard to baste and taste my culinary masterpiece. While I was reworking the frets I found some small dings in the fretboard to repair so, I'm polishing the fretboard while I'm polishing the frets...again. And when my dinner was done, I stopped and ate it. After all the guitar will wait, the chicken will not. So....my frets are in the middle of being polished, as is the fretboard. The shellac is not quite leveled enough to spray lacquer over. I've found that if I go looking for details to make sure I get right, I find them. it's not quite ready for a picture. I would say I'll get one up tomorrow or the next day, but I've been missing those predictions lately. Soon. SR

Local steak house was being refitted & I asked the foreman on the job if I could go thru the junked furniature. All of their old tables were just big hunks of Maple & Beech with all sorts of funky figuring on some of them. I managed to get 3 sets like this from just one table. I got 3 tables that made 7 good matched tops altogether. as to the rest (30 tables all 75mm thick & a 15 foot long bar top 200mm thick) the whole lot was put into a shredder. Awfull shame they would not let me take more as there was easily another 40 tops like this in there & the rest would probobly make some half decent drop tops. Great save on that table top Paulie. It is amazing how much highly figured wood gets used up in restaurant table tops. Excellent carve. When you dye the top are you planning to hit it with a very heavy black, then sand back and then hit it again with a very transparent black? I actually like tops done that way quite a lot. Very nice carve as well. Goes nicely with the one on the back. SR

Shoooooot. There's no reason whatsoever that you couldn't do that. SR

I consider it almost childsplay easy, very effective, and almost indespensible for great pore filling on all kinds of woods...and I've been using it for over 7-8 years now. ...but if you want to look at it like that, ...totally up to you. OK, maby I will still give it a go then. I have another single cut just starting I was gonna try it on, Sapele back. Do you rekon the thin CA/600 grit sanding dust approach would work ? I was gonna spread it with a leather pad. Ithink it would work....it's working for me on this African (khaya) mahogany. The leather pad should do a good job too, but you have to remember that it will be a one use pad. Once the CA cures on it it's done as it will start making ridges. I used to or three small squares of folded up rag per application on the back of mine. And I would say 3 or 4 apllications is what I can expect for complete filling. Maybe that will get down to two one day And yeah, that green JS is taking a very long time....it probably thinks you don't love it anymore. SR

Very nice to see this again! SR

Hurry up he says. You're getting back at me for the grief I gave you in some of your past threads aren't you. Like the time you got us all hot and bothered with a sexy build only to finish it off and sell it before taking pics of the thing finished, huh? As far as the CA for pores, I'm not ready to say it's a nightmare. I haven't used anything I like better so far. I can't say it's as easy for me as it is for Drak, but I will say it's gotten easier or I've gotten better the more I do it. It has a learning curve. Maybe when I've built as many guitars as he has (which ain't bloody likely ever going to happen)I'll find it as easy. I'll probably use it agian. You should test some on some scrap and see what you think. And yeah, my company (it's not really mine, it's just where I go to work every day) makes vinyl decals. Scott

That's a great piece of Walnut Paulie. Are you able to get any neck angle, or do you do you run them flat so you can use the full thickness of the billet for the headstock angle? The back contouring is very nice....like Chad says, it looks nice and cuddly. What are the two holes for in that area where the control cavity will likely be? What color is the top going to be? Man your shop looks like one I'd be at home in....well used. Looking forward to more. SR

Like I said, I like the cap. Wait till you get it on the body before you condemn it. The bookmatched figure and black accent will really look nice when viewed with the matching top. SR

Excellent fretboard and headstock cap. The trussrod access is a little disconcerting being to the side of the bookmatch seam in the cap. Of course the center of the neck and the center line of a 6 in line headstock are not the same, but I think this is the first time that I've seen that point be so obvious. I'm really looking forward to seeing another shot of that top.... SR

Adhering to the "purchase two every single time you're in the hardware store" rule I see. It almost looks like the truss rod adjustment end extends above the surface of the headstock. I assume that's an optical illusion? SR