Guitar Build #1 - 1/31/2015

Short post today...

Did a quick buff with fine-cut compound followed by swirl remover (using Meguiar's products and buffing pads with a drill attachment), and then waxed the top with Johnson's Paste Wax (used on bowling alley floors world-wide). It's ever so slightly smoother and shinier than before, which I *LIKE*. I may go back and buff/polish/wax another time tomorrow, but so far this is great!

Here's a few pics in different lighting and from different angles. Enjoy!

Time for some family time!

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/27/2015

Ok, the top is as finished as I am going to get it!

Since the last wet sanding (1500 grit), I've applied probably 4-5 wipe-on coats, and just now I wet sanded with 2000 grit sandpaper. The top is quite smooth, though definitely not as glassy as a lacquered factory-made guitar. At this point, it's time for a break as I let the finish cure over the course of 5-7 days. Once cured I'll trying buffing, polishing, and waxing the top with fine-cut rubbing compound, swirl remover, and paste wax. Then it will be time to start all over again with the back and sides of the guitar.

So, short post...and I'll see y'all in about a week!

Here's some guitar porn for ya (I'll probably update this post with another picture or two under different lighting...as I've said before, the finish dances with light and perspective so multiple pictures will be nice)! I'm off for some well-deserved tequila :)

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/26/2015

More of the same...

To this point, I've wiped on too many coats of finish to count. In between, I've wet sanded with 800, 1000, and 1500 grit sandpaper. Since the 1500, I've wiped on four more coats of finish, and after I get home from work I am going to wipe on two or three more. My idea here is that I'd like as many coats as possible before doing a final wet sand with 2000 grit sandpaper (I accidentally sanded a little too deep in one spot with the 1500...oops!). Hopefully, I won't need to apply any more coats after that final wet sanding. Here's some pics taken after sanding with 1500 grit paper:

I'm loving how both the grain and the burst colors dance around in different lighting conditions! I've never seen a lacquered sunburst do that before! You can see that the finish is really building now and is quite shiny. In the end, I don't believe this guitar will have that super glassy lacquered look we are all accustomed to from factory-made guitars. It will resemble a guitar that was made 100 years ago (but new, not 100 years old). I really like it, and it is totally unique as compared to a factory-made guitar.

Tomorrow I'll post one more blog with a final picture of the top before taking some days off to allow the finish to cure. Once cured, I'll be moving on to the back and sides of the guitar.

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/25/2015

Yesterday was a busy day. We spent half of the day out and about, but I did manage to get some more clear coats applied and learned a valuable lesson in the process. Considering that it's difficult for a camera to accurately portray the progress during this process, I only have the following picture which was taken after this morning's coat (which I'll delve into downstream a bit):

Yesterday I began the day with the realization that the entire first day was spent so that the open end grain on the top of the guitar could soak up every last drop of finish. Not quite the way I thought it would work, but it is still working out in the end so no big deal. I first buffed the finish with 0000 steel wool (as recommended by many-a-YouTuber). This left a ton of debris on the finish that I couldn't remove with a tack cloth. I plowed forward with another coat of finish anyways and then we left for half the day.

Upon my return home my heart sank as it seemed that I would not be able to remove the debris from the finish, which now included lint from the wiping rags I was using. I promptly threw the remainder of the rags in for a wash/dry cycle to try and remove some lint and also grabbed an old white t-shirt for use as lint-free rags.

I decided to employ another technique I learned on YouTube: wet sanding with Tru-Oil. I took some 800 grit sandpaper and a boatload of the oil and began *VERY* lightly sanding the top. I did this until the oil on top became extremely sticky. I then took one of my new lint-free rags and cleaned up the top. To my surprise I achieved two things: all debris was removed from the finish AND the finish was significantly smoother than before. This went a REALLY long way in my eyes towards a nice, glassy look. I later wiped on two more thin coats of finish.

This morning I went back to work with the wet sanding with Tru-Oil, this time with 1000 grit sandpaper. Same process as yesterday, and once done I took the picture above. It's even more glassy looking, and still debris-free! You can now see the sheen in the photos, but it really isn't representative of what I see in person. I will wipe on two more coats of finish today and move on to 1500 grit wet sanding tomorrow (plus two more wipe on coats) and 2000 grit the following day. On that day I'm not sure whether or not I'll add additional coats, so we will see!

After the top is done, I'm going to let it cure for probably a week before going back to start over on the back and sides of the guitar.

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/23/2015

Setbacks, setbacks...

I fucking hate setbacks, but, they are apt to happen when attempting something for the first time. So, here I am at my first (and hopefully last) set back of this project.

After drying overnight, the guitar top had lightened quite a bit in color. See here:

I knew that once I began applying the oil-based finish that the colors would pop again, so I didn't worry much about that. So, I began with the first coat of Tru-Oil. All went well here, see below:

The colors look "wet" again, which really enhances the contrast between them and makes the flamed maple grain dance. Truly pictures don't do it justice. As your eye's perspective changes in relation to the guitar, the grains move around like looking at velvet. It's truly a sight to behold! The finish hasn't built up to the point of gloss yet, but given three coats per day for a few days, it will. Patience, grasshopper!

I had wanted to post pictures after every coat of finish, but alas the sun didn't cooperate. At any rate, at the time of writing this I'm just about to begin my third and final coat of finish for the night. I just went outside to take a quick peek at how the finish is building and noticed a small...maybe not so small...problem. The finish has dripped down the sides in three spots. So, I first grabbed my 0000 steel wool and tried to buff it out. No-go. Then I tried 800 grit sand paper. No-go. Then 320 grit. This mostly removed it, at least to the point that if I sanded back the entire back and sides of the body I could re-apply the mahogany stain I already applied back on the 19th. So...setback it is, although, I'm optimistic.This gives me a chance to scrape the bindings clean once again, and also to deepen the mahogany color on the back and sides. All in all, this sets me back one day. Lesson learned: heed the advice of YouTubers and USE LESS FUCKING FINISH PER COAT!!!!

Anyways, no need for a beverage now...I've already imbibed! I'm off for the last coat of the night and I'll report back tomorrow with before/after photos of the build-up of the finish!

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/22/2015

Busy day here today!

First, I needed to sand back the black dye I applied last night. This levels out the raised grains as well as removes the dye from them, yet leaves the non-raised grains with dye. The end result is an enhancement of the flame maple pattern so that it will be noticeable through the color coats. To do this I used an orbital sander with 320 grit paper. Using such a high-powered device was a little nerve-wracking (I did some sanding by hand as well), but in the end the guitar top looked like this:

Next up, COLOR!! My idea for a unique finish was to blend traditional Les Paul attributes with non-traditional. Typically Gibson does sunbursts in either Cherry Red or Tobacco Brown with Vintage Amber as the center burst color. I, with the help of my amazing wife, chose a different edge color: Red Mahogany. My hope was that it would be somewhere between Cherry Red and Tobacco Brown.

First up, I coated the whole top in Amber. The reason for this is that once the darker, edge color is applied there will be some bleed through of the Amber in the flame patterns of the wood. This is what is looked like after the Amber coat:

After drying, I applied the outer color (with a different rag). Then, using the rag I used for the Amber, I applied more Amber to the center and began blending (feathering) into the outer color a bit. After that, I used the rag I used for the Red Mahogany to continue to feather the area in between colors to blend them together. Since these are all water-based dyes, essentially I am playing with water colors. This means that to achieve a gradual blend of the two distinct colors I have to blend the colors together by pushing them around, so to speak. Anyways, this is how it looked after blending colors:

After drying some more, an additional outer coating of Red Mahogany (this time with a little more dye in solution) was applied to really accentuate the burst, and more Amber in the center then feathered. Here's the final results:

Now, for the headstock I had a different idea. I wanted a logo, but wasn't sure if paint or nail polish or other acrylic would be compatible with the Tru-Oil clear coat...SO, I fashioned a logo out of tape (my initals....go figure). After applying it to the headstock, I began dyeing the headstock in Red Mahogany. This is how the headstock looks so far (the tape hasn't been removed yet!):

That was a day! Tune in tomorrow for the beginnings of clear coating this beast! I'm super excited to see how this all turns out (as if I wasn't already)! But, one step at a time...

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/21/2015

It's a short day here today. I decided it would be best to take steps towards color coating the top of the guitar, so, today involved removing the old tape around the body and headstock and applying new tape to protect the sides from the dye I will be applying to the top.

This is how I taped it up:

You can sort of see the flame maple grain in this shot. In person it is much more subtle. So, the next step was to apply dark black dye to the top. This will "pop the grain", which makes the flame maple grain stand out much, much more.

Here's what it looks like with the dye applied:

Oooooohhhhhhhhhh.....GRAAAAIIINNNSSSS...OK, sorry, bad zombie reference. You can, however, see the flame maple grain much better now. That's that for today...seriously, SHORT day! The guitar top will dry until tomorrow. At that point I will sand back the black dye thereby knocking down the grain that was raised (due to the dye being water-based) and leaving the dye only in the flame maple grains. After that, color coats will be applied and *hopefully* the flame maple grain will still stand out through the color.

Time for a beverage!

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/20/2015

So, after allowing the guitar to dry I noticed a few spots that I missed with the wipe-on stain. Additionally, because the stain is water-based I noticed that it raised the grain fairly significantly. Since this could pose problems down the road for clear-coating, today will now be about sanding back the raised grain and applying a second coat of the stain. I decided that I didn't want to sand back too much so I am sanding with 800 grit sandpaper. Once done, I'll call today a wrap and move on to clear coating the back tomorrow (or dyeing the top...still undecided).

Here's the back after sanding:

...and here's the back after applying the second coat of stain:

It's time for a drink! See you all tomorrow!

Cheers,
Dean

Guitar Build #1 - 1/19/2015

Welcome to Dean's Guitar World. Here I will post about guitar music, guitar playing, and my guitar projects. I have been a guitar player since 1988, although I did take some time off over the past several years. I will post more in detail about that in a future post, but today we get to start off with my very first guitar build!

I am by no means a luthier. My father recently built a guitar (also not a luthier) for me from a kit he purchased online. This began my curiosity on the process so I began researching online. That was over a year ago. Lately I've been soaking up info through the Internet, and YouTube in particular, and have felt ready to move forward.

Over the holiday season 2014 I ordered my kit,  a '59 carved top electric (Les Paul style--see below), from Precision Guitar Kits (https://buy.precisionguitarkits.com/) and upon receipt have been so impressed with their work. I definitely recommend their kits.

For this guitar, I am going to apply water-based dyes and stains for color and apply a polymerized oil-based varnish (Tru-Oil) as the clear coat. This is due to the low cost of all the supplies as well as the qualities that they impart. Most guitars you purchase in a store are sprayed with either nitrocellulose lacquer or polyurethane, then UV cured for a short period of time before being buffed and polished to a perfect shine. I will be wiping on the stains/clear coats over the course of many days and then allowing that to cure open-air for several more days. This is a much slower process, but the Tru-Oil will impart more chatoyance to the wood grain than spray lacquer or poly. I *like* this!

This guitar will also have the highest quality components possible, ranging from a Gotoh 510 bridge/tailpiece to Seymour Duncan pickups and a GraphTec TUSQ XL nut, and all for a fraction of the cost of a real Gibson Les Paul. Additionally, the finish on this guitar will be totally unique as compared to commercial offerings.

As I stated previously, I am not an expert! This is my first time! If you want expertise, check out the YouTube channels for O'Brien Guitars, Big D Guitars, Brad Angove, Will Kelly, or even Precision Guitar Kit's channel. I also got information and ideas from Geezer Guitars and Fred Yen.

With all that out of the way, let's get started. The guitar is sanded to 320 grit all the way around, and I've taped the bindings and cavities so that I can start applying stain. I taped the cavities not necessarily for today's activities, but for when I finish the top of the guitar. I will be using, as I said, water-based dyes and oil-based varnish on the top and do not want it to drip down into the cavities purely for aesthetic reasons.

As you can see, I didn't fully tape the cavities and such. Why, you ask? Because I'm not spraying...ANYTHING. This gives me more control and thus, less need for completely taping things off.

I will begin by applying MinWax Express Color (Mahogany) water-based stain to the back of the guitar and neck. The directions on this product are pretty simple, which is most of the reason why I chose it! Apply a little stain, then wipe across the guitar with a soft rag and repeat until the guitar is coated. Here's what it looks like before:

And after...

So, that wraps the first day of this project. Tomorrow the dyes for the top are scheduled to arrive via Fed Ex (I shop at Stewart MacDonald). I haven't decided whether to dye the top or begin clear coating the back yet. Tomorrow is a new adventure!

Cheers,
Dean