Wave guitar build project

Megii

I also fitted the pickups in order to check the alignment, and also to give an idea of the final weight and balance of the guitar. One thing I can say is this is going to be a very light-weight guitar, perhaps the cutaway on the base is partly responsible for that, but also I think www.guitarbuild.co.uk have used some very low density swamp ash to make my body from.

The pole piece spacing for the neck pickup is a bit wider than ideal, but I suspect in practice it won't be an issue:

I will be using 11-48 gauge strings, so I fitted a high and low E, and set the intonation just to check that the bridge is in the right place, and it's good! (Phil at Guitarbuild sorted that out for me, cheer for that Phil! ):

 

 

Megii

Some work getting the holes for the strap pegs drilled and the pegs fitted. There is one each side on the base like this:

And then some experimenting before I decided where to place the peg on the upper horn, in the end I went for this position, which works with the fairly high position I like for a guitar on a strap, and doesn't pull the upper edge of the guitar inwards too much, which I don't like. There is no trace of neck heaviness either, great, because that was a bit of a concern given the lightweight body, plus it's shape.

ddlooping

Great job, Megii, thanks for sharing the progress of this build.

Megii

And then it was basically time to dismantle it all again, so I can get on with the finishing. I'm trying a colourless, satin top coat Wudtone kit for this guitar, having used Tru Oil previously on other builds. At the moment it's hard to say what the difference will be, but the Wudtone is certainly quite easy to use. After sanding the body smooth with 600 grit, then cleaning it by wiping with naphtha (zippo lighter fuel), I applied a fairly liberal coat of Wudtone base coat - as expected this soaked into the grain quite a bit. I've since sanded smooth again with 600 grit, although it's not like going back to bare wood, since the finish has impregnated into the wood a bit. Then applied a second, very thin coat of Wudtone - really as thin as I could, and still be able to tell I'd done something. My intention at the moment is to go for a pretty thin finish, just enough to get things looking nice and protect the wood - kind of a natural look if you like. As Wes predicted, there is some colour change happening, which I guess is unavoidable, but the grain is being brought out nicely, and I think I will be able to get a good result. Really bad light today, so the following shots don't really show what the body looks like to the naked eye, but I think you can at least see that the grain stands out more, and that there is a slight sheen to the wood:

I've also started work on finishing the headstock front - the maple has been smoothed with 1000 grit paper, and I've so far applied just one coat of Plasti-kote clear satin acrylic spray. I think it's going to be a case of building up in thin coats, with fine sanding between, until I have a good smooth surface on which to apply a decal logo. Then more coats on top of that.

 

I forgot to mask off the truss rod cavity in that pic, oops, will mask that off before doing another coat! 

Megii

Jalapeno said:

All looking lovely !

Cheers Jalapeno - I admit I chose those machine heads mainly because I think they look cool lol, but they do work very well too.

Megii

ddlooping said:

Great job, Megii, thanks for sharing the progress of this build.

Cheers for taking an interest, hope it provides a bit of entertainment!

rpr

there was a fair bit on using Wudtone on the old Music Radar site. I remember @TTony having a few gos, before he got it right. IIRC it's best to use some elbow grease and really push it into the wood,  -1 bottle should give 1  guitar one coat, which is all that is needed. I only passing on second hand info- Andy at Wudtone is meant to be very helpful and it might be an idea to message him for advice, I'm sure @TTony would help as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXYNaHVhm1g

TTony

Thanks @rpr for the alert on this thread.

One of the problems with all the admin work on the site is that some - really interesting - discussions pass me by.  Like this one!  Just had a quick scan read, and this looks like a beautiful guitar with some very precise and careful woodworking.  Congratulations @Megii (and a couple of belated wow!s too).

I wouldn't expect that you'll have any problems at all with the clear Wudtone finish.  My difficulties arose from (a) impatience and (b) being too stingy with colour coats.  The plain finish should accentuate the underlying wood grain, and allow you to still "feel" it properly.

rpr

Just noticed your comments on the Lil 59- It was pretty much the same on my Ibanez. Doesn't affect the sound at all- In fact I only noticed it after it had been fitted for a fair few months.

Megii

Appreciate the help re the Wudtone rpr, thanks! I have been really rubbing it in quite hard - it just seemed to help, so at least I've got that right. Reading the instructions on the Wudtone site, he seems to recommend 3 to 6 ish coats of the base, then 2 or more top coats, really down to the taste of the individual. He does say several times to keep the coats as thin as possible, and I really am taking this seriously. Actually so far it seems a lot like Tru Oil to use, and a similar approach to applying seems to work pretty well. Will be interesting to see how the final result differs though. Cheers for the video clip also, hadn't seen that before.

Megii

TTony said:

Thanks @rpr for the alert on this thread.

One of the problems with all the admin work on the site is that some - really interesting - discussions pass me by.  Like this one!  Just had a quick scan read, and this looks like a beautiful guitar with some very precise and careful woodworking.  Congratulations @Megii (and a couple of belated wow!s too).

I wouldn't expect that you'll have any problems at all with the clear Wudtone finish.  My difficulties arose from (a) impatience and (b) being too stingy with colour coats.  The plain finish should accentuate the underlying wood grain, and allow you to still "feel" it properly.

Cheers TTony! What you're saying re the Wudtone definitely accords with my hopes for the finish, so that does bode well. I'll be sure to take my time, and be patient with things - I know what you mean about finishing though, it's so tempting to wop a thick coat on there and try and get it done quickly lol, but no!

Megii

rpr said:

Just noticed your comments on the Lil 59- It was pretty much the same on my Ibanez. Doesn't affect the sound at all- In fact I only noticed it after it had been fitted for a fair few months.

Thanks for that rpr, the spacing doesn't bother me at all looks-wise, in fact I think the pickup looks pretty damn cool, and if the string output is not affected, then that's absolutely fine - and I'm happy to take your word that's not an issue. I've heard from a few places that the Lil 59 is a great neck position pickup for jazz and fusion, so I was really chuffed  when I spotted you selling this one on the forum - perfect timing for me. I'm planning to fit a push-pull pot to give series-parallel switching for the pickup too.

Megii

Just to update again - I've carried on doing further work on the guitar finish, and this morning gave the body a rub down with 0000 wire wool, cleaned with naphtha, and applied a third coat of the clear Wudtone base. After a few hours it was dry enough to handle with care, so I've taken a few pics - I actually think it's already looking good enough that I could stop now if I wanted, however, I will carry on and at least do one layer of the satin top coat, which I understand also helps to provide a tougher protective surface. The wood colour has changed somewhat, but I would say the overall appearance is lighter and less tinted than I would have achieved with Tru Oil. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the Wudtone kit - good stuff!

 

 

DiscoStu

Looking great!

Megii

Hey DS, thank you! I happy it's got to this stage so quickly - am applying what may well be a final layer of Wudtone satin top coat as we speak. Also hope to be doing some work getting a logo applied to the headstock today - more later anyhow, and thanks for your interest in my little project!

DiscoStu

I really should get on with my Tele...
I've not heard anyone diss the Wudtone yet so almost definitely going down that route. I've got a trans black idea in my head but your 'natural' finish looks gorgeous so I'm in two minds now as I've got a great piece of ash for my body too.

Megii

There's lots of nice options on their website - I was actually quite tempted by the "Azure Lagoon" kit for a while, also I like the idea of the Amber with gold highlights. But by a whisker, I'm glad I stuck with my plan to go natural.

DiscoStu

It does look the tits.

dchwhite

Looks very nice already

Megii

DiscoStu said:

It does look the tits.

lol - cheers! That's just with the three base coats on as well - still watching the satin top coat curing, looks like it's going to stay pretty much in the same ballpark, i.e. more of a glossy satin sheen than anything. I've seen some satin finishes which are a lot closer to a matt, but glad it's not like that, nice to have a bit of reflection going on to highlight the curves. I've had not dissimilar results with Tru Oil, in fact I did an ash tele:

...used some dark grain filler on that one. But if anything I think I'm preferring the Wudtone - it's quicker for one thing, and the results seem at least as good.