Morben Guitars

Dave, Rhodes and I just have two different ways of finishing. I prefer to always apply dye to a clear sealer coat...this didn't make much sense to me until I tried it. When dying the wood directly, some parts will take on more dye than others risking a blotchy finish. Many people have great results doing this, but I've always found it easier to apply the sealer coat first. I'd suspect that if you're combining methods, you'd have inconsistencies in color on the top where there would be some overspray of sealer. In other words the edges of the guitar would have dye applied to the sealer - and towards the middle it would be applied to the wood. If you're going for a solid color, and you don't have much finishing experience, I strongly recommend spraing the entire body with the sanding sealer first - don't overcomplicate on your first attempt with natural binding. If you're using a figured top, this method will work very well. Here's the rational...Figure in a wood is dependant upon the light going into the grain and coming back out with little or no refraction...this gives the 3-D effect when the viewing angle is changed. By applying dye directly to the grain - you're distrupting the light's ability to reflect back out. However if you imagine a tinted piece of glass lying on top of the wood - it will relect as if unfinished, however will still appear to have the color of the glass...this is why I "samwich" my color coats between clear coats. Keeping the grain free and clear of all saw dust (use compressed air) is esential to a good finish. I posted a tutorial of this method while applying a sunburst finish a few weeks back..don't know how to point you to it however.. Hope that helps.

I've had the best luck by first spraying a coat or two of Sanding Sealer on the entire guitar. Then taping the sides of the guitar for the faux binding. Of all the tapes I've used, I've had the best results with simple "pinstriping" tape found at the auto parts store. The stuff to put fake pinstripes on your pimped out ride... I cut the tape flush with the face and back of the guitar with a razor, then apply the dye. Once removed, you should have a very clean line, but no binding on back/top. This is done with a razor and a steady hand. It's not very difficult, you'll be surprised. The point of the sealer coat is to allow the dye to just scrape right off since it was never in the grain. Apply another sealer coat immeadiatly after you're done scraping. You'll get great results.

Drak - Looking good!! Hey, if you want to install the GHOST pickups - get the cavities routed from the saddle area to the bridge p/u before you get too much clear on.. You'll thank me later. If you decide to not install the GHOSTS - the mod will be covered by the bridge and will be out of sight. -Ben

http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/faq.shtml

I wonder how I lived before I had a compressor... most obvious use is for spraying finishes. But the simple blow off feature I use every day - either to clear the grain out or to blast the shop clean. I also use a nail gun for furniture projects that works like a charm. Airbrush is helpful too for sunburst finishes. Drop the coin! Get a compressor!

I own the Rigid model before the current one. Basically the same one with a different base. I think it's a great model. No issues. 90 & 45 degree stop fence - plenty of power - quiet motor. I'd recommend it. Knives are easy to change as well. I've used a friends Grizzly jointer - that's a nice machine as well. Hope it helps.

Actually it's an "M"....

Why aren't you spraying agian? While I use a compressor & gun now - I have used the rattle can's and was impressed with their quality. MUCH better than trying to get a glass finish by brushing it on. Stew Mac and ReRanch both sell sanding sealer & topcoat lacquer in rattle cans. I actually have a bunch left over from my can days. So with the Saga kit, I'd use the following process.. apply dye NOT STAIN!!! these are two different things!! Sanding Sealer - sand flat Lacquer. I can't stand working with poly's on a guitar. So unforgiving. If this is your first finishing project - make it easy as possible. Besides, lacquer is the Ferrari of wood finishes for sheen & luster. And multiple thin coats are much better than a few heavy coats. before you even buy the guitar I suggest getting some scrap wood and testing everything. You'll be able to draw your own conclusions.

The Saga kits come "pre-sealed" and don't have the best grain...I may suggest a solid color or a dark dye. If you want to learn, don't take the easy route...you'll need to do about 3-4 guitars before you really start to get the finishes you see in your head...Jump in with both feet! Hit this puppy with some Nitro!!

A clear finish is only as good as the surface it rests on... If you really want a nice finish that shows depth then you should be using a base sealer coat (sanding sealer) after finish sanding the maple. The most overlooked step here is keeping the wood clean and free of sanding dust. Use a can of compressed air and a tack cloth often. It should be absoluty free of any dust before applying the sealer coat. Next apply a dye - not a stain - a dye. Minwax if for footstools and shelves...not guitars. Pick up a color that you want in powdered form. I suggest alcohol soluble..although people have had good results with the water soluble dyes. Apply the dye on top of the sealer coat...let it dry...re seal. Sand this flat with wet sanding paper starting at 600. Once all the "hills and valleys" are gone, you can begin shooting your Nitro Lacquer. Apply 2-3 coats a day for 3 days. Lightly sanding between sets. Before the final finish, let the nitro gas out for ~4 weeks. Then start with 600 and go to 2000. You should be spending about 1 hour on each grit to get the proper finish. Resist the temptation to use a sander...do this by hand and dry the surface often to check for scratches etc. After you've reached 2000 - use something like 3M's Machine Polish to buff out the shine. Note on guitar finishing...you'll get out of it what you put into it. If you want a great finish, you need to follow the proper steps. There is more than one way to skin a cat - but if you follow these steps, you'll have a very impressive looking finish. Spend some time on ReRanch reading their tutorials...very helpful.

What wood are you using? That's a little different from my process, which I'll share with you. There are a few items I'd add - and some I'd skip: It may be obvious, but your first step should be to finish sand the wood to 220. Then apply some water to raise the grain. Once dry, sand with the 220 again. Be sure to use a tack rag and compressed air to completly clean the grain before applying any filler/finish. 1 Grain fill and sand (good) 2 one coat (or two) lacquer (skip this step, shoot the SS) 3 sanding sealer 4 lacquer coats 5 sealer, etc etc (once you start with lacquer - stay with lacquer - no need to go back to the sealer) 6 wet sand and buff to finish (correct - after it cures for ~4 weeks) You should be lighly sanding between lacquer coats. After the SS coat, you should flat sand the guitar. This will give you a very smooth surface to shoot the lacquer on to and save you time/energy trying to level sand the nitro. Hope this helps! oh, and what type of fretboard are you using?

ahh, right up my alley...just comming off a weekend dovetailing drawers I can help you out with this. First understand that a properly joined and glued joint is EXTREMELY strong. Since the wings of a body don't take much stress...you'll rarely see an issue here. Dovetailing would be primarly for cosmetic purposes. I'd suggest using your tradional join/glue/clamp process for the main body, but to encorporate a Dovetailed cap on the guitar. (dovetail the bookmatch joint perhaps). That would be a great look with contrasting woods as well. But for the body, well the wood's just too thick for any jig I know of - and freehand dovetailing? Well, that's another bag of chips. Either way, dovetail the wood blank BEFORE cutting the body shape.

Binding works by first rabbiting (sp?) the edge of the guitar by an amount slighly less than the thickness of the binding. Stew Mac has good router bits for this. Then you glue the binding in, tape it up, and let it dry/cure overnight. If you measure correctly, there shouldn't be much scraping/sanding to do inorder for a good fit. I've just used sandpaper/sander to level the binding on the top & sides. Test this on a scrap first to ensure a good fit. Also helpful to keep a bit of binding in some acetone. This melts the plastic into a goopy mess that is helpful for touching up any "gaps" in the binding and the guitar...which you'll have your first time. Yes, this is more difficult on an arch top - but there are tool designed specifially for this - I'd try it on a non-arch/carved top first. I've had the best luck by routing the ledge, soaking the binding in VERY hot water, installing it WITHOUT glue and letting it sit for 15 minutes or so..this helps mold the binding in the correct shape. Then when you glue it in, it's less of a struggle - also start with the most extreme bends/cutaways first. Hope this helps. Remember, you're going to make the guitar look a lot worse before it looks better - freaked me out the first time. Nothing some sanding won't fix!

Phil, I use Transtint Alcohol powdered dyes. I'm sure they are similiar to the LMII dyes. I typically use a Mason Jar to mix the power into, and have found that 1/4 of the small bottle of powder is necessary. I fill the jar 3/4 of the way full. After I mix it in, I need to let it sit overnight to properly dissolve. Then I strain it through a cheep paper paint strainer to remove any small particles. In my experience, I don't like the look of dying the wood directly. Wood can absorb the dye differently on different spots - leading to a "patchey" finish. I have found the best results come from first sealing the guitar with a sanding sealer - sanding flat - then applying the dye to the sealer. Goes on very smooth and evenly. I put a tutorial up a few weeks ago detailing this process for a sunburst guitar. Hope that helps! -Ben

Could be a number of things...but it sounds like your signal is being grounded before heading into the cable. check for open ground wires touching the hot leads. also be sure that the hot leads are not touching any shielding, I've found that to be the problem more than once. If it's not the cable or the amp, then it's the wiring. Very rare for a pickup to die, let alone three on the same guitar.

Wow, great looking guitar, and thanks for the "ink" Drak! Here's my advice for finishing: Use a dark grain filler. Clear fillers often come out as white specks in the finish...where a dark filler will highlight the grain. I've been experimenting with waterbased grain filler on a dresser I'm building with good results...Wunderfil http://www.rockler.com/findit.cfm?page=2003 But for all the finishes I've done on guitars, I've used Bartley's grain filler. You may want to leave it at that, or you may want to try a fade like I did with the back of my last guitar (mahogany). Either way I think you'll be happy - great looking guitar!

I'd give this a try, I've used it in the past with pretty good results. It's also pretty cheep when compared to a full shop of fret tools.. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5&category=7266

http://www.selftuning.com/index2.htm I use the Boss Chromatic tuner, it's best feature is that you can kill the output to the amp by pressing the pedal, therefore tune up in silent when on stage. No more tuning over each other or having the crowd hear that annoying downtime between songs. They can also act as a good kill switch during a song. They are really the best way to tune and adjust the intonation as well.

Thanks all who voted for me so far! 9 months of hard work on that baby. I added a sunburst tutorial a while back for anyone that missed it! -Ben

Funny, that's the place that I ordered the pearlesant powder stuff from! It's about a 6 hour flight from where I am, so I don't think I'll be swinging by anytime soon tho...

Lil bit, Have you tried shooting some sealer BEFORE applying the dye? If bleeding colors is a problem, that will most certainly stop it.

Perry, If you're looking for scientific proof, good luck. This is more of a "in my experience" field. I've been in many conversations reguarding how different options effect the tone of a finished instrument. It's practically impossible to determine the differance between a Nitro finish and a poly finish w/o completly stripping the guitar, and refinishing it. Two guitars of the same make and model often sound differently due to the "undeterminable factors" such as wood density, grain patern, etc. It is pretty much accepted in the luthier world that a thin finish will result in a better sounding instument than a thick finish. It's also been heavily debated on how hollowing out a electric guitar changes it's sound. I'm of the school that once a guitar is plugged in, it looses almost all of the "hollow tone" if it's been constructed in a Thinline fashion (routing out cavities). This is going to be mostly asthetic and practical since it reduces the weight of a guitar. If you're talking about a true Hollow body design (built with seperate bent sides and a thin back and soundboard) then that will have an effect on the sound due to the significantly increased vibration trasnfer through the body.. While finishes will alter the sound of a guitar (as they alter the vibrations of the wood) it's probably the smallest factor I can think of. The largest are obviously going to be pickup selection and placement, wiring, neck fit, and overall mass of the guitar. It's fun to try and experiment by comparing them, but there are no assurances in repeating that sound exactly. Instead of trying to get overly technical in my construction/finishing schedule - I simply try to produce what has worked well for me in the past, and what I deem to be pleasing to the ear. For me that means working with old, dry mahogany, using a maple neck with a larger than normal headstock, PAF pickups, and a thin nitro finish. It's worked well for me in the past, and each new guitar I try to tweek in some new way...little improvements over time. Well, sorry for the essay, hope that helps...but the large majority of this is opinion....not science. -Ben

I've always used single ply binding that measures .090" X .25". The width of the binding may be dictated by your router bit - something to consider.

I did something similar with a previous guitar. I wanted to inlay my signature in a material that would match the pearloid pickguard/binding. I finally found a "pearlesant powder" though a Art Supply Co. in San Fran. I mixed this with Epoxy, routed out my signature, filled it in, then sanded it back. Worked well!

You'd do it just like you said! ...you route for the pickups from the front of the guitar and for the electronics from the back...there will be Two cavities in the back of the guitar. These will be covered with a plate that you'll probably have to custom make from a sheet of pickguard material or from wood. there will be a ledge around the cavity so that the cover sits flat and has something to screw into. Look at the back of a les paul or any guitar that doesn't mount it's electronicts to a pickguard or plate. As for the wiring; it looks like the pickups have individual volume control (and tone? Maybe coil tap blends?) It also appears that there is a master volume by the output jack. If this is the case, you'll need channels from eash pickup cavity to the main control cavity (drill holes) then you'll need a cavity that runs from the larger control cavity to the output jack/volume knob. that's quite a distance, and I'd recommend going through the existing pickup routes. But you'll still need a pretty long drill bit to make that last hole tho. Unless that's why the pickguard is so big...they could have routed an area from the front for the output wire...then drilled from that to the jack. Hope that helps...Draw this out in full scale before cutting anything! you'll answer most of your questions and discover some new ones by doing this. I'd wire this yourself!! Gotta learn sometime, and it's not very difficult. Let us know how we can help! (Jack White fan?)