Johnny Foreigner

You know, I remember reading that thread at the time and making a mental note to refer back to it.... my memory is going.

So I may not have stirred as thoroughly as I should, and maybe that's part of the problem.

But if the consensus is that the stuff is crap then I'll happily give up and move over to the LMII stuff.

I've now had 3 stabs at mahogany pore-filling - once on the Six and twice now on the Wol.

Each time, I've followed the instructions. I'm using Stewmac waterbase grain-filler. The Six was mahogany of unspecified origin and the Wol was African mahogany.

And each time, I've found it impossible to tell if the pores are filled - until putting the finish on and getting to the point where it's shiny. then i can hold up to a light source and still see the pores while the rest of the wood reflects the light.

So my question is two-fold:

1) how many rounds of pore-filling should I be expecting to do on mahongany? I was figuring on one, but clearly I was wrong. What about black limba (my next build)?

2) how do I tell when I'm done? Looking reeeeeaaaallllly hard hasn't worked so far!

As a freshman it’s a little hash to expect that I’d have a build thread with this level of experience and insecurity.

Wait.... what??

You're too insecure to post a thread with pictures of the build in process, but yet you have the confidence to open it up to a public vote on its merits?

I don't buy it.

The tuners are pretty nice - GFS. No funny gears or anything like that, at least not yet. A hell of a lot cheaper than the Sperzal/Schaller M-6's. They're even staggered so you don't have to use string tees (if your angle isn't enough).

I used the same on my first build and I'm very happy with them.

I stared at this thing for a while trying to decide whether to sand it all back and redye or just shoot black lacquer on it to cover it all up.

I actually started to kinda like how it looks. It sorta looks like a burned finish. It sure isn't what I was shooting for and sure isn't a quality finish but I actually kinda like it. So just for the heck of it I through on some Tru-oil to see what it would look like under some finish.

FWIW, I think this looks pretty sweet.

I've used the pickguard material from Stew-Mac for cavity covers and it worked well.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Pickguards/Pic..._materials.html

I've used that but found it too thin. The precut covers they sell run 1/8" thick, but the sheets only go to 0.083"

John and Dave. With all due respect - and I mean that, because you're both far better builders than I am - the only reason I personally have never voted for either of your guitars is because they're not good enough.

It's really that simple.

If there are a minority of voters who vote because of who they like, where they come from, what day of the week it is, whatever. Most people don't have the spare energy to expend on such pointless bullshit, and most people vote for the guitars they like.

Do the right guitars always win? No. Should you care? Absolutely not.

And can one of the mods please just get rid of Dave permanently? There's no place here for his bigoted invective.

I make sure not to vote for anyone who takes GOTM far too f'ing seriously, and wastes time arguing about why different people vote different ways, when they could be spending that time building guitars.

tapplastics.com does cast acrylic (colored, transparent, color transparent, etc) by the inch. Going to go with them.

Any recommendations for where to buy (online, US) sheets of plastic to make control cavity covers? Around 0.125".

I've looked at the serious plastics suppliers and they deal in sheets 2' x 4' and have a bewildering number of options, none of which is called "simple plastic sheet for guitar control cavity covers".

Thx

Tom

Strandberg got my vote for GOTM.

Brutal-LV got my vote for being sent back to taste school.

Anyone know this one? Is the outline shape of the LP Jr singlecut exactly the same as LP standard?

for what it's worth, the Gibson site has a 360 degree view of the current SC jr and there's a very very distinct neck angle. Deffo in the 3 to 4 degree range.

that's awesomely beautiful!

John, not usually the hugest fan - aesthetically speaking - of your builds, but this one is looking really good.

wow, that was a double-edged compliment, wasn't it. anyway, I really like it. Looking forward to seeing it finished up.

is it possible to add pigment to an oil (tru-oil, tung oil or danish oil) finish to achieve an opaque finish?

i'm 100% certain this has been answered before, but I searched and searched and couldn't find anything (cue someone searching themself and finding it instantly).

So I've decided not to do the class - or at least not to do it just yet.

Not because I couldn't do it, just that I don't know for certain that I could.

Maybe next summer once I have a few more builds of my own done.

Due to an oversight on my part I have 3 graphtech pre-slotted black tusq xl nuts.

The specs, according to stewmac (where i got them) are:

Pre-slotted for guitar

1-13/32" (35.72mm) string spacing

1-23/32" x 21/64" x 3/16"

(43.66mm x 8.33mm x 4.76mm)

16" (406.4mm) top radius

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Nuts,_saddles/...usq_XL_Nut.html - item number 1869

They cost $13 plus SM shipping. I'll take $8 each on paypal, shipping to lower 48 (USPS first class) included. PM me if you're interested.

Thx

Tom

Bottom line is you have to ask yourself, do you have enough experience to handle problems when they occur?

that's an excellent point, and why I'm a) leaning towards a set, fixed, unchangeable design for all (like the LP Jr) and having someone who is an experienced woodworker - who doesn't know anything about guitars - be alongside me.

lots to think about.

any thoughts or experiences to share?

My thought is that it sounds like you really don't want to teach, and teaching is for people who enjoy teaching.

For an easy example, do you answer lots of build questions here on the forum?

Do you help newbs out on a regular basis?

If not, I think you're just fooling yourself, you really don't want to get involved with this teaching gig, you feel forced to do it.

Maybe you feel like you BS'ed these people about your abilities...and that's not a good enough reason to accept students.

I would not want to be your student knowing what I know about the reasons behind your needing to teach, your heart's not in it and possibly your talents aren't really there either (yet? I don't really know)

Why not just go back to the co-op and tell them how you really feel about it, just tell them the truth, and see if they have some other option for you, would you be relieved if they said no problem bro, we'll work out something else more amenable to you?

Or maybe if you ASKED FOR HELP one or two of them will step forward and help you get set up to teach and actually help you through your first few classes, it sounds like the kind of place that might be willing to help you out if you asked.

BS'ing yourself and/or other people usually has no real payoff.

Ponying up and asking for help, or just being straightforward with people, sometimes has payoffs that you would never have guessed could happen.

all great points. I think the major problem is not lack of desire, but just being cautious about whether I've got the skills to pay the bills. And as I'm English, I err on the side of self-doubt, rather than on the side of self-belief.

the idea of teaching the class I find very exciting, and I'd like to be able to pass on what I know.

I've recently moved from a house (with a lovely, large basement) into an apartment, and as part of my search for somewhere to continue my guitar-building, I've got involved with a co-op style woodshop, metalshop, textiles place.

Part of the deal with this place is that they earn their keep by running classes, and so I stupidly mentioned that I could teach a class on electric guitar building - despite my own relative inexperience.

But the more I think about it, the more I reckon I could do it, I just need to figure out the details.

My basic idea is that the class is limited to 6 or so people and you force them all to build to the same design, which needs to be fairly simple. Obvious choices would be a strat or tele, but a) I think that's a bit obvious you can get excellent quality strat and tele clone for very cheap c) I really don't like strats and teles. So I'm thinking:

SC LP Jr

24.75" scale / 22-fret

2-piece mahogany body

mahogany neck

rosewood fretboard

jumbo frets

dot markers

1 vol, 1 tone

either 1 P90 or 1 humbucker (probs humbucker for price options)

wraparound bridge

I need to go through the build myself, exactly as I would teach it, and figure out timings.

The biggest questions for me are:

1) pre-slotted and radiused fretboard? Or is that an essential part of the building experience?

2) I think finishing is too big/too time consuming to really include if you go the sprayed lacquer route. What would be some simple ways that you could put some sort of sealing finish on, potentially achieve the cherry red or tv yellow finish and give the wood some protection. tung oil? linseed oil? tru oil? rattle-can poly?

any thoughts or experiences to share?

There's a BIG difference between drying wet wood, and dry WETTED wood. Dry wood that is still wet from being a tree takes about 1 year per inch of thickness. Drying wood that's been wetted, no so much.

Chris

even though the method calls for *soaking* thoroughly for 30 mins or so? I'd have thought that would get the wood as wet as it's ever going to get.

awesome, thanks guys.

that's what PG is all about.

So I bought a bookmatch set of quilted maple off of that there interwebs... in fact the set was 1" thick, which was way too thick for my needs so I had the seller resaw it again to produce 2 sets.

However, in each set, one board has a reasonably significant bow to it, across the width, and a little along the length as well:

what can I do / should I do to correct this and make these sets usable? They're not going to be carved, so I don't *need* the full thickness of them, but also I don't want to lose too much of the bookmatching.

I need to strip back a finish I did with stew Mac waterbase. Rather than sanding, is there a sensible chemical solution?