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Morben Guitars

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Everything posted by Morben Guitars

  1. shooting a coat of thinner will have even a greater effect..
  2. Biscuits and Dowles are not necessary, a titebond joint is plenty strong. To prevent slippage during clamping, use the fretboard trick of clipping off a staple or push-pin. Just be sure to put them FAR away from any areas that would be routed out...don't want to hit metal with the router!
  3. Maiden, It does look similiar. This is my first expirement with h20 based finish, so I haven't spent the time to really look at the differances between different brands... but it does look similar. I use a compressor. Those preval units aren't even fit for your grandmothers worst perfume... I've used them before, and threw them out shortly thereafter.. You're better off brushing. If you have a wagner, which I believe would be considered a HVLP gun, test it out. The turbine guns tend to heat the finish, which can have adverse affects. As always... T.O.A.S.!! From the sm site: For turbine spraying, reduce waterbase topcoat by 5% with ColorTone Waterbase Retarder. For brushing, reduce by 20%. They also sell the sanding sealer.. Give it a shot and let us know!
  4. We're talking about two different steps. I was discussing obtianing the initial polish on a newly finished guitar (which a wax will not do). You're discussing how to keep that shine. Wax will work, however wax has many additives that will often create headaches down the road to the refinisher. Most guitar companies sell a little bottle of spray stuff designed for the guitar...just use that. Actually McGuiers cobranded a guitar maintence kit with fender recently.
  5. Using it on factory finished guitars?! what are you trying to achieve? The reason they can create issues is becasue they are to powerful for the leveling/polishing stages of finishing. You'll take too much finish off too quickly. Other than using an arbor, wet sanding by hand and checking the surface frequently is the only reliable method. It's a real pain in the a**, but that's why you don't see many *well* finished guitars by home builders. Everyone wants a shortcut. The fewer power tools that touch your guitar the better. If you want an orbital for some of the sanding steps, that would be fine, or if you're removing a finish it would work as well.. but as a finishing tool? Buy a gallon or two of elbow grease instead
  6. We just had this conversation!! Search for recent posts on Binding. But to quickly answer your question.. 1.) install binding 2.) scrape/sand to be flush with guitar 3.) spray a clear sealer coat or two 4.) mask the binding on the side of the guitar (use high quality 3M Painters tape or pinstriping tape from an auto store.) 5.) Spray your black finish 6.) remove tape 7.) using a razor and your thumb as a depth guide, scrape the black off the top side of the binding. (the clear coat will prevent staining of the binding.) Now apply your clear coat over both binding and body.
  7. In my experience, using a power sander of any type leads to issues when leveling/polishing a finish. It would probably be helpful in the "3M" final step, but guitars are such small pieces of work that it only takes a few minutes and a little elbow grease to make it shine. A buffing arbor is the best purchase to expediate the buffing/polishing step. But orbital sanders are very useful tools as well.. Just got a grizzly one in the mail yesterday! Under $20!
  8. What is this? Is it the water base color tone that stew mac sells? http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product_detai...id=53&filter=ef
  9. Chris, I'll try to answer your questions, but I need a little more info to really help you. 1.) what type of finish are you using on the guitar? 2.) what type of fretboard do you have? When you say you just stained the body - are you applying a stain over the finish? Once the finish is dry, you will most likely need to go through the steps of "finish sanding"...the last step is a polish, for which I prefer to use 3M Machine polish (swirl remover). From time to time to keep it in good shape, I'll just use a Gibson spray to clean her up - just make sure it doesn't contain silocoln. It sounds like you did your inlay work with the frets in? Not really recommended as you can't sand the fretboard evenly afterwards. But you probably don't want to remove them and start over. I'd suggest using a lighter sand paper and trying your best to clean it up. If it's a maple fretboard, you'll be putting a finish on anyways, so to add toner to the finish wouldn't be an issue. For rosewood/ebony/pau ferro boards, you don't want to apply any finish or color to them. Hope that helps.
  10. Hey Bill, Great question. My personal preferance is for Lacquer, but poly's have a good argument. Here is some info about both. Lacquer actually melts the previous layer, thus giving you a very uniform finish. Poly's sit on top of each other. This is fine, but can create problems when finish sanding. If you sand through layers of Poly, it's visible. Lacquer requires a lot of wet sanding to get the mirror finish (given you don't have a buffing arbor). Poly seems to go on a bit smoother. Lacquer will, over time, yellow. I actually like that vintage look (old strats that look yellow were once white - also look at the binding on vintage LP's). Poly's will remain clear for years. I've recently started using "EF POLY" on some furniture I'm building...it's waterbased, which historically had been inferior to the traditional poly's... but this stuff is really impresssing me. A lot quicker cure time...ready to sand in 45 minutes! I've been using their sanding sealer and satin top coat.. they do make a gloss. Thinking about trying it on the next guitar. Lacquer can be obtained in spray cans (stew mac, reranch). I think people use auto poly in spray cans as well. But many brush it on with reasonably good outcomes. I'd suggest getting a little of both and seeing which you prefer. Keep us posted! -Ben
  11. That's 4 different types of visible wood on one guitar. A bit much if you ask me. I think the more important question is what type of neck/fretboard do you like?! Are you going for a particular sound? If you like maple, then go maple. Once the woods are hammered down, then you can work on the visual aspect of it. Ebony Dye can be used to darken a fretboard, you can finish the maple neck darker...even burst it into the body finish. Since you're only adding maple as a veneer, it won't have an audible impact to the sound (as a 1/4" cap would), so you essentially have a solid mahog. guitar. Not a bad thing in the least - but something to consider when choosing woods to compliment it.
  12. For inlay work, use black epoxy. Hide glue is best used for joints that will be removed in the future. This is why they are often the choice for neck joints.
  13. There are a lot of people here who will say "just go for it!" Strippers, thinners and sandpaper! I'm here as an experienced finisher begging you not to touch it. You got your hands on a LP Custom that is almost 20 years old - that guitar is expected to have crazing, chipping and belt rash! The moment you start to remove that finish, the value of the guitar plummets.. (yes, I know you got a great deal on it..but it's still an awesome guitar). Have you finished guitars in nitro before? If not, don't let this be your first one. I haven't even asked, what color it is? It always cracks me up that builders try to make their new guitars look old...but also seem to want the old guitars to look brand new. Cherrish this sweet find! Give her a good set up and some new strings and let her play! I guarentee if you show up at a show with a beat to hell '86 paul custom, you'd see a lot more musicians drooling over it than if you showed up with a "like new" guitar.. shiney new guitars are a dime a dozen... Vintage crazed, yellowed instruments are a rare find. I suggest you go back to where you found this great deal and find another, less valuable guitar, to refinish.
  14. I'm a big fan of Grizzly equipment. I have the following tools from them: Hook and loop sander (just came in today) 18v drill buffer/polisher compressor spray gun nail gun jig saw router bits bunch of other stuff I can't remember... AI've been happy with all of the equipment. I'm originally from PA, so when I go home for the holidays, I usually make a trip to the Grizzly store. They have equipment to drool over.. $15,000 planers... HUGE pieces of machinery... They also sell DeWalt, Delta and a few other brands.. and the staff is very honest and striaght forward.. if they think the delta has a better piece of equipment, they'll tell you. But odds are, the Grizzly is built a bit better, and a good bit less money. I've been very happy with their stuff.
  15. I just put that exact wiring in a customer's Thinline. I swaped the switch for a LP switch and installed it from the back in the traditional LP position. This was almost necessary to free up the necessary real estate for another knob. It was the first time I used Push Pulls. Each p/u had it's own volume, and could split the coils. The tone knob switched from parallel to series. A bunch of great sounds.. Perfect for studio work. But on stage it's more of finding a sound you like and sticking with it.. perhaps a few changes here and there. If you don't use a tuner pedal, go get one. beyond the obvious benefit..they can kill the signal for you. Let me know as you get closer to wiring and we'll go over the details. FYI: if you're new to wiring - this is a lot to bite off. But a little practice and you'll have no problem.
  16. As previously mentioned, the blocks are held in place with epoxy. The guy that built this told me he had to reglue them about once every 5 years.
  17. Yes, a fret leveling file. Here is a side view of what I am talking about.
  18. One of the best file ideas I've ever seen was from a local builder at our monthly luthier meeting. He has used it for 15 years. He took a single cut file and epoxied two blocks of wood to the back of it at both ends. Holes were drilled through the wood and a threaded rod was inserted through them. They were held inplace with nuts on both sides of each wooden block. So essentially you could tighten or loosen the bolts until you had a perfectly flat file. The rod running between the two blocks also served as a handy handle when flatening the frets... He would ensure flatness by haveing a known flat item (metal scraper works great). By slowly running the file down the edge of the scraper, you could easily tell when you had the file flat. Does this make sense? A picture would probably help.
  19. Sounds like Engineer may be confused as to what we're "taping" vs. "scraping".. I have seen the Stew Mac video on sunbursting, and I'm fairly certain they didn't scrape the sides of the binding. The binding showing on the face of the guitar is dificult to tape, and easy to scrape with a razor and a steady thumb guide. But the sides should absolutly be taped off. I used pinstripe tape (the actual pinstripe) that johnsilver saw at the store.. It has worked great. Of the different tapes I've used, it's the best. Haven't tried the other pinstriping tape yet, but this is 4 binding jobs with no complaints. And I should mention that I always shoot a sealer coat over the entire guitar (including the binding) before colors/dyes. It's MUCH easier to scrape off something shot over a sealer coat than it is if shot directly onto the binding. It also prevents the binding from being stained... Hope that helps.
  20. First make a detailed schematic of where everything is wired before taking anything apart.. Then take out your pickup by desoldering the contacts. (don't just cut the wires). Install then new pickup and resolder. a two conductor pickup will have a "hot" and a "ground" lead. 4 conuctor picups will have a color code. If that's the case you can either solder two of them together effectivly making it a 2-conductor pickup... or use some switches to coil split, phase shift, or switch to series.. But that's probably beyond the scope your first pickup replacement. If the pickup is a differnet size and shape (single coil vs. humbucker) you will obviously need to make some alterations to the guitar/pickguard... but you didn't mention what you have or what you're using (I'm assuming PAF's with an SG).. so I can't guide you there.. Does that answer your question?
  21. I've started thinking about my next guitar, and I'm almost positive I'm going to give this bridge a run for it's money.. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailp...and_Bridge.html Great looking piece of hardware..
  22. We're always happy to give advice...but remember who's guitar this is!! What do you like to play? What have been some of your favorite guitars? Those are the questions that you should be asking...as it determines the bridge. Another factor often overlooked is "string angle". Some bridges have the saddles sit high enough off the body to require the neck to be angled back. This could influence your bridge selection. TOM's require a neck angle (think les paul). If you don't play divebomb solos, you may be better off with a fixed bridge, of which there are countless styles. Also, will you want a "string through" guitar or a top loading guitar. That varies bridge to bridge as well. But the very last determinate of part selection should be price...don't spend the time and energy building a guitar that will be held back by inferior parts.. You'll wish you spent the extra few bucks on nicer parts after it's finished. And besides, almost everything on a guitar can be moved to the next one if you really don't like something about it.
  23. If you're uncomfortable cutting a nut, graph tech (and I'm sure otheres) sell pre cut nuts.
  24. Yes it's possible. For best results you'll remove the neck and finish it seperatly. If you're unfamiliar with guitar finishing, read up here: http://www.reranch.com/ If you're unfamiliar with any wood finishing, I'd suggest buying an inexpensive "kit" guitar and working on that first. Oh, and WELCOME TO THE CLUB!
  25. Guitarfrenzy, Yes, it took a lot of trial & error, but I've got it down now. The key to the whole thing is in the use of a vinyl sealer. After I shot each color, I shot a few coats of the sealer. Every other sealer I tried made the dye bleed and run. The dye is very instable when shot alone...a little brush against the finish and you've scraped it off.. I go to all the trouble because I feel it gives me more depth in the finish and smoother "fades". I did a tutorial on this, but I don't know how to post the link. If you search you'll find it... "sunbursting with dyes" or something like that.
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