ADFinlayson

So after doing a load of level sanding about a week or so after spraying, I sanded through the back I managed to get the front levelled off quite nicely but I had to be quite aggressive and use 400 grit to get it all level, which made me think that If I haven't gone through the front yet, there is a strong possibility I will while buffing, so more coats needed. But annoyingly out of lacquer. So I got this, it's the Earlex 6003 HVLP system and I had a go with it today using Morrells nitro with a splash of thinners. Practiced on a bit of cardboard first to get the settings on the gun right and then had a go on the axe, the difference in the results I'm getting are night and day. Filmed these short clips about an hour after spraying, got a run to sort out on the front which I'll try scraping/sanding out tomorrow, but I'm confident there is plenty of lacquer on it now, the coverage is far superior and it's gone on and levelled out a lot better than it was out of the can (probably a lot of that is down to poor technique), but much happier

Holy frickin' moly that's looking awesome Could you share how you achieved that carve on the top horn, it looks to awkward to get any type of power saw in there around the neck, and the wood looks to thick to cut with a any held saw I know of. What is the secret of your power?

Squeeze out, especially around the neck pocket, is something that always plagues me with mahogany. I always find chucking water over it and wiping it away only ever works it into the grain, looks find while sanding etc but as soon as finish goes on, it sticks out like a saw thumb. When I get round to gluing in the necks on these builds, I think I'm going to try using a bit less glue than normal and tape off around the neck pocket. Yeah I saw that Susie Gardener vid (I'm really enjoying that series) and I've been meaning to try that with the straw, the trouble is that it's difficult to get at it all when there are clamps in the way. Yes I'm leaning towards shorter tenon for the p90 model too, I think it will look smarter overall.

Episode 10 finished Building DC Guitars - Episode 10 | Shaping fretboards

Thanks gents Yep this is my go to guitar... for now

ah well then I'm about 5 years too late for that.

27 club? The thicknesser creates chips as apposed to dust, I don't think I've ever seen a video where the woodworker wears a mask with it.

You're right of course, but that router bit moves so much air that I only have the speed on 2 so it's not loud at all.

Not being happy with the occasional element in your build is not a bad thing, it's a sign of perfectionism and will just mean your next build will be better than your last. This though is looking both unique and fantastic

Thanks bud. Here's episode 9

IMO tang height doesn't matter too much as long as the tang is not taller than the channel, that being said, you could make the channels deeper. If tangs are shorter, you can just fill the end with dust and glue and it would look fine on dark boards (not to much on maple). If the tangs are wider than than the slots, it will probably cause a slight back bow, so make sure you can adjust the truss rod (must be dual action). If it was me, regardless of the fretwire chosen, I would use ca glue aas well as hammering them in.

Different back Nice to know my carving is consistent though

The trouble with this example is there are too many variables. Yeah you've got a great player on a cheap guitar, but you've probably got a rubbish amp, it's recorded on a rubbish camera, probably a phone. If it was a decent amp mic'd up properly, it would probably be a different story. But back to the point, he did seem to make a cheap guitar sound awesome, probably the best that guitar has ever sounded.

No I can't because no two pieces of wood are the same, no two finishes are the same either, how something like an oil finish soaks into and solidifies in a unique piece of wood is not replicable, however I suspect there would be a "difference in tone" between a finish that soaks deep into the wood and one that sits on the surface, but I also suspect that difference would be negligible. IMO none of the points in the tonewood argument are quantifiable.

All of my builds tend to look like a dogs dinner throughout the process and come together nicely at the end, but every progress pic on your thread looks like precision, really clean work. Nicely done

I thought your workshop was your basement, if you're going to have 2 workshops, I'll be very jealous. I could really do with a larger space that I could partition off for a seperate room for finishing

you're right, it's an awesome finish. Mine is coming along nicely. I've lost count how many coats I've done now, almost two 400ml cans, I've sprayed at least a couple of times per day, apart from Friday when 87% humidity was forecast. Going to leave it several days now and do a level sand, then I'll decide whether or not to leave it for there for buffing or spray the rest of the can over it. So far the only sanding I've done is to remove the odd spec of dust that landed on it while curing in the garage. There is a bit of orange peel to sort out, but nowhere near as bad as I thought! The back seems to have gone on a lot smoother than the front, I'm putting that down to the face that I brushed sealer on the back and sides then sanded viciously where as I just sprayed lots of light coats of sealer on the top and sanded lightly with wire wool.

@curtisa I said guitarist because a good player will nearly always make any guitar sound good, a bad player will make a good guitar sound terrible. I said finish because whether or not a finish is soaked into the wood or built up on the surface of the wood is bound to affect the sound as much as species of wood (IMO)

Ah shit dude, I feel for you. If you can't reach to push it back up from the underside, could you grab it from the top with tweezers? I guess you would need a long reach clamp to glue it back in place.

Order of affects on tone (in my opinion) in descending order: - Guitarist - Amp - Pickups - String action - Bridge - Nut and fret material - Finish - Wood

Absolutely, it's given me something to aspire to, and I'll be timing my GOTM entries around this one

Get your search keywords and video descriptions right and you will get more search impressions. Include the jobs you're doing, wood you're using, tools you're using etc in both the description and the keywords. Make sure the title is descriptive as possible. Sometimes you just get lucky if you type headstock angle into youtube search, one of your videos is on the first page, but your thumbnail is completely unrelated to cutting a headstock angle, so it might get good impressions in search but that won't convert to views if your thumbnail isn't inviting.

Thanks bud, I've just done my first light coat, I was nervous like my first ever truss rod route Did it outside with a long sleeve, mask and goggles and gloves, could still smell it occasionally so opted not to breath. Definitely won't he spraying it in my garage, might even invest in a full face mask. I think my only options are to do 2 coats per day pre and post work given that I need the light. Luckily I discovered how awkward it is to hold the guitar and spray the sides at the same time, especially the bottom, so I put it it on a shoebox on the workmate so I could walk around it and spray the sides evenly, then held it by the neck to spray the back and front. Hopefully it comes out OK.

Just renewing my lease of @mistermikev's thread as I'm almost ready to spray some clear nitro over my stained and sealed body. Based on what I've read above from the experts among us - My plan is to spray say 3 coats per day (an hour or so apart), until I've got > 1o coats, leave it a couple of weeks then do a level sand, then leave it a further week or so before finishing my level sanding and buffing... Does this sound like a good plan or is it fraught with disaster?

I was just staining and sealing the top of one of my builds (with maple cap and faux binding) over the weekend. See the pic below, I didn't tape off the side when staining, that is because I'm going to scrape back the edge with a razor blade so that it naked maple along the edge just overlaps the top slightly, so there is a tiny amount of overspill on the maple, but that will all be removed during scraping. The trick is to wipe the stain outwards at the edge, if you wipe inwards from the edge - it will drag the dye down the side which you don't want. I did however have to tape off the lower horn. This is a massive PITA on PRS style builds but it is much easier with good quality Scotch tape or Frog tape than it is with cheap masking tape. Note in the first pic at the horn where the tape was removed, there is a still a tiny bit of bleed where the maple meets the mahog, even with good quality tape that is well burnished down there is still a tiny bit of bleed - it can easily be sorted with careful scraping, but I hope it goes to show that you can't rely on tape to give a perfect line. I'm planning to scrape the faux binding tonight so I'll show you a pic of the scraped version later as the scraping is what males it look like a proper job. Oh one last thing, I find it's best to spray sanding sealer after staining but prior to scraping as it stops any colour running. Then I seal the sides once the top is dry and scraped.