badger6

4 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Looks great as it stands, gluelines or not. I was kind of apprehensive when I saw the original finish, thinking it might go south. It really turned out well. Believe me, few people manage strips and refinishes in naturals with any level of success. This is out of the park on many levels. Time to clean her up and get it sharp where it counts.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the support and complements. Tomorrow I think that I'll try another light sand back @ 600 grit and do 3 more final coats. That will put the total at 22 coats.  I'll  also start testing the tru oil on different random white surfaces to get a feel on how it changes the color. If it's more cream color or more yellow. That will give me an idea on what pickups to order and whether I want to find something else to clear over the headstock.

How long would you let the body sit after the last coat before sanding and polishing?

Also, what would be the final polishing steps? Wet sand at 600, then 1000, then 1500. Then hand buff with a polishing compound of some sort, like Meguiar's scratch x or swirl x with a piece of denim. Does that sound about right for a good satin or matte finish?

29 minutes ago, ScottR said:

You are probably correct about the heat gun causing some of your glue lines. I used to have a habit of working in the hot Texas sun and my darker bodies would soak up the sun and get hot much quicker than you would expect. That also dried the wood even more, making it want to move, and the heat softened up the glue and allowed it to move. The end result was new glue lines where once there were none.......and a lesson learned.

And yes you are likely correct about Tru-oil adding an amber tint to your white decals.

SR

As luck would have it, the pickguard and headstock logo arrived today. A few screws don't match up exactly and the pickguard is a little bigger in a couple spots, but I can make it work. I peeled back the cover a little and it looks pretty good!!! 

Not sure if it was the heat gun or not. Too late at this point anyhow. It think that with the worn driftwood type theme it won't matter either way. It's not like I'm going for a mirror finish because I bought my mirror finish. On the pickguard. 

I think that I'm going to do a couple tests on the tru oil over white and see what color it turns out. Maybe test it in the back trem cavity since I haven't blacked them out yet, And maybe find some white plastic and see what it does. If it turns out a cream, I may have to consider the zebras more. 

What else could I use over tru oil and the vinyl Ibanez logo on the headstock that won't react badly with either? Something actually clear that would keep the logo white. Preferably, a rattlecan that I can get at home depot or lowes since I'm an apartment dweller. I know nothing about how these different compounds react will with each other. The vinyl seems to be thicker than a waterslide decal, but it's thinner than I thought it would be. I would compare it to the thickness of a piece of standard copy paper, maybe just barely thicker.

44 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

I wonder what's caused that in the glueline area. Hmm.

Ironically, my first thought was that the very thing that I was using to hide the seams, the heat gun, was the what caused it. Like maybe it shrank the wood or something. But it looks like the "ridges" go down the length of the body. Probably, just bad prep work by me or something. Sometimes, when I get OCD about the details, I miss other things more important. It's my first time though, and I'm more than pleased with how it's turning out. Even though this tru oil routine gets old after a while, haha.

 Anyhow, the pickguard is down at the office ready for pickup and I need a haircut. I'll do a mockup with the pickguard and post a picture later today.

34 minutes ago, ScottR said:

If it were me and I'd already gone this far, I think I'd go ahead and use it up.

SR

34 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Now that's true.  I would however keep a very small amount spare in case you have a last minute touchup to do.

I have about an inch left in the tru oil bottle. However, the only Ibanez replacement logos that I could find were vinyl. I couldn't find any waterslide decals. I have a feeling that the white vinyl decal is going to be kind of thick, so I wanted to save enough tru oil  to try and build up enough coats to bury the decal the best that I could. 

Wouldn't the tru oil turn the white Ibanez logo into a off white or cream color? That's another reason that I was thinking about the zebra pickups. I kind of thought that they would contrast well with the body and match the logo. But I'm not sure what the tru oil will do to the white headstock decal as far as color. As you can see, I'm kind of OCD about details, haha

Ok, the highlighted areas is where the issues are. The 2 main ones seem to be on the glue joints. One on the front and one on the back and on opposite sides of the body. I'm not too worried about the light grain I have highlighted on the bottom of the body in the second picture. I feel that most of that will come out with the final sanding and polishing. I have one more coat to do before I get to 20 coats. All of these last 4-5 coats have been very thin. You guys think I should keep going after 20 coats or do the final coat and move on to final finishing.

7 hours ago, Norris said:

Ah - I'd forgotten it was a rebuild for a moment there

Yeah, with me living in an apartment the best I can do at the moment is probably buy parts, finish them, and then assemble them. Or rebuild older guitars. Any heavy woodworking probably isn't too practical at the moment. Hence the tru oil finish, lol.

Also, the expense of the all the tools would probably be very expensive. I'm looking forward to finishing this soon and starting another build. Or rather, I'm looking forward to doing another parts finish and assembly, haha. Maybe in the future, the opportunity will present itself and I'll be in the right situation to actually build a body and neck from scratch. 

8 hours ago, Norris said:

Another vote for black

There again, I'd think about making the fret markers black as well 

Make the Inlays black? Are you nuts, hahaha. I'm a super novice when it comes to this stuff

15 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

My hope is that they're better than the Artec, Guitar Fetish, et al. equivalents. Price doesn't always correlate to quality or a lack thereof, however it would be remiss not to consider it a factor. Like I say; I'd love to be proven wrong by road testing a set, and being an honest advocate if so. I'm a little hesitant since they seem to rely on pushing customer testimonials heavily. I suspect that a light sticker means lower expectations to be exceeded....?

I'm sure they'll be fine. They have to be better than the stock Ibz pickups, haha. So do you like the black or zebra Prostheta?

So what you guys think?  Black open coils or Zebra open coils? The color pickguard I ordered is called "smoke mirror", so I'm not sure if it will be more brown or more gray. But the mockup should be close enough.

5 hours ago, bone3552 said:

I put the Dirty Torque + Blues Engine combination into a frankenRG I did a while back. It was a mahogany RG350 body if I remember and the combo worked very well with a hardtail bridge. Very 80s with the lower output when compared to some of the hot humbuckers - not dissimilar to my PAF Pro loaded Ibanez JEM though the bridge is a bit harsher.

I had coil taps in that one too and the single coils were agreeable as well.

Hope that helps!

Looks like I'll go with Dirty Torque/Blues Engine or Hot Slag/Rolling mill combos depending on how much I want to spend. Those two combos look like the closest to a Duncan JB/59 set.  Look pretty good.for the money, they are around the same price as Guitar Fetish models. I read in a couple random places yesterday that the Iron Gear/Guitar Fetish/Dragonfire/Guitarhead pickups were all made by Artec. Thanks guys for the advice

Update time. Been kind of busy, but I've managed to hit the body with a block sander with 600 grit after the 15th coat. Now I'm up to 18 coats. I'll still have some grain showing at 20 coats. I'll post pics when I get to 20 coats and see if you guys think that I should keep going. 

I also ordered a Pickguard and a replacement Ibanez headstock logo. After a couple hours searching the net, I couldn't find an Ibanez waterslide decal. So I just ordered a self stick vinyl decal. Hopefully it isn't too thick and I can somehow bury it in the finish. Only thing left to order is an ESP arming adjuster or Goldo Black Box since I'm going to use the original shitty TRS Floyd copy for now. Also gonna need a couple new humbuckers. Anyone got any recommendations for some decent sounding cheap pickups for a 80's type rock and hard rock type tone?

On 4/15/2016 at 5:32 AM, Muzz said:

No pics  I want to see the kit 

Me too

I think I'll get to 15-16 coats and then maybe lightly hit it with the 600 grit on a block, Then continue with the rest of the bottle. 

I have to start thinking about the headstock logo also. I need to save enough oil to cover it with. I've seen some Ibanez headstock logos on ebay like this one . However, from the installation picture, those look more like vinyl rub on stickers and are probably kind of thick to bury in tru oil. Any suggestions on where to find an Ibanez waterslide decal or how to bury one of those thicker vinyl decals on the headstock?

Wet sanded it with 600 grit and the oil and got another 3 coats on since my last post, so I'm at 13 coats. I'm not sure if I'm going to get all of the grain line out. But I might as well just keep on applying coats until the 8 ounce bottle runs out. I would guess that would be about 18-20 coats total. 

Ok, I'm up to 10 coats. I'm gonna let it set up until I get back in town Monday. I'm thinking I'm gonna do a light wet sand to level out the finish. Then I'm going to do 2-3 very light finish coats, see how it looks and go from there. What grit paper would you guys use on the light wet sand? Would you just hit it with one grit or would you go through 2-3 progressively finer grits before the last few coats? 

3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

It depends on how you're applying it. A thin rubbed finish can be lightly sanded back after it builds to a point where the oil can take a bit of flatting. The difference here is that any burn-throughs are disastrous unlike raw wood, where it simply means you need to re-apply oil. Perhaps wet sand the surface with something light like 400-600 grit and a block. Lubricate the paper with a little oil and only hit the surface lightly rather than aggressively try and make it flat, otherwise you're guaranteed a burn through. Wipe 'er clean and get back to continuing light application.

I've got to admit; that does look super nice in spite of it being Basswood. Definitely the exception to the rule. Keep working at it with patience and you'll have a stunner. Good work.

Thanks Prostheta. Been kind of busy and only got one more coat on it since my last post. I was thinking about your post and was wondering if it would be better to wait until I get 9-10 coats (I'm at 6 now) until I do the wet sanding with some 400 grit and a little true oil. Is what you're talking about the slurry method that I've read about while researching?

Anyhow, I have to leave town again next Thursday, I'm going to try to get another 4-5 coats on by then. What would be the total number of coats you would do? Also, what would be your opinion on a matte vs gloss final finish?

Ok, got 4 coats of tru oil on this thing and noticed a drip by the forearm contour. Can't see it too well but it's there.

Wet sanded it lightly with 400 grit and started with the 5th coat.

I'm not sure if it's grain I'm seeing or light streaking in the tru oil. How long before it levels out?

Here's what I did. I applied the oil liberally all on the front, then sides, then back after it had dried a little and I could flip it over. The first coat mostly soaked in but left a nice matte finish when it was dry. About an 1.5-2 hours later I came back with a second coat equal to the first coat. I noticed that the surface was much more slick than before with the same amount of oil. I switched up between using a dauber and my fingers and found that my fingers worked better, I had better control. So I kept wipeing with the grain, working with the reflection of the surface as not to leave too many streaks. After it started getting tacky and fingers couldn't move easily, I wiped off the surface. I was using old t shirt material that has been washed a few times. However. where I cut the material down, the cut edges release fibers even though it had been washed a couple times. I didn't even think about that. Anyhow. next Monday when I get back in town, I think that I'll knock back the finish a little to see if i can clean up the trash and lint in the finish. Then I'll use your technique for adding the layers. What do you do for streaking? Are you rubbing with the grain or in small circular patterns?

Couple questions though. I've read that the 0000 steel wool is not good to used between coats. Would a piece of old clean denim work better? Also, since I'm having a lint/trash in the finish problem. What would be a good alternative to the rags I'm using? I have read the coffee filters work well.

Ok, did the first couple coats of tru oil. 

Looks like I burned the bottom side of the headstock at the tip and lower edge a little. I don't think there's much to do to fix that at this point so I won't worry about it. 

I've read various forums online to use your fingers to hand rub the tru oil in. But I have one question, how do you get that shit off your hands. My hands were one big sticky mess when I finished. I think that I'll invest in some fast food gloves or something, haha.

Anyhow, tomorrow I'm going out of town until Monday. Will letting the first 2 coats sit until then matter any? Also, it's picking up a little fuzz or lint sticking to the surfaces while it's drying. What's the process for removing that? 0000 steel wool before the next coat? Or would the green scotch brite pads work better?

12 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Totally. Basswood is junky wood for non-solid finishes, but that actually looks really good! Genuinely. 

Thanks, Prostheta. Actually after working with the basswood, it's not too bad. But only if it's one piece or a somewhat matched 2 piece body (If you can even do that with basswood), 5 pieces if a bit much, haha.  But a one piece body would have been much less work and came out much better

8 hours ago, Norris said:

I liked it at the "came back with more black highlights" stage - it looked almost like the markings of an exotic big cat. I think I'd have been tempted to leave it like that and finish off with a clear coat .

Having said that, the blue looks great

Thanks Norris. It did look kind of cool at that stage, but up close it didn't look too good. It was kind of sloppy since I knew that I was sanding it back. I just wanted a bit more background stuff going on to try and hide the distinct "5" pieces of wood that the body is comprised of. Maybe sanded back a little and a medium green on it and you would have a camo type finish.

Anyhow, I was thinking about putting another coat of stain on to try and cover the light/streaked areas highlighted below. But I don't think it will help much. So I may just leave it as it is.

Anyhow, pending if I do another coat of stain or not. I guess the tru oil is next. Also got to tape off the front and rear trem cavities and dress them with some flat black spray paint. Anyone familiar with tru oil got any tips or tricks?

Ok, got 2 coats of blue on and I think it looks ok. 

I wonder if I need another coat. Some of the edges are kind of light and have some areas with light steaking. But then again it might lend to the character and worn look. Anyone have any suggestions one way or the other?

With pickguard and trem in.

.

I'm thinking a flat black pickguard in a 2 humbucker configuration and 2 zebra or reverse zebra humbuckers. Any suggestions?

Came back with some more black highlights.

Then sanded back again. Sorry for the blurry pic.

Then hit with the heat gun. Not too happy about the way it came out, but it's my first time doing it. I think it would work better with a small propane torch, would have better control. 

Anyhow, I'm mixing the blue up and will post back in a while.....

14 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Sure. It's a difficult look to get on some woods. I think that heat is a great way of scorching the surface, then ragging it back with steel wood. Like @plinky said, there are limits to how hot you can let the wood get. Some woods such as Ash can be sandblasted to increase the weathered look.

The RG350DX has a Basswood body, which is pretty soft and less defined between the early/late wood which is what tends to reveal itself during weathering.

Time to consider getting artsy with fire!

Sanding the edges can work or simply look like you're burnt through the finish prematurely with the sandpaper. Edges are fragile as you know. Just seeing a consistent light line around the body is a bit distracting....perhaps breaking it up by having less/more of a line between each lamination, and bringing the light edge "down" into the board as a streak would make it look more natural?

Thanks Prostheta, your sanding idea helped out. After I got the rest of the black stain sanded back I  hit it with a medium brown.

I sanded it back lightly and used the edge of the sanding block to make lighter streaks going with the grain. Then lightly flat sanded it. Forgot to take pics after sanding back, but it kind of hid the lamination lines to an extent but they were still too visible for my liking. Anyhow, I got creative with the brown stain and I'll let dry overnight and see what we have tomorrow after lunch.

3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

I guess it depends on the final look you're aiming for. The dye seems to have been burnt through on the edges. End grain does soak up more. A method I've heard is to pre-wet it with alcohol prior to the dye. Not sure how easy this is in practice. 

As far as the edge are you talking about when I sanded it back? I'm trying to get more of an old  barnwood/weathered/relicing type look.  

12 hours ago, 2.5itim said:

3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

 

I

 

Are you talking about when I sanded it back as far as the edges? I'm trying to get more of an old  barnwood/weathered/relicing type look.