Light's Bad Day

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Light

Light

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So I just need to complain, I am in such a bad mood right now.

I am about an inch away from finishing a new guitar, which is kind of a prototype for a new design I am working on. All I have left is to wire it, make a nut, get the tuners from LMI (I have been waiting since July, and have been told they would be here in a week every week for about 2 months now), and set it up. It is not perfect (I somehow routed the pickup cavities about 1/16" off center). Other than that though, the guitar is gorgeous. It has a really nice flamed maple top with a deep reddish orange finish. It looks really sexy.

So I am working on wiring it up, and the bridge ground wire breaks right by at the stud for the tailpiece (it has a Gibson style tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece). The studs are in the guitar extremely tight, and I can not get them out for anything (and I have tried), so there is no way for me to get the wire back into that hole. So, OK, I figure I will just drill a new hole to one of the bridge studs. I miss. I go right past the hole for the bridge stud, and right out through the top just behind the bridge pickup.

There is absolutely NO way to fix it. The only good thing is that this was not a customer’s guitar. None the less, I am in an incredibly bad mood right now. I was really looking forward to getting this guitar done, and now it is totally *uc*ed.


ARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


Sorry, but I just had to vent.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Damn.

Time to chill! You need a little distraction; maybe set off some dynamite.
 
I was thinking of an hooker. ;) :)


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gnahdi
 
You don't want to look at that guitar anymore. It'll just make you frustrated. You'll just have to send it to me.:D
 
It has a five piece laminated mahogany/maple/rosewood/maple mahogany neck-thru-body, with an ash body and a very fancy bookmatched maple top. All of the mahogany and ash are finished with a very deep almost eggplant purple, with a red top. Two Seymour Duncan humbuckers (an Alnico II in the neck, and a Pearly Gates in the bridge). It was turning out to be a very sexy guitar. I am going to have to find some way to inlay the hole and touchup around it. It will never look right, but I'll be able to make it play, and see how the ash body makes it sound. I have a very similar one, but with a mahogany body, which is one of the best sounding guitars I have ever made. I just wanted to try a different body wood. I won't be able to sell it, but it will be a good prototype guitar.

I am afraid, however, that I would never let a guitar with that big a mistake out of the shop though. If someone sees it, they will always judge my workmanship by it. I can't have substandard work out there as it causes irreparable damage to my shops reputation. I would not sell it, even for full price (which is about $2000).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Throw a Bigsby on that puppy.

That'll cover a hole the size of a quarter! ;):D
 
Light said:
I am going to have to find some way to inlay the hole and touchup around it.
Click to expand...


Just do some fancy artwork on the guitar with abalone like PRS did with that Dragon guitar.......that thing looked awsome....the dragon head took up the whole body.


Come to think of it....it might look cool if you covered the top in mother of peal :confused: Never know?
 
I am afraid, however, that I would never let a guitar with that big a mistake out of the shop though. If someone sees it, they will always judge my workmanship by it. I can't have substandard work out there as it causes irreparable damage to my shops reputation. I would not sell it, even for full price (which is about $2000

I live way up North in Canada, in a rural area. Nobody will see it at all.:D I'll even give it a coat of flat black from a spray bottle for you, so nobody knows where it came from.
 
Had that have been me , I would have cried for a couple of days, stayed drunk for a few more and when i finally sobered up somewhat and replaced the whole tail/bridge works with a telly type bridge assembly, strung it up and played till my frustrations were vented.
 
Dani Pace said:
Had that have been me , I would have cried for a couple of days, stayed drunk for a few more and when i finally sobered up somewhat and replaced the whole tail/bridge works with a telly type bridge assembly, strung it up and played till my frustrations were vented.
Click to expand...


The top is arched and carved, kind of like a Les Paul. Plate type bridges (such as Tele or Strat) don't work. Also, the studs from the tail piece would be behind the bridge, and quite visible. The only way to do a bridge like that would be a trem, and that would not fix the problem with the tailpiece studs.

I enlarged (slightly) the hole to a quarter inch, and plugged it today. Tomorrow I will spray on the color, and hopefully I will be able to get the match close. I am fortunate that the hole is right between the bridge and the bridge pickup. With the strings on, there will be so much else going on, visually, that the plug should not be too obvious.

I still can't sell the damn thing.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
matty_boy said:
I'll even give it a coat of flat black from a spray bottle for you, so nobody knows where it came from.
Click to expand...


That's supposed to make me feel better about it? I spend months on my finishes, and any flaw in the finish is enough for me to not sell the guitar. Well, until it is fixed, of course.

The great thing about nitrocellulose lacquer is that as long as the color coats are in good shape, any thing can be fixed, and made invisible. Hell, even if the color has been damaged, it can usually be fixed, it is just that color matching is a pain in the ass when it is translucent (such as on a colored maple top). I will frequently sand through to wood on the opaque parts of the guitar, and I can fix them without worry, as long as I still have some color left (which is why I always make up more color than I need).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Outlaws said:
Just do some fancy artwork on the guitar with abalone like PRS did with that Dragon guitar.......that thing looked awsome....the dragon head took up the whole body.

Come to think of it....it might look cool if you covered the top in mother of peal :confused: Never know?
Click to expand...


What with the bridge, the pickup, and the strings right in that area, not to mention the simplicity of the rest of the design, and the fact that the hole is off center, this would just look weird. More importantly, it would look like I was covering up a problem (which would be the case).

I was not really planning on selling the guitar anyway, so I will be OK, I am just bemoaning my bad luck.

OK, my stupid mistake.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Oh yeah, and by the way, I just ordered the Stewart MacDonald tool for pulling those tailpiece studs. If I had had this in the first place, none of this would ever have happened. It is not something we have ever needed be for, as the studs do not usually fit this tight. Now we will have it. It is a rather expensive tool considering it's rather limited uses, but a $40 tool that would have saved a $2000 guitar, so it is worth it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Well I sprayed on the color today. Tomarrow I will scrape off the excess around the patch. Hopefully it will look OK once the finish touchup is done.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
if it was me I probably would be in worse shape than you. I would have thrown a fit and tore up something else. I almost got a divorce over a 69 mach 1 mustang restoration. when you throw tools if tends to break other things....my wife and kids would peek out of the windows to see if the coast was clear to actually come out of the house.
 
I was just kidding Light. I guess you will just have a killer guitar to play yourself now (as if you already didn't). Sigh.
 
arcaxis said:
Yo Light,

Do you know of any online tutorials or info on finishing guitars ? I've always been dissappointed with what I've done and I need some direction.

Mark......
Click to expand...


Well, I use nitrocellulose lacquer, and I am afraid that is a strictly professional endeavor. I will give you my finishing schedule anyways, though.

The first and most important step (and this is true for any finishing material), is sanding. There is no real trick to it, just work. Start at 60 if you must, 100 if you can. Never start on the next grit until you have removed all of the scratches from the last grit (it can be helpful to sand in opposite directions on each pass, just make sure your last pass with the grain.) Sand to 180, wet it down to raise the grain, then sand with 180 again, then 220. Do not sand with 220 until the day you are going to start the finishing.

Now you have to decide on how you are going to color the instrument. If you are going to stain, then this is the time to do it. If the wood is porous, this is also a good time to fill it. Myself, I almost never stain, so I wait to fill the pores. If you do, stain and fill right now, use a colored pore filler, which will do both. LMI carries very good pore filler, which I use. Follow the directions on for the product you are using.

If you are not going to stain, you need to put down a coat of sealer. I use McFadden’s Vinyl Sealer, which gives the final finish a bit more flexibility and resistance to weather checking. You could use sanding sealer or shellac, as well. If you have stained with a product which may not be compatible with lacquer, ALWAYS use shellac as your sealer. If you have not already, you should fill the wood now.

After filling the instrument, I spray another coat of vinyl sealer. Let that dry, and then wait a few hours. Sand very lightly, and then you need to think about other colors. If I am using a color, I use lacquer. If it will be opaque, I use Sherwin Williams OPEX, in either black or white, or usually a mix of the two (making gray). It is just easier if I don't have to keep other colors around the shop. I will then spray my color over the OPEX. I make my colors by mixing Trans Tint dyes with McFadden’s lacquer. If you have a transparent color over wood, do NOT sand through it, as it is almost impossible to fix without starting over.

Once you have your color on, you want to spray the first coats of clear on the same day, or the next if you absolutely must. I like to spray six to ten coats, about an hour apart, on the same day. After this, I wait one week for the lacquer to dry enough for sanding.

While it is drying, look for little dips and holes and fill them with lacquer. You can use a brush, or you can find little drop fill bottles in some woodworkers catalogs, which have tiny little needle tips, which are great. When the lacquer is dry, I sand it, fairly aggressively, though being careful not to sand through.

Repeat the clear coats, filling, and sanding, spraying 4 coats. When you are sanding this, get the surface absolutely flat. It must be perfect, no exceptions. Spray two more coats, and wait at least 3 weeks, and a month is better.

You should now be ready for the most hideous and awful thing in the world (well, maybe not that bad). Wet Sanding. I am fortunate enough to have an air powered pad sander for wet sanding, but I still have to do a fair amount of wet sanding by hand.

I start with 600 grit wet or dry paper. Sand it flat. I then go over that with 1000 grit wet or dry. If you have any sags, sand them flat with the 600 grit, using a wood block, for the rest I use a hard foam block. When it is all flat, it is time to polish.

I am fortunate to have a Baldor polishing wheel, so I polish guitars using that and Menerza Wax polishing compounds, which are solid compounds which make polishing incredibly easy. My father has bursitis in his shoulder from polishing without this for 20 years. If you don't have one, you can use automotive polishing compounds.

Waterborne products work similarly, but you don't have to wait nearly as long. You can do a waterborne finish in about one week, instead of two months. They just don't look as good.

A couple of other things. Lacquer is highly volatile, and highly toxic. If you are going to use it, you MUST have a good spray booth. This means it must have strong dust filtration, sealed lighting, and a good quality spray booth fan, which will have a bronze fan with the motor completely out of the air flow. Do not try to spray lacquer without a good spray booth, as it will explode. You also MUST wear a good quality respirator which is rated for organic vapors (the purple cartridges).

If you have any concern about the compatibility of two products that you are using, spray a coat of super blonde shellac. It will stick to anything, and it will act as a barrier between any other products. Make sure the shellac is fresh, and if you are not sure, test it. If it does not dry to the touch in half an hour, throw it out and make some new shellac.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
matty_boy said:
I was just kidding Light. I guess you will just have a killer guitar to play yourself now (as if you already didn't). Sigh.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. I am still a bit grumpy about this thing. That's all.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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