I'm building a new guitar

muttley600 said:
Looking good.. What you gonna do with the pickup route where it has run into the body cavity?
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Thanks. That's no big deal. I'll glue little blocks in there to carry the pickup.

It all looks remarkably clean round your bench and on the work piece.. I'm beginning to get a little suspicious...;)
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I almost took a picture to show my bench that's covered in junk, but I was too embarrassed.:o I can assure you that my garage is a total mess that's perfumed with the aroma of fresh cut wood. I have stuff laying everywhere! Along with the three that I'm making right now there are a couple of others that I'm helping friends build. I'm up to my ass in incomplete projects here. I need to finish something.

wavewarrior said:
Wow, fantastic build A+
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Thanks Man!

I have a few days off for the holidays. I hope to make some progress.

I'm experimenting with some epoxy as grain filler for the bass. I smeared some on a sample yesterday. I'm anxious to see how well it worked. I'll glue the neck in today.

I should be finished in time for her birthday. She knew that I started on this a few weeks ago, but it will be a surprise.:D
 
I use clear epoxy as a grain filler all the time. Best tip is get good with a cabinet scaper and not to take off too much once you hit the wood as you'll expose more grain. As usual the trick is to get the prep done well. Make sure that you get ALL the marks out and blow the fine dust out of the grain before you start filling. Have a load of knife edge scrapers handy to apply it and remove as much as you can before it sets. Best to work on one surface at a time and leave the neck til last. Have loads of clean up spirit handy too. Wear gloves unless you want purple black hands...
 
I knew that you used it for filler. I've been wanting to give it a try. Do you scrape because it plugs sandpaper? I guess I'll find out soon enough.:)

I've also been thinking of doing a satin lacquer finish on this one. I'll be making a sample for that as well.
 
I use it now primarily because once you get used to it it is hard and it is quick. Mostly because it doesn't shrink. Many say it does but that is because they sand through into tne open grain as they are used to doing multiple build layers of filler. If you get the prepared surface flat and get a good edge on a scraper it can be done in one or two hits. Sanding or scraping it back is a pain but worth the effort.. Certainly no worse than other products available and for me it gives a much better finish on dark, open grain stuff.

It doesn't so much plug sandpaper rather that it is hard and a scraper will shift it quicker and cleaner. A scraper will shift both hard and soft material equally where as sandpaper hits the soft area more. If you put it on right and get most of it off the surface before it sets you just need to get if flat when hitting it with the scraper and finish with 600 - 1000 grit to finish.

I forgot to mention that these days I also raise the grain when prepping. Once I have the work piece in the white as I want it with 600 grit I raise with a light wet rag, let it dry, knock it back with 600, then 800 - or a thousand grit and repeat. That seems to give a nice easy finish to fill and lay up a sealer coat with. Over the years I have come to realise that it is that stage of the finishing process that is absolutely crucial to getting it right later down the process.

As I have said before though test on scrap and no two peoples finishing regimes are the same. You will almost certainly come up with a regime that works for you and tweak that.
 
I ended up using some epoxy, but only to fill the deeper imperfections where the grain is a little wild. It worked great for that. I can see myself using it more in the future.

Meanwhile I've started on the finish. It'll be Tru-Oil again. It looks nice on the walnut, and I love the look and feel of it on maple. I'll get some pictures up after I get a few more coats on it.
 
I do love the walnut. You left a lot of open grain. I'm on the fence about that. I like how it looks "earthy" (for lack of a better term) but I'd still like to see it filled in. Maybe that's the side of the brain looking for stereo-typical commercialism... :(

Is there some topography between the neck and the pickup?? I didn't notice that before. That looks like a serious radius; how did you do that and not break the veneer??

Only a few days left before her birthday, right?? :D
 
Chili said:
I do love the walnut. You left a lot of open grain. I'm on the fence about that. I like how it looks "earthy" (for lack of a better term) but I'd still like to see it filled in. Maybe that's the side of the brain looking for stereo-typical commercialism... :(

Is there some topography between the neck and the pickup?? I didn't notice that before. That looks like a serious radius; how did you do that and not break the veneer??

Only a few days left before her birthday, right?? :D
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I'm sure JCH will step in here but I'm pretty sure there are no veneers involved. The walnut is a cap of about 1/4".

Looking good so far. It always seems to take an age to get from here to the end so crack on...;)
 
Chili said:
I do love the walnut. You left a lot of open grain. I'm on the fence about that. I like how it looks "earthy" (for lack of a better term) but I'd still like to see it filled in. Maybe that's the side of the brain looking for stereo-typical commercialism... :(
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Thanks, the reflection of the LED lights above my bench make it look much rougher than it actually is. I haven't put any paste wax on it yet either. That will smooth things a bit. I could have gone further with the finish, but it looks good the way it is.

Is there some topography between the neck and the pickup?? I didn't notice that before. That looks like a serious radius; how did you do that and not break the veneer??
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At the end of the neck is the truss rod. There is a little cutout notch for getting at it with a wrench. No veneer here. That's all solid wood.

Only a few days left before her birthday, right?? :D
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I thought I might run out of time because it's been so cold here so I showed it to her Friday when we went to a show together. She's pretty excited. It still might be ready in time depending on how much I work this week. It's hard to predict around the holidays.
 
The bass is done. I need to get some better photos of it. The last one I posted really doesn't do it justice. Meanwhile I was bored this evening so I worked on the tel for a while. I cut the nut, and mounted the pick guard. It's not wired yet, but I couldn't wait to string it up to see how it felt.
 
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