Southpa

Yup, just another novelty guitar. How much did it cost to build?

There is no such thing as waiting too long. Yes, the finish cures and becomes harder to cut with sandpaper, but you will also have more control in your efforts. I've blasted through more dye, stain, lacquer, enamel and poly finishes than I would care to admit, its all part of my personal learning curve. To dwell on those past mistakes would make me a very bitter man indeed.

MY prescription would be to "get it right the first time", naturally. That means ensuring you don't screw up during ANY stage of the process. Use lots of finish but don't get greedy. I've worked alongside some top knotch painters and I envy their skill at laying down an enormous amount of paint at one time and still managing to avoid getting a case of the runs! I just finished my truck, did all the bodywork, filling, priming and sanding myself and then got my buddy from work (the REAL painter) to shoot the topcoat. I'm real happy with the results. I looked at it like it was just a big guitar!

http://www3.telus.net/Alsplace/Truck/

That took me 8 days and cost me about $400 (I have friends who helped with the supplies and materials) The paint (hugger orange and white) is Imron Polyurethane enamel, single stage high gloss, covering urethane enamel high build primer which is covering non-sanding epoxy primer. They use the stuff for boats mostly, hard as a rock, man!

Sometimes you can get away with not having to do any wetsanding at all. I did a maple tele a while back in clear Minwax high gloss poly, rattlecan stuff. Aerosols have high solvent content so the paint is thinner and can be aspirated easier with less pressure. OK, so it takes longer to dry and will shrink more due to solvent evaporation. The good thing is that the stuff will FLOW! After levelling the body of the tele I shot a mirror finish on the front and back. Just shoot the hell out of it and then leave it alone.

To wetsand you first have to assess the nature of what you are wetsanding. Remember the fingernail test. Drips, sags and any other major protruberances should be carefully cut off with a razor while the finish is partially cured. Orange peel can be mild or severe. If its severe then you are best to get a little medeivel with some coarser grit, otherwise use nothing coarser than 800 on the flats and 1200 on corners, and thats going lightly. Let the paper do the work, ie. very light hand pressure and don't sand too fast. Constantly monitor your progress, be VERY thorough and don't skip steps. I use rigid blocks for the flats and sponge pads for the curves. I polish with Meguiar's after 2000 mainly because I can't buy anything finer off the local shelves.

Thats right, too much of a good thing is what happened. I've had the same thing happen with laquer, only in my case it was due to heat buildup in the BLACK paint. But basically, you aren't giving the coating enough time to gas off. That means either too much heat and its skinning over and solvent cannot evaporate ie. being trapped in the finish, OR too much being laid down and the surface is drying before all that solvent can escape. Like someone said, thin out your urethane and / or shoot thinner coats.

using ebony dust, ca, ect.

Yes, thats right. Just make sure the cracking/splitting will not continue further. Sand the face and collect the dust. Liberally pack dust and CA glue into the split until its "proud" (ie. above surface level) and then sand flush. Ebony is about the only type of wood where you can get away with this type of repair without it being noticeable.

There is something to be said about certain paint technologies on certain woods. Polyurethane paint on a smooth, tight-grained maple neck sure doesn't bond very well. But I guess thats a good thing if your aim is stripping it off!

I stripped a Roadstar about 10 years ago. They went really heavy on the poly finish. I found the most effective method involved starting with a heat gun and putty knife. You have to get medievel on these things. Once you've got some of the thickness peeled off, (I've seen up to 1/8" thick), then use some stripper. Circa 1850 in aerosol rattlecans worked well for me. Scrape it down some more but use care because its easy to make nicks and scratches in the wood. Let it dry really well then hit it with sandpaper. Starting the job with sandpaper can be next to useless. The sandpaper friction makes heat which melts that plastic finish and then clogs things up in no time. It can get expensive.

Geez whiz! You guys sure make it tough. I ain't voting this month. ALL entrants get the big thumbs up from me!

I've been working on a neck and I glued on the fretboard and shaped the neck. While I was shaping it I noticed that it had a back bow. I adjusted the truss rod figuring it would fix my problem. It's a hot rod truss rod from stewmac. Anyways, left it for a few minutes just snading the neck a bit more, check it again and it's barely moved (about 10 minutes later). Adjust it some more and the nut snaps off. I'm hoping that I'll wake up tomorrow morning and it'll be bent corrrectly haha. I'm kind of at a loss as to what I should do.

Have you figured out WHY you have a backbow and WHY you broke your truss rod? Heres a golden opportunity to learn something, don't pass it by! Are the frets already installed? When you first decided to adjust the truss rod was the neck fully carved out?

As far as solutions go, its a no-brainer, Mattia says replace the truss rod / retrue the neck and I would like to add that you make sure it doesn't happen again. Backbow causes, in your case, could be fret slots are cut too narrow (if frets were installed), uneven clamping pressure when installing the fb, could be giving a bulge in the center. If your neck face and fb do not mate up closely then clamping pressure can force gaps together resulting in internal stress points. When you remove the clamps something is bound to settle.

And forcing a not-fully-carved neck with the truss rod is folly. If the backbow was slight you could have block sanded the fb flat again. If the frets are already installed then they could have been pulled and slots cut to the proper size. That kind of movement can be very noticeable when you start removing wood from the back of the neck. Another option could have been to "wait 'n see". Continue building the guitar and maybe when strung up the string tension, along with truss rod adjustment would force the neck to the proper relief.

I did both body cuts, ala strat, in about 2 minutes (seriously) with one of these.

A flap wheel on a grinder is the ticket. Just mark out your borders and have at 'er!

Something I posted a while ago.

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...c=30697&hl=

The truss rod should fit snugly, slot no larger than 1/4" across, 3/16" rod is the standard size. There has to be an arc carved along the bottom of the slot with about 1/4" difference between the center and each end. ie. center is 1/4" lower. Your wooden fillet should be carved to the same shape as the bottom of the slot and should be a pretty tight fit across the width. A little sealant (eg. latex caulking or silicone gasket seal) before inserting the truss rod will stop any potential rattling and use wood glue for the fillet.

old record player that according to the hand written date on the inside was built in march of 1959 by Columbia Records.

In good shape and functional? I would investigate first, ya never know, people collect that sort of thing. It could be worth the cost of an amp.

Do I glue the nut to the cavity first then lacquer the neck?

No need, the nut does not need a lacquer coat, especially if you plan to use a plastic nut.

I have put copper shielding on the pick guard, is there anything else I need to do to make it work?

Just make sure you include a proper ground for the bridge/trem system too. Here is some reading about shield grounding as well.

Should I drill the holes for pick guard screws first then paint the guitar or the other way round?

Mark their positions with a center punch and drill after finishing. Why? If you plan to do any wetsanding then you can minimize the potential for water damage ie. swelling and splitting in all those holes.

Do I use sanding sealer on the neck and then lacquer it? Do I also do this to the bit of the neck that the screws go into?

Since you only mentioned rosewood, I'm assuming a maple neck w/ rosewood fb. Maple is pretty tight-grained , dense wood, you can go ahead and lacquer it right off. If the neck is a nice tight fit on the body then there is no need to coat the bottom and lower sides of the heel, unless its a slightly sloppy fit. But you have to make sure the lacquer is well cured in those areas before fitting to the body. It can act like glue.

I refinished an old Fender Newporter in teak/tung oil mix a while ago.

It worked out very well, . The guitar is a 3/4 size so it never had a lot of volume but the finish has not changed the sound at all. Other pics show how the mahogany back and sides looked before. The oil really brings out the grain.

I'm going with a staggered 3/3 arrowhead shape, my first guitar has that and I enjoy playing it very much. No fretless for me, I'm lost enough as it is WITH frets. ...sometimes, we all have our moments.

And if I might take a guess, it sounds like you already have a beautiful lady in mind to hang this one on

I know I should have started this thread a long time ago but I've gone thru some MAJOR changes in my life. Too many to list and they don't even belong in this section but I assure you they are all for the better and I feel that my life has been greatly enriched (and NO I HAVE NOT been converted/subverted by some religious cult ). On to the subject at hand...

Here is where I'm at so far...

And here are a bunch more pics...

http://www3.telus.net/Alsplace/Current/

Honduras mahogany neckthru with holly laminates. Basic hardtail strat with a mustang/jaguar look. It took me about a year to think up, decide on and commit to that shape, thats the hardest part of building a guitar IMO. These custom jobs also mean having to make your own templates. Neck profile was routed using my old mdf tele neck template, I winged it on the body, still have to do a lot of shaping. I made a pickup/control cavity template (for stock strat) out of 1/2" plexi, very handy for later guitars. I'll also be making a custom pickguard, the design stage for that is going to be fun on ACAD.

The neck is still a square block, lots of fun ahead there and will keep you posted. I'll be going with a single action truss rod, already made one from 3/16" stock. We're looking at a dog's breakfast for pickups. I hooked up with a guy at work who wanted to unload his inventory, he only likes to make oilcan guitars now so I bought over $1000 worth of everything (tools, parts materials, etc) he had for a mere $200. Too much stuff to list but I got a good assortment of pickups eg. stock strat, SD quarterpounder, lipsticks, some homemade single coils rating around 6KΩ etc. so I'll mix 'n match so see (or hear) what I like..

EVERY BIT of hardware , even got the knobs, is going to be gold...well, IN gold. I will have to buy some Grover mini's, hard to believe the mini's cost 20 bucks more than the full sized ones. I'm also going to make a brass nut, polished to a high shine and then clearcoated. I have a brand new gold hardtail bridge as well. I could probably get my fretwire gold electroplated at work but it wouldn't last very long. The fb is a prefab that my friend picked up off ebay, probably one of those thin Asian jobs but I think it works. Considering whats going into this guitar I'd say it will cost me about A HUNDRED BUCKS to make. I just peg it down to luck and resourcefulness.

I'm going to leave the mahogany natural and can get a friend to apply a good marine poly clearcoat. I might dye the holly to some other color, why? because I CAN But I haven't decided yet. Anyway, thats how she looks so far. I think it will look good hanging off a beautiful lady, what ya think?

Heres a decent piece of wood for a couple solid necks.

Its a chunk of near quartersawn Honduras mahogany handrail I got from a guy at work. It was sitting on his bench for months and we got to talking about my "hobby" and said, "here, do something with that, I'd rather see it be useful to someone" And so it shall. Funny, I'm on guitar-from-scratch number four and have yet to pay for any wood.

And just to add to everyone else, yes, your board is definitely a "rip 'n flip". Maple can be VERY unforgiving when it decides to move. Quartersawn wood expands and contracts evenly. Flatsawn maple will cup across the grain but its still widely used for necks as that dimension is negligible. It just doesn't happen on a piece that narrow and thick.

http://www3.telus.net/Alsplace/Wood/quarter.jpg

Same situation I had a while ago. Solid maple tele and didn't want to cover too much wood. I made a ring out of scuff resistant plexi (Acrylite) for a single coil sized HB. The cavity entrance is minimum size but I hollowed out the wood under the lower edge to accomodate the pickup base plate. ie. The pickup slips in on an angle, this way I have somewhere to screw the ring down. Three screws hold it down, w/ 2 adjustment screws on each end. The material was cut with a jeweller's saw, then edges filed, sanded and polished. I used some pearloid wrapping paper as backing for the clear plastic.

I threw one of those into an Ibanez Roadster (or star?) forget which, anyway it was a stratcopy. This was about 10 yrs ago and then gave the guitar to my dad. No great shakes but what do you expect for 35 bucks?

Depends on the guitar and owner, we don't know if its a no-name junker or an $1000 Gibson SG. Personally, all the guitars I fix get the full treatment, unless those plugs are symmetrical and actually look kinda cool.

Simple repair and only one option, aside from total neck replacement, is to use "keyed-in plugs". Its a common repair for banjo necks as they are very narrow and can be extremely fragile in that area. Glue and clamp the two pieces together and then rout out 2 slots on the back which evenly straddle the joint of the break area, maybe 1.5" long X .25"deep X.25"wide. Then cut hardwood plugs that fit snugly into the slots. Glue and clamp them in and then shave down flush to the surrounding surface. Its a matter of function over form, so unfortunately, the finish must be sacrificed for this repair job.

Body is purple heart , no wonder why its so heavy.

I'd just follow mandolin plans, ie. scale length etc. Could even wind your own little bitty pickups. I'd use blade magnets rather than pole magnets. I've got a few friends who play guitar and now have toddlers, I might just look into making some baby teles for them in the future.

I love this style of playing.

Is this a project you finished or a real SG? Of course a factory made guitar should be balanced. My first build was neck heavy, sometimes you have to sacrifice (and make amends) for building a guitar with full access to all 26 frets. BRB, time for another beer. I put Grover mini's on the headstock and hawged out a pocket in the control cavity w/ a forstner bit, melted down some lead and poured in a slug. balance is perrrrfect now.

At work safety is the MAJOR concern. Not only making sure everyone wears the proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) but how to approach someone who is using potentially dangerous equipment. Of course, your average joe walking in off the street doesn't have a clue or even the common sense to figure it out. All you can do is post signs like "Do not disturb" or "Please do not approach when equipment is running". Or just keep your door shut.