necroreaper

Thanks man, I'll do some research on this technique!

Very nice! Can I ask what you used to finish the birdseye maple? That's exactly the finish I want on my current build.

Cheers MexicanBreed, I managed to find the posts you were referring to. I've also read a bit about india ink so I'll do some more research on that too.

Thanks for the input guys

I would use a french polish type of finish to achive that. As for color, you could use the old steel wool in vinegar trick.

I didn't understand any of that Could you explain what you're reffering to... pretty please?

Cheers Wez, I thought it might be more complicated... result! Sorry, I'm a complete beginner when it comes to finishing, could I achieve this with spray cans or something I can wipe on? I don't have a compressor or spray gun so I need it to be as basic as possible.

Hi guys,

I'm building an ash guitar and was wondering how I might acheive a finish like this one? I'm assuming there's no grain filler, and maybe just black dye...maybe that's just wishful thinking! Thanks in advance

Hi Woodenspoke, thanks for the reply. The fretboard is already attached (maple board) and is at the top of the piece in the pic. The router tore out a chunk underneath the fretboard and you can see a small piece of the bottom of the fretboard. Hope this makes it a bit clearer.

Sorry again for the crappy mobile phone pic.

Hi all,

I attached the fretboard to the neck and used a template cutter against the fretboard to make the neck flush. On one small part I had a bit of tearout and I was wondering what the best way to repair it is. I still have to shape the neck so I'm hoping there will only be a tiny bit of the reapair on show when I'm done. I was thinking maybe glue and maple dust as it will be a natural finish. Any other ideas?

The quality of the pic is terrible but it took me 5 attempts to get it this good! I think you can see what I mean though.

<script src='http://img291.imageshack.us/shareable/?i=tearout.jpg' type='text/javascript'></script><noscript></noscript>

Welcome to the forum! Is this the one you mean?

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=43878

If you're building the body yourself you can have as many frets as you want, it doesn't make any difference. Just make sure you have the neck first and route the pocket in the position you want the neck to sit. Then make sure the bridge is positioned correctly.

And yes, I'd say the book is a must. I doubt there are many builders on here who don't have the book.. it's pretty much the bible for guitar building.

Sounds like you need to do a lot more reading. Get Melvyn Hiscock's book and read it through several times

The amount of frets doesn't make any difference to how you route the neck cavity, just buy the neck and make a template based on that. The bridge position is the most important thing, obviously it needs to be 25.5" away from the nut.

Not sure what you mean about the difference between a string through cut and tremolo cut?? They are completely different, and every bridge will need to be mounted in a different way. Buy your hardware first and you'll know what you're dealing with.

That's awesome, Muzz. Thanks for taking the time to post in so much detail! I was hoping to finish mine with a brush, so was considering the Rustins... this has convinced me! I will start a progress thread for mine soon... just hope it looks half as good as this!

No the RW is all natural. That's just the lacquer.

Here is another pic ( The fretboard isn't sanded and oiled yet)

Wow! That body actually looks like it's on fire!!

Sorry if it was mentioned during the thread, but I had a look and couldn't find it (i's a bloody long thread!). Could you please post the exact finishing process you used? I am currently building an ash guitar and would love the finish to look half as good as yours!

Cheers.

Dude, this is awesome! I've just started making a JP7 with an ash body and birdseye maple neck/fretboard... I hope it turns out half as good as this! How did you find the arm contour carve? I've been wondering how difficult this will be.

Hey all,

For my next project I’m installing a tremolo for the first time. I bought a Gotoh trem and naively thought it might come with fitting instructions or even a nice template for the routing. I was wrong!

How do you guys go about routing for trems? Just wondering if there is a specific set of measurements I need to take from the trem to make sure it fits.

If it helps, this is the trem I’ve bought: http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/product/Seven_Str...ystem_GE1087TB#

Many thanks

When I made my neck-thru, I got my angle with a spokeshave, scrapers, and sand paper.

I drilled holes in the body "wings" and in the neck and glued everything up using dowels as the alignment pins. Once it was dried I used the hand tools to cut away the remaining wood.

As you can see I built the angle in before I glued it up. I used one dowel at the back at the very end of the guitar body, and used a dowel at the top up by the fretboard. Then I cut away the unwanted wood. The results were very good.

I like this idea!! May have to give this a go. Just need to decide what bridge i'm gonna use now

Cheers.

I think I might go with no neck angle then, I don't even know what kind of bridge I'm going for yet so I'll put some thought in to what would work best. It's only my second build and the first was a set neck which I cocked the neck angle up completely (and had to bin the project), so maybe I should try something a bit easier.

Cheers guys!

I searched and searched and somehow completely missed that tutorial!! I don't have a jointer though and I don't know how I could possibly cut a scarf joint that long with a bandsaw.

Anyone got any ideas using a router or even planes?

Cheers for the input guys.

Hey all,

In the process of planning my next build, and it's gonna be a neck thru. I'm just wondering how you go about cutting the neck angle? Obviously in a bolt-on or set neck the angle is cut in to the neck pocket, but I can't get my head around how to do it on a neck thru.

Sorry if it's a dumb question

Thanks

I immediately thought the quilted maple one, but then the ash caught my eye and I started having doubts.... can I have both?

Got to be the maple though... I think.

check out simo's bass

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...40202&st=90

i did all my early finishes with RPC but now send most stuff out for spraying... although i am currently doing a few brush on RPC finishes again on a few personal projects i dont have the money to have sprayed

As you can see, you can get great results - but it does take some effort on your part and some people dont get on with it. I find it rather forgiving

because you will be costing with a brush you will get brush marks, and maybe even the occasional run, bristle or dust spec. so you have to do regular sand backs to get it all flat again and ready for the next coat

i tend to do 2 days of coats every 2 hours. after this it will look like crap so it now gets a good sand till its all flat with something like 400 grit wet & dry paper, inevitably i sand through at this stage in some areas Then i repeat again, it should all go on smoother now, so i do another day of coats every 2 hours. Next morning i should be able to sand flat without going through (using 800 grit this time). I repeat this till happy - when i can flat it off to 1200 grit and get it ready for buffing

Holy cr@p! That bass was finished with RPC?! I'm definitely gonna get some of that... not afraid of hard work if I can get a result half as nice as that. Thanks again Wez

the tonetech dyes are great, I use those as well as aniline dyes from behlen (I think)

there is a behlen brushing lacquer, available straight from behlen, ive used that too, pretty good ! available with flattener etc.

axminster do a whole host of finishes that are easily sprayed, I think the rub is, like the reset of us you have to buy the stuff and see what works for you.

Cheers Jaden, I'll take a look at those dyes.

for brush on lacquer you might want to try rustins plastic coating

which you can get from here:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Rustins...ating-23018.htm

along with:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Chestnu...Stain-21822.htm

and if you are brushing lacquer on dont skimp on the brush:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_...le=1&jump=0

That's awesome Wez, thanks. How did you find the plastic coating? Can you buff it up to a nice shine?

Hi Jaden, thanks for the response. I'm looking for dye to stain a quilted maple top, and was hoping to find a clear coat that I can brush on but still has a nice shine and good protection (I've not had great success with aerosols). I've been looking for guitar specific sites as I don't know much about what I need... wasn't sure if furniture products would be ok.

If you could point me in the right direction, that would be great.

Hi all,

Sorry if this has been answered, but a search yielded no results. Where do you guys in the UK get dyes, laquers etc. from? Been searching online and there are plenty of parts suppliers but none seem to stock finishing supplies. Shipping from Stewmac etc. is expensive and slow so I thought I'd check if anyone had any alternatives.

Many thanks