Drak

Because I'm getting older now, I turn 60 in a few months and just don't have the rigor I used to. So its easier to just let things slip by sometimes, except when they really start bugging the shit out of me, and that scratch 'across the bow' did.

An interesting update to Angkor. It was completely done, finished, wired, working, and waiting on strings (which came today btw). But...as I was making sure everything was GO and holding it up in the sun...I noticed I didn't get all the scratches out, I think between (micromesh) 1800 and 2400 something got lost. I could see these long horizontal scratches going across the entire width of the lower body (where all the glamour is). The normal person would probably never pick up on it, you had to be looking at it from <just> the right angle to see them...but I saw them and it began bugging the shit out of me. I was going to just let it go...it was all put together...but I couldn't, I just couldn't. So I completely removed everything, all hardware, back down to a stripped body, and picked it back up at 2400 and re-progressed forward. Nailed the scratches, gone now, and I feel way better about things now, glad I decided to energize my lazy ass to do what really needed to be done. I am a tough taskmaster when it comes to these things. When removing any installed hardware from a finished body, I always use a soldering iron to heat the part up so I don't rip out a big chunk of finish along with it. I do this for rear ferrules and TOM posts, anything that has been hammered in place, and so when heated properly they slide out easily, awesome. I also had debated whether to make this one active or not, it was set up to not be, but I've changed my mind and am going to install the EMG active harness on it. I have <just> enough room to drill and mount the additional pots and it still look totally normal as if I planned it all along. So now we have a cleaner finish and an active guitar. AND strings to finish it up.

That's generally right where I'm at for clearcoats too. 70/30 if its really warm outside and I can get away with it (sometimes, not usually)

Honestly, I don't know, I have so many going at the same time I don't really keep track, I just kind of 'know'. Tho, I don't use as many as I use to, once I can tell its done, I stop. So figure on average from a dead-stop w/ a filled finish (CA glue here) with level-sands in-between, 7-9-ish. I learned the basic chord structures and jam box for Althea today, haha!

I want to see how close tonally I can get to Wolf on Althea. Love the tune, love the tone. John Mayer on Wolf giving Althea a Shot And here's Neal Casal giving it a little what fer. Big difference in tone, Wolf certainly has a special something going for it. Neal Casal and his Scott Walker giving Althea a Shot

OK kiddos, both the Dead Machine and Angkor Wat are hardwared, wired, working, glossed, and finished. Except I'm waiting on an order of strings so I can mount and adjust the necks and do the setup and birth these things for real. So, here's the Dead Machine, done, waiting on strings. Here are the specs: Core Wood: 1-Piece Mahogany Top Wood: 1/2" Bookmatched Spruce Accent Wood: Pickup cover, rear Control cover, Headstock veneer, Truss Rod cover. Figured Koa Hardware: Sperzel brushed gold locking tuners, Gotoh fine-tuning tailpiece, Harmonica bridge, gold dome knobs, neck plate, and strap bushings Pickups: Late 70's Bill Lawrence L-560 set. 8k neck, 12k bridge Passive Electronics: Schaller 5-way 'E' model Megaswitch (wired for 2 HB's), passive 500k volume, passive 250k tone, .01uF tone cap Active Electronics: EMG Afterburner preamp, EMG EXG tone pot, EMG SPC tone pot

Watched the YT, that color is Gorgeous! I noticed something interesting that I would have never noticed otherwise than seeing the YT. The way different people use their equipment, their settings, etc. It looked to me like you have your velocity (pressure) reasonably higher than I use, and your volume (product) reasonably lower than I use. Said otherwise, I generally shoot a thicker coat at a lower pressure, at least as far as clearcoating goes. Just interesting, as my eye is always noticing that kind of stuff. Gorgeous.

I think its just your camera auto-self-adjusting as you move around the piece. It happens to me all the time, that's why I post pics under different lighting. It makes the camera react differently and makes the guitar look completely differently under different lighting. But its really the camera (phone) adjusting to suit. Looks great so far, looking forward to more gloss!

I thought I was usually the slice-n-dicer, the bare-knuckled 'I have no feelings' presenter of bad news guy. But it seems like we've switched chairs for this one as I'm going to come in swinging with big soft furry kitty mittens on . Can you post a few pics here of it before you lay waste to the finish? I do agree with Scott, but you only put 5 coats of Tru-Oil on the thing where most use 10-15 coats or More. So I'm willing to entertain the possibility that its not 100% a gummed-up old bottle of Tru-Oil that is at fault, tho it still might be. And if the present 5 coats is not showing signs of gummy bear syndrome, I would go fetch a new bottle to finish it up. It 'may' be that you just haven't used enough of it yet. Hell, after the first initial coat has dried and stopped up the pores, I'd be putting 5 coats on the piece in the space of a few hours every day. Some pics would be mighty helpful <removing big soft furry kitty mittens now>.

I always have a plan going in, on average I usually hit it ~80%. And then there's always the 'surprise factor' of ~20% that happens unexpectedly along the way. And I love that part of it, I love watching that unexpected 20% unfold along the way that I couldn't have planned out if I tried. So, yes, always a plan in advance, and always allow the forces of existential whateverism to have their 20% say in the matter.

So the Dead Machine and Angkor Wat are running neck and neck to the finish line. Both have had the finish finished and are all super glossed now. Both are completely done and wrapped, all I have to do is mount the necks and put strings on them. But...P-90's are funny animals. There's really not a lot of pickup height adjustment available, which I'm used to having loads of adjustment via regular pickup mounting screws. So I put the neck in place and ran a 4' rule down the beam with the bridge in place to check available heights and see if I was even within range of normal. The neck came in right on target, the bridge needed a 3/16" riser made for it, so I just did that. The difference between the height of the pickup and the additional screw length is 1/2". And the screw needs a little bit of something to bit into, so take away another 1/8", which leaves me with a total of 3/8" adjustment total. That's it, 3/8" of adjustment, so they absolutely must be within range starting out before you even get that much adjustment. But...its looking awfully sweet, the next pics you see will be done and strung. This guitar, really, is a tribute to the Scott Walker 'ethic' and Neal Casal's guitar. It's certainly not a copy, not even close, (I don't do copies and I don't even like copies) but Neal's guitar, via Scott Walker, 'sprang' from the 'Jerry scene'. And I got the idea for the Koa centerpiece from Walker's Neal Casal guitar and that whole 'Garcia guitar' scene. Which, in my eyes, blew this build up to a far greater guitar than it would have been otherwise. And...that's how inspiration should work, after all. Not by copying, but by being inspired. (Truth be known, I like mine better...but it should be that way, in my view). So it's heritage is: Garcia>Cripes>Walker>Casal>, with my Drak 'twist' on things, of course.

Got it, thanks for the clarity. So what you want is a pore filler to get started, it will do exactly the job you're looking to do, and it's not expensive at all. Pore filler is applied by hand, left to dry, then sanded flat, not shot out of a gun, there are many YT's of applying pore filler available. I use Timbermate usually, but there are others out there. These other products, your emulsions and primers, fill pores, but very poorly and very slowly, since that is not their primary concern. The pore filler will give you a 95% filled flat surface, quite nearly dead-flat if you get it applied and sanded correctly, so you'll need something else to really 'get flat'. But not very much. You can use whatever you like that bonds well with your water-based paints on top of the pore filler, take your pick. However, Timbermate is a water-based product, so if you apply another water-based product over top of it, you will re-emulsify the pore filler and things won't go too well, so maybe you want a pore filler that is NOT waterbased so it stays in place if you do use a water-based product on top of it. Also, trying to use the emulsions and primers, if trying to build surface, can totally backfire on you sometimes because they're not really designed to be applied thick, that's not their purpose in life and, well, it just doesn't go too well like that. Pore filler, OTOH, is designed to do exactly that, its was built to build to flat and fill in all pores, nicks, cracks, all that stuff, no problem, it loves doing that.

A bit more specificity would help me help you. I don't know what you're referring to when you use the word 'emulsion'. Can you use another word to say the same thing? And any finish that is too thick to spray usually just needs to be thinned. All sprayable finishes have a thinning agent available, you would need to find out what the proper thinning agent is for your finish type. If I knew what 'emulsion' stood for, I might be able to discern what thinner you need. Sometimes it will be listed in the directions or on the label somewhere. Why are you asking this question? I need to get to the root of what it is you want to do. Primers (undercoat) do certain several things, of which the primary purpose is usually adhesion, and not always build, it ensures the topcoat has excellent adhesion to whatever the substrate is. Call it a 'linking mechanism' between substrate and topcoat. So are you looking for excellent adhesion, or are you looking to build the finish up as fast as possible? IF your Primary concern is building up the finish to a dead-flat level surface, then say that, so I know for sure that's what we're really discussing. Because that will steer the conversation a different way. Again, everything you can put in a spray gun will have a thinning agent available that will thin it down enough to spray through the gun. But you have to be familiar with the finish to find out what thinning agent is applicable for that particular finish. The thinning agent for your 'emulsion' is not going to be the same thinning agent for your 'primer', most likely. But they will both have a thinning agent available so you can shoot both of them. 75% of the time the thinning agent will be the cleanup agent, but not always. For instance, once you start using a spray gun, you will be introduced very quickly to how to keep that gun clean and ready for use, or you can ruin a spray gun very quickly if you don't clean it properly after a spray session. A lot of times the cleaning agent WILL be the Same as the thinning agent, But Not Always. Just depends. If your Primary Concern is to quickly build to dead-level, then say that so I know that's what you want to do.

I was in a local music store in the late 80's when the first wave of Quilted finishes were really hitting the market. By that time I already had several Gibsons, a '73 LPC, a 347, and a '57 ES225TDC. So I asked the guy behind the counter how they 'got' that kind of finish and he said he didn't have a clue. To try looking it up on a forum or maybe on a builder's site. I remember he said that guys who 'do that' were on 'forums' and liked to 'talk about it' (we're talking probably the late 80's, haha) That's what started it, seeing the first Quilted Maple finishes hit the market and being totally fascinated by them. From there, I looked up the local hardwoods suppliers in my area and just started driving around to them and talking to the owners. Who all loved to talk about wood, of course. So I spent hours upon hours upon hours just shooting the shit with hardwood supplier store owners. They had a few other 'guitar guys' for customers and would tell me what they were buying. And they had it ALL...boxes and boxes of burls of all descriptions, quilted lumber, Coco-Bolo, everything under the sun. I was so spoiled and didn't even know it at the time. The woods that were available to me Far surpassed my skills to work them at the time. I remember the first woods I ever bought were Coco-Bolo and Kingswood (idiot) broke several saw blades just trying to cut the stuff. But I was completely, utterly hooked. And to this day, finishes are still my main topic of enjoyment.

How you clamp it I'll let you discover, it will only take a little bit of ingenuity to figure something out if you don't have a bench clamp long enough. I can think of 3-4 ways pretty quickly so you'll get that part squared away. How I would approach that repair is pretty basic and straightforward: A pipette (or a real syringe, like a diabetic would use), THIN CA glue, and much tape in the right places. The single one thing I would Not do is disturb what's already there. I wouldn't play with it, rock it back and forth, twist it, or disturb/distort it in any other way. And obviously de-string it right away. THIN CA glue will wick itself throughout that entire joint and fill it, tho I wouldn't try to fill it all in one go. I'd plan on a 2-3 day process. Taping off the entire area around the injection points will protect the guitar and finish from any stray CA glue that rolls/seeps/creeps out. And I wouldn't use any CA accelerator, I would let it dry naturally, layer by layer, until its nearly completely filled. I would shoot for the final layer being <just> under the present finish and finish it off with a few drops of lacquer or shellac. CA glue is so much harder than the surrounding finish, its a total bitch to try and get level with such dissimilar finishes. Its like trying to level a rock and a pillow sitting side by side. So get out in front of that by not filling it to level to begin with. <Just> under level, then probably shellac would be the easiest/fastest way to a seamless level repair. In everything I said, the most important part is the tape, and to completely tape off everything around it. You don't want a run of CA running down the side of the guitar. That's going backwards, and you never want to go backwards when you're trying to go forwards.

Is that Memory Man one you made? If so, well done on the graphics job. The enclosure doesn't look like an EHX, tho I'm not an expert on them.

You didn't say whether that was a Levinson Blade pre-amp or not, I'm curious since I had one. I never got into building pedals, but building pedalboards, whole different story, spent years doing that. Currently have 4 and I refuse to build another one, tho I have the excess pedals to make another. Tho, I'm completely, totally satisfied with where all that sits and haven't bought a pedal in years. They're exactly where I want them, they do what I want, don't want or need anything else I don't already have. Shielding...total hornet's nest and I stay as far away as possible from all those guitar forum debates. I do what I do, I've never changed the recipe, and my guitars always sound clean and quiet, that's my barometer. And I let everyone else do as they please as it makes them happy, no problem.

Yeah, I've been fully aware of that for a long time, and I build all my own pedalboards too and an occasional rack rig. I dig the fact that you can bypass your circuit, but I learned my own tricks to get around that issue when I needed to, but I get it.

You wouldn't be referring to Gary Levinson and his Blade guitars, would you? Many years ago I owned one of his Tele's with the built-in pre-amp in it, f'ing loved that guitar. I couldn't believe the value and playability of that guitar, it smoked any Fender into the dust. That was probably the very last guitar I actually bought off-the-shelf, $500.00 American. What a deal, and what an awesome guitar that was. I will tell you a thing about my building ethic. As I mentioned, my first builds were all active, and active circuits tend to pick up and amplify Any stray noise. Especially (some) single coils, and I really detest noisy guitars, can't stand 'em. So from my earliest days, I've been a 100% full-shielding fanatic. I've fully shielded every guitar I've ever built, and that comes from building with active circuits from the beginning. Its just a habit that stayed with me, whether they're active or not, I still do a 100% shield job on everything I build. AAMOF, I was just shielding Angkor Wat and the Dead Machine earlier this evening.

I decided to read through the whole thread. Unless I missed it (did I?), I didn't see any mention of pickups or electronics. Yet, I see what looks pretty clearly like a battery housing in the back. I started out building active systems, all my first builds all have front-end passive pickups from my favorite winders with back-end EMG active electronics. So just curious about that end of things. Also, I've sprayed many Tele bridges in the past, usually black, but I've sprayed all kinds of hardware all kinds of colors over the years. So on some of my builds where you see a black Tele bridge, its usually a Glendale bridge, sprayed black. They've all held up fine, no problems, all lacquer, usually airbrushed to keep it thin. I leave a spot on the bottom bare so I can get a ground connection going and the saddles dig into the metal to complete the ground path. Anytime I saw a Glendale bridge for sale used, I'd snap those bastids up, so I got a lot of them for easy money years ago. Just letting you know, your options are only limited by your imagination.

I finished finishing the finish and am putting things together now. Just have to mount the neck, wire it, string and intonate it, but all hardware and pickups are in. Consider yourself warned, it may not be appropriate for some to proceed any further than this point.

Had I known that 2 days ago, it may have worked, probably would have. But now, with a new install, its just showing a brand new install, no history of updates, etc. But thanks for the info, may come in handy one day down the road.

If I could remember the name of the stuff, I'd link a few YT's of it. It works great under lacquer, they used lacquer as the topcoat in the YT. I mean, I'm not throwing my Timbermate away, I have it in several colors. This product was a clear pore filler, tho I'm sure you could add your own colors to it if needed.

As I said...its a long story, but to ease your mind that they're gone for good, I'll give you the brief rundown. I detest the new Firefox, so I decided to revert to an older version, the last good update of the one I loved and used for years. When you update to a new version, it transfers all the bookmarks across, but when you revert to old, it doesn't save anything. It's basically a brand new install, although an older one, and there is no recognition of one to the other when going backwards like that. I should have known better, I know how to save a copy of my bookmarks, I've done it before, but hadn't done so in a long time. And I just wasn't thinking ahead. Shit happens, life goes on, there's always a reason for everything, no coincidences. I'll live.