Norris

Bathroom ceiling painted Carpet vacuumed Hair, fluff, random bits of string (!) cut away from vacuum cleaner brushes Carpet vacuumed again Enough brownie points accrued, frets polished I don't like levelling and crowning, but polishing is quite satisfying. Micro mesh pads followed by a polish with Meg's ultimate Too late and tired now to do another coat of Tru Oil - it's always best to stop and tackle it fresh another day, or run the risk of a fatigue-induced error

That's quite a challenge. I'd soak it in PlusGas for a while before dismantling it. It might need a bit of heat too. Then you'll have to see what the thread is like for the adjuster wheel - if there's enough metal left, you can always re-cut the thread to clean it up. I'd then get the metal parts sand blasted, or attack it with a wire brush. Drill and/or Dremel bits will help. Once clean, paint it up with Rustoleum. Finally you will need to get the contact surfaces flat and clean. Personally I'd probably try to find a better example to recondition. That one looks pretty far gone

Ooh - amber pickup rings could look rather nice, especially if roughed up to look natural like that hanging piece. Matching tuner knobs? Edit: I bet that could probably diffuse the light from a couple of LEDs too, if you want some really snazzy pickup rings

Yes, yes it does Finishing is not a "simple thing". Slow, frustrating, awkward to get right, but certainly not simple (Ask me how I know!)

I hope it's easier to work with this time

Try telekinesis

It's only a cheap one

Lever it up with fingernail/plectrum

Truss rod cover part 2. The truss rod nut is 8mm diameter, so with a 8.5mm bit I drilled a hole Then sanded lots So flipped over and in place there is 1 or 2 mm to remove from the top surface for final fitting Then drilled in the channel and magnets glued in place. I also started a roundover of the cover itself Oh, and sanded a small recess to be able to hook your fingernail under. If you haven't guessed yet, the two pieces will be glued together once the final height is set I've not quite finished the roundover, but then I've not quite finished with the cover yet...

Just for a second I thought you'd painted stripes. That would be a heck of a look

Always with a sanding block, light pressure, tap the dust out of the paper on a microfibre cloth every few strokes to stop the paper clogging. I did have to go down a bit to remove the blemish, and now that the solvent has gassed off a bit there are a couple of areas that will definitely need another coat or two. On the whole though it's looking pretty good to me. We're on the final bend and fast approaching the home straight

I'm not sure if it was a stray hair or a little scratch, but it was slap bang in the middle of the body and wasn't covered by another coat of oil. So out came the 400 grit to get it out, followed by a 1200 grit micromesh pad all over. A fresh coat of Tru Oil and it's looking much better. One or two more coats should see it done Then I've just got the rest of it to finish

I don't know if you have access to African khaya in the states. It looks and works like mahogany. The body of my build is solid but very light. There are lots of varieties of khaya - the one I'm using for the body is quite pinkish in colour, but is looking like mahogany after a few coats of Tru Oil. The neck is a darker, denser variety. I'll do a weigh in on my thread before I hand it over to its owner. It's certainly very light weight for anything resembling a Gibbo

Looking great But I'm curious... how is the rear cover attached to the neck? Is it there so you don't forget to finish it as well as the body? I've already lost count of the times I've had to wrestle my sweaty gloves back on because I forgot to put another coat on the cover

Fabulous! The case looks rather good too

Homework: finishing off the flatting and a coat of oil Class: Half of a truss rod cover from an offcut of the fretboard. There will be another piece to this to come

Looking good

That turned out splendidly

Oh, one tip for anyone considering an oil slurry fill. My first attempt with conventional wet and dry paper wasn't brilliant. On my second attempt I used Silverline-brand sterated aluminium oxide paper in 240 grit for flat areas and 400 grit everywhere else. The paper held up fine in the Tru-Oil, with no grit shedding and I got much better results than with the wet and dry paper. Maybe it's because the al-ox paper is a bit more compliant and flexible

There's nothing quite like the feel of properly smooth wood. It takes on an almost waxy feel, when you can no longer tell which way the grain goes. It almost clings to your hand like the Van der Waals force. Most satisfying Anyway, this is the slurry and buff coat, plus another coat to give something to cut into, knocked back with 400 grit aluminium oxide paper You can just make out a white speck in the foreground - the last few microns of the gloss coat That wasn't actually the main object of tonight's class. That was to finish off deburring the fret ends with the instructor's lovely little diamond file. The sanding was a bonus to fill the rest of the time I got the front and back flatted off, but still need to do the sides and neck before any more oil. It's getting to the point where the guitar will have to stay at home drying rather than carting it back and forth, so a few future classes might be spent on the next project (I wonder if anyone can remember what that is...)

Fabulous matt finish! Gorgeous stuff again

Pau Ferro gets my vote. Lovely looking guitar

Could be. The finish needs to be up to scratch though

... and a bit of wiring to boot

A gentle sand back (and not dusted down too much) followed by a Tru-Oil slurry & buff Hopefully I'll get the first shiny coat on tomorrow and see if it looks smooth enough. If not then the slurry & buff will be repeated