First Scratch Build: Maple Walnut neck through-RD

[ForcedFire]

This is a bad-ass guitar. Awesome.

Thanks, it's nice and dark and rich in natural light, really baddass! I love the colour now that I added that colonial maple.

[PaulDesmondTutu]

Wow that sunburst looks good!

[ForcedFire]

Wow that sunburst looks good!

Thank you!

Here's my first attempt at making a pickguard. It actually fits at the bridge humbucker, the pickup ring just slid down I guess, it's not screwed in or anything...

It's pretty mediocre but not too bad. I need to buy a countersink bit.



I thought it looked weird how they were beveled between the pickups so I didn't bevel there but now looking at it, I think I should go back and bevel between the pickups. Looking at the SG small pickguards, they're beveled between the pickups too.

Truss rod cover looks okay to me.

[ForcedFire]

Phew! I find it amazing how 60% relative humidity is dead on the money for shooting nitro for me. It's been really annoying lately, the days start out around 75% RH then drop to around 50% then rise back up by late afternoon so there's only a few hours window to paint. The other night I had a flash of blushing on the headstock but it quickly went away so I stopped for the day, sure enough, checked the RH had just passed 60%.

Today I got almost 1 rattle can of Deft on then my last little shot at the heel blushed so I immediately stopped. The weather online here is updated on the hour and this was at about twenty to the hour. Once the new RH was posted, sure enough 62%. I went out to check it and the blushing went away on its own .

Now I just have to wait for another window to add the final can.

[ForcedFire]

Nothing cool to show you guys. The clear is all done, now...THE BIG WAIT.

I've never used lacquer before, I really hope I get the wet sanding and polishing right. I'm going to pick up some mineral spirits for the sanding. I think I'll probably start at 800 or 1000 grit to get the feel for it and go slow. I probably won't touch the sides with anything less than 1000 grit.

[ForcedFire]

Okay, I have a question regarding the hardening time after my finishing schedule. I know the answer is wait 30 days but here goes...

I think usually the nitro is layed on in a shorter period of time than what I did so I'm just wondering if since I waited a long time between coats, finish applied over about 3 weeks, will it still take as long to harden?

I started with shellac for my sealer. It had plenty of time to dry.

All the nitro was shot from rattle cans.

July 22nd I did 3 light coats of Deft. July 26 some black on the sides for the sunburst + headstock. July 27th some colour coats, July 31st final colour coats. August 2nd about a can of clear deft but lots of overspray I don't know how much I got on the guitar, I wasn't really close enough and it seemed to dry really fast and not smell too bad. August 5th a can of deft. Heavier coats. August 11th final can of Deft, much thicker coats, smelled really strong of solvents off gassing. By the last can finally getting the technique down and getting the right about of wetness to the coats.

So it has been 8 days so far but it barely smells at this point. The guitar is hanging in a garage with air all around it. Not temp controlled but window open when the humidity is around 50-60%. I tried to put my thumbnail into the finish under the pickguard and it feels quite hard.

I feel like another week or two should be fine if I say wetsand 1 grit per day for a few days 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000. Then I will be buffing by hand.

Any thoughts? I know this question is beaten into the ground...

[ForcedFire]

Alright, I don't know if anyone is reading anymore...still waiting for lacquer to harden. It's been 14 days.

I've started working on the pickups.

I ordered parts last year to make firebird pickups but then I sold my firebird and just put the parts away. I went to test fit them but now I'm realizing the magnets I was sold are too wide for the bobbins. I'm still going to try to make it work though. Here's the side profile of the stackup, it will be the baseplates, then a maple veneer spacer, then a steel plate I had to make, then a maple spacer seperating the magnets that are protruding with the cable down the side, then the bobbins.



Here are the bobbins. You can see the magnet fits nicely, but it comes out the other end!



I wound up the first one, it has approx 4200 winds and reads 3.16k at room temp (no temp for you).



I need to increase the tension and get some more winds but this coil is acceptable to me.

This is one of the steel plates I made.



Here's the stack up. I need to take some width off the steel plate to help fit the cable.



Just fits....

[ForcedFire]

Phew, call the fire department. I upped my tension just a tad. This one took 5071 winds. Yikes.



I might do another one around 4400 to pair up for the neck and one around 4800 to pair up for the bridge.

[antisymmetric]

Great work- you've set the bar pretty high for a first build!

[quarterpound]

Yeah, just to letcha know, im still reading, but have almost know experience to share. Nothing to say but GOOD LUCK (so far so good)!

[ForcedFire]

It's been 29 days now and the Deft still smells too strong to bring it in, let alone buff it out and play it....

I started a post on tdpri and there were a lot of Deft users there that said it could take quite awhile. I might have some trapped solvents. So I just knocked it down took off the gloss and orange peel and hung it back up. Hopefully it's not a 6 month wait....

[ludobag1]

really depend of the type of product cause some can dry fast even with lot of coat and some dry very long
i have use acrilic from different brand and some is relatively fast like motip and some like i use on my telemester neck were very long (the cans are cheaper but very long to dry )
i use some monocomposant pu and it is 6 month to have it really dry in deep
now i use bicomposant and 24 h after it is dry that is much cool

[Jaguar018]

It's been 29 days now and the Deft still smells too strong to bring it in, let alone buff it out and play it....

I started a post on tdpri and there were a lot of Deft users there that said it could take quite awhile. I might have some trapped solvents. So I just knocked it down took off the gloss and orange peel and hung it back up. Hopefully it's not a 6 month wait....

Perhaps someone you know has an industrial sized pizza oven you could run it through?

[ForcedFire]

Perhaps someone you know has an industrial sized pizza oven you could run it through?

I definitely wouldn't want to eat any pizza out of it after a guitar was cooked!

I just started wet sanding like I would have if it wasn't smelling. Knocked down all the gloss and orange peel and hung it back up. Hopefully it just needs another week or two.

I actually had enough clear on there to knock it down very gently with 400 grit wet. After a few days or a week I might go with the 600. Then see if it smells less...

Maybe once it stops smelling I'll just sand it up to 1000 and polish it lightly and put it together so I can play it. Then sand up to 2000 and really buff it out after a few months...

[yob]

Excuse my french but that's FU**ING awesome!!