oz tradie

Thanks Godin. I thought I'd start off with a small one. That was the first one cut and also the one I used on the truss rod cover. I haven't got any place special I bought the inlay, I just bundled a few mop blanks in with a big Stew-mac order. cheers, Stu

That's true, but not nearly as tasty. Any idea where those fingers have been ?

This was my first cut out inlay. I couldn't decide what to do , so I stuck with an 'S' with a garoooovy font I like. Inlay is pretty addictive. (p.s. my fingers are fairly short but , honestly not that short !!) cheers, Stu

For me, the biggest concern when dealing with paint thickness with nitro was to have enough coverage for a protective barrier and a decent refinish and one that is not too thick and overly prone to crazing or checking. Hopefully I've achieved that. The nitro used cheers, Stu

i've also heard that the thinner the top coat , the better tonally..................... I didn't use a grainfiller or sanding sealer with this guitar. I bought them both and tried the sanding sealer, but found it slightly diminished the figuring . I sprayed two light coats on and then took them off a day later and started afresh. I also did a test swatch with one half with sanding sealer and the other pure nitro. Pure nitro won. I used a 1.4 tip on my gravity fed setup and thinned the coats down 50/50 to begin with. 6 coats very thin. A very light rub all over with p400 grit. 4 days drying From here on in I sprayed with a nitro to thinners ratio of 70/30. 6 thin coats 4 days air dry. Block back with p400 grit dry 6 thin coats 4 days air dry. Block back as above 6 thin coats two weeks for sinkback then block flat as above The final 6 coats two weeks drying before buffing I wasn't in a hurry to get it finished. I just wanted it right. In the end, after the final block back before the last topcoating, there was only a very thin film of coverage with all pores and grain filled in. The last 6 thinned coats is where I got all of my coverage from. Enough to rub back with p2500 wet and buff with the old trusty DeWalt automotive buffer and just have enough of a shell. I feel there is just enough nitro on to not be too thick and cause problems. In hindsight I should have used maybe a bigger tip like a 2.0 to get the build up quicker, but old habits die hard I guess. cheers, Stu

edited double post

Good to hear from ya Kev. I've got 17 yrs experience in the automotive refinishing/repairing industry and also a few in the building industry. That is the 'housing' building industry as I'm a carpenter by trade and a panel beater also. But not a 'Guitar' builder. My main experience is with automotive 2pack and now one guitar using pre-cat nitro (which is a breeze to use). I didn't use a spray booth for the nitro, just had the double garage door open while spraying it inside. But I did use a quality respirator and all the gear I used to wear when spraying 2 pack in the spray booth back when. I think there are alot more people and posts on this site that can give you the right advice there. Unfortunately one guitar build does not make me an expert. Just a more curious one. I'd love to help but I'd be leading you astray on this one. Have you done an extensive search under the inlays and finishing section ? cheers, Stu

Thanks Godin. I agree with you in regards to timber colour selection. The colours of the sheoak fingerboard doesn't contrast enough against the blackwood neck, that's a given. Although it makes it that little bit more unique. I thought of using ebony for the whole fingerboard instead of just for the binding, but I couldn't help myself when I saw the sheoak piece. And plus it's an aussie wood which helps stick to the theme of using natives. sheoak more sheoak cheers, Stu

Thanks for the feedback so far from everyone. Any feedback is welcome , positive or otherwise. It all helps in learning. I was really lucky to grab hold of that particular piece of Qld maple for the body, and in hindsight, maybe a fraction foolish to embark on a first build using such a figured piece. Whewww!!! Here are a few build pics to do with the carve and how it was achieved. Everything I've done with this build was garnered from the resources of this website, so if you don't think there's enough information available here, then think again and use your search button . The carve was firstly attempted using an ibex curved plane for a matter of , maybe 5 minutes. Then I grabbed a few flap discs and a 100mm grinder and went nuts. After that, I went the scrapers (a real favourite for the finer work) and then hand and block sanding. The grinder is an extremely versatile way at shaping while maintaining good control. routing a 9mm carve line to follow apparatus carve in progress close to done This is pretty much the finished carve shape although I'd modified the carve around the cutaways to allow better access to the 24th fret later on. And lastly to Jon (Aprilethereal666), thanks for your feedback on Friday jam nights and the many email pics to and fro during the build. cheers, Stu

Thanks all. I'll try to post a link to the build pics a little later on. neck to body behind

Thanks for the kind remarks guys. It's much appreciated. This one won't be going into GOTM. I'd like to build on what I've learnt on the first one and push myself further in the fine detail area for subsequent builds. This one, in essence was a learning tool. cheers, Stu

Thanks RG. Top blue swirl job by the way. This one started on the first week of november last year . 4 months on weekends mainly. I work during the day as a carpenter building funky architecturally designed houses, so I tend to kick back during the weeknights after slaving away in the summer heatwave. Half of my weekend time goes to the build, if I can get away with it. I've got another buddy on the forum I see most Friday nights for an ale, a chinwag and a crank up of the marshall stacks. He's also started doing some builds , so it's great to be going through the journey at the same time. route around headplate ebony in place the outer binding binding completed cheers, Stu

Thanks Mattia. I don't know what's next, although I've got enough tops and other lumber from different members of the forum for another 8 builds. cheers to Rich Fry and Doug at Mammoth The next will have more inlay and more intricate binding/purfling. Very pleasing part of the building process. top of headstock from above cheers, Stu

Thanks for the comments Brian. It really was an enjoyable experience to go through for a first time build. I found the thought of building the neck a bit daunting at first, but it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Mind you I read as much as I could before diving in . The cavity cover was cut out of scrap left over from the blank. I tried to line up the grain and figuring the best I could with what was left over.

Some of the front sheoak f/board front cheers, Stu

A few more back shots before the front daylight shots The ferrules are recessed. They're not made to be but what the hey, it's my build and one more full back shot cheers, Stu

The neck was cut into three from a single 700mm x 150mm X 38mm billet. Turned on end for Q/sawn $20 per lineal metre cut and tapered glued with dyed maple lams Cheers, Stu

Howdy Brian. Love your acoustic build . Might see you next w/end at Chris Wynnes? I was going to use 2pack auto clear but decided to try Wattyl pre-cat nitro. There's no sanding sealer or grain fill, just nitro all the way. And a long dry time for the sinkback. The Blackwood for the neck is from Mathews Timber in Vermont. The Figured Queensland maple is from Bruno Australian Luthier Supplies Some very good figured timbers and other essentials with A1 service to boot !! The sheoak fingerboard is from Tim at Australiantonewoods.com Tim's got some great figured tops, acoustic sets and f/boards all in native aussie tonewoods.

Here we go , Featuring aussie timbers exclusively (and ebony binding ) And the specs are............... Highly figured Queensland maple one piece body 3-piece laminated figured Blackwood set neck 2.5 deg. (0.5 mm dyed maple veneers) Sheoak fingerboard with inner ebony binding/ she-oak outer Qld maple headplate (inner is ebony/ outer is qld maple) At this point I usually lose interest in reading specs , so on with the pics. Many pics to post, so I'll do them in dribs and drabs. The obscure shots first. front contour shot neck to body blackwood neck cheers, Stu

I've ordered stuff from Guitarfetish a few times to Australia. Their service is nearly as good as Stew-mac's and delivery time is also on par. I've only positive things to say about them. I think the last lot of stuff took 5 working days door to door.

I'm in Melbourne, Australia It's either bloody hot or bloody cold. Usually within the same day. Metric is the only way to go. Decimalizing the imperial measurement system for finite measurements is just plain confusing.

Got one last Thursday. Another good read. Keep this up and you'll be putting it into book form soon

This is partly true. The role of any good spray painter is to match up the finish (not just matching colour but also the amount of peel) to whatever is required . The repaired area must match the vehicles factory specs or the rest of the vehicle. If they know their onions they should be able to give you the finish you ask of them, peel or no peel. cheers, Stu

It's all personal choice with timbers. Although I've got a soft spot for homegrown stuff. (Blackwood, Tas.myrtle, sheoak, Qld maple, wandoo etc. the list goes on........ ) As far as that list from AFT timbers goes, I'm not too sure how many on that list they still have stock of. I tend to frequent Mathews timbers a bit. No complaints there. Not as much of a range as their website stipulates but still very good quality stuff. You'll probably find extra info from your/our home shores woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au There are many internet based stores around oz for sourcing timber from. And there are some great ones in W.A. worth checking out for your homegrown stuff. More info if interested. cheers, Stu

I do agree that there will be elements of the forearm contour which may need to be done manually. (AFAIK) To be simplistic, it's only going to take extra time and patience. And the extra time it takes, I'd reckon would be worth it. It does look pretty good when done well.