mistermikev

I'm all out of thanks... so THANKS!

14 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Pores.

Maple has such fine tiny pores that filling is not typically done. So you can spray a nice nitro finish over a maple top, let it cut for 3 or 4 weeks, then level it and polishing to a blinding gloss. It looks perfect. Six months later, you're playing it and the light hits it just right and you see tiny dimples pointing out all those tiny pores. The nitro follows the form as it shrinks, and sinks into the pores just a bit. The guitar's finish is still blinding and looks perfect from most angles. And there is nothing wrong with it. But it still seems to be a finishing goal to not have gloss clear sink into pores.

SR

ah... so would doing a filler on the maple prevent this?  I ask because I'm about to refin my blonde (yes, again) and wondering if I should try to pore fill it.  Honestly, since this will be a satin finish... I don't think it will bother me a t all... but might be good practice to see how it would have worked on a gloss.  (thanks for the info)

42 minutes ago, ScottR said:

Thanks Mike. I had planned on the highlight areas to be brighter. Bleaching the wood first might be the best bet for the best blues. I'm thinking I may have to rehearse blue one more time before using it on a guitar again. And find a way to seal of the dye from the poly sealer or just drop that altogether. I really like the non-sink aspect of it though. Nitro always keeps shrinking for 6 months or more. With this stuff under it, it doesn't matter.

Maybe a layer of shellac over the dye is called for...

 Oh, and that project is not done yet. Since those last pics its gotten more layers of nitro, which will need to cure and then get polished out.

SR

so... please elaborate.  why is shrinking an issue?  I guess where there are seams it might be... but I would think using filler there would prevent any lines from showing - but I'm getting the impression there is something else you are alluding to.

some good info above on the blue.  I learned how not to do blue on my sweet spot.  it turned way too dark and I feel like it was a fail, in stride tho. 

one of the things that I stumbled into and haven't had a chance to really make use of is tinting my tru oil.  it's what I did on the last step.  saddly, the base was already too dark.  I didn't actually tint the tru oil... I just put blue leather dye on top.  what I liked about this is it really changes color depending on the light. 

When I get to do it over again, I'm going to do a much lighter base and a lighter tint on top of true oil.  Like you've outlined above... seems like with dark colors you really can't see the grain... so I've learned that on my build and again here how I might get the darkness without dulling the finish - thank you for that!

I would love to try what you did above, and will someday, but I've no sprayer at present... so storing that away.  for the record your end result is stunning and about the most 3-D I've ever seen.

I'm going to have to do some more reading on your info above.  this is a dissertation in finishing.  LOTS of good info there... almost overwhelming.  while I think your tests after this look great... I would not second guess the finish above.  it fits this guitar very well IMO and wow... that is a stunner.  I'm floored.

21 hours ago, ScottR said:

 

THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING i HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME!

2 minutes ago, RestorationAD said:

For some reason Arch always gets that comparison. For me he is somewhere closer to Halford and Tate. Again I struggle with his insistence on blowing through his full range on every line but on this album he seems to be better about staying in the scope of the music.

 

For me the two albums that started American Prog Metal were Queensryche "Rage for Order" and Fates Warning "Awaken the Guardian", I believe Dream Theater was heavily influenced by both.

queensryche... now there is a guy with some pipes.  I saw them get booed off stage at 'and justice for all' and was probably the only person in the crowd who thought they killed it.  had never heard them before that.  the masses are so silly - don't know what they like until everyone says they like it!

lately for me... I've been really enjoying devin townsend... another guy with amazing pipes.  I don't love everything he does, and def am more of an "80's metal guy", but have to admit that some of the prog bands i've heard are getting me back into it... including above.

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

....gold is yellow....

Thought I'd put that out there for you Brett.

yellow hardware (hehe) would really set that thing off.  also, love this finish and "GO PACK GO".

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

On another video he uses the huge Triton TPL180, if you prefer power tools.

noice... that thing looks heavy duty.    no elec planer here although that one looks like it could be fun! 

Either way... I would think you'd have to still plot out your angle because you'd have to apply it to your neck tenon, no?  I imagine you could use this technique with a router to rout your neck tenon pocket (instead of putting the angle on the tenon itself).

unsure how I'm going to put a plane into the top using a router.  I suppose you could use this idea and plane up to the edge of the top... use a big plexi router base and leaving a 1/2" wall at the edge of the guitar that you could knock down afterwards. 

Always good to see a number of dif approaches to something so for that I thank y'all.

going to have to check this video out... thanks for posting op.

snap... sounded like an easy button... but having watched... photoshop it is!  good video and neat trick if you are using a hand plane to get there!

3 hours ago, RestorationAD said:

Man I have been busy.  My kid's High School Lacrosse season is over but we still have Travel Lacrosse this summer so I am still busy.

 

I listen to a lot of prog.

Arch/Matheos Winter Ethereal. I can't stop listening to this album. I was never a Jon Arch fan. I am a huge Ray Alder fan. Still I liked Awaken the Guardian and remember playing it all the time. This is Jon Arch's greatest work. It helps that 3-4 of the songs were supposed to be Fates Warning songs.

 

Ok next post back to what I have been up to.

 

never heard of this band... not a huge metal guy these days but it very much reminds me vocals-wise of dream theatre.  very good voice.  will have to check some more out.  thanks for exposing me.

I kind of figured that was what you meant... but was having fun. 

the one side looks just fine... the other side: in retrospect probably should have dry fitted them and caught this but not the end of the world.

I'm familiar with wolf fences in my code... but wolf notes... sounds cool.  I bet someone would pay extra to get 'wolf tone' out of a guitar!

some people pay good money for necks that have hollow spots... what I mean by that is that nothing is ever as bad as it seems and the more I learn about building the more I realize you can get away with a LOT!  gap in the fretboard is not ideal, but if it's a small gap here or there I suspect it won't be a big deal. 

afa fwd bow... could be your fretboard pulled your neck out.  before you do any compensation you should probably check you truss rod.  at the end of the day -as long as it's straight when you put frets on, and then straight when you level those frets... the rest really doesn't matter.

yeah, what they said... walnut looks killer.  top looks great too.  nice job.  I've never been able to play v's - even with that leg flap they put on them in the 80's.  great guitar to play standing up... which I never do... all that said I still kind of want one (what's wrong with me?!)

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

Brown pigment is mostly varying parts of the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. So when you put blue on top of brown, the blue component of the brown just adds to the blue layer, and the red and yellow components show in various degrees in different light sources and angles, giving you the green tints at some angles and the purplish tints at others. The light bouncing back off the wavy fibers of your figured maple adds to the effect.

SR

you forgot to add "QED" at the end there.

hehe, actually wasn't too bad only because they didn't have much to pick through so... funny tho... the two boards I got were noticeably lighter than the others... all the grain looked about the sm!

so... got a 9' 10" 8/4 board and a 9' 6" 8/4 board.  just weighed one of the sections I had it cut down to and looks like 3.15lbs/bft - yes!

3 hours ago, gpcustomguitars said:

Thanks mistermikev! I hope this will be a useful guitar, that I don't have to worry too much about getting scratched etc when we play on the porch For me, projects such as this are a good place to practice and develop skills without the fear connected with more valuable instruments. I'm doing repairs from time to time, and a hopeless project is sometimes really useful in the learning curve, even pro bono sometimes, just for the experience points

right on.  Its funny but I've found that on the occasion where I've worked on a guitar that I didn't care about much (not to say you don't care about this one) or rather didn't have much to loose on... anything I do is effortless and just goes off without a hitch.  Much like the rest of life... once the pressures on it's so much harder to not screw up!  Like you I've found that scenario the best learning experience and/or confidence builder.  also it's more funner!

wow, I wouldn't have guessed something like that could be saved but I know nothing (them me stop me right there) about building acoustics.  will be watching with fascination!

2 hours ago, Urumiko said:

i like ash's idea of crowning in to the nitro if its harder.

in my case... it's going to be a white lacquer finish... my concern is it will be fairly visible on the frets.  I guess we can always see... and just not do the extra work if it isn't.

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

You're right, the tighter the end grain is the heavier the wood. However, it also depends on the dampness. The wide fast grown stripes are those that carry most of the water, the more the closer to the surface (bark) they are. So a moisture meter might help you some.

Potentially the swirly grain stuff is heavier as you supposed, since it has more of that slow grown grain.

thanks for the reply.  afa water... my contention would assume both boards being compared (tight vs wide grain) have been sufficiently dried.  I'm in AZ (VERY DRY DESERT) and all the wood I've bought so far has been really dry.  Also, it's about to go in a garage where it will reg hit 120 so... whatever moisture is there should be getting naturally dealt with!  anywho... paying a visit today so... we'll see how it goes.

19 hours ago, Urumiko said:

I saw a crimson guitars video on this, where he said basically nitro over the whole fretboard, frets and all, then scalpel around the frets and the nitro peels right off. That's what I plan to do.

 

just so everyone knows: when I disappear from a thread... it's not because I'm rude... it's because I easily loose track and have no idea anyone replied to me.  either way - sorry for that.  good video!  I actually did much the sm when I first got my strat neck that has a nitro finish... frets were covered in lacquer.  Ben is it?  he makes it look really easy.  when I did my neck it was super brittle as it had probably been drying for months if not a year.  I think that might be a key detail there... doing it while it's still soft... of course that means a real risk of dinging things.

thank you for this... def builds confidence watching that!

17 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I used this technique before removing the frets on a lacquered maple Hondo neck at the weekend. There was plenty of lacquer where the frets met the fretboard so it's obviously not a technique they used back in the 80s, I guess they just lacquered over the frets then just levelled and crowned, which would probably end up with a neater result when the frets have been painted a solid colour.

that's how my strat neck looked... they just leveled it and didn't take any of the side lacquer off.  didn't even realize it was there until it started chipping.  I think with a color (white in this case) if you screw up the line at the fret it might show more.  guess we'll see when I get to that point. 

anywho... thanks for the response gentlemen!

not to detail... and just thinking out loud here... but perhaps I should do this... but I don't and kind of surprised to read about it (specifically shaping the neck after stringing).

I've arrived at two necks (my first one was not bad but not what I'd shoot for) that have been really great. 

I did use a profile of a neck that I already liked as my target for facets... and I don't think I do as much carving since I cut my grade in with a router first... so that might explain why.  then again, I'm pretty easy to please too! 

so I need some ash... place near me has 8/4 for $4bf.  great... but it comes in 10' pieces and I'm hopefully going to get a 13" wide board.  I am going by myself and as it were... i'm no power lifter.  so... I'll have ltd ability to dig through a stack as I'll have to do it myself. 

so with that in mind... and considering that it's impossible to 'feel' the difference in weight between one super heavy board and another... i have this question:

can you make any sort of general prediction about ash based on end grain, or surface grain?  I would guess that if the end grain is more tight... it's going to be more heavy... but what say you? 

other things you would look for in ash?

personally, I hate the straight grained ash, and I love the 'swirly' grain stuff - the stuff that no one else seems to like.  I gather that it is also possibly/generally more heavy?

let the schooling begin...