ihocky2

I would tape off the entire top of the fretboard and leave just the sides bare and then spray. Any lacquer you get on the fret ends will not stick, it will chip off very easily and quickly, I would take an exacto knife and score along the bottom edge of the fret end to give it a clean line to break off so it doesn't travel further down into the neck. As the neck expands and contracts it is common to get cracks and chips around the fret ends, a lot of older Fender's with maple fretboards have this, but it is not really a problem. I would still sand up to 320, a perfect finish comes from perfect preperation. It is common to sand bodies up to 400 before finishing. The extra 2 minutes is worth getting a better finish.

Hopefully someone else more knowledgable will chime in, but some reason I remember this question being asked before. I kind of remember someone saying that even though ash is very hard and dense it can be rather springy and probably would not be a great idea for a neck. But this is all from a foggy memory, so don't take it as gospel truth.

ReRanch will also sell you spray cans of Blonde. No mixing, and comes out pretty close to the original Fender color. Woodcraft also sells opaque pigments and transparent dyes that you can play with as well as StewMac.

What are your spraying conditions? Haze usually comes from spraying when it is too humid. StewMac sells a prodcut called blush eraser which is basically lacquer thinner that you spray on. What happens is it partially disloves the lacquer and then lets the trapped moisture escape. But if it is under 6 coats it may be too deep for the eraser to get at. I would try spraying a light mist of laquer thinner or wiping some on a small area lightly and see what kind of result you get. If it is too deep you'll need to sand it out.

Depending on what they used, you might need to leave the stripper on for longer. Some of the finishes are very chemical resistant.

I am absolutely loving that guitar, great work.

I've looked at them and they look like cool machines. But really a hand touch up is all that should be needed on edge tools unless you are chipping the edge. All I ever need to do is run for like 1200 to 2000 grit paper and I have a razor edge again in a few minutes. Once the edge is set there is no need to run all the way through the grits again, it is just polishing up what is there.

It a newer and more innovative way to do things, so generally it is going to be feared by those in a competing business. Just like CNC machining. There are many that argue that CNC cut guitars have no soul because a machine made them. Both machines have their place and their market. In reality the PLEK machine is probably a great idea, because most people are afraid to take their guitar to just anyone for fret work, and for good reason. There are plenty of guitar techs capable of doing the fretwork, it is just a question of the quality of the fretwork. That is why some people will send their guitar across the country to a luthier that is knnow for top quality fretwork. This machine at least allows the average guitar player to take their instrument to a more local shop and will have it returned with a known result.

Wax will act as a resist and all of the finish will bead off of it.

Well, I wasn't going to jump into this one, but since Foggy broke out the can opener I'll let a few more worms out. There are times and places that oil finishes fit very well, even on solid body builds. I love the feel of a oiled neck over a poly'd one, but oil finishes are not the end all be all. There is no oil finish that is going to adhere over a painted guitar. Many guitarist like painted bodies, especially the graphic paint jobs. How many people would pay good money to have the paint job scratched off in less than a year because the oil finish failed and rub off in the first month. I highly doubt the oil paints used buy artists are going to stand up too well to a 25 year old bouncing around on stage for an hour, sweating all over his guitar.

If you are not going to finish the sides of the fretboard I would sand up to at least 800 grit since it is ebony and will really polish up nicely on it's own, you can even sand higher. Some people and companies finish the edge of the fretboard with the neck, some don't. On ebony you can go either way. Only problem that does occur is that the finish can chip off the ebony. Because the ebony is so oily, most film finishes have a tough time adhering well if the ebony is sanded too fine. So if you are going to finish it, I would not sand any higher than the 320 grit. For the painted head, you can tape off the sides to see how good that gets, but scraping the sides will defintely help. But I would do that after paint and before clear.

The one thing I am trying to figure out is why the first picture looks like I cut the neck profile with a beaver. In the picture the sides look really wavy, when in real life they are dead straight.

First thing I would do is pull the frets and see what the neck does, it will probably have a lot of back bow. Then I would sand it flat and refret with the proper tang size for the slot width. Thicker fret tangs are usually going to create more back bow, so you would actually want thinner tangs. But if you have that much back bow while strung up, you are probably going to have a lot more without tension on the neck unless it is a very stiff neck. The best way to remove that is to flatten then neck. Then you can work from there. If you don't have it yet, I would either buy or borrow a copy of the StewMac fret work book by Dan Erlwine. He works on several Martin guitars with adjustable necks, you can pick up from where he is going.

He said that he owns ZERO files, so the cost of the files is going to be factored into the build. Plus a refret requires even more specialized tools. Once you buy them you own them, but any cutting tools require sharpening and wear down and at some point need to be replaced. Especially anyone who is building for profit has to figure in some money to cover overhead such as tool where, sharpenings, electricity. He is starting with his first build so there is no thought of profit at this point, but his credit card won't know the difference of tools or parts. As for a first build, it is safe to say that $150 to $300 is a safe estimate depending on the brand and quality of parts that you buy for the guitar alone. If you have to pay some one else to do some of the work, then that will cost more. The pricing for tools can range greatly, it again depends on brand and quality, but also what you already own. The first few builds always drain the most money from your pocket since you are buying the tools. If you have a very limited tool box you can easily drop $500 in tools without thinking about it, but it is best to look at the list of required tools that is pinned and decide what you NEED and what you WANT. I started with very minimal tools and bought my first neck because it was a ton cheaper than buying all of the tools for fretting and creating string nuts.

If your not picky about the sound, then how can you ask for a good combination? Some people will like one combo but others won't. It is all about getting the tone that you want. If you don't know what tone you are after, how can you try to achieve it?

Poplar stains really nicely. That is one of the cool things about poplar, it usually looks either pretty plain or pretty ugly natural, but through some stain on it and it really shows some life.

So almost a year later I have a finished result. I actually finished this about 1-1/2 months ago, but just never got around to taking pictures. That an I lost the knobs and took 3 weeks to find them. I actually finished spraying it back before Christmas. I gave it 6 weeks to cure and then while removing the surrogate neck had something slip and took a nice chip out of the finish. Luckily it was nitro and easily drop filled, but still took a while to do and then another 6 weeks to let the fill cure. The two indoor pictures show the true color, the outdoor ones I had a hard time to keep from getting washed out. http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b192/iho...er/DSC05870.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b192/iho...er/DSC05875.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b192/iho...er/DSC05863.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b192/iho...er/DSC05862.jpg http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b192/iho...er/DSC05857.jpg

If you can find a cabinet maker in the area that has a drum sander, they should be able to run some strips through it for you for very little cost.

Go for the string through, I think they look a lot cleaner. As someone said before, decide what controls you need and use that as your basis. I understand a lot of people love the 4 knob Gibson setup, but I don't see a need for it with my playing. I use the volume and rarely ever touch the tone. So even if I wanted the two volumes, I would still only use one tone. Good luck with the build, Melvins book will help a ton with everything. I've owned it for about 3 years now and have read it cover to cover many times.

Honestly I hate the way pickgaurds look, we are given pretty woods for a reason, but in this case I'll make an exception. In fact I think the pickgaurd goes a long way to completing the look, and it just would not look as nice without it. I really dig the ziricote pickup covers. Fantastic job all around.

This might be a dumb question, but have you done a full scale drawing to layout the proper bridge placement and angle, and the proper neck angle. You mentioned drawing it in ACAD and it just kind of made me wonder why you hadn't drawn it out there first. Also kind of wondering what you are thinking for a finish on this bad boy? With the size of it I would lean towards alder though, mahoganny or swamp ash wil be noticeably heavier.

First question, do you have any experience refinishing or with custom painting? If you have any though about reselling this, going the cheap route with normal rattle cans will destroy any value it has. If you have to use spray cans, spend the extra money and get the Killer Cans from Alsa corp, they are at least auto 2-part poly. Refinishing it is probably going to kill any value it has. Even with the broken tip, it will still command a nice price tag, the rest of that thing is cherry. Scalloping will definitely hurt any resale value, as will removing any material off the back. Paint stripper will definitely eat the binding. To get the heavy poly's they use these days, the harsh chemicals will go right through the binding. My personal opinion would be to apply some lacquer to the exposed wood, to seal it off and to help hold the paint chips from getting any worse. But other than that I would leave it as is. Look at any pointed vee that is gigged with. The wing tips are always missing paint or wood. I would just leave it as is, since it will more than likely end up like that even with a refinish.

2 part systems still get solvent pop. The amount of solvent differs by the hardener or reducer. The faster drying the hardner or reducer the less solvent. The catalyst start the chemical reaction to cause it to harden, but it is the solvents that control how fast it cures. The more solvent the slower it cures. I'm glad to hear that it is working nicely for you though. It seems like you are getting nice flat coats on it and it sands nicely. I have used PPG a few times and it was easier to sand than Nitro lacquer.

Even though the it will be dry within 24 hours, I would try and hold onto that guitar for a few weeks at least if you can get the customer to wait for it. The work looks great, but you might run into a problem with your poly coats. General auto poly's are not meant to built up thick, that is why they say to spray on 2, sometimes 3 coats. I spoke with a tech at PPG at one time and they said for they purpose we use on guitars, that if you need more than 3 coats that you have to wait at least 24 hours and scuff sand before recoating. By spraying 6 coats in that short of a time you may run into solvent pop problems. But usually if the coats are too thick, the finish will crack all the way through, but does not happen right away. I made that mistake once, took about 6 weeks to show up.

Get a circle template, and try fitting a 1/8" or 1/4" circle on the ends of the wings. With how sharp they come down you'll lose a noticeable amount in length. But when you look at any of the pointy vees up close the tips are fairly rounded, it is the bevels that make them look more pointed than they are. I would definitely move the neck up at least two frets. I'm also moth feeling the crotch of the vee. Everything else on the guitar has a curve to it, but once you get inside the wings it is a straight line to a pointed junction. Maybe try curving the inside of the wings and rounding the juction a little to make it look more like the wings are swept out.