Drak

I know you're on TDPRI. I was reading a thread there (probably in the finish section) Someone who had tried, like, a half-dozen pore fillers over the years. He mentioned his favorite (clear pore filler) and I YT'd it and it seems way better than even Timbermate. It has NO shrinkback at All, none. Must be some sort of soluble epoxy product or something. Even Timbermate, being water-based, has shrinkback as the water vapor evaporates out of it. I have my own way of dealing with that, but this product seemed better. The only drawback is that if you leave too much of it and its sitting ON the surface, it leaves a milky-white residue. But for what we do, no one should be leaving that much pore filler on a body. I actually am going to switch and try it if and when I need to go down that road again. The other drawback is that I forgot the name of the stuff. And, Firefox just did an update (its a long story) and I just lost years worth of bookmarks, of which I had saved the stuff in a bookmark.

Wellsir, I called it done and lets get 'er moving along with the rest of the herd. Which are all corralled in the finishing chute now, most have made it through 400 grit so far. So Angkor Wat is now officially in the finishing chute along with the other three. 400 (1500 micromesh) done and completed, neck and body. I'm tempted to move this one out ahead of the pack for some reason. And just bear down on this alone until it's strung and singing a sweet slurpy jungle lizard tune. Maybe I change the name from Angkor Wat to Slurpy Lizard, I seem to be warming up to that theme.

You do know, that I had to look up the word ankus.

Nowhere else. Restraint is my new byline. That one ruby red pickup is the single spark (of red) that ignites the gasoline and sets the jungle ablaze in glory. The eye always wants to see symmetry, the brain always wishes for a 'matched set', a 'pair'. So we hold off and only offer a partial respite to the craving for conclusion, leaving the brain wanting more 'of that'. It's done this way on purpose.

Sanding sealer, in my world, is never, ever 'necessary', ever, for any reason. Ever. Its an option, and one I personally don't prefer. If others do, and you want to use it, that's fine with me too. I just find it unnecessary and a waste of money otherwise better spent on other products or tools or girls or a haircut maybe... Primers, OTOH, are about proper adhesion, which is important depending on what products your using and what they need to do. You're concerned with your final finish product adhering properly to your substrate. That's what primers do, tho they offer additional features besides that too. In terms of finish build to attain a dead-flat surface, which is, I think, what you're really asking about... I don't know between the two of them which would build the fastest. Just depends on the particular product. You'd have to look up each one and its solids content to see which would give you a level finish the fastest with fewest coats. TBH, I don't think either product has, as a primary characteristic, finish build. Enter your grain filler, which will do 90% of that job, then you won't need much product to get to dead-level, tho you will need some. Primers are concerned with adhesion, (lacquer) sanding sealers are concerned with making it super-easy to sand. When I see the word 'primer', I think good and proper adhesion, not a thing wrong with that if its necessary. When I see the word 'sanding sealer', I think soap flakes (stearates). That's the additive in sanding sealer that makes sanding easier on those tiny little weak muscles that can't handle sanding regular lacquer. (I speak in ironic terms here, of course, because I find the product superfluous) I don't look at either as much of a 'coat builder' on the way to a dead-flat surface, although both will if you use enough of them. If you use any finish that builds, you'll get a dead-flat surface sooner or later.

Just finished it up and put it back together. Nice sparkly Ruby Red, just like 'da slippaz. Its hard to capture the sparkle on camera, its pretty sparkly in person. So, now I present the 'other' color accent, which is the other (neck) pickup. The Ibanez at 7.2K is going in the bridge. My Vintage Vibe Charlie Christian Mini at 6.2K is going in the neck. So over a sweet slurpy lizard green we have Ruby Red/black and White/Black. Gold hardware, of course. There is your little historical side detour, all finished up and back to Angkor Wat. Put your hand down on the board and I'll shoot your nails for you!

If its readily available, an air hose quickly becomes like your third hand. Truly it does. I couldn't even imagine enjoying building w/o it now, I use it all the time.

I agree, its only because even the chance of finish lifting drives me crazy, otherwise I wouldn't bother with it for that. And didn't, for many years, but occasionally I would get a finish lift unexpectedly out of nowhere. So air-drying the nooks and crevices every few minutes was something I added in for insurance.

So that's the story up to now. Except I wasn't exactly digging the red color, it was slightly too orang-ish for me. I wanted a dark glittery ruby red for Angkor Wat. So I decided to take it apart and re-shoot that red cover with the (sparkly flake) Ruby Red 301. And that's where we sit at the moment, I'm done with the Ruby, just shooting a few clearcoats over it now.

OK, so here is the new home I made by gutting one of the Artec Mini's. I took a piece of shielding tape and put it over the black plastic piece. Then I sprayed it with some red tinted lacquer in the airbrush. Then put it all together.

I was going to use it in another build a few years ago and needed to make some sort of new housing (home) for it. Something that would garner far more coolness and prestige for this cool-ass little mini-bucker from the 70's. The design actually is some sort of hybrid, its like a cross between a Mini-bucker and a Firebird, more like a Firebird, actually. But still a hybrid design, with a bar magnet inside the coil on one side (Firebird), and slugs in the other coil (Mini). With a continuity plate on the bottom that transfers the magnetism from the magnet side to the slug side. That kind of design would sound more focused like a SC than a humbucker, with the magnetic aperture 'window' more focused on the bar mag inside the coil. These were famous for using A8 magnets btw, which no one else was using back then, and adds to the cool factor. Eddie (VH) had Super 70's in his Destroyer (VH1), they were the stock pickups that came in them.

So, about that weirdo neck pickup... When I got it, I removed it as I disassembled the entire guitar for the rehab, and as it was a curiosity for me. I was already familiar with the line and their history, having had 2 others already, but what was this weirdo substitute neck pickup? Some cheap-azz Japanese Teisco? Probably...that's what the cover is anyway. Wellsir, when I removed the cover and got a look under the hood, I was very surprised and had to do some research. The closest I found was that it probably came out of a late 70's George Bensen Ibanez archtop of some sort. AFAIK it is a rare bird indeed, since I cannot find anything about them online. Ibanez Super 70's full sized humbuckers? Oh hell yeah, very popular among a certain crowd. But whoever heard of or saw or researched a Super 70's Mini-bucker? Apparently...No one, as I can find nothing on them. I guess all the Ibanez George Bensen owners took very good care of their guitars and never swapped pickups out of them. So, cool for me, I love mini-buckers anyway and this was just an awesome cool discovery.

OK, we take a side detour for a little bit. Then we come back around to Ruby Red, then full circle back to Angkor Wat. Trust me, it will all make sense and you'll enjoy the brief ride through guitar history. So, many years ago, I bought a used Ovation Thunderhead, I've posted it here before after I was done with the Rehab. This is a before and after, please pay attention to the neck pickup, which obviously is not stock. But I got it at a total steal (which is my normal MO in these things, buy trashed, get for cheap) I think $400.00. Look them up now, ka-ching!

That's because Ruby Red is the color of 'the other guy', so look in the 'other' hymnal... Its the 'opposing force' to green. Ruby Red (especially glittery) is the color of Sex, Lust, Lewdness, Lasciviousness, Craven desires, Envy, Want, Jealousy, Rage... All the good stuff that makes up a typical Saturday Night out. Green, OTOH, is Earth, Peace, Calm, Acceptance, Tranquility, it is the Soothing Balm of Life color. As evidence, I proffer:

So, the Green Flame is Killing It, I'm loving the way this is turning out. BUT...we now need to play the accent card, and in the right way. When I painted my house several years ago, I learned a ton about interior design and color-coordinating. I actually spent a few months soaking in the knowledge of how to accent my wall colors with room decor to make everything 'pop'. I'm no expert, but I learned a little, and it has helped me in many ways since then. And so now we make the slurpy green lizard 'pop'. For starters, the old standby, Salon Perfect 301, He's With Me (haha) Red is the natural accent color for green, and we're just getting started, I have more (and different) accents up my sleeve.

Me too, in a big way. Most people are very risk averse, I'm just exactly the opposite. I'll try anything with the complete understanding up front that it can all go down in flames at any minute and I could care less. It's not the work that counts for me, it's what's in my head, because I can repeat anything if it comes down to it. And I've found so many wonderful side roads to strange places that others would never discover that way. Kind of the 'give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish' kind of thing. The guitar is just a fish, and I know how to catch fish, lots of them, so one fish here or there, what's to worry? If you're not willing to leap off the edge of the cliff, how will you ever know if you can fly or not?

I like sanding too with one exception: the inside of the horns on any build. I don't have a spindle sander and I absolutely detest when the time comes when I must deal with those inside curves on the horns. So, they're always the very last item to be attended to, I put it off as much as possible until I can't escape them any longer.

I always do all sanding, whether its on wood or sanding finish, within reach of my compressor hose/nozzle. I typically blow the sandpaper and the work off about every minute or so. Sandpaper, Abralon pads in hand, Abralon on the orbital, I always clear them about every minute with ~100psi of air. Even if I'm Micromeshing a finish with water, I keep repeatedly blowing the piece off to dry the water out of holes and minimize any finish lifting. I used to think a router was the one absolutely indispensable tool for guitar building, but compressed air comes in right behind it for me. I'm rarely doing anything guitar oriented without having that compressed air hose nozzle within reach at all times.

When I used to do binding, it was almost always double-bound. And I would almost always (maybe 100% always) black the sides just like that. So your side pics remind me a lot of when I did binding jobs, usually on Teles.. So we've got black sides and binding, and Hofner block inlays, and a somewhat slightly 'hook beak' on the headstock. I'm loving it, haha, keep going! About the black metallic...what is the metallic ingredient if you know? Usually with black, you need another color to 'see' a metallic effect. Silver, gold, green, red, etc. Black paint with black metallic 'flake' usually yields just a rather bumpy black surface.

Oh, it looks charred 'hawt', especially the last pics. Love it.

Verry sexy so far. I'll share something interesting I found out years ago. When working high-figured Maples, I sort of did an experiment on some scrap where I continually sanded with finer and finer grits. Applying finish along the way. 220, 320, 400, 600, 1000, up to 1500. To the point where on 1-2 pieces, I actually dropped the sandpaper at 1500 and burnished the damn thing with a piece of metal for about an hour. I was trying to increase the chatoyance at the time, of course, and, it worked. What I found was that the higher the grit I used, the more the chatoyance would create 'opposing mirrored effects'. Like, if you looked at the piece from the left, you'd see the deep flame on one side, but the other side would look 'dead'. Then when you looked at it from the opposite side, the same, but opposite effect would occur. The higher the grit, the more the difference, to the point I could only see the chatoyance of only half of the guitar at a time. So yes, I got my chatoyance, but I didn't like only seeing half of it at a time, it kinda bugged me TBH. So now I just sand to 220 and call it a day, so I get chatoyance, but not half at a time. Maybe it had something to do with the way the lumber was cut or bookmatched, not sure, but it's possible. But that experiment sort of dulled me to going crazy high grit before finish. If I could get crazy chatoyance that all reflected the same direction, I'd be burnishing to this day.

I think, really, it is only by the sheer accumulation of mistakes over time that brings the true expertise and skill to a thing. Ask any really good craftsman how many mistakes they've made in the past and they will usually fall down laughing, because the count is so high.

Can't wait to see it. I shot the whole backside of the neck green before the end of the day. I didn't sand it down from the brown, I shot right over it with 2 coats of green, then some clearcoats. Cuz...you know I just had to do that...

'Angkor Wat is a miniature replica of the universe in stone and represents an earthly model of the cosmic world. The central tower rises from the center of the monument symbolizing the mythical mountain, Meru, situated at the center of the universe.' 'As the greatest of all mountain-temples, Angkor Wat is the prime example of classical Khmer architecture and was designed for the Immortal Gods. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument On the Planet. Angkor Wat is spread across over 400 acres / 1.6 km², and is said to be the largest religious monument in the world. Hmmm, The Cosmos seems to be a repeating theme in my builds lately...

Four tries to get the match. Colored, clearcoated, black-bursted front and back. A few more clearcoats and this guitar is done with the finishing stage. The neck came out such a good match, I'm not sure the eaglebeak point on the neck was even necessary now. Might remove it, might not.