mattharris75

Great looking bass, Jon! What is the finish on it? A few coats of tru oil?

I used one in my first build, the all walnut bodied guitar. Worked great. You just have to plan well enough so that a biscuit doesn't end up sticking out the side of your guitar.

Kenny, this guitar has really turned out phenomenal. It's the kind of guitar I'd love to own.

Thanks guys. Elysian, I actually ended up whimping out and sending this off to a pro to spray it, so it's not KTM. I will eventually try the KTM, I just felt like I needed to practice before I went for it on a live guitar, and I didn't have time to do that and wanted to go ahead and get this one done.

You may be able to find Tru-Oil at Wal Mart. Check the sporting goods/hunting section. It's a lot cheaper there than anywhere you would order it. And I would second this finish for a neck. You can do it glossy, but you can do a matte/semi-gloss finish that is super fast feeling quite easily.

Finally, progress. My second guitar is already finished, and my first has been languishing in near-completeness for many months now. The finish on this one is done. Epoxy grainfill, and coat of poly, and then built up with nitro to finish it out. Looks like it's been dipped in glass! I'm hoping to get it wired next week and finish up a few details at the same time, as well as get it set-up. Hopefully it will be totally finished in a matter of weeks...It's about time! Click for full sized pics:

Got her all wired up and playing. Posted a couple of new pictures in the guitar of the month thread. Go check it out!

I'm pretty proud of this little sucker. This was the second guitar that I started and the first one that I finished. (The other should finally be completed in the next couple of weeks) The story behind this is that it's a gift for my god-son. It's a 2/3 scale guitar. It's 1.25" thick with a 17" scale length and a 26" overall length. You can get an idea of its size in the picture with it next to a normal sized (25.5" scale) guitar neck. Obviously, it's only got 4 strings instead of 6. It's the perfect size for a child's hands. The tuning of the guitar is like that of a tenor ukulele; G C E A I designed and drew out the guitar on the day that little James was born (April 17th) and started cutting wood the following day. It's taken me about 3 1/2 months from start to finish. All the wood (except the fingerboard) and most of the hardware was just spare stuff or offcuts I had sitting around from other projects. The name of this guitar is the "Sweet Baby James". Most other specific information can be found on the pictures, so here we go:

Well, it took a month or so longer than I expected, but this guitar is essentially finished. I will be soldering the wiring tomorrow night and I need to tweak the setup a bit, but it's not too far off. The finish turned out looking pretty good, but not perfect. As a retrospective, here are some of the things that I learned or would do differently: 1. Smaller doesn't mean easier 2. Cut my own nut rather than use a cheap plastic one that doesn't fit well. 3. Use reasonable quality tuners, not the cheapest that eBay has to offer. 4. Next time, use individual saddles and a wood plate to make a string through bridge rather than a tailpiece 5. Do a simple semi-gloss oil and wax finish for this wood combination, rather than filling the pores and going high gloss. Would have looked great the other way and been significantly easier All in all I'm quite pleased with the project. I will post some sounds clips of this little sucker in the next week or so. Here are a couple of pics (Click for full size): Now it's time to get back to my twin bass projects!!!

Interestingly enough, I think this is the 4th month in a row that I've voted for one of ScottyD's builds.

Very cool! I love it!!! Reminds me very much, conceptually, of the 4 string 2/3 scale (17" scale length) guitar that I'm finishing up right now. I should have it wired up this weekend. Anyway, great job and great attention to detail. These little ones are fun to build, and i've discovered they are more difficult than full sized in some ways.

Some people do. Keeps the nitro from sinking back into the grain as it ages. I'm having that done to a guitar as we speak, in fact. BTW, this topic shouldn't be in the 'in progress and finished work' section.

Well, the first n00bian insult I can think of is.....This thread belongs in the finishing section, not in progress and finished work.

Drill press? Please elaborate. Your question doesn't seem to make sense... Drill presses have depth stops. The diameter of the forstner bit has nothing to do with the drill press depth stop. I don't understand what your problem is?...

Woodcraft.

I'll elaborate once I know how it works out. Seriously though, i'm just playing it by ear. I think i'm going to change things up a bit from my test finish. Thus far I have filled with 3 coats of z-poxy (the padauk has huge open pores) and then did a 50/50 wipe down coat of z-poxy mixed with denatured alcohol. I'll wire wool this down perfectly smooth and then start tru-oiling it. I'll play the number of coats by ear depending on what looks good to me. I probably will not use paste wax as I initially thought I might. I will most likely cut the final coat of tru oil with some denatured alcohol and leave it at that. (Saw somebody, possibly Erikbojerik, do this on a bass he recently completed) Then possibly polish with micro mesh papers if necessary.

Thanks Jon, that top is a piece of Padauk from you. The finishing process is underway, it's starting to look quite nice. The new walnut pickguard is lagging a bit behind, but it is completely shaped. Just needs a little more sanding and rounding of the edges and i'll get started grainfilling it. I'm going to Atlanta to visit my friends and the new baby this weekend, so it looks like i'm going to come up a little short on my deadline. Ahh well, i'll just get to play it for a few months before the next time I get over that way.

You shouldn't have to grainfill again, regardless. And 3 coats of oil is pretty light. Sand through at that point is no big deal. Just keep adding coats. After 10 or 15 coats you shouldn't get any sand through. Also, try using 0000 wire wool dipped in naphtha between every second coat, and don't worry about level sanding for a while. If you apply the oil well that should be enough leveling while you are building coats. Just remember, that whatever you screw up you can fix with oil.

Thanks for the comments everyone... I had no luck fixing the maple pickguard, so I went ahead and rough cut one out of a scrap piece of walnut that I thicknessed to roughly 5 mm. I'll probably thin it out a bit more yet, and of course round the edges. The walnut definitely gives it a different look, but I think I'm going to like it. You can see that the padauk top is significantly more red with a couple of coats of epoxy on it. It's in a scuff sanded state at the moment, but with the fresh epoxy on there it shines quite a vibrant and deep red-orange.

I assume this is probably the one you are talking about: 5 day guitar building course

I don't know about your specific grainfiller, but i've used Tru Oil over a solid layer of epoxy finishing resin with no problems. Tru Oil is basically a varnish anyway, you're not really relying on it soaking into the wood, and it can build a finish. So, unless there's a chemical incompatibility of some sort, I would guess that it would work.

Neck's looking great. Can't wait to see it all together.

Looks good to me, but it's tough to tell from the picture. If you have any particular trouble spots, you might want to post some closer up pictures of that. I think this type of things is one of the reasons that most people wouldn't recommend you sell your first guitar build. It's amazing how much easier and more precise everything gets the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th times, and so on. Looking great, by the way!

So, for these 4 replies, you can now post 4 pictures, ehh?

Yes, now that you mention it, it does sort of favor a goldfish cracker. I never noticed that before. I imagine the fact that the top is padauk really reinforces that likeness. Does anyone have any opinions on alternative pickguards? Black? White? Cream? Solid Walnut? Other ideas?