ScottR

I've got a couple of (non-guitar) pieces carved from mesquite that are finished in Danish oil. They look the same now--10 years later as they did when I first finished them. IMO mesquite is plenty hard and tough enough to go with an oil finish. A couple of guys have been talking up teak oil lately.... SR

LOL Too funny. Yeah, I heard them. They're grinding a bit....some sort of lube might be in order. And Micter, he is right.....this is very nice indeed. SR

I just realized what you said here....I think. Dude, did you really have have some CA stuck to the back of your ear.....for a year or two? I guess that's not exactly a high traffic area. SR

That is interesting and I agree it's not what I'd expect. I've spilled drops, large drops on my jeans and they remain rock hard and inflexible even today 5 or 6 years later. You'd think it would be useful as body armor. I also spilled a lot on another pair- a patch several inches in diameter. I had to get out of those fast-that stuff is hot hot hot. Later though I used some superglue remover on them. It's basically acetone I think. Of course I could not get it all out, but what remained was in the fibers, no longer on the surface. That area remained stiffer than the rest of the denim, but quite flexible and it never cracked or broke either. Strange stuff. SR

Not this body. This is getting nitro. Maybe one down the road...maybe not. You sound like you've had an experience with the stuff. SR

You are the Master of Understatement. It´s amazing how the walnut came alive after your working on it. For me, this guitar is a prime example of the beauty in a singlecut design away from the typical LP. On one hand, it´s great to see this project coming into fruition, but I´ll miss your weekly updates. I guess you´ll just have to carve something else, or build another guitar just to make us all happy. Haha. Thanks Joe. I think there's still a few weekly updates coming yet. I still am planning an inlay on the back and then I have to fill the back--the sides are in progress right now. Then we'll spray and then we'll wait...... I think I'll fill some of that blank time with a test finishing a scrap of that burl myrtle Hook posted totally with CA. When this is done...I think I may just play it for a while. After that more carving. I've got a dozen or more logs drying in the garage that want to be something. Walnut, Ash, Osage Orange, Mulberry, Peach and Silver Maple if I remember correctly. I don't plan on getting bored any time soon. SR

Are you ultimately going to decide on a set of pups and mount to a pick guard or is this always going to be a test bed? SR

Did you do anything to pore fill that Claro walnut? I can't tell from these shots. SR

Pores successfully filled and leveled, it looks like this. I am seriously tempted to finish a body with CA. I have filled large areas in other projects and know for a fact that it will polish like glass. And it is rock hard. Probably too hard and brittle for a neck though. I bet it would crack with much flexing. I see I finally caught my toes in a shot. This top will have some dark areas in it and the overall look will be dark. But for the naysayers here are a couple of shots with half of it wiped with mineral spirits. The area that looks like a highlight or reflected light is actually the part that has not been wiped with mineral spirits. I think the colors are nice. SR

After wiping in the CA Leveling after the first application of CA. After a few applications and levelings you have to decide if you are done. If any pores still exist, they will fill with sanding dust and look like this. This needs another application. By this point the dust is CA which does not seem to affect the clarity at all. SR

Thank you immortalx. So far I have not had any rousing successes at pore filling.I have tried Z-Poxy, CA, and lacquer and sand back, which is ultimately what I end up doing no matter how I started. This week I did some test fills on scrap claro walnut and mahogany and liked the results. They were the pieces skullsessions referred to. It was a technique I have sued on a small scale to gap fill and decided to try as a pore filling method. I sanded the surface with 400 grit and let that very fine sanding dust stay in the pores and on the surface. Then I added some thin CA and wiped it in. I initially used a rag to wipe it in which gets it down in the pores nicely and does not leave any excess on the surface. You have to work fast to keep it off your fingers though. I moved on to Drak's preferred method of sponge brushes. They get hard fast and leave more ridges, but your fingers don't get stuck. After filling and wiping I sanded again with 400 and repeated. Then, since the walnut has large pores I did the same thing with medium CA. This took longer to sand back level. Two more sessions with the thin CA and it was done. The Claro Walnut has large pores Sanded with 400 leaving the dust in the pores and on the surface. Adding thin CA. SR

The answer sort of depends on what type of equipment you have access to...but you did ask what was the "best" way, so here goes one opinion anyway. Pick the clearest section of the plank and cut an 18" to 22" section out of it depending on the size of the body you want. Cut the long sides parallel to each other and then plane the four sides true. You now have a blank thick enough for two 1 piece bodies. You'll need to cut that 4" thickness into two 2" thick planks. That takes a pretty big saw so another option is to rip the 16" width (or whatever width it has now become) into two 8" wide planks. These can now be bookmatched into two bodies. The worm holes shouldn't cause any structural harm. I'd just consider them a visual feature which can be finished as is or filled in any number of ways for visual effect. And your English is pretty darn good! Good luck and show us how this comes out. SR

What he said. Impressive dye job on the headstock too. Very well done. SR

Those links won't let us in....and they're rather cheeky about it. SR

Wez, thanks for posting that- it's beautiful. It's nice to see some of your work around here again. And for the record, I'm not the least bit worried about how dark it will be. I know exactly what it will look like and I love it. Heck, I bought that top on purpose! Drak, thanks for your kind words. I had not considered bleaching the top, but it's got so many colors in it I don't think I want to. I appreciate you posting that piece too. I don't think I've seen you post one of that style since I've been here. And yeah, that porn looks familiar. I do remember you saying you were going to have to find some Myrtle burl and do a build with it. I don't suppose we'll be seeing this anytime soon? How's it look with the outside edges in the middle? I was looking for something like that when I was designing this one---that or claro walnut. Oregon Wildwood had some nice pieces as always, but they were too dang thin for the carving I wanted to do. Northwestern Timber had plenty of thicker pieces, but no cool burl. So claro it was. If dark guitars were ugly, nobody would paint them black. Deanoohhh, thanks man. On my very low tech scale this guitar currently weighs between 6 and 7 pounds. That was another reason for the large control cavity and the heavily contoured back. I'm hoping for mid 7s with hardware and finish. SR

I like that. A lot. SR it just occurred to me why you never sign with your initials sr

I think I've finally seen your headstock clearly enough to understand what's going on in it. Correct me if I've got this wrong. The business edge where the tuners mount is a uniform thickness along the edge till it is past the last tuner. Then it curves into a greater thickness and bevels back in that signature contoured shape you do. I was always under the impression that the back three tuners were on a different level than the first three and wondereded how you dealt with the issues that would create. I've always been a fan of your headstocks....well, the entire builds actually. SR

+1 You wanna grab me another while you're up? SR

after reviewing the above posts, I think my 'originality' trophy is in jeapordy! It just goes to show how true the statement "there's only so many things you can do to a guitar's shape" is. Odd's are whatever we come up with design wise, someone somewhere has tried something eerily similar. That spalted maple geet you made last year does stand a chance of being one of a kind though! SR

It could be a fungus; it's probably mineral stain, or it an area where the grain has folded a bit and exposed more pores or a combination. Was that visible in the raw surface of the wood and how far below the original surface is that area now--how much wood has been removed to get to the current surface? Sanding irregularities will show darker when finished too, there appeared to be a little of that on the insides of the horns. Whatever it is, you did a very nice job on this. The final shapes and contours give no clue as to how much work you had to do to achieve those fine results. Well done. SR

I'd be interested in your thoughts after working with this a bit and getting a chance to run some tests. My thoughts after about a month's time since the first usage are that it is quite strong and easy to work with as long as your joinery skills are sound. On my fretboard attachment, both surfaces were perfectly flat, the glue up was perfect and it looks perfect with no lines what-so-ever. I have put it through typical neck flexing and seen no issues with the joint. I have not put a lot of truss rod pressure on it yet and don't plan to. If your surfaces are not quite perfect, you will see a line. I haven't seen anything you wouldn't see with Titebond. On the down side I have seen a couple of small gaps open on my top join that I will need to fix. The guitar went from a couple of days in the dark garage with normal (for Houston) humidity to about 5 hours in the direct sunlight and mid 80's temps. It is dark wood and it got hot. And it tried to cup....I guess. Anyway I noticed a couple of gaps to fix. What I don't know is how other glues would have held up under the same conditions. So I'm curious as to what you think after using it and testing it.... SR

It's okay if you still think it's too dark.....'cause it's mine! You might very well want to borrow this one for a show or recording. Even though I haven't heard it yet, I know you don't have one that sounds like it in that collection of yours. A P-90 tone would go nicely with you guys' sound. SR

The top is just polished up through the micro mesh grits....quickly, not thouroughly, as I wanted to see how much the figure was going to move and shimmer. But it is dry. It changes a lot when wet. The darks are much darker and the lights are brighter and colors deeper and more intense. Claro looks pretty dull until finished...I can't wait to see how much Simo's changes. This is crotch wood, so there is a lot of end grain in the top and that gets real dark. And real deep looking. The figure looks like light dancing on the surface of a pool of water. Overall, it looks like wrinkled up crushed velvet. And yeah, it will get a thick coat of nitro and a thourough buffing. SR

Polishing the tops of the knobs is a good idea; I did not expect them to be so matte when I bought them. I'm not sure where I'd get the chrome saddles to fit short of buying another bridge and swapping them out. The top will be very glossy though, so we'll wait and see how things look, before adjusting anything. SR