Big fat final update... the finish.

What a month... where to start... between weddings and out-of-town gigs, I couldn't really work on this for about 3 weeks. My goal was end of September, and thanks to some luck, it happened on the final day of the month.

First off, I HATE wet sanding. Twice attempted, twice damaged my otherwise perfect finish, twice had to touch-up critical spots and wait a week to dry before attempting again. Ultimately, I got it as close as I could, it's not perfect, but i'm completely satisfied. Buffed it out with some 3M Finesse-it polishing compound, and there's a bottle of 3M Hand Glaze on it's way to me right now that should add the final showroom shine.

Anyhow, here's a shot of the finished body, with the neck attached:

The next step was installing the tremolo studs... i was worried about chipping the paint, since it's a very tight fit, but I got away with it pretty clean. The only problem was that the holes were drilled for 9.5mm, but the studs were 10mm. Since they need to fit tight, I didn't want to use a drill, so I wrapped some 100-grit sandpaper around the end of a pencil and just worked it in there til the studs started to go in. Got them halfway by hand, then used a hammer via woodblock to avoid chipping/splitting.

 






Next comes loading up the pickguard & electronics... wired it up last week on a bored morning. To summarize:

Neck pickup: Duncan Jazz
Middle pickup: Duncan Vintage Strat
Bridge pickup: Duncan JB

5-way switch settings:
Position 1 - neck full
Pos 2 - neck split + middle
Pos 3 - neck split + bridge split
Pos 4 - bridge split + middle
Pos 5 - bridge full

The 3rd pot is wired up as a blender pot, which allows you to blend the full neck into the bridge, and vice versa. Really fun & versatile option, did this on my G&L Legacy and use it constantly.

Popped it on with no trouble, got the tremolo happening, strung it up, and whaddayaknow... the son of a bitch worked! Took some time to tweak the string action, intonation, pickup height, trem springs, etc., and by the end of the night, I had a new favorite guitar. The neck feels perfect in my hand, the tone is fantastic, and I couldn't be happier or prouder of this.

So, in closing, thanks to everyone who helped me out, followed along, etc. I hope you found this blog informative, fun, or just another way to waste time at work. I'm sure i'll be back with another one someday!

Shellac done!

Not a big update, just following up on the shellac'ing... i think we're just about done. Took 12 coats to get the right shade (using my dad's '66 Tele as comparison), then some sanding with 400-grit, and finally some touch-ups after that. Here ya go, with the natural maple scrap alongside for comparison:

Next step is Tru-Oil, after I give the shellac a few days to cure.

Shellac her? I barely know her!!!

I promised more frequent updates, and just like Karl Malone, I always deliver... today we begin the neck finishing process. Yesterday, I grabbed all the necessary supplies from Lowes, and started mixing the shellac.

First, a little info on shellac that you may find interesting: Shellac is a resin secreted by the female Lac bug, native to India and Thailand. It is sold as dry flakes, which are dissolved in denatured alcohol to create a stain (Everclear is actually a popular mixer, but in my house, we have much better uses for that...). Shellac was THE wood finish of 19th century France, and the technique of "French polish" was invented for applying shellac (not to be confused with the French polishing you can get at the Moulin Rouge for 20 Euro).

Here are all of the neck finishing supplies, and a closeup of the shellac flakes in the bag and then mixed:

So after letting the shellac dissolve overnight, i tested out wiping on some scrap maple til I got a nice shade. Here's the untouched neck alongside the scrap test piece:

The first coat was very light, but here's the comparison after wiping on two coats:

And after three:

I added a fourth coat just before I left for work... i'll stop here for now and match the fretboard tomorrow, then see if we still need more.


And oh yeah, I fuckin' love this shit.

Aaaaannnnd we're back!!!

Sorry for the delay, faithful followers, but the past few weeks were very unproductive to say the least... third can of clear coat took forever, due to a combination of extremely high humidity and summer getting all crazy on me. But we're back, the weather here is perfect, the body is curing for the next 3-4 weeks, and my Warmoth custom neck has been delivered!

Here are a couple pics of the body after the final coats of clear lacquer... i also have to take a moment to pimp out Behlen's stringed instrument lacquer. This stuff is great! After using ReRanch spray products for the color & first two cans of clear, I went with Behlen's for the third can, simply because the shipping was free from Amazon. I gotta say, this stuff sprays more evenly, consistently, and ends up thicker & glossier than the ReRanch clear. The gloss may have more to do with it being the third can, after the first two built up a nice base... but it still feels like you're working with a higher quality product. Almost went for a fourth can, but i'm kinda sick of lacquer fumes right now.

So now we play the waiting game... the lacquer takes about a month to cure before final wetsanding and buffing. In the meantime...

Yup, that's a neck! Finally arrived last Wednesday. Perfect fit in the body's neck pocket, too. Gotta love that! I'll be grabbing some scrap maple from Lowe's this week and testing out the Shellac and Tru-Oil finishes before applying them to the neck. Here are a few more pics:

So that's where we are... i'm hoping to have the neck finished by Labor Day, then after two weekends away (wedding & a gig upstate NY) i'll sand & buff the body. Updates should be more consistent now.

Clearcoat & humidity do NOT get along.

Well, it's been a quiet week, mainly because I messed up and went too heavy on the clearcoat Monday morning. Instantly got white cloudy blotches, known as "blush", caused by moisture getting trapped under the lacquer. Sometimes it disappears on its own, or you can wet sand it out, but since I had to place an order with Reranch for another can of clearcoat and polishing compound anyhow, I grabbed a can of Blush remover too. Works great! Just a light mist and the blush disappears. The blush remover basically melts the top coat a little, allowing the moisture to escape. I'll let it dry overnight and resume clearcoating tomorrow or Sunday. (Wish I had taken some before & after shots, but you get the idea)

Here are some pictures of the body from last Sunday, with natural sunlight, before I started the clearcoating...

In related news, I decided i'm going to shellac the neck for an amber tint, then seal it with Tru Oil gun stock finish. After looking at tons of pictures from dozens of internet forums, it seems that shellac & Tru Oil will give me the results I want. I've ordered a bottle of Tru Oil and a bag of fresh amber shellac flakes, hopefully next week i'll do a test run on some scrap maple. 

Stay tuned, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

Color DONE!!!

I think, i hope, fingers crossed, salt over my shoulder, that the color spraying is DONE! Of course, this being Friday the 13th, a black cat will likely wander into the garage and park its fat ass on my freshly sprayed geetar (thus furthering proof that pussy causes all of life's problems).

Here she is:

It looks a little more blue in these photos than in person... that's my fav thing about this color, depending on the light & angle, it can go from very green to very blue, and all shades in between. I can't wait til it's clear-coated, polished, and accented with chrome.  As long as she dries nicely, i'll begin spraying the clear coat Sunday.

I should also mention that I had a slight overspray incident the other day, but didn't have my camera to document it. Basically, I got to the bottom of the spray can, and made the mistake of trying to squeeze out every last drop, which left us with some thick, dull blotches on the front & back. Wiped off the real bad spots, then opened a new can (thank GOD i ordered two), and after one pass, it looked great again.


In related geetar news, snagged myself a shiny new Wilkinson VS401 tremolo on Ebay for $20 less than it would have cost me otherwise... that's $20 more to spend on booze tonight! Woohoo!!!

Happy Friday the 13th! Go listen to Superstition, preferably SRV's version!!!

Blog update... now in COLOR!!!

Hello faithful followers, hope ya'll had a great weekend! I sure did, as evidenced here with the Dead Amble guys (i'm on the left):

(I know, I know, i said color, and the first pic is black & white, whatever...)
Got some nice tones out of my G&L Legacy and GrooveTubes Soul-O 45 combo. I'll also be doing a special blog entry on my G&L, as i'll be performing a mod on it very soon.

Anyhow, I promised COLOR! And here she is:

That's after the first 3 coats... basically, you follow something called "The Rule of Three"... 3 passes = one coat, 3 coats per day with at least an hour in between each, and 3 days of that process, for a total of 9 coats. That supposedly yields the best results. So far, i'm loving the color! Can't wait to see how it looks after all 9 coats. The final coats of clear lacquer will affect the shade too, i'm sure.

Until then, here's a pic of us with Uncle Leon & The Alibis, an awesome "cowpunk" band we were honored to share the stage with yesterday at Lady Jay's in Brooklyn.

Happy 5th of July!

That's right, today is the 5th... it's the 11th anniversary of my 5th of July keg party, thrown back when I was a 21-year-old idiot. Why the 5th? Because everyone has parties on the 4th, and if you couldn't already tell, I like to be different. My dad, God rest his soul, stood in our driveway and ID'd everyone, then cooked hotdogs & hamburgers for my drunken friends. Ah, the memories!

Back to business... started priming the body yesterday, and drove up again this morning before work to get another coat on after some light sanding. Here she is:

Might be ready to start spraying some color this weekend! I'll light sand with some #320 grit and see how it looks.

Oh, how was the Dead Amble gig yesterday? It rocked, thanks for asking! Grand Victory is an awesome venue and I'd love to play there again. I'm also on detox for the next couple days (until we play Sunday afternoon at Lady Jay's, that is).

Movin' on up...

... to my Mom's garage. A little history... this garage has served for the past decade as:

1. a recording studio, where I barely made a living for 4 years,

2. a rehearsal studio, for my dad's old cover band,

3. A workshop, where I built guitar pedals & my old studio furniture,

4. Storage, since musicians are legendary packrats, and finally

5. a rat's nest, literally. Mom had to get en exterminator last summer.


So here we are, hanging up to dry after a light sanding and coats 3, 4, & 5 of sealer:

Now that i can sleep without breathing in lacquer fumes, this project will be on a weekend schedule, although I may try to get up there this Wednesday (4th of July) for a light sanding and coat of primer before my afternoon acoustic gig with Dead Amble (shameless plug).

In other project-related news, I've learned of a newer Wilkinson tremolo, the VS401, which is an improved version of the VG100 (my previous favorite). It's an extra $40, but i'll go for it!

Also debating the merits of other Seymour Duncan pickup combos. Plenty of time to think about that though.

What were you doing at 9am?

Good morning, faithful followers! After a quick trip to Lowes, I just finished the first coat of sealer, and my, is this lady lookin' purdy...

I'll throw on a 2nd coat before I leave for work, then do the back tonight or tomorrow.

A friend asked how much this project will cost... I hadn't even thought of a budget, since this is something i've always wanted to do, but just for fun, let's price it out:

Body (Ebay): $75 (I got a great deal, $100 is more average)
Neck (Warmoth): $170
Paint & finishing supplies: Approx. $80
Electronics: already have some, but if I went new, about $150
Tuners: $70
Bridge: $100
Sweat: $0
Time & energy: priceless

So, about $645 for a premium American-made instrument, built to my exact specs with all top-of-the-line parts, finished & assembled by some schmuck in his mom's garage. Only in America!

SCHWEINHUND!!!

A German curse, similar to "Sonofabitch" for us... fitting since Germany is in the Euro '12 semifinal today!!! Deutschland Uber Alles!!! Kill those Dego Wops! (Kidding, kidding... we all know what happens when German pride gets out of hand...)

But I digress... sanding the epoxy was a real pain in the @$$, but it's done, and I learned a few valuable lessons... 

1. Easy on the epoxy! A little goes a long way, especially in the cutaways, which are a "schweinhund" to sand. It did it's job, but made more work for myself than necessary. If this was to be a natural or transparent finish, i'd have the sand the cutaways even more. See?

2. I'll be going with a professionally-finished neck... it's just too important to risk screwing it up. I've settled on a Warmoth headstock style that's based on traditional Fender Strat, but just different enough to make it unique:

The neck will be all maple, 22 frets, 25 1/2" scale, 1 11/16" nut, modern "C"-shape profile, Warmoth's 10"-16" compound radius, Jumbo 6100 frets, with a vintage yellow tint and satin finish.  Oh, and a reverse headstock, just to say F U to the status quo.

Anyways, here we are for now... i think i'll do a coat of sanding sealer tomorrow morning, even though I was going to skip that step initially. It's recommended for nitrocellulose finishes, and it's cheap AND easy to sand! Whew. Good thing my right hand is in GREAT shape...

Sanding epoxy...

... blows. No wonder the guys at Fender didn't want to do it. That's all i have to say right now..

Step 2: The Body

I got lucky.  I also found the perfect body for my guitar project. After a couple weeks of searching Ebay for Strat bodies, I narrowed it down to a Fender American Standard or Deluxe. Why these? Because of the routing... both models are factory routed for HSH pickups and the Fender 2-point tremolo, which the Wilkinson VS100 is a direct replacement for with no additional routing required. The difference between a Standard and Deluxe body is minimal... the wood may be of a slightly higher grade in the Deluxe, and the heel is contoured for easier access to higher frets... but, when I saw this hunk of alder for $60, i forgot about those things fast:

It's a brand new B-stock Fender American Standard body, with a born-on date of March 1, 2012. Why B-stock? Because of some slight openings in the wood grain. Alder bodies generally don't need to be filled, so for the guys at Fender, this was an extra step that they deemed too much work. For $10 in resin epoxy, a few sheets of #200 sandpaper, and a day or two of work, the grain will be filled & sealed, ready to be primed.

Here we are after a coat of epoxy resin. I'll let this dry overnight, then sand it smooth again. The epoxy will fill all of the open grain and leave a solid, smooth surface for primer, paint, clear coat, and finally, polish.

Step 1: The Idea

Yup, that's right... i'm building a guitar.  Not exactly from scratch, but as close as I can get without losing my fingertips to a jigsaw (so i can actually play the damn thing when it's done).  As a guitarist for 20-odd years now, and a constant tweaker of all things electronic & stringed, it's a thought that's been brewing for years. FInally, a perfect situation presented itself... my two favorite guitars are a Les Paul and a Strat, but when I gig in NYC, I can't always bring more than one. Therefore, I wanted one guitar with the combined characteristics I like about both.

My perfect guitar wish list:

1. Comfortable body: Gonna go Strat-style for this, considering my Les Paul Custom can double as a boat anchor. The thick mahogany body & maple top of a LP gives a great tone, but I feel confident we can find a middle ground that has the classic LP midrange attitude, plus a wider and more balanced frequency response across the entire spectrum.

2. Comfortable neck: This is tricky... I like the feel of a Gibson neck, but also the longer scale of a Fender. The flatter Gibby radius (12") is nicer for soloing and single-note playing, but the rounder Fender radius (7.5"-9.5") is more comfy for rhythm. I'm leaning towards a Warmoth compound-radius maple neck right now.

3. Electronics: I want versatility, but not at the expense of tone. My model for this is the Suhr Guthrie Govan custom model... HSH pickup config, with some potential options. Likely going with Seymour Duncans, as I have them in two of my Gibsons and think the value for the price is the best out there. Thinking JB in the bridge, '59 neck, and an SSL-2 in the middle.

4. Hardware: The Wilkinson VS100 tremolo is the best Strat-style bridge on this planet. They might've had something better on Krypton, but neither Marlon Brando nor Christopher Reeve are around to confirm that.  Schaller tuners & straplocks are also bulletproof & mandatory.


5. Aesthetics: The fun part. I have too many black guitars, so I'm going in a very different direction... Ocean Turquoise. It's an old custom car color from the '60s. My bedroom in my parents' old house was a dark teal color, and i always loved it. Still debating pick guard... possibilities are chrome, tortoise shell, or black pearl. Neck will be maple with a vintage tint, and a reverse headstock... because why the hell not?

So, there ya have it... the plans have been drawn up. Now, let's get started.