knighty76

Cracking! I'm using Nitro so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of an issue like you say. And the schedule shouldn't be too fragmented.. possibly only a day or so if it rains, which is fairly likely here in the UK! Cheers for the reply mattia.. much appreciated. Thanks, Rich.

Hi everyone! Topic title and description probably doesn't explain too well... what I'm wondering is whether there is a downside to taking breaks between applying finish coats. For example, I might want to apply my lacquer coats 3 a day for 5-7 days, depending on how thick I can get it on. if I don't have available to me 7 straight days where I can apply the finish, or the weather breaks up the schedule, is there any problem if I have to leave a few days between applying the next set of coats? Does it cause problems if the intermediate lacquer coats are allowed to cure excessively before you get the next ones on? Thanks for your help! Cheers, Rich (Knighty76).

Hi everyone! A quickie.. I've got sitting here ready to go into my homemade Tele a Fender Custom Texas Special Neck PUP (for Telecaster). Here's the dumb bit.. what are the wires for? Specifically, the white one? I understand that usually Yellow is hot, Black is ground. So what's white? Warm? Is this badlad tapped? Cheers fellas (and ladies if there are any knocking about in here..)! For info I'm wiring this baby up to a 4-way switch for parallel/series selection with my SD Broadcaster Bridge PUP. Thanks again, Rich.

← Heh Heh.. I figured as much. Cheers everyone!

Cheers fellas! And lasses, if there are any in here!! If I've screwed a piece of wood into the neck pocket, then on the back of the guitar there are going to be at least two gaps in the finish where the screwheads were sitting. Should I be bothered about this? Gonna be covered by a neck plate anyway... Thanks Rich.

Hi! Here comes what might be a really silly question... we shall see! I'm building a telecaster style body and my plan to suspend the guitar for finishing is to attach a dummy neck (ie a length of scrap wood) into the pocket. Using the bolt-on holes, I was going to screw the "neck" on in the normal way. Thing is.. what about the screwheads on the back of the guitar? I can see two potential problems.. 1) If I just screw the wood into the pocket without a neck plate, and if I need to screw them in pretty tight so that I can manipulate the body without buggering up the holes, then will the screwheads not leave unsightly indentations in the wood? Solution to this is to use the neck plate, but you can't spray lacquer through metal.. 2) If it's ok to screw straight onto the body with no neck plate, when I apply the tinted lacquer and clear coats, will I not leave four little round unfinished, uncoloured areas about the holes where the screwheads where? I realise this will be concealed by the neck plate, but.. presumably these will be like little countersunk areas.. will this affect the strength of the neck join, sitting right under the plate at the four points where it couples with the body? Daft questions I know, but after coming this far I don't want to scupper it. What do people normally do? Assuming you're also using a dummy neck that is... Cheers y'all? Rich.

Here's where I grabbed the image from, but it's not the one I bought... Electric Spray Gun I note you're from the UK.. the one I've picked up is made by Wagner and I bought it from B&Q, but they don't have it on their web page. The following online store stocks it tho.. Electric Spray Gun.. DIY Tools and details from manufacturer's web page... Wagner W140P Hope this helps. I'm going to try out this puppy on my test piece.. I'll post back and let you know how I get on. Cheers, Rich.

Good day! Approaching the finishing stage with my guitar and I've got all the materials... filler, sanding sealer, woodstain, lacquer etc. I plan to use the woodstain to tint the lacquer and spray a coloured finish over the sanding sealer, followed by clear coats etc etc. Everything is nitro-based. Anyhow, spray guns eh? Can be a bit pricey to a beginner, particularly if you dno't have a compressor handy. So I was wondering if these electric spray guns I've seen are any cop? Or are they unsuitable for this task? I would be using them to apply the coloured and clear lacquer coats. I've seen one for not-too-many-quid in my local DIY megasuperduperstore. This is the kind of thing I mean... Anyone ever tried one of these badlads? Any experience or hints for using one, if they're even appropriate? Feeback muchos appreciados!! Thanks everybody! Rich.

Hi! A bit late in the day but here's what I've done and it's spot on.. With Bridge mounted on top of guitar drill through outer two holes all the way through. Drill the other four holes just past halfway. Then turn guitar body over and mount the bridge (double-sided sticky tape worked for me) with the outer two holes (hopefully) properly aligned. Drill through the other four holes and they should meet with the holes you drilled earlier from the top. Then you're left with holes in the back and no easy way to centre your larger drill bit (8mm is it?) for the ferrule fitting. So what I did was get two pieces of scrap wood with straight edges and stick these onto the body either side of your string-thru holes with the holes perfectly centred between the wood pieces, and the wood seperated by the width (diameter) of the main body of the ferrules. I used these wood pieces as a guide for the 8mm drill bit.. I used a brad point drill bit and the outer edges are fairly squared off so the bit runs against the wood scraps without cutting in. A fairly practical jig.. did the trick for me. Alternatively, as mentioned above if your initial holes are a similar diameter to the guide tip on your brad point drill bit, then you can probably just line it up using that to eyeball it. Then if you decide to sink the ferrules in flush with the body you'll need to enlarge the holes further to 9.5mm and drill down a tiny bit, just enough for the upper rim of the ferrules. I'm using a 9.5mm counterbore with a 4mm guide bit.. this is ideal because the guide bit goes into the original string-through holes which means the bore is perfectly centred. If your string-thru holes are not 4mm the guide bit can be replaced.... there is an allen key in the collar for swapping the guide bit out. And because it's counterbore rather than countersink, the cut is square rather than sloped. Here's the bit I bought for an example of what I mean... A nice find this counterbore.. thought I'd share. Hope this helps if you decide to try string-thru again. This is my first attempt at a guitar and doing it this way (thanks to BigD's excellent tutorial for the string-thru holes) I managed to get really nicely lined up holes, and my ferrules are perfectly flush with the body. Cheers! Rich.

Cheers for the replies! It was going well enough.. drilled and lined up the holes for the little stabilising post thingy and all fitted nice and square. Then whammo, after test fitting the tuners and then removing (foolishly), two of the aforementioned little post thingies stayed in the bleedin headstock. I was able to remove one ok, but the other is well and truly stuck in the hole. Can't believe how badly attached to the tuner these posts are.. admittedly I drilled the holes quite small (2.5mm I think) to hold the posts nice and snug, but still.. And then to add insult to expensive injury I was tightening up the nutted bushing on one of the tuners and the goshdarnit threaded stem of the peghead came clean off. Unrepairable. Now I'm a strong fella, but c'mon I didn't give it that much torque. Can't believe how poorly made these were.. must have been a dodgy batch or something. And bought on Ebay so no refund.. but I'm going to have to stick with Sperzels because I've already drilled the little holes in my headstock. Hopefully with the new set I've ordered and the partial set I've got left after this luthiering apocalypse I might just get a full set fitted properly. PS.. I'm going to have to drill out the little hole where the stabilising post got stuck, no other way to get it out. Anyone know if Rustins wood filler can be redrilled and will it be strong enough? Because if I have to buy a new neck aswell I'm going to commit seppuku.. Cheers y'all! Rich.

I figured the washers go on the bushing side, rather than the tuner side. Since I'll be tightening the nut of the bushing to screw the tuner in, the washer will provide some protection to the face of the headstock. Right? Cheers for the replies! Rich.

Heh heh.. I figured as much. Thanks for the reply!

Hi! I've got a set of Sperzel Trim-Lok tuners which I hope to fit into my Mighty Mite ready-made Tele neck. I'm a little worried, perhaps unnecessarily, that the threaded peghead bushings supplied with the tuners don't fit totally snug inside the pre-drilled peghead holes in my neck. The bushings are a tiny, tiny bit smaller in diameter than the holes, and as such they can move a little bit side to side. I was a little surprised at this.. I expect to need to push those babies in. Am I wrong? The tuners are advertised as requiring the standard 10mm peghead holes. The neck was advertised as having 10mm peghead holes. If I measure them, the holes seem to be bang on 10mm and the peghead bushings if anything seem a tiny bit shy of 10mm. Does this matter? Am I growing paranoid? I guess with the bushings tightened properly onto the tuner it would provide a fair bit of torsional stability across the headstock, and the tension of the strings would bring the bushings towards the "neck" end of the peghead holes, preventing movement, so all is good no? Thanks in advance! Just reaching the finishing stage in my first guitar and all has gone well so far, even the body cavities routing, so the last thing I want is to be scuppered by incompatible parts.. Cheers all! Rich.

Thanks doc! Appreciate the reply. I will continue my search for proper stockists/thirsty plantworkers! Cheers again, Rich.

Hi! I'm trying to laminate two strips of binding material that I bought from Stew Mac, but it's not really happening for me. I bought the laminating jig too, and it's great.. just the ticket. But my problem is the two strips aren't properly bonding.. they came apart fairly easily when I checked back after a couple of hours. I followed the instructions fairly closely.. but I have two theories and wonder if anyone has had any experience or similar problems. Theory 1) Pure acetone is not stocked in hardware shops anywhere in the North of England, so far as I can tell. To that end, and I think having read somewhere that it should work, I bought nail varnish remover... acetone in the guise of lady products! I made sure that it was an acetone-based product. Now I'm wondering if because it's not pure acetone.. there are a few extra ingredients in there, for example I reckon they colour it to make it look pretty. I'm wondering if after applying it when the solvent evapourates is it possible that it's leaving behind some kind of residue, preventing the surfaces from forming a proper bond? Theory 2) Wondering if I was pulling the strips through the jig quickly enough.. the instructions on Stew Mac said to brush on the acetone in 6" mating strips and immediately pull them through. Now, my interpretation of "immediately" may have been wonky.. just how quickly does the solvent evapourate?.. are we talking about pulling the strips through within half a second? Because with putting the brush down, and pulling through the jig quite slowly I may have scuppered the process. Any help would be smashing. Hopefully I can try again without having to buy new binding product (I'm in the UK and international shipping from Stew Mac is a pain). Cheers lads and lasses, Rich.