lowrider

I'm sure you folks can answer a lot of my questions regarding this, but can anyone direct me where I can read up on it? Curious about stabilizing, gluing, finishing, etc. Things like putting the top over a semi hollow? Thanks.

I guess you can use whatever you like but I'm just looking for some opinions on this. How hard or soft is it compared to the "normal" woods used?

Hey, a reason to post a pic of the first and only guitar I've built thus far. I am gonna do another in the near future. Like others, mine has a few small finish issues but it is my best sounding guitar.

That's cool, nice work. Maybe someday . You make it look too easy. Stop that would ya?

Well I took the plunge, drilled a tiny hole in those plugs to reveal screws under them. One wasn't doing a whole lot either. After scoring the front side of the bridge with a razor along the top, it pretty much came right off. I removed the thin layer of cedar and old glue from under the bridge. Hopefully all I'll have to do is lightly sand the top where some cedar no longer lives, get some better screws, and re-screw with some glue. Clamping it would probably be a good idea too. If I feel like being really nice I might even replug those holes with some dowel. Thanks for the reply jaycee.

So a co-worker friend of mine asked me if I'd set up his Takamine Gs330s. This particular guitar appears to have a solid cedar top. He told me the strings seemed a little high and in the 9 or so years he's had it, he would only change one string at a time, as they broke . I get it home and take a look. Besides being hammered, bruised and beaten, the bridge is starting to rise off of the top. First thought was to put it back in the bag and return it to him. But instead I did a little research on possible reasons for this and what's involved to repair it.

The top doesn't look to be bowed, but it does have a few cracks. Is this more common with cedar tops? I know someone else with this exact guitar and it's top has a crack also. I got a mirror and looked at the bridge plate for cracks and it looks fine. I will say it looks very thin to me at about 1/8" thick. While looking in there I see what looks to be the tips of two screws poking through. The bridge has two "plugs" atop these possible screws. Could that be how this bridge is attached?

I'm still not sure I want to get involved. On the other hand I'm pretty sure I wont be able to resist trying. I also don't think I could hurt this thing much more than it already has been either. I'm gonna try and post some photobucket links. Any thoughts and opinions are welcome. Even suggestions of taking a match to it.

Thanks, lowrider.

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Install the frets first. It'll get in the way when finishing your frets anyway.

If you go to gotm for may and look at my build you'll see one of their tops. I'm pretty sure it was listed as an AAA top but it came in their electric kit that my wife bought for me so I'm not 100% sure.

Well I wanted to take some better pics but the card reader is acting up so these will have to do. I'll call it "First born Sun" since it's my first build and well it's kinda orange.

Mahogany neck and body with a figured maple top(obviously).

Bookmatched headstock overlay and truss rod cover.

Ebony board

25" scale

Schaller mini's

Rio Grande Texas/BBQ pup set, push/pull tone knobs for splitting

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Very nice. You guys make me want to build another guitar just to try tru oil. Nice looking finish.

The back (mahogany?) looks a bit pale, but it could be the pictures. It looks really really nice overall, love the color of that top. Good job indeed! :D

Thanks all. It is mahogany. The back is a little lighter than the sides, I guess thats to be expected. It is a little lighter than my other mahogany gits now that I think about it.

Awesome! Did you build the neck yourself?

Yes. I was a little worried about making the neck but it went pretty well and turned out good too. Its a little larger than I prefer but thats ok.

I uploaded full pics again and was trying to fix it. Sorry 'bout that.

I still have some tweaking to do but here it is anyway...

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Nice looking guitar. Nice work too.

My Carvin has a poly finish and an ebony board, no flaking at all. Never heard any other Carvin owner complain about it either. Maybe just a bad prep job on the Fender? I may go the shellac and then poly route. Oh and yes I used a sealer first. I'm able to get a smooth transition from old to new finish, its just visually obvious. Still a little apprehensive about sanding down the top that has stain on it.

Never thought the finish process would kick my a$$ quite like this. All of my finish experience is with polyurathane. Never had a problem. On my guitar I decided to try my hand at spraying and for some reason I went with Stew-Macs water based sealer/lacquer. The stuff went on well but seems to have a problem sticking properly to the fretboard edge, which is ebony. I believe it has to do with the oils in ebony. I've had to repair the finish in a couple of places and I can easily see where I did this. Of all the things I read, I never came across anything that would have led me to believe I had to prepare the ebony in any special way. Am I wrong on this?

At this point I'm considering sanding the whole thing down and using poly. My concerns with that is the compatibility with the waterbased grain fill that I used, also the possibility of not getting all of the wb finish off somewhere which may cause an issue when I put the poly on. Oh, and sanding down the top which was stained and F'n that up.

This is my first build(still ). My old lady keeps reminding me of that, and not to beat myself up. Thing is, it has turned out way better than I thought it would. If it were ragged looking I'd be more inclined to let it be and start playing the thing. But since it has come out so close to perfect, I feel I need to get it right. Wish I could tell how well it will actually play before killin' myself. Any comments are appreciated.

I made some outa figured maple, it was pretty time comsuming but they came nice.

I bought a black lacquer stick and thought maybe I'd use it to fill the fret slots. I may just mix some ebony dust with super glue like I did for filling around the markers(had a few chip outs), that seemed to work pretty well. I still need to read up on using the stick but my main question is can it be applied before top coats or is it mainly used as touch up after the top coats?

Well I've been using a sewing needle to pluck the polish out of the pores and sanding lightly trying to make the pores a little smaller. It's looking pretty good but I have a lot more to do before I can even think about putting some lacquer back on though. This is gonna take awhile.

I went on their website and found the msds data. It says on there that it is completely water soluble. That would lead me to believe that water would do the trick. I'm gonna see if wetting a small area for 5 minutes loosens it. Maybe a really strong suction/vacuum. I'm grasping now I know, but I've got a bad feeling I'm gonna be sanding until it's gone. I called them and a very nice but totally clueless lady took my # and said she will try and find out some more info and call me. Thanks for the ideas Drak. Maybe I should go wire up that pedal board I got at Christmas awhile.

First paint it white, then shoot at it with red paint balls. Sorry, could'nt resist. Next...

Its only the mahogany that it's getting caught in. No7 may not be the best choice I guess. I was getting a pretty good shine with it though, just with white speckles. So close but yet so far away...

Ok, I'm almost 100% positive its the No7 polish that is giving me the trouble in the pores. I took a pin to a couple and it came right out. I dont think I want to do every one though . If it were'nt for that I could just put some lacquer on and move on. I called the No7 makers and they tell car customers to use soft scrub to remove it if they have trouble getting it off. I dont know about that for this application.

I used Stewmacs color tone wb medium brown filler. I put 12 coats of sealer and 9 coats of lacquer on it. Did some level sanding about 1/2 way thru the sealer coats. All this by their recomendations, btw. Yes I did it all by myself. . I'm guessing you are asking these q's because you read my other post. Thankyou, and help away please.