ScottR

Gold would probably work and would look pretty rich, but I see black every time I close my eys and picture it. And black plays such a major part in the front and back wood coloration. Maybe with some silver accents? One piece gits always get my attention. I've never held one, but I'd think they feel very alive when played. Be sure to give us a glimpse. SR

Hey Paulie, Is this still yours? First it was, then it wasn't, then it was..... Business must be good, you sound busier than a peg leg pirate at a butt kicking contest. SR

Really nice. The pickguard is a wonderful touch to balance out the various woods artistically. The only thing missing is a spruce backstrap on the headstock to balance that light color. Well done. SR

My admittedly limited experience with laquers is that they have been water clear. Sprayed, brushed and rattle can have all been clear. Why would that not work? SR

In what way? I honestly don't know if it does or not. The long tenon allows the bridge to connect to the same lumber as the nut and head stock and tuning machines and finger board. I did it because that seams like the most stable connection to me, even more so than a neck through as the tenon is sandwiched between the body and top wood. It also follows the lines of the sides of the neck which wedges it into the route cut for it. It has to be pressed in from the top; it cannot just slide in from where the heel would be. I know PRS says they add some heel to improve the tone, but I have no knowledge of how much there is to that. I do know that is a very solid feeling guitar like it was all one piece. I just carve the neck join to make it as comfortable as possible. Looks better too. It certainly did not weaken the connection. SR

Very Rubenesque. You need a nice mantel to put that over or a bar. SR

Here is the way I did it. Can't say I'd do anything differently....unless someone sees something I missed and convinces me of the error of my ways. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=40410 SR

The Texas Tele was built by a member here: guitarnut. He's very good about giving advice and answering questions about his builds. SR

Nice tight fit Mike. SR

I've made two with long tenon necks like that. I'll probably never do it differently. Very very solid. SR

I used Trans tint dye to tone the danish oil. SR

I sanded back into the wood on the Tru-Oil side. Apparently it was not as thick as I thought. So I have begun re-coating that side. The Z-Poxy side polished out nicely. When I started, the surface looked very slick but a little wavy, especially where the resin flowed off the irregular edges. It looked much like a poured bar top finish. I leveled it with 150 grit and ran up through 600. Then I moved on to micro- mesh and went through all the grades up to 12000. Finally a turtle wax polishing compound took all the swirl marks out. It left a very hard, very reflective surface. I did drop my sanding block on it and the corner left a small ding. I think the same thing would have occurred with any finish that I have used so far, but this does tell me it is not bullet proof. It also does leave witness lines like polyurethane does when you sand through the layers of applications. They only show if you angle it to the light just so, but they are present. Another thing I noticed is that the finish has shrunk into the grain very slightly over night. This was not visible at all when I started leveling and the last coat of Z-Poxy was applied two weeks ago. I would have thought it was done curing, but perhaps the fact that I used less than the recommended amount of hardener has slowed down the cross linking (curing). So would this be a viable finish? Yes, I think so. Is it any better than the other finishes being used? No, probably not. Man it does look good though. I'll throw up some shots of the Tru-Oil side when I get a decent finish accomplished. SR

Looks to me like you've got it mate. SR

John, you ought to be able to tint linseed oil to add add color in depth. I have done it with Danish oil anyway. SR

I hope you get to post some in process shots for those of us that have never seen a pin router in action. SR

The Z-Poxy side is sort of waiting for the Tru-Oil side to get enough layers built up to level and polish both at the same time. I think it will get done this weekend. I thought the last coat of z-poxy was acting differently from the others or was contaminated at first. It had the same lower hardener to resin ratio as the others (that came out so hard) if not a little more extreme. After 12 hours the surface still scratched with a finger nail. The next day it had completed curing though and was/is rock hard. I have been using epoxy as features in eyes or crack filling in my carvings for some time now, and never really knew why every once in a while I'd get a soft mix. I always tried to keep both parts equal, but I did mix by eye not weight, and would err on the side of extra hardener when in doubt. Now that I've been educated I shall err the other direction. I will say that every mix that came out superhard would polish up like glass. I have never done a surface large enough to get an idea of how it would work or look as a coating. It would definitely create some extra work leveling as compaired to a spray finish. This Z-Poxy claims to be a polyester based finishing resin. What is the surface of products made from molded fiber glass composed of (gel coat?). I'm seeing some similarities. SR

Bravo Tom. It looks great. It's kind of got a blue jean blue thing going on. I like it. SR

Yeah. I'm looking forward to the progress on this one. SR

Ummm. I'd say that was killer. Damn. SR

Huh. I'm still learning something new every day. I wonder why it works that way. One would think that more hardener would come out more harder...if one didn't know any better. SR

I decided to test out a couple of finishing products/techniques as I have this need to have projects, but am not quite ready to begin my next guitar. One was Tru Oil, as I really like the way it looks when done well on this site. Mostly Quarter's exquisite lap steels come to mind. Gun stocks look nice too. The other is Z-Poxy which is mostly used in our world as a grain filler to the best of my knowledge. I have used it in that capacity and I have used it to fill the eyes of my bear carving. As bear's eyes it polished up like glass. I'm wondering how close to Rustin's plastic finish it is. I had a piece of fire wood I had been saving back for a couple of years because it appeared to have a nice curl in it. It also had some spalting. I sliced a slab about an inch thick out of it and sanded the sides down. The curl didn't show up as well as I'd thought it would. It did show some burl like figure here and there. The spalt looked nice. Here are the two sides before I applied any finish. Then I proceeded to apply Tru Oil to one side and Z-Poxy to the other. The Tru Oil is going on and building up about the way I expected. The first coat of Z-Poxy went down nice and cured up hard. The second coat cured up very nice and shiny; it looked like a bar top, but it was some what soft. I polished it anyway, while going though the Process up building up the Tru Oil. It polished nicely but marred too easily. So I tried a couple of experiments. You are supposed to mix equal amounts of resin and hardener and it is supposed to be forgiving enough to mix by eye. Since my last batch was soft I mixed a small batch with a bit more hardener than resin. It came out soft and slightly sticky. So I mixed up a batch with more resin and less hardener. This came out rock hard. That seems counter-intuitive to me. Has anyone else come across this phenomena as well? I sanded off the soft layer and mixed the next two at roughly3/2 ratios of resin to hardener. It has a longer working time and flows out fairly nicely and the nearly all the bubbles pop. Here are the sides in the middle of the process. This side has Z-Poxy This side has Tru Oil. When they are completely finished and polished I'll through the final pics. SR

Nope, not at all. I for one, enjoy seeing a problem laid out and then systematically solved. I doubt seriously if I'm alone in this. Carry on. SR

As long as you don't go deeper than the lowest dimple you should have plenty of clear left.....That sounds like I'm stating the obvious . Ths pics don't look like the clear was pulling away and leaving fisheyes. It just looks like you've got more leveling to do than you're used to. So, I hope that wasn't the new process you were speaking of.... SR

You got enough headstock material for a 24 stringer. SR

Yeah, I think this dye job came out better than the first one even when it was fresh. I just realized that you are clearing this before you have drilled for your pots. Do you always do it that way? So, was Mrs. Paulie happy with the blue strat......and what not? SR