Incoming kit - colouring contentiousness

TheOtherDennis

Just ordered myself one of these.

http://www.guitar-kits.co.uk/electric-guitar-kits/flamed-maple-prs-style-p60.html

God knows why. I can't afford it, I've nowhere to put it, and I've even been toying with learning to play a completely different instrument, but there you go, it's done now.

Need to work out what sort of finish to put on it. I quite fancied something in blue, but the last time I tried that with Wudtone, it came out green and the last time I tried to spray something it came out cracked. :-S

Any ideas? Havering between Pelham blue and a deeper, royal blue atm.

axisus

Should be fun to do. Read up on finishing, there's plenty of info out there to help these days. 

I'd go purple. I've always wanted a purple guitar.

TTony

TheOtherDennis said:

Just ordered myself one of these.

God knows why. I can't afford it, I've nowhere to put it, 

None of us have ever said that before

TheOtherDennis

True.

TheOtherDennis

So it's arrived, and the top has a very thin veneer of maple, with some very light figuring. They don't put into the little carve outs in the lips of the horns, so it'll look a bit odd. The body is three pieces of mahogany, but they're pretty well matched, actually, so I can't complain.

Still no ideas on how to finish it, but I do know that the wiring diagram doesn't match the wires they've included (different colours - and two of the wires are doubled up, like an old-style kettle cable sort of thing). Whatevvs, they don't look of huge quality.

Any ideas where I could find something better? I've had a look on the usual suspects, but while you could be crushed under the weight of strat, tele and lp wiring, PRS style wiring is non-existent.

Not sure about the Wilkinson pick ups either, but I'll live with those for the moment. There's no great rush, either way.

Andyjr1515

The PRS wiring diagrams are here on the PRS Guitars Customer Service pages, @TheOtherDennis

TheOtherDennis

Thanks, @Andyjr1515, but it's not a better wiring diagram I was after, but better wiring. I didn't explain myself properly, my apologies.

They haven't drilled any holes for the bridge pins or tailpiece, so I'm having to measure out the scale length, which is fine. The website says it's 628mm, but I've measured the distance between the nut and the bridge side of the 12th fret and it's 315mm, giving a scale length of 630mm.

So I have a series of related questions. I would normally work these out for myself, but given my record for making a pig's ear of things, I thought I'd ask instead.

A) as the saddles are adjustable, where exactly should I measure the distance to (my guess is smack in the middle of the bridge, so I can adjust back and forth for intonation);

do the extra 2mm (628mm listed v my measured 630mm) really make that much of a difference, given that I can adjust the individual saddles by twice that amount;

C) should I give it the extra 2mm and make it 630mm to compensate for the slight adjustment in tone I'll get as I press the strings down on the frets; or

D) am I measuring from and to the right places (ie, should I be measuring to the middle of the 12th fret or the nut side of it)?

Any advice welcome, apologies for continued numptiness.

TTony

TheOtherDennis said:

A) as the saddles are adjustable, where exactly should I measure the distance to (my guess is smack in the middle of the bridge, so I can adjust back and forth for intonation);

do the extra 2mm (628mm listed v my measured 630mm) really make that much of a difference, given that I can adjust the individual saddles by twice that amount;

C) should I give it the extra 2mm and make it 630mm to compensate for the slight adjustment in tone I'll get as I press the strings down on the frets; or

D) am I measuring from and to the right places (ie, should I be measuring to the middle of the 12th fret or the nut side of it)?

Any advice welcome, apologies for continued numptiness.

A)  I usually draw a line across (ie at right angles to the centre line of the body) the guitar at the scale length point.  The centre points for the holes for your bridge studs would be on that line.  *BUT*, I then nudge the bass side back (ie further away from the nut) by 2-3mm, so that the bridge isn't at a perfect right angle to the strings.  That works out better for the intonation, even with adjustable saddles on the bridge, and you'll see many/most/all guitars that use separate bridge/tailpiece arrangements are like this.

 I wouldn't have thought so - I'd say 2mm is within measurement accuracy tolerance for a kit like that.

C)  see (D)

D)  see (B), but you need to measure from the break points of the strings - so, from the front (ie fretboard side) of the nut, to the top of a nicely crowned 12th fret.

StanleyAccrington

A deep purple would be nice....or maybe simply red!

TheOtherDennis

Ta for the help, @TTony, and excellent punning work, Mr Accrington.

StanleyAccrington

TheOtherDennis said:

Ta for the help, @TTony, and excellent punning work, Mr Accrington.

I'm a big Tim Vine fan.

TheOtherDennis

A wisdom for that. Me too, absolutely love him.

TheOtherDennis

Haven't sorted the colour issue yet. I shrugged and went the Wudtone route again, hoping that Lady Teal would do the trick for either a light shade of blue or, maybe something darker and more midnighty when mixed wirth some Black Magic Woman. Instead, when I tried it on a small area that would be hidden, it came out looking like this again -



So that's another 27 quid wasted, cos I don't want another green one.

Any ideas on how I could get a blue finish that still shows the figuring of the maple, like a typical PRS would?

Sporky

The wood will be slightly yellow, so if you want blue rather than green you need to head slightly - just slightly - towards purple rather than going for a teal.

TheOtherDennis

Hmm, okay, fair point, should have thought of that. Ta for the advice.

WezV

Yeah, that will happen with most trans blue finishes. Looks like the wudtone has actually gone on pretty well.

The alternative to going with a more purpley blue is to bleach the wood before finishing with a wood bleach. Its rarely 100% successful though, depends on the wood.

This is why consistently pale figured maple is so expensive

TheOtherDennis

Actually, that's not the finished job, that's a swamp ash strat from a couple of years ago.

Point taken about the rest of it, though. Not sure I'm confident enough to bleach it properly, though, so I may just give it a going over with tru-oil. What would happen with that?

EDIT: And before anyone says anything, I'm not expecting anything blue to come out of the Tru-Oil bottle, either!

WezV

depends how you apply the tru-oil.   If you do a thin coat, it won't change the colour much.  If you build it up it will have a yellowing effect

if you are interested in wood bleach - here is the product

http://www.rustins.eu/Details.asp?ProductID=642

WezV

the other thing to be aware of with tru-oil... it will show every flaw.    This is fine on solid wood as you can keep sanding till there are no flaws.   This can be trickier if its a thin veneer

TheOtherDennis

Hmm, not sure I want it to be more yellow.

As for Tru-oil showing the flaws, wudtone does this as well. I've already sanded out as many of the scratches as I can see, but there are bound to be more, always are.

Thanks anyway, Wez, I appreciate your help.

KingNothing

TheOtherDennis said:

Haven't sorted the colour issue yet. I shrugged and went the Wudtone route again, hoping that Lady Teal would do the trick for either a light shade of blue or, maybe something darker and more midnighty when mixed wirth some Black Magic Woman. Instead, when I tried it on a small area that would be hidden, it came out looking like this again -



So that's another 27 quid wasted, cos I don't want another green one.

Any ideas on how I could get a blue finish that still shows the figuring of the maple, like a typical PRS would?

That's a beautiful colour mate, I'd be happy with that.