SIMpleONe89

Well you can always cut the excess pickup wire but your idea sounds good. 

Nice! I like how the lighter stripe lines up with the knobs.

What about faux binding? You can trick him... 

That's really neat! Simple too. No active electronics and switches to worry about. 

Is that birds eye maple? 

24 minutes ago, birch said:

I don't know if that would work on acrylic but it might be worth a try. Personally I would mask everything but the headstock face, scuff it, make sure any ridge is gone and give it a couple light coats to seal things up. Shouldn't take much material to fill and cover the pinholes. Or just leave it, it doesn't look like a huge deal.

Thanks. I think it's probably wise for me to leave it! I can foresee many things going wrong haha.

That explains it! Thanks for the help!

So is there a way to get rid of the white spots? Scott suggests blush remover. I could try that but I'm tempted to leave it alone because I don't want to risk any more potential damage haha.

Oh but the surface is flat and I thought pinholes meant areas of sunken spots. 

Anyway I probably won't be spraying another finish for a long time, but glad I learned something.

Thanks for the help. Glad to know it wasn't an issue with humidity but my own impatience! 

I did wait at least 2 hours in between coats. Maybe there were days where I rushed things and it didn't dry enough.

Lesson learned!

Haha my wife thinks so too! Sometimes I make sanding a fun project and make her do it. :

So I started repairing the chip with some lacquer drop filled.

I also noticed these ugly little white dots in some places on the headstock.

I've had this problem on a previous build where I used the same acrylic brand but with a black finish. Does anyone know the cause of this? I always made sure I sprayed on dry days (<60% humidity in my garage). The spots only came out after wet sanding and weren't there before. 

Thanks guys. Ok now I feel better that I'm not the only one to commit such a silly mistake! 

Nice! I love seeing acoustic builds and I hope to try it one day. Looking forward to seeing your work! 

Some more shots of both the neck and body. I think I may have to re-sand some low shiny areas on the body.

Apart from that stupid chip and some low spots on the mahogany back, I think I'm pretty satisfied with this rattle can job. This is probably the best high gloss finish I've ever done. It only took me 6 tries hahaha.

Thanks guys.

Got the neck done today.

But in my excitement, I accidentally knocked the headstock against the table and this happened...

After much cursing and swearing, I've decided to fix this. I don't think it will be hard to touch up. I repaired dings and chips before but the fact that I destroyed it just after making it perfect just made me really sad. Don't think I'll be able to get it perfect again but some drop fills with lacquer or even super glue should do the trick. I think the dye is still in the wood. 

Maybe it's worth getting a soldering station where you can adjust the temperature. The dollar store cheap ones aren't very good at getting hot and I've ruined some good pots before! 

Maybe you should get a third hand and that can help hold the wire in place while you use your normal hands to hold the iron and the solder. It helps a lot for wiring pesky small things. 

Just spent the whole day wet sanding and buffing the body. My arms are so sore right now. 

I'll leave it for a few days before assembling. I'll do the neck tomorrow.

The mahogany was a pain to wet sand. I probably didn't grain fill enough and I had a few shiny low spots which I couldn't level out. I could continue wet sanding and level them out but I risk sanding through and I think the latter is worse. I already accepted it isn't perfect but it's good enough for me!

Yup I'll still be mounting the magnets anyway. 

There probably is but it's a small issue and doesn't give me much grief. 

Thanks Carl. I just ordered an Aluminium sheet. I'd love to try laminating the cover and I don't want to risk the cover warping in future! I think it would look cool too and will help with shielding. 

I think I have all the tools I need for now. I have 4 long clamps (2 F clamps and 2 quick clamps) and do you reckon that's enough to glue the wings on? I'll definitely glue them separately and use off cuts as clamping cauls. 

Cut out the body wings. Couldn't resist a mockup.

I'll show the process of how I managed to get clean edges without having to create an additional set of templates soon. I can't get perfectly straight edges because my jigsaw struggles on thick pieces and the blade bends outwards and the bottom always ends up thicker. 

15 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

If the wood has lost the right amount of moisture (7-10% EMC) and it doesn't have excessive curvature within the growth rings then it shouldn't. Wood will continue to move in response to environmental humidity of course, so if it rains and humidity goes waaaay up, you might find it cups slightly heartwards. A lot of people laminate thinner things like pickguards, etc. I've been considering whether to inlay a thin metal sheet into the back of something like this. Kind of like a thin internal recess to disrupt the growth rings, provide grab for mags and shield at the same time.

It should be fine as it is.

Great! Maybe I'll look for a metal sheet and laminate it! That or maybe some plastic pickguard. Thanks for that. 

Thanks! Good to hear there aren't any warping issues.

Yes the only worry is the thickness of the double sided tape but I guess that's a small issue that can be sanded out. 

Hey guys I was thinking of a way to do the control cavity plate. Now I'll be using a Tasmanian Blackwood 9mm for the back. Currently I've glued the sandwich consisting of a Wenge top (9mm), Jarrah veneer, Vic Ash middle (21mm), and will fit the blackwood on the bottom, bringing the total to about 40mm, which I intended for.

I was thinking of cutting out a section off the Blackwood back, then stick it back on with double-sided tape and route the body shape and round overs. This matching piece of Blackwood would be the control cavity plate which would blend in nicely with the rest of the back. Then I can probably attach some magnets and make it easy to remove to access the battery and the electronics.

This guy did it here:

And I think Pedulla basses do this for their control plates as well.

Do you think this is a feasible way to do it? Will the control plate warp in future? I had the piece drying for about a month now and it's quite flat.

9 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Do you use the palm of your left hand over the top of the rasp? That is a grip I use a lot, otherwise definitely. Applying working pressure with one hand becomes tiring easily.

Yup I do. But still the handle could be slightly bigger!