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I'm taking a stab at a neck build from scratch and have a neck blank and preslotted & radiused fretboard. I'm worried that if you just clamp the heck out of the blank and board, you can damage the fretboard by denting it or screwing up the radius if you put too much pressure in one spot...but you need some good pressure to get a good seam.

What's the best way to glue the fretboard on in this situation?

Thanks!

I am not sure if this is what you need but I have used gunstock oil successfully on a birdseye tele neck and turned out really good and haven't had any problems with it.

Where do you find that?

Did you do anything else special to the neck, like carbon fiber rods or something/

Thanks!

EDIT: I was doing some searching on Woodcraft's site and found they carry Tru-Oil. I think I may go his route. Thanks for the help!

Hey all . . . Normally, I LOVE oil finishes on maple necks. I'm working on building a strat style neck with birdseye maple though, and I just don't think that oil will cut it on this stuff. It's pretty highly figured, so it'll have a tendency to move around some and I think it really needs a hard finish.

What's a good, hard finish that I can use without spray equipment? (I've done bodies in nitro out of the cans, but I haven't tackled a neck yet)

Any info would be appreciated! Thanks folks!

I got a board from Stewart McDonalds . . . it's nice but you don't have too many options. LMI, on the other hand, can make boards in more scales, more radii, and more types of wood than StewMac, but they're a bit pricier.

The StewMac one is great if the specs match what you're looking for

I'm making a standard Strat style neck for a body I have. I've noticed just from jointing some birdseyes maple today that tear out can be a big problem, and I even have newly sharpened blades on my jointer.

I have a neck template & piloted template bit for shaping and profiling the neck and headstock. How much do you think I should try to cut at each pass?

What sort of tips can you give me from your experience with birdseye?

Thanks folks!

I picked up a preslotted fretboard from Stewmac a few months back and the slots are cut to 0.023". Do I need to use fretwire with that exact size, or is there a little room for variation? I'm asking because LMII has some stainless steel wire that I was interested in using, but it's tang width is 0.020".

Am I out of luck?

Thanks for the help!

I'm going to attempt a strat-style neck and I have an unprofiled Stewmac fretboard and a rectangular neck blank. I'm not sure of the best way to cut the sides of the neck to get the proper taper/profile from the nut to the bottom/21st fret area. What do you recommend?

Thanks!

no your just spraying not leveling/polishing yet

and remember laquer melts into itself so it wont matter.....but im no expert

im sure you'll get more answers

I'm using Deft for the clear and Duplicolor Metalflakes for the color coat on my current project. I started with the clear coats a few days after spraying the color and it's working out fine so far.

You definitely need to let it sit until the smell goes away before buffing and polishing though.

I sprayed a few more coats of Deft on my project today, and it looks blue-ish (over a metallic green color coat) in some places! Will this work itself out or fade some?

It's 65-70ish, reasonably dry and cloudy out . . . are these just bad conditions to spray in??

Is it blushing? I thought that only happened in higher temps and humidity??

Any help is appreciated

They had this at the local Woodcraft store and it seems decent for $100. What do you think?

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=5853

It seems like it might be a good way to get into spraying without spending a whole lot of money. If not this, can you give me some other suggestions of what to look for in a cheap setup?

Thanks for the help!

Thanks guys!

I will advise against this! I won't recomend to sand at all between every coat. It is unnecessary. And if you are not careful you will sand thru and mess up your base coat or stain since DEFT is nitro and lays in very thin coats.

So can I just sand off the orange peel after the final coat?

I'll be spraying over a metallic green finish . . . I really don't want to sand through

Remove all orange peed and imperfections as best as you can before the next coat. Orange peel seems to compound its self and doesn't like to go away unless you sand it out, or almost out, and then shoot it again and sand all that out to nothing but smooth. Building finish on orange peel doesnt really solve the problem, you just make a mess. Also if you get runs a neat little trick i do is take a flat razor blade and gently cut the run out and then sand that smooth. Saves a lot of time and saves the finish around the run from being sanded through.

Thanks

Sanding is always a good thing. You can apply lacquer without sanding because it is a "hot finish" and it cuts into previously applied lacquer for good adhesion, i would not recomend this though. Sanding has its benefits. It removes imperfections from the finish such as dust that may have settled into the finish as well as impurities that were either too small to be filtered or if you didnt use a filter at all. It makes the surface smoother especially in your first coats where the grain will rise, even sometimes after sanding sealer. It also levels out the finish, you can remove runs, orange peel, etc by sanding. It also puts tiny scratches into the finish making the bond between the coats even stronger. I always sand everything i do between coats because it produces good results without having to pile on the finish to make it smooth. Remember, a good finish is one that's only a few mills thick but looks a foot deep.

I'm a noob so this stuff is pretty helpful!! Thanks!

Should your clear coats be really smooth, or is some orange peel OK? Should I worry about sanding really flat between coats . . . or is a little orange peel OK? (I assume you can get rid of it with final sanding and buffing)

It says on the can that you can apply it without sanding between coats, but almost everything I've read about applying your clear coats recommends sanding. What do you think?

I put these on my MIM Strat. They drop right in.

Those might be the way to go. How do you like them?

Hey all . . . I'm repainting & ravamping my MIM strat and I've been thinking about getting some replacement tuners. The holes seem different than most other tuners I've seen though . . .

Do you know if there are any drop in replacements? I don't want to drill new holes, because I just repainted the headstock before considering swapping the tuners

Here's a pic of the back of the headstock so you can see the hole pattern I'm talking about.

Thanks!

I should be able to sand the clear no problem as long as I don't hit the metal flakes I'm thinking . . . I so could probably use this technique to overcome some minor orange peel, right?

Is orange peel common with rattle cans? Is it something I just need some practice to overcome?

Thanks again for all the input!!

Good info guys, thanks!

Do you think I'll screw up the metal-ly look if I do more sanding though? Maybe it won't be an issue if I put a few more coats on?

Thanks for the help!

While it is not usually recomended to mix brands, let alone types of laquer (acrylic and nitro), I would just say to try it on a test piece. I used Plastikote auto paint for my color layer which is an acrylic and have had no problem shooting DEFT over it. But that doesn't mean it will always work. If you are unsure, always test on scrap first.

I was wondering if the Deft is nitro or acrylic?

Thanks!

Hey all . . . I'm using Duplicolor for the color coat on my strat repainting project. I just finished putting the second coat on, and some spots appear a little glossier than others. It's the Metal Flakes paint, and an acrylic lacquer if that helps.

I was wondering if this is going to be a problem, or will the glossiness even out with some clear coats and buffing/polishing??

If there's a bit of orange peel in the color coat, will it look more even with the clear & buffing/polishing?

Thanks for the help!

Is the trem set to float or is it flat against the body?

If you rarely or never use it, put 4 or 5 springs in the trem cavity in back. This should help keep it flat and help keep the guitar in tune.

I've been searching around some, and I can't seem to find an answer for this.

Say your color coat is an acrylic lacquer from brand X, can you usually use an acrylic lacquer clear coat from brand Y? I'm curious if you can generally follow a rule like this.

I'm a noob to finishing (if you couldn't tell ) and I was thinking of using some Duplicolor for the color coat, but I've heard bad things about their clear coats around here (like taking forever to cure and what not). I'm thinking about using their metal specks paint on one guitar, and a red that matches the factory color of my car on another. Can I use something like Deft lacquer (which I've heard some good things about around here) or some other brand for a good clear coat??

Thanks for the help!

+1 for G3 !

Where do you guys find this G3 stuff??

Is it readily available at autoparts stores?? I've got an Autozone, NAPA, an Advance Auto near me . . . do you think they'll have them?

I alreay had some Turtle Wax polishing and rubbing compounds in with my car wash stuff. Are these any good for guitar finishes?

Thanks for all your help guys!

I'm repainting one of my guitars right now and I plan to use Deft lacquer for the clear coats. I've heard from some folks who do furniture work that you can use automotive rubbing an polishing compounds to rub out the finish. I was wondering if you could do this on a guitar?

Thanks for the input!