This has been on the metaphorical drawing board for a while. The Q1 22 build came out of a goal I set myself years ago: to make a guitar using wood which grew within a few hundred yards of my house. The Q4 22 build is another attempt at the same goal. Same design. Same pickups. Same 5-way switching.
What’s different? This time I’ll use timber which is less decorative, but more stable because it has been seasoning for longer. I’m currently debating between Sycamore and Walnut for the neck. Instead of importing a hideously expensive Hipshot tuner/bridge I’ll use one I’ve already bought from Passini in Brazil. I might try a 500k volume pot.
Where is the challenge in this? It will be in the finish. Shiny guitars have never interested me. Once they’ve been played for a while they get scratched and dented. Mine are covered in plectrum scratches, regardless of whether they were finished in wipe-on oil or hard varnish. Inspired by the recent thread on tough finishes I’m going to use CA. It’s a finish which I’ve experimented with on non-guitar items. I wonder how resilient it will be on a guitar, and whether it will protect the wood from yellowing.
Comments
I’m not sure yet what I’ll use for the fretboard. Probably more Sycamore because I like blonde fretboards.
Sycamore, which I’d be tempted to stain blue electric blue with white binding:
These are going to lay around while I get on with the neck.
I've been experimenting with CA to toughen up some paulownia for a lightweight bass build. Lots of precautions needed. I used a full canister mask, good ventilation, very sturdy and suitable gloves, and a 'Beware - the application cloth gets VERY hot' mindset and precautions.
It's worked well, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for anyone without the right kind of experience and safety gear.
I don’t remember seeing that used before?
The lessons from this are:
1. It’s difficult to get consistent colour density on dyed wood.
2. CA is harder than acrylic varnish, which in turn is harder than oil. Whether it is significant more resilient to a plectrum remains to be seen.
3. CA vapour wasn’t as noticeable as I expected from working on the bowl, which I did with the lathe running. I’ve seem other builders trying to rub it into a guitar body as they would with an oil finish. For this test I just wiped it on and left the room.
5. Ordinary CA is suitable for building depth of finish, but top coats of thin CA a will help to level the surface a bit before sanding.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
I've taken to using ca as a grainfiller, and it is a revelation compared to the usual Rustins debacle.
Used on a deep grained ash body it filled the grain in 2 passes, 3 passes and I'd levelled it using 300 grit mirka goldflex pads and was impressed that it was almost at a finish level.
I think the next naked clear body I do will be a full ca finish to as high a gloss as possible.
That first time I had no eye protection, BIG mistake, eyes were streaming in seconds.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
I’m glad that I experimented with CA earlier in the year when turning bowls. I learned that I could only get a smooth fretboard surface if I finished the board before inserting the frets. After the slots were cut I used a knife blade and vacuum to make sure they were clear of wood dust. Then I wiped on two coats of CA, using folded kitchen towel as a pad. I don’t know how much CA has crept into the slots. If it’s a problem I’ll have to recut them before fretting, but I didn’t want to cut slots through a hard, shiny CA surface.
I've done more mowing in the last month than I did all summer ... and have so far collected a few trailer loads of leaves, with a few more to come.
If you put a fillet over the top of the truss rod when it's in the neck, that might give a little more protection against that sort of break?