sdshirtman

Nice score. Drooling over that drum sander. I want one of those sooooo bad.

Progressing very nicely Scott. Cant wait to see it with more amber. Major bummer on the fall. Care to share how you had it hung as a warning?

I can only see pics 1, 5 and 6. But for starters it doesnt look like you have any binding on the edges of that yet. You'll want that installed before you start laying down clear coats I think. Anyways, everyones finishing prep steps are going to be slightly different. I raise the grain with water letting each application completely dry to let the grain swell then I knock it down with 320. I do this until it wont raise any longer. On the last step of raising the grain I use 400 by hand. Next I start spraying coats (after stain of course) My definition of a coat is a nice even vertical side to side motion. Start the spray five or six inches before the sweep hits the guitar and keep spraying until after the spray is past the body a few inches. Continue to overlap the spray pattern by about 50%. Then I immediately do the same all over again in a horizontal motion. That a coat to me. After I have a decent base of clear on the guitar, say 5 or six good coats, I knock back the orange peel with 400 grit again. Like everyone else said, just a bit. You can always repeat coats if necessary but its a drag if you sand through. Take your time. I also agree with Demonx on the orbital sanders. If you use it with the correct grits it shouldn't leave marks. If you want more control over it you can use a router speed controller in front of it to tame it down. Then again nothing beats hand sanding for control. When it comes to wet sanding I only use quality Japanese paper and start with 1200 grit. It cuts great and eliminates the risk of leaving lower grit scratches. If you dont mind me saying. Thats a beautiful top on that. tTo each his own but are you sure you want to do such a simple finish on that? That could look absolutely gorgeous with some colored dye on it.

I'm convinced and I think I might have to incorporate back carves into my next builds.

I'll be watching to see how you do yours. Just don't do it so late like I did.

Heres a few finish update pics. I printed some decals up on my Epson 1800 I have at my office. I've put a million of these on models as a kid but for some reason these were a PITA. Mostly because the paper wouldn't release the second decal properly. I'm glad I printed extras because I ended up trashing the second one and starting over. Funny thing too because the first one went on like I did that all day long on an assembly line. Dig my super complex numbering system. I thought this placement was as good as any. Onto the body finish. Cameras hide flaws and heres one I didn't really think was going to be that big of a deal. Notice the wood fibers that wouldn't take in the stain deep enough? I cant figure out exactly what caused it but I think possibly it could have been a remnant of the ca glue I used to do the binding. Either way it sticking out to me like a sore thumb and I cant stand it. I've put too much effort into this thing and it must be fixed. Here what I did. Basically I wanted to try and spray a little bit of darker burst around the edge to hide this discoloration and to also darken up the edges for better contrast between the walnut and the maple. I wanted this to be semi transparent to let the grain show through. I could go get some clear lacquer to spray out of a gun, but I dont have a gun and I was worried about a possible reaction between different brands of lacquer. What I do have is a bunch of leftover almost empty deft cans. I only use like 2/3rds to 3/4 of a can of lacquer before I stop using it because at that point they can start to sputter and so fourth. So I took an almost empty can and flipped it over and clamped it into my vice with the nozzle depressed against the bottom of the vice so all the air would bleed from the can. Then I punctured the can and harvested the leftovers. It was about an inch or so in an old olive jar. I then diluted it about 50/50 with lacquer thinner and added about 10 drops of med brown dye and a drop of black to about 1.5 oz of thinned lacquer. This mixture then got shot through a badger 150 airbrush. It actually shot out quite nicely and didnt give be any clogging problems at all. I used this to darken the edges. My experiments were done with a black mixture that came out pretty darn cool but for me it was a bit much. I decided to use brown figuring it would allow me some error if I applied any to heavily in any one spot. Here is the before pic. Then the dyed lacquer around the edges. And then with another coat of lacquer. The spot is still there because of the transparency but its much less noticeable than before and I'm loving the contrast now. if you've been following this thread know I've been chasing that. I think this is just what it needed to round out the burst and bump it up a notch. On the blue one. I did some tests on the color sample piece I did before in a black tint and really liked it. If it were up to me I would have done the same thing to it except with the black but the future owner said he was happy with it the way it was and didnt want me to, so its staying as is. As a final thought on this. I decided to do this pretty late in the game. Ideally I should have done this much earlier in the finishing process. I realize that by doing this after I've sprayed and built up a reasonable amount of clear coats on the front already, that I'll be flirting with burning through the additional tinting when it comes to wet sanding and buffing these later on. Thats going to force me to lay on a few more additional coats of lacquer as a buffer and I worry about having the lacquer on too thick. I'm thinking that because of this I'm probably going to have to let this sit and cure a little longer then I had planned. I'm thinking probably 6 weeks. If anyone has a more experienced gauge let me know. Ohh and I almost forgot! last but not least. I've decided on pickups for the blue one. I spoke to Jeff Shepherd at Sheptone pickups today. Super nice guy. We discussed the guitar woods I'm using on these and some other related details and he's winding me up a set of custom AB Special PAFs. He's going to wind them just slightly hotter then normal and use a 4 wire lead so I can split them. I've read a lot about this guys stuff and I cant wait to get them in there. Its going to take him 4 weeks so they should come in right around assembly time. His website is here: sheptone pickups

I just read through this entire thread last night. I dont know how I missed it. This is awesome looking. I love the back carve and the taper its got around the sides. And thumbs up on using the carving gouges. Theres something about carving on wood with a nice sharp gouge that cant be described. I cant wait to see it done.

I'm diggin the body on this. Very cool and unique build you have going here.

Sometimes simple is better. The only thing on the second design that would worry me is the flex you would get on those metal slides. Was it an issue on the two pieces you already did?

Thumbs up on the sapele vs Ash. Thats a super cool top on that. Nice and even across the whole thing. Thats going to pay off nice once its stained.

On second look at this I realized you were poking fun. Drr. I'm slow sometimes. Lol.

Thanks for the comments and kind words. Its too late to fix that glue seam at this point. Its filled and shouldn't show too much in the gran scheme of things. Its only my second and third build and they are what they are, which for me is a learning experience. I learned quite a lot from my first build and I've learned a lot from these two. I'll try and apply those lessons on the next build and see if I can push myself a little further in the future. I already have a few ideas in mind.

Mate the guitar is looking fantastic, and to answer your question, I would do some more work on the colour of the top, the blue is really poping in places and duller in others, it's just a matter of sanding back and re-staining until you get it just the way you want it. All the best with it I hear ya. If you look back a few pages you can read about the problems I had with the top of the blue one. Its got spots that are just kind of "Dead". Im not going back that far at this point and I dont think it would do much good if I did.

On the blue one I was thinking of leaving the back just the way it is and just clear coating but decided to add a little amber and a smidgen of brown to it. Here it is just after filling with a bit of naphtha added to half. And here it is after a thined down wash of amber followed with a ver thin wash of med brown to just slightly darken it up and bring out some of the grain. I waasnt really happy with the final color here and decided to go over it once more with a thin wash of med brown. With some naphtha rubbed on a section to show contrast. And a better picture. I'm not super stoked with the final color here but I think it will do. Hindsight is always 20/20 and at this point I with I would have just listened to my instincts and left this one unfinished on the back. At this point I'm not about to sand back and start over though as I want to start spraying nito tomorrow morning. It is what it is at this point. Maybe I'm being too critical. In the end I think it will look just fine. What do you guys think?

Its been almost 2 months since I updated this but I'm back. Work has been busy as all hell and thats takes precedence. It drives me nuts that if I could have only had another week or so on this I could have clear coated them and all that time could have been spent curing. As I said previously its a good test of my patience. Oh well thats life I guess. Anyways here are some updates with pictures. Mt next step was grain filling which really isn't my favorite thing to do but it has to be done. I used timber mate for this task based off of recommendation on another thread. For the blue one I just used the stock mahogany color. All I did was thin it down a bit to the consistency of peanut butter. It went on easy enough with a plastic chip. I let it sit for 5-10 min then wiped down the body with a damp rag to remove the excess. For the tobacco finish I darkened up the filler with some med brown and a few drops of black trans tint dye. I filled and sanded back twice and that seemed sufficient. From there the project stalled for about another month. My next step was dying the body starting with the darker mahogany. I started by prewetting the wood with a little distilled water to help it blend. Next was a wash of straight amber followed with med brown on the edges and feathered into the center. Here it is after the first session and still damp. I wasn't happy with how dark the edges were after the first session so I did a second to darken the outer edges up. Here is is after the second session. I'm pretty happy with the contrast between the walnut and the mahogany sides here. I'd still like a touch more contrast between the walnut and the maple on top but I'll get to that later. .

Thanks for the suggestions but unfortunately none of them have panned out. I've been searching for days and cant find anything.

Thanks for the info. I'll see if I can find a number to contact then direct today. If anyone else has a source chime on in. Here is the buggered tuner. In the mean time I have to start gathering information on how to repair this scar.

I sat in my garage for 3 hours tonight checking out my new Yamaha Thr10 amp that I just got. When I stood up to go into the house my dunlop staplock on the upper horn decided it would un-screw itself and my first build came crashing into the concrete floor. Quick reflexes let me manage to place my foot between the bulk of the guitar and the floor but it still impacted pretty good and hurt the hell out of my foot. It could have been a lot worse but its got a pretty nice ding on the edge of the body and it looks like some of the brunt of the fall bent the hell out of the tuner on the G string. So does anyone know where I can purchase single Gotoh Midsize 510 Tuners to replace this with? Any help would be great. I'll probably be starting a thread on how I should fix this damage on the body soon too.

Very cool dude.

Well thats scary and thanks for bringing it up. This is only my second experience with deft but my first did take a while to cure. I waited 30 days and I should have waited a little longer. I remember buffing the top of my first while the body was resting on a towel and it left slight impressions on the back I had to buff back out. The first one is 18 months old now and the finish is nice and cured. It did shrink back a little though which tells me something. At this point its a little too late unless I want to sand back down or try and mix two different brands which probably isn't wise. I guess I should let this one marinate a little longer after I shoot the final clear coats before I wet sand and buff. It may be May before I can get this complete. I've seen other builders assemble before final sanding and buffing and do the final finish 6 months after its done. I was hoping to have these done somewhere around the end of April. This is really going to test my patience. *Sigh*

I haven't had a chance to sit down and respond in a few days. It was a long work week and I ended up having just a little too much fun Friday night. (again) Friends were gathered and acoustics were strummed until the wee hours of the morning. You'd think at my age I'd learn to stay the hell away from red wine when on a bender. Especially after downing a copious amount of scotch at the pub beforehand. The result was a repeat of last Saturday holding down the sofa and watching B movies and a lost Saturday on this project. Anyways here's an update. Yeah I'm using Deft from a can. Its cheap and works reasonably well and readily available. I'm hoping on my next build to be able to start spraying from a gun. Thanks for the link. I used this razor blade method after drop filling several times. It took about4 sessions before it stopped soaking in. I think I have it licked but theres going to be an obvious spot where the problem is/was. Sanding Sealer is usually a high solid content though and since he is going to fill the gap the and put more clear on top I would not worry so much. However if it was filling in the final coat I would not use Sanding Sealer but use the finish lacquer. The problem with using finish lacquer is it is very thin (even before you thin it for a gun) so it will take a long time to fill. I was warned on the LP forum against using sanding sealer on this. I was told that I would get a much clearer finish in the end just using lacquer. But my patience only runs so deep. Sealing with pure lacquer would take a LONG time. That and I've used the sanding sealer on my first build and I had no problems with finish clarity at all so I went ahead and used the sealer. Here is the smaller separation after filling and leveling with a razor. After it gets a few more coats I'm wondering if I cant go in with a super fine brush and camouflage it somewhat. I figure if I botch the camo I can just sand it off again. Stay tuned and we'll see. And here is the longer one. I sanded off the tops with some 400 grit. I could have used 220 and have in the past but I didn't want to risk any sand through at this stage and 400 cuts a lot slower. I took it down about this far. This tip is out there to be found but here it is again. I soak my spray cans in hot water before I spray to help thin the lacquer out. It does seem to spray better like this. And here we are up to date. I'm done with sealer on the tops. This is the first coat with lacquer consisting of 3 light passes in opposite directions. (drrrr) From this distance the drop fills and the dark lines they left are unnoticeable. Here is the smaller one. Its darkened up pretty badly. Personally my eye is drawn to it instantly but we have a more critical eye on out own builds don't we? And the longer one. I tried to take this at an angle where the light fell across the fill. It looks level. I waited several days for the drop fills to shrink. I have my fingers crossed they wont come back too badly. You can also see that the grain is pretty much filled in at this point. I'm going to shoot another coat then un tape it and start in on the grain filling process on the back. I've done some test samples for the mahogany but I still haven't decided definitively as to what color I'm going to do on the back. More staining tests may be in order.

I suggest a lacquer burn in stick. Drop filling with lacquer would require something with high solids content to fill that gap. How many more coats do you have left? And what stage are you at? If you are still early (Sanding Sealerstage) I would think about fixing the gap proper. Sand it back fix the gap...yada yada. If you ask me don't use CA. Everytime I have tried to use CA to fill a hole in lacquer it has gone bad (maybe lack of patience) as it always melts the lacquer around it. Thanks. I'm about 5 coats into sealing it. Sanding off the finish thus far and staring over doesnt sound fun. I'll heed the ca glue advice and stay away from that. I looked at the burn in stick and found it on LMI's site but theres not much other information there. I also dont want to have to wait for it to come in if I dont have to. At my current disposal I have Deft lacquer sanding sealer and deft clear lacquer. Do you think the sanding sealer contains enough solids for drop filling? Also how does the lacquer burn in stick work? Adding moisture to it at this point doesnt sound like a good idea to me. I can see it swelling and having something unpredictable happening. But thanks for the input. See RestorationAD's post above. Here is another pic. Note the bridge post insert for scale. I'm way past reglue stage lol. Thats a great tip Wes and thank you. Vulcan logic at work there. And yes another good tip on the razor blade. I'm leaning towards trying to drop fill it at this point. I'm wanting to hear what RestorationAD has to say about the lacquer burn in stick vs lacquer sanding sealer. And thanks for all the input so far. Much appreciated.

Well this was a nice surprise this morning. I'm at a loss here. I'm guessing drop fill it with some lacquer? Suggestions anyone?

Great observation. I have to agree. That would look stunning. With a white top and a neutral back like that you could use almost any color and pull it off too.

This is super cool. Mind if I ask why you covered up so much of the volute and the back of the headstock with white?