Drak

I don't know what finish you've been using or what your buffout recipe is, but I'll toss these out as common mistakes I made along the way: Could be you're starting your levelling process with too coarse a grit to begin with. Could be you're rushing through the grit stages too fast and not completely removing the previous scratches as you move up. Could be your finish hasn't cured hard enough before starting the finishing process. If you're using a crosslinking finish of any sort, they all call for pro buff equipment. You can't buff out a crosslinker by hand to acceptable gloss standards, it's a whole different ballgame. Crosslinkers are 'tough' and film finishes are 'brittle'. I did all those things and had to modify my process along the way to accomodate. These are the things I did to accomodate my mistakes: I started my levelling process while still shooting coats which filled in the deep scratches. By the time I was done shooting, I could start levelling with micromesh 1800 or even 2400. I made a rule of one grit a day and no more. That made me concentrate on using that grit thoroughly for that day until previous scratches were truly gone. It's hard to slow yourself down sometimes. At first, I would try to go through the whole process in one night and would wind up with deep scratches when done. I learned how to either avoid alltogether or use very very little retarder in my lacquer to keep my finish hard. The overuse of retarder will leave the finish permanently soft and open to future scratching. I moved away from using crosslinking finishes since at the time I decided to not fork out the money for a pedestal buffer. A pedestal buffer can and will remove any deep scratches you may have left behind, so not having one if finishing by hand means you really have to be uber-careful to get rid of them along the way. My one-grit-a-day rule was aimed at doing exactly that.

I think PG needed a good long break from me, and I from it . PS, Congrats on your World-Wide domination Perry, most awesome to watch your growing success from this corner of the world. I've been on The Gear Page forums the whole time, I became a dirty low-down pedal-ho and got totally engrossed in building several custom boards, tuning my rig to be wet-dry-wet capable, rebuilt one of my cabs from 1-15 to 2-12, built a few new cabs...I'm always doing something, just not always building guitars.

PS those are genuine 1980's Bill Lawrence L-500's in creme. I love those pickups. I've been buying those things (originals) for years now on eBay and Reverb when I run across them, probably have over a dozen sets in different variations. Black, creme, HB's, mini-HB's (L-550's), cool, hot, etc. The guitar isn't done yet, it hasn't been final-buffed out or anything as I'm putting the final clearcoats over the bursted top now and still need to do the matching headstock veneer. It's kind of a weird Drak-ish homage to the late '70's Ibanez Artist guitars. Sort of.

Hey Chris! Hope your new bidness is going well and strong . I'll catch this up to date real quick. 3-year old build that sat at the back of the rack for awhile but is now getting more work done to it. 1/4" Purpleheart top over 3-piece Mahogany body. Wood was taken from a lumber stash I was given a long time ago. The guy buscuited the Mahogany for a tabletop so I had to fill the biscuit joints in. There was enough there for 3 bodies, 1 3/4" thick. This Mahogany has some of the best Mahogany tone I have come across in all my years, it has to be tapped to be believed. Not all Mahogany has great tone, but this has it, some very nice stock. That made it easy to overlook the biscuit joints I had to fill in. Since I bursted the edge, you can't even tell they're even there now. I think I marked the back end at a 1" bevel and then worked it down to 1/2" starting around the waist area. There is a big gap between the forming and finished shots, oops. The last pic here on this post was how I left it about a year ago. I sat on the issue of whether to burst the top edge or not, and finally decided to do it and just did that a few days ago. Pics of the new look coming, otherwise you're up to date. I included one pic with a shortie trapeze tailpiece, but will probably go with the Ibanez tailpiece.

She wore a Raspberry beret The kind you find in a second hand store Raspberry beret And if it was warm she wouldn't wear much more Raspberry beret I think I loooove her

Funny idiot Drak story. The one Olivewood topped guitar I built (a long time ago)... ...Suffered from The Agony of the Hammer, oh yessir it did. It was done, completed, we were both happy and quite in love. I was installing a Floyd on it, finishing it up. I seem to remember I underdrilled the first bridge pivot female insert opening by one size. I figured one size wasn't all that much and a hammer would get 'er done. I started hammering it but it didn't really 'take' the way I thought it would, the hole really was too small and I really had to hammer her hard. Driving it in actually resulted in a small fracture of the body wood surrounding it, the hole was really too small for the insert. I figured I would just fill the small splits with runny CYA glue which I did. I finish everything else up and go to insert the male into the bushing. Well, I didn't know that I hit the female bushing so hard I actually cracked it and when I was filling the small splits, the CYA wicked into the bushing and dried there. The insert was hammered in, CYA glue was applied around it, there was no getting it back out w/o major surgery that would show. I was quite despondant and so it took it's rightful place on the WOD. ...I still dream about Olive some days... In hindsight, I bet the reason it was so hard to get the bushing in was because Olive wood is just so damn hard and unforgiving, there was just no forgiveness in that wood. And, alas, there was no forgiveness in the hammer that day either.

PS, Prosthetas' answer is an excellent choice and is the thorough one. I find with unexpected repairs it leads me to a crossroads of how deep do I want to get into it. Sometimes the thorough path is best, sometimes a spot patch, dust yourself off and be on your way works best. Sometimes, sometimes, the Hammer of Death shows it's brutal face and I just obliterate the project from all memory , but it's gotta be a pretty intensive repair that I really don't want to do for that.

I've had issues like that in the past that wound up dragging me far further backwards trying to repair it than I would have preferred. I would probably wait until you're about ready to apply your finish, then just fill it with whatever you prefer as a spot filler (many options), then start your finishing soon thereafter. I think that would be the best way to keep your forward momentum going to the finish line of being done and playable. Applying your finish will seal the wood from further moisture enhanced expansion or contraction issues, help stabilize it and hopefully stop any further movement. Olivewood is a really really tough, hard and dense wood, it reminds me of Zebrawood in it's toughness. I don't know how you're going to finish it but sometimes little fubars like that can be hidden or masked by a little inventive spray pattern or airbrushing, so it winds up being muted just enough that the eye doesn't really catch it.

Sorry Scott I didn't read all 16 pages, just this one. Do you have any special design plans for the pickups? Beyond awesome, I want to be you (haha!).

Where did you get the Olive anyway?

Some very interesting insights... I remember when I hit my burn-out wall years ago my circumstances were amazingly similar. I remember I had clocked in something over 110+ builds that I could verify one way or another. I had been at it at an obsessively furious pace for about +/- 12 years. I started around 1997-ish and hit my burn-out somewhere around 2008-ish. It was pretty weird when it hit, I wasn't exactly sure what to do about it for awhile. So I just said OK one day and put everything away. I didn't do anything dramatic like throw everything away or sell off anything, I just put it away. There are ebbs and flows to life and it is wise to listen to the inner voice. Not everything that comes at you is meant to be permanently with you. And if it leaves it feels a little weird for awhile, there is open space there that used to be occupied. Life is like a tide, it comes in, and it goes out, there's no need to go chasing it when it's going out. The building did come back after a few years, but at a much more relaxed and reasonable pace. Since I only ever did it for my own gratification and never sold anything, money never was a hook. I think some people that get into it as a hobby wind up getting snagged by the lure of money. I always kept my joy of building untainted by money so I never had that hook to deal with.

Not loving every build is a good thing. It means you're picky and discerning. That's the hallmark of any good craftsman. Your builds are beautiful, especially the Olive Ash. I remember I did an Olive Ash Burl veneer guitar ages ago and I love it too. It's really some of my favorite burl veneer when you find the right piece(s).

John I love your soundhole. The soundhole on your guitar, yes that.