X1TX

Good imagination. The theme just seems to work.

You can even get Tru Oil at Wally Mart. Look where the sporting goods / guns are. Or check out a gun store.

What a cracking thread. Here they have guitars built from Hemp

Smokin'...........

Reminds me of "fiberpot" from "Up In Smoke"....

Or if you're in my garage - the fridge can spark when it cycles, exploding beer would not be good.

That's why I keep the beer in the fridge on the back porch. Not much worse than exploding beer.

How true. They just work! Speaking of work, to me a Good Tele is truly the work horse of guitars. Whereas a nice Les Paul or PRS are The high maintenance "beauty Queens" A good Tele is like an old Timex watch, " takes a licking and keeps on ticking".

Teles, I love them.

Roman

Just about everyone I know that has a 'real job' as a musician has a Tele that looks like it was brought to work by dragging it down the street. They all manage to get great tone out of them.

I'd still go transparent, it will darken the grain and save a ton of work. If you don't get your desired result then you can torture yourself.

Perhaps. But I'm really trying to learn:

1: Patience and

2: Finishing technique

This is my 3rd 'project' leading up to a scratch build. The first two ended up with sucky finishes because I ran out of patience and realized I didn't have a great grasp of finishing. So a little self-torture to learn something is worth it in this case.

by sanding off all the sealer you are wasting time and money. you are going to have to re seal it all the way back to the same as it was in the first place. why do people always want to sand the sealer off? its there for a reason. it is the best base for spraying you can get.

If I wanted to simply spray on a color, I'd agree. But I want to add some highlight to the grain since the one I have has a decent pattern in it.

Why not paint it transparent black over the sealer?

Also wanting to accentuate the grain. So I think I'm going to try some black grain filler.

That is seriously sweet! Great work.

sixth question - OK, the stewmac site tells you how to clean the production gun and it seems excessive tedious and kind of intimidating. I will have to practice before I use real finishes but do you actually have to take the gun apart and put everything in lacquer thinner and clean it all up after every coat? seems like by the time you finish cleaning it your almost ready for another coat! Maybe I just seem lazy but I thought Id ask.

Okay, I'll readily admit to being a moron with respect to finishing. But as far as cleaning the gun, DO IT RIGHT! Good friend of mine works at a company that makes and sells high-end spray equipment and they sell all types of guns. Every week he shares with me another story of how one of their customers has called claiming their new spray rig doesn't work. He takes a trip out and finds that the spray rig with its pumps and compressors work just fine. It's just the gun that's totally clogged. Your choices are simple really, fully clean the gun, or keep buying new ones.

Was thinking about using a black grain filler, then seeing what it looked like. After that, either a stain or aniline dye.

Thanks for the response.

I've searched and haven't found an answer for this. But I have an unfinished ash Mighty Mite body. But MM apparently applies a 'sealer' to their unfinished bodies. I'm ASSuming it's mainly a 'sanding sealer', but I don't really know. All the finishing tips I've read start on the basis of having a bare wood. So does anyone know how to deal with this sealer? What I'm trying to do is simply highlight the grain in the piece, then get a little black tint to the natural finish.

Also, I'm ASSuming that I will need to grain fill, but not totally certain given the application of the sealer. I think that I can simply open a tub of elbow grease and sand the body a bit and then treat it as if it's bare wood. Am I correct here, or do I deserve the Oscar for best performance as the village idiot?

I like 2 as well. Accents the shape pretty well. Routing the control cavity might be interesting. Just make sure you can readily reach all the controls first though. Seeing it's fairly unique, I'm sure you can get used to it though.

Looks like something you'd keep the ashes of you dear departed uncle, or brother, in.............

Check this out...

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff185/r...08/P1190757.jpg

The pick guard on the one on the left screams out that it needs to be returned to the '69 ChevyVan with the crushed velour seats and the green shag carpet that lines the walls, floor, and ceiling (leaving a spot for the mirrored ball of course).

Lovin' that guitar. It really screams "Meet George Jetson"...... Not sure with that particular finish, but it does have that 50's look to it.

Is it just me? None of your links seem to work.

True, companies do make plywood instruments. I was just referring to the use of the Home Despot C grade woods. But, I guess this project will tell us a lot.

High dollar manufacturers don't use low grade wood because it does produce lesser quality instruments. Quality is consistency. Properly dried, instrument quality lumber is more stable than lower grade wood or plywood. It is also easier to carve etc. Those are desirable qualities. I don't deny that pickups, scale length and bridge type have as much if not greater effect on tone as the wood used in construction, but there is a definite effect.

You seem to be intimating that the use of high dollar woods is a conspiracy theory to extract more money from mindless consumers when plywood is just as good. That's a little bit tinfoil hat style isn't it?

My thought is that the saying "You get what you pay for" has survived so many centuries for a reason. It's true.

True. A manufacturer can't produce a quality instrument on a repeatable basis using wood that isn't consistent. That may not hold to the same degree for someone making a 'one off' instrument. How much that does or does not hold, I guess we'll find out when this experiment is done.

I think building a plywood guitar is okay so long as you know what it is before you start. I have a plywood Vee that plays okay (given that I suck at playing). It might be okay to try out a new body shape. Or maybe just to learn to use the router (but as fryovanni said, it would probably be better to practice with pine). Not sure I'd use plywood to build an instrument I'd use regularly. And yes, a body blank isn't THAT expensive. But the good thing about plywood is that you can find it just about anywhere. And just as a fun "let's see if this works" project, it's okay. Long story short, there are pros and cons for doing this. But the entire reason folks do this as a hobby isn't for logical reasons. It's a 'want to' thing. So if you want to try it, go for it.

But I too am curious to see how this turns out.

Well just like the pine that's been discussed, there are many grades of plywood. You can even buy plywood from Aircraft Spruce & Specialty that's used for building wooden airplanes.

I have a Vee that has a plywood body. But that was just a practice for me. Tried to see if I could cobble one together for very little $$ (I think I had far less than $150 in it). But it has GREAT sustain. It uses a string-though setup, not the typical TOM Stop tail piece. Though I do suck as a player, if I plug this thing in fret a note and pluck the string, I'll get bored and quit before it finally dies out. It does sustain way better than my cheapo Squier Strat.

Glendale guitars has a blurb on their site that says the early Tele used a pine body. They even sell pine bodies. Though I doubt they're routed from a board they picked up at Home Despot.......

No doubt!

Just to repeat (in case anyone missed it): I only bought this construction grade pine because I wanted something cheap to learn how to do the carved tops with.

That being said, I have to give serious consideration to getting some better grade pine and making a few bodies from it. Give it a semi-decent top and it might not be half bad.

Didn't miss it. And when I finally get to the point of doing my own routing (I put things off, I know) that's exactly what I'll do. But, just like with plywood, there are differing grades. Get a good grade of pine and I'd bet it would make a pretty decent instrument. But for a practice piece, it's tough to beat a $5 piece that would likely yield several bodies. It would be great to use to prototype one if you had an idea for a funky body shape.

Glendale guitars has a blurb on their site that says the early Tele used a pine body. They even sell pine bodies. Though I doubt they're routed from a board they picked up at Home Despot.......

http://www.glendaleguitars.com/Bodies.htm

Very nice. Like the headstock as well.