New guitar incoming for finishing and assembly

Andyjr1515

This is all looking really good.  Patience and care is the name of the game and this is coming on really nicely.

ThePrettyDamned

Andyjr1515 said:

This is all looking really good.  Patience and care is the name of the game and this is coming on really nicely.

I really wish I could spray. Brush lines are a bigger problem than runs at this stage...

I'm going to put another coat on the back and sides today and then should be polishing this week. 

WezV

What  brush are you using?

I used to pick up a liberon flat lacquer brush every time I did a brush on finish....   I left it in some lacquer to save cleaning it and threw it out once done.      A little wasteful, but it did give minimal brush strokes and a nicely controlled flow of lacquer.  

ThePrettyDamned

WezV said:

What  brush are you using?

I used to pick up a liberon flat lacquer brush every time I did a brush on finish....   I left it in some lacquer to save cleaning it and threw it out once done.      A little wasteful, but it did give minimal brush strokes and a nicely controlled flow of lacquer.  

I'm using a foam brush, from chestnut, and like you, storing it in slightly thinned poly to save on white spirits and cleaning (which doesn't work as well as I'd like anyway).

It does well mostly, but if I don't thin the poly it can leave some marks, which it didn't during practice - I think this may be because of the drop in temp, making the poly less "flowy". 

No matter though - I'll be thinning a bit more, and should be about there after one more coat today. The top is there - but it's completely flat, so a bit easier. All the curves on the back (around to the sides and on the neck heel) make for a slightly more challenging finish, but it's not the end of the world. Time and patience is getting me there. 

Just realised I still don't have a soldering iron and I'll be shielding and soldering next weekend... 

ThePrettyDamned

So, I took a look today and gave it a quick rub back and it was clear I was down to a *very* thin coat, so I'm going to build back up again on the back and sides. However, I'm much better at wet sanding now, and the surface is beautifully smooth and level now - the finish went on and is setting like a sheet of glass (with some specks) now, rather than settling into lines and divots.

Edit: or it was glass smooth... Unfortunately, a spider decided to crawl onto the neck so I removed it and have re-dressed the finish a bit. It's a bit drippy on the neck now - but should be fine when sanded...

andy_k

Suggestion, maybe try a few coats with the guitar hanging, either direction, allow gravity to do some work.
At least this way, the excess will gather in one place, which may be predictable.
Lots of thin coats are always better than fewer thick coats.
But in keeping warm, more layers are better.
Some basic principles are universal.

ThePrettyDamned

andy_k said:

Suggestion, maybe try a few coats with the guitar hanging, either direction, allow gravity to do some work.
At least this way, the excess will gather in one place, which may be predictable.
Lots of thin coats are always better than fewer thick coats.
But in keeping warm, more layers are better.
Some basic principles are universal.

Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere to hang the guitar. 

However, the back is good now - it's just the sides and neck that are a bit drippy in spots. I think they will mostly sand out though, so I'll have a crack at it with the 600 grit wet and dry this afternoon and see what happens. 

ThePrettyDamned

Boring time on this. The finish is about there now - unfortunately, there is some damage around the fretboard so I'm working on sanding that out and applying very thin rubbed on coats to try to get that more level, which is very tedious but is working well. I expect that'll take some time.

I need to ream out the cavity holes ever so slightly as the copper shielding has made it a bit too tight, just a fraction of a mm will do it from the rear of the hole. Should be easy and, again, boring.

Soldering iron arrives today - went for a bog standard 25 watt weller, which should be fine. Comes with a nice big chisel tip that should help with the grounding wires on the back of the pots. Slightly worried about the wire length of the pickups, but might invest in some shrink tubing and solder some wire extensions on to give me a bit more to work with. It technically would work, though... Just... Maybe.

Anyway, the pots, switch and jack can all be wired up this weekend, then it's just soldering the pickups to the switch and it should be good to go.

The other job is scraping finish off the nut, frets and fretboard. Again, slightly tedious but it does give me a chance to round the edge of the fingerboard a bit as well, further mitigating the damaged finish around that area.

Finish on the top has been sanded to 600 grit and is now level enough, with no dust bunnies, so once fretboard has been scraped and the loom/pickups are wired I'll be getting that polished. I quite like the back and sides with a satin sheen as it is, though, so I might only go to 2000 grit on them. We'll see - I like the idea of a clear dividing line between a gloss back and satin neck as well... 

Decided to order a new bridge, this time a faber tbwc-59. It's more vintage looking, but has a tone bar to improve intonation through compensation, but mostly to reduce the weird issues you can have on a saddle-free bridge. I reckon it'll look better and, if the other bridge doesn't sell, I'll just use it on another build in future as it is a lovely bit of kit. That should arrive next week and, with luck, I'll have a swanky new guitar by year end, just needing a professional set up (I don't have the right tools for fret levelling and nut slotting, so it's best left to corvus I reckon).

Corvus did an amazing job on my thinline and he didn't even laugh at my terrible finish job on it  

davros

I can very strongly recommend the Faber wraparounds, used them twice and love them. About to use a faber tunomatic/tailpiece on my current build, their stuff is really good!

ThePrettyDamned

Sanded and polished back, sides and neck (well, neck only to stage 1 polish - I want it more satin sheen).

Looks nice! Sadly I made two critical errors that I am not going to fix at this stage, but lessons learned and all that... 

1. I did burn through the finish on the sides on a couple of spots. It's not too bad, but it is a shame... I'm building to play it though, so it is what it is.

2. I dropped it on the table, back-first, leading to two matching dings on the rear. Rather a shame - but again, this thing is there to be played, not looked at, and while I'm sad (lesson learned - use lots of towels or similar to pad the table!) I will likely ding this guitar a lot anyway. 

The neck is lovely. There is a tiny burn-through right at the heel, but it's not significant and I won't be repairing it at this stage.

So... Next steps are to solder the loom (probably do that today), sand and polish the top then fit pickups and other hardware. Then it's mostly done... 

I'll need to scrape the fretboard and clean the frets a fair bit, but I had a quick go at this and it's pretty easy, so not stressing yet.

Pics. Not flattering - dings are very visible here! 

 
This is the worst bit by far. Looks worse in the photo mind! 



A reminder that overall, it will look nice and I am really proud of what I have managed with limited resources, very little experience and a lot of good advice on here. I can't wait to do another next year (if @GSPBASSES has any more left!).



Feel very confident my next attempt will go better. I'll probably do a few things different:

- chestnut spirit stain, same as before 
- grain fill the same, I was happy with that!
- water based acrylic instead of oil based polyurethane. It's more expensive, but will be easier to clean up and work better given my circumstances.
- apply all my new knowledge and experience! 

ThePrettyDamned

Top polished. Not bad. I think I got better results going from 4000 grit than 2000, though...

 
But it's a gorgeous looking guitar now. Hard to capture... Hopefully we'll get some nicer light soon. 

ThePrettyDamned

Terrible light but it's amazing what a difference a bit if hardware makes. Hilariously, I can't actually fit the pots! They are a fraction too short - so I'll be ordering some long shaft (these are medium).

Oh well. 

Otherwise, all swish! 

 

paulnb57

That top is stunning!

Have you considered Wipe on Poly for a finish? Easy to make and apply..

ThePrettyDamned

paulnb57 said:

That top is stunning!

Have you considered Wipe on Poly for a finish? Easy to make and apply..

Could give it a go. I think the finish I used is excellent, but the cleanup was a bit nasty. Too many spirits. Water based is just going to be more pleasant for me. 

Glad you like the top! It's very nice. 

ThePrettyDamned

Better light in this one. It's glossier than the photo looks, but I am tempted to go back with 2000, 3200 and 4000 grit on the top and polishing again, because that got me a proper "glass" finish, which this is not quite (although it's quite good in the flesh, and certainly not satin!). 

Tuners installed, I need to tidy up the headstock a bit as there is a bit of finish to be sanded, but that's no biggy for the time being. Next job is cleaning the fretboard and the nut, which is a disaster of polyurethane and bone.

Can't do wiring, but have ordered a pair of long cts pots from axesrus that should fit just fine. The medium length were just about fine until I added the copper foil in the control cavity, which makes it just a bit too short for comfort. 

Nearly done! 

vanlooy1

Looks greener in that light, really don’t notice the repair by the pickup unless you look for it. It’s going to be a smart looking guitar!

ThePrettyDamned

vanlooy1 said:

Looks greener in that light, really don’t notice the repair by the pickup unless you look for it. It’s going to be a smart looking guitar!

The colour is amazing - in some lights, it's just a pure blue, but that thin yellow wash I put on can make it a bluey-lagoon green colour (as you can see).

It's exactly what I was aiming for - the diluted yellow wash (which, more than applying yellow, actually removed some of the blue) really does add extra depth. I really enjoyed the dyeing process, I'll definitely do another project next year with a different colour palette - I'm thinking a really mean pink. 

ThePrettyDamned

Darn it, pickup wires are too short. 

So, I'll need to extend them - can anyone recommend the right gauge of wire (ideally in red and green) and shrink wrap for humbuggies so I can extend the pickup wires? 

I think I could technically wire to the switch instead of pot first, then run from switch to pots, but it might be very difficult to solder in place given how little wire is left... Going to the pots would make troubleshooting easier as well.

@icbm sorry to tag but you seem the right guy to ask! 

vanlooy1

I don’t think the gauge really makes a lot of difference…

SteveRobinson

Or the colour!