Woodworm

Thanks, lockdown was very strict here, I spent the best part of 18 months in my "workshop", the only problem in the summer is there is no shade from the sun until 11am.

Thanks. if I was being picky. I would have liked a bit more black to purple burst, but I'm very happy with the overall effect.

Rattle can lacquer, I sprayed it outdoors and hoped no insects or dust would land on it. I had the guitar body flat, some scrap wood in the neck pocket and a large hook in the strap button hole. Once I'd put a coat on one side I'd flip it over to protect the lacquer.I When I sprayed it the temp was in the the high 30s (degrees C) so the lacquer was probably dry after a couple of minutes. I followed the instructions on the can which said re coat after 15 mins. As for how thick the lacquer was going on, I used four 500ml cans, however as soon as the cans got low enough to start spitting I started a new can. Once I'd finished spraying I left it for a month. Then I sanded with wet and dry, starting at 800 and finishing at 3000, I then polished it with some automotive cutting compound using a drill and polishing mop.

Hi guys, I've posted a few queries here and have always appreciated the response. I have however felt guilty about not giving anything back. I hope the following goes some way to address that issue. If you want to listen to someone telling this story rather than read the following, both of these guitars are featured in this video, (it’s not my channel):- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNMKrcyaQ4Q&t=995s In 2006 we moved from the UK to Cyprus, where we lived and worked full time until 2013, when we started to split our time between Cyprus and the UK. At the start of 2019, in my spare moments, (when I wasn’t renovating our house in the UK), I started my first ever guitar build, a Les Paul. This progressed, relatively, slowly however towards the end of 2019 all I had left to do was install the electronics and hardware. Late in 2019, we sold our “new build” house in Cyprus and bought a 300 year old house in the same mountain village and decided this would be our permanent home and we would sell up in the UK. We travelled to Cyprus in March 2020 and we all know what happened then. We were effectively marooned in Cyprus, over the next 18 months we had 14 flights back to the UK cancelled and my Les Paul languished, unfinished for 18 months. We finally got back to the UK in July 2021 and as well as putting our house on the market I could finish my Les Paul. All I had left to do was fit the electronics, tuners, bridge and tailpiece, make a nut and finish it off with a setup, which I managed in between prepping the house for a sale. Here are some pics from the build:- Here are the pics of the finished guitar:- Specifications:- Two piece sapele body. 16mm flamed maple drop top, faux binding. Two piece maple neck, with volute, indian rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, locking tuners, bone nut, flame maple headstock veneer. TOM roller bridge. Irongear pickups, Blues Engine and Dirty Torque. I used Crimson Guitars stains, Water based. I used Crimson Guitars high build finishing oil Other than the headstock shape it’s basically a 1959 LP. The guitar weighs in at 9lb 9oz, I’m not particularly bothered by this as I only play sitting down. What mistakes did I make? By the looks of it I think I’m half a degree out on the neck angle, the TOM is a bit high, there's plenty of adjustment available, I just didn’t expect it to be sitting where it does. The guitar plays great, I managed to get the action really low, it really sings even if you play it acoustically. Right Ho, part deux! As I said we got stuck in Cyprus for 18 months. I was a little put out that my first guitar build was languishing, unfinished back in the UK. Pre pandemic. In Cyprus I was one half of a duo and we performed throughout the year at our local coffee shop. In April 2020, my good friend and the other half of our duo died, very suddenly, (it wasn’t virus related). He had been looking forward to me bringing the Les Paul over to Cyprus so he could give it a good old twang. Unfortunately, after he died we had to clear his house very rapidly. Amongst other things I bought a large sheesham wood CD rack. Having had to leave my first guitar build unfinished in the UK, my thoughts turned to building another, I fancied having a go at an SG type. My first problem was wood, there was literally nowhere open to obtain any, I did however have the sheesham wood, from my mates CD rack and a certain amount of old garden furniture, which I believe was teak or similar. A friend is a builder/joiner and he asked around, amazingly he managed to find a 1500 x 200 x 100mm piece of quarter sawn sapele, for 30 euros, I couldn’t believe my luck! Back in the UK, I had a nice workshop, (large shed), with lots of power tools. In Cyprus I had, virtually, nothing, a couple of cordless drills and a ten year old, cheap as chips, router. I did have access to a band saw. Here’s my workshop:- I managed to acquire various hand tools, second hand, which helped. Along the way I made a router sled, radius sanding block, levelling beams, various jigs and a bench sander out of an old broken band saw. I bought some plans and began thinking about templates. The body is a three layer sandwich, the top and bottom layers are 10mm thick sheesham wood boards, the filling in the sandwich is a 20mm thick board I made up from 15 strips of what I believe is teak, that I got from some old garden furniture. The body is 6mm thicker than an actual SG and I was a bit worried that it would be too heavy. To combat this I chambered the body, on the bass side there is a chamber that runs from the upper to the lower bout, another behind the tail piece, there is another that runs between the control cavity and the upper bout on the treble side. One advantage, (in my eyes), of using a wood sandwich for the body was I could mount the pickups directly to the body rather than use a scratch plate, which I don’t like. Finished Article:- My main problems building this were as follows:- I ruined a perfectly good fret board by getting 2 fret slots in the wrong place, I had to make a new one. I made a mistake with the position of the bridge pickup cavity. I was using the dimensions given on the plans, what I hadn’t taken into account was that measurements on the plans were for mounting the pickups directly onto the scratch plate. As I’d decided not to use a scratch plate there was not enough room between the pickup cavity and the bridge to fit the pickup ring. I fixed this by rerouting the cavity 6mm further up the body and filling the extra space with an offcut. You’d have to look carefully to see the repair, but it’s actually covered by the pickup ring. What did I learn? I was a draughtsman by trade, so one of the first things I did when I got the plans was go over them with a fine tooth comb. The plans were dimensioned in imperial and metric. I’m not sure how they did the conversion but some of the metric dimensions were way out and I’m not talking fractions of a millimetre; the worst was 4 mm out! My message to anyone using premade plans is check all the dimensions first! What did I take away from this build? Well I made a nice guitar that contains something from my friend's life, I know he would have liked that. Secondly, I had the full set of power tools back in the UK, in Cyprus I had virtually nothing, everything had to be done outside. My only luxury was access to a band saw. Despite all this and despite struggling at times I enjoyed the process more! Specifications:- Body, sheesham - teak - sheesham sandwich. Neck, two piece sapele, sheesham fretboard, 22 frets, dual action truss rod, “Boston” tuners, sheesham headstock veneer. Pickups, Irongear humbuckers, Blues Engine and Dirty Torque. Gibson PBBR-030 Nashville Bridge Schaller Stop Tailpiece Body stained with water based leather dye. Clear coat, automotive rattle cans, around 16 coats!! Total weight 9lb 3oz, see above. The guitar plays well, has a nice low action, it is not as loud, acoustically as the Les Paul. If anyone has any comments or questions I'll be happy to respond. Since finishing the SG, I've also finished a short scale bass, unfortunately it's out on loan to someone who can play it, so no pics atm. I'm also about 50% through a double cut build, will feature a P90 and Humbucker in the bridge, no pictures yet

I apologise if this has been discussed before and for it being a very basic question! If I am making a fret board with no binding, is it necessary to remove the ends of the fret tangs and if so, why? The only reason I can think of is the possibility of the tang chipping wood out of the edge of the fret board, when hammering them in.

Just to complete this saga, the solution I had made with the acetone did seem quite promising, however having been sat in the jar for three days that mixture has now settled out, with powder at the bottom and clear liquid above. I have no idea what the powder was but clearly it doesn't work. I have, in the mean time, sourced some, premixed, water based leather dyes, unfortunately it's in mainland Greece, so another long wait for delivery, no doubt!

The problem with leather dye will be finding it, we're not exactly up to speed here, as far as the internet is concerned. I would be relying on word of mouth and in the current situation, that is somewhat difficult. Having left the dye mixed with acetone overnight, I was quite hopeful it would work. Despite there being some settling of the powder there was, at least, a black liquid in the jar. I’ve just tested it on the wood and it’s rubbish, after multiple applications it just makes the wood look dirty, as opposed to black and there is very little penetration of the wood. I’m afraid I’m giving up on this, it’s glaringly obvious, that with what I have at my disposal, this isn’t going to work. I’ll have to order some stains from Crimson, assuming they’re shipping here and put up with the 3 month delivery time. I’ve used their products before and I know they work! Thanks for all the advice!

The Dye powder packaging has no details on it other than "Aniline Dye Powder", no brand other than the sellers logo, which they've added to the outer packaging. I have made an error when reading the website, the black and red dye powders will not dissolve in water, the white dye powder they sell will, It does say, specifically, on the website that the dye powder will dissolve in "Thinners, Alcohol and Acetone". Having had no success with thinners or alcohol, I tried mixing with acetone, a couple of hours ago, this does look a bit more promising, however although I have a black liquid there is still powder settling on the bottom of the container, maybe if I keep agitating it and leave it over night I might get a result. I've already tried mineral spirits, with no luck. Turpentine and cellulose/nitro thinners are the only things I haven't tried yet. I'm not sure I want to use either though because I'll be restricted to an acrylic clear coat. Due to the current situation I don't think there'll be any boat yards open for a month or two.

Just to be clear, when I mixed the powder with alcohol, I tried using it straight away, not realising then that 10 mins later, the mixture would just settle out, with a layer of powder at the bottom. I have tried using distilled water, so that rules out the water hardness issue. Everything I have tried so far results in the mixture settling out, leaving a layer of powder on the bottom with clear liquid above it.

First of all, I need to point out that Cyprus is basically an island off the coast of the middle east and as such doesn’t necessarily conform to the standards you might expect. Anyway, here goes. There are no product details on the container itself, just the normal health and safety do’s and don’ts, however, here are all the details copied from the technical data sheet on their website:- THINNER 11/11 Thinner used as a diluent for products such as furniture lacquers, industrial paints etc. It consists of a solvent blend suitable for warm weather conditions. Specific Gravity : 0.85±0.02 Viscosity : 10-12" Ford cup No.4 Flash point : <23°C Initial Boiling Point : >35°C Contains: TOLUENE, 2-METHYLPROPAN-1-ol, METHANOL. There are no details on the dye powder packaging. It merely says “Aniline Dye Powder”.

Well the lacquer thinners were purchased today. Got them home, mixed up a bit and............ It didn't work, a total and utter fail. I dropped a bit of powder into the thinners and it just sank to the bottom didn't even discolour the liquid. I thought things might work out after I gave it a good shake but 10 mins later it was starting to settle out. Three hours later and the powder was sitting at the bottom of the jar with clear liquid above it. I don't know what I have been sent but it is not functioning as a dye. My only options now are fabric dye or food colouring, I'll buy both, test them and see which I prefer!

Thanks for the tip, I was thinking about how long lacquer thinner would take to flash off, What I want to do is blend one colour into the other so there's a smooth transition between the two and not a distinct line! Anyway, I'm off to see if I can find this stuff!

Thanks for the info, I've just had a quick google and lacquer thinner is available here, I will try and get some tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply. Could you define "lacquer thinner", please. Would I be correct in assuming you're referring to cellulose thinners?

An update! This morning I have tried mixing up solutions using de-ionised/distilled water, de=ionised/distilled water with salt added and also White Spirit. All have produced the same results as before, very difficult to mix with the water, easier with the White Spirit. Once mixed, after 10 to 15 mins, the powder settles to the bottom leaving clear liquid above it, which in my book is a total failure. I have contacted the supplier, not asking for a refund, but asking them their thoughts and to test some and let me know the results. To answer a questions, as I mentioned I've successfully dyed the same wood with food dye, so I don't believe it's anything to do with the wood itself. I guess my only options now are food dyes or fabric dyes, there simply aren't any real alternatives available here, not in the specific colours I want.

I am seriously hacked off at the moment! Three months ago, (yes, it takes that long for stuff to get to Cyprus), I ordered some red and black aniline dye powder, from a guitar/guitar parts supplier. It finally arrived today, great I thought, I’ll finally be able to get started. I prepared a piece of wood, the same wood I’m using in my build, ready to do some test stains. My problem is I don’t seem to be able to mix the stuff. I am using hot/warm water, but when I add the powder it’s virtually impossible to get the stuff to dissolve, the powder just sits on top of the water. I gave up trying to mix it by hand, it simply wouldn’t dissolve/mix. I then resorted to an electric drill, with a bent piece of wire as a stirrer, even then after 5 mins of mixing it wasn’t properly dissolved, there was a layer of powder still on top of the water, the powder that has broken through the surface tension was sitting at the bottom of the glass. The above was with the black dye about 6 hours ago, I’m looking at the glass with the mixture in it now, there is a 15mm layer of black liquid at the top below that is virtually clear water. The glass with the red dye is the opposite, there is a layer of red at the bottom with nearly clear water above it! What is going on? The instructions for the dye specifically say it can be mixed with water, alcohol or lacquer. I did try mixing some of the dye powder with alcohol, it appeared to mix quite easily but when I applied it to the wood any colour seemed to stay on the surface and seemed to wipe off very easily. The only thing I can possibly think of is we have very hard water here, in other words we get a lot of limescale on metal plumbing fitting. Just to add to my frustration, a month ago I thought I’d experiment with food colouring, to stain the wood, so I had a go, it was great, a nice vibrant red, it’s still bright red a month later. I dismissed the food colouring option because I assumed it would fade or rub off, but it hasn’t! I’m sure someone will suggest ordering something else but thanks to brexit most UK suppliers are not sending stuff here any more, I wanted some Iron Gear pickups but the suppliers aren’t posting to Cyprus anymore. Ordering from the US is simply out of the question the postage is laughable and the customs hassle just doesn’t bear thinking about. There is no equivalent product in Cyprus whatsoever! If anyone knows of an EU supplier of water based wood dye available in bright red and black, I’d be really grateful. You can’t imagine how annoyed I am at the moment!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, it is appreciated!

Thanks for the advice, I can see some experimenting on the horizon!

Regarding dust and vapour from CA glue, not so much of a problem for me, as all my work is done outside, so a lot easier to manage that sort of hazard. What is the ratio of boiled linseed oil to turps and will this give a high gloss finish? I've experimented with how to apply the CA glue, IMO it's really not that difficult to apply, either drops of glue onto the surface and rub it in with a cloth or apply to the cloth first, I didn't notice any real difference. The only thing I haven't tried, so far, is applying it to a surface as large as a guitar body, I guess small areas at a time.

What, if any, are the pitfalls of a CA glue finish? The reason I ask is, there’s an adage that says “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. I’ve had a go at using CA glue, as a finish, on various scraps of wood, from the guitar I’m building, and try as I may, I don’t seem to be able to screw it up. I’m not even using branded super glue, just cheap stuff! I apply a few coats, flat sand it, apply a final coat then sand to 3000 grit, then give it a polish by hand. I get a flawless mirror finish each time! I’ve seen a few YT videos on the subject and the people who’ve done it all seemed very positive and the finish looked great. So what am I missing, is it really this easy to get a high gloss finish? If it’s this easy why isn’t everyone doing it? Are there issues that will crop up, in the long term, with this finish? The only real issue I can think of is, I don’t like the finished product and I will have to remove it. During my trial runs I’ve managed to sand through the finish a couple of times, so even this doesn’t seem a major drawback. There are particular reasons I’m looking into this, the main one being I’ve simply got nowhere for any sort of paint or lacquer spraying, even if I did, I would be restricted to acrylic, automotive type, rattle cans. I could go for an oil finish, however in the current situation, where I am the post is chronic, it could easily take months for something to arrive here. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the replies! Just needed a bit of reassurance on the neck fit, It's difficult to determine what's a tight fit and what's a snug fit. I'd hate to apply the glue then have the joint swell and not be able to fit the neck in the pocket. Both the body and neck have been made and have been sitting in the house for around 3 months, I've just checked today for any movement in the wood and as far as I can tell nothing has moved. I'm building the guitar in the UK but it will end up in Cyprus, once it's finished. I took a Kramer over to Cyprus 12 years ago, it's been there ever since, it's always been very stable, in the climate over there, it only ever needs the slightest of tuning adjustments!

Hello folks, new member needing a bit of advice. I'm currently engrossed in my first build, an LP type, mahogany neck, mahogany body with a flamed maple cap, things are progressing slowly and mostly going very well. I now have the neck and body at the stage were I will need to glue them together soon. When dry fitted, everything lines up, however what is taxing me is, how tight should my neck pocket be when dry? Currently, when dry fitting the neck to the body, I do have to use a bit of force to get it into place by hand, it's not tight enough to need a clamp but I do need two hands and a bit of body weight to snug it up, is this too tight? When I do a dry fitting, if I lift the guitar up by the neck, vertically, it doesn't fall apart, if I jerk the whole lot upwards the body will detach itself from the neck. Does this sound about right? If I put a piece of photocopier paper down one side of the neck pocket, I can still fit the neck, but it does feel a bit tighter, I can't fit the neck if I put a second piece of paper on the other side of the pocket. Really my question is, have I left enough clearance for my mahogany to mahogany glue joint? Is this something that can be measured or do experienced builders just go by how the joint feels? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.