Chuck's JZA-1

[Chuck]

Thanks Simon. I guess it's lucky the days of me performing night after night in sweaty clubs is long past! That said, I have sealed the top of the pickguard with a satin clearcoat - just in case there's one sweaty club gig...

[wazkelly]

Good move Chuck as that will also help with fingerprint stains and prevent eventual oxidisation if left untreated.

[nitroburner1000]

Hey chuck love the pickguard and stain colour, turning out to be a great build mate.

[Chuck]

I'm now a fair way in on doing the gloss coats - gotta love the Sydney weather at the moment. When I started doing the gloss coats the body was certainly nice and smooth, but as I've been doing successive layers of the gloss I can now feel very small ridges that run with the grain. I feel like with about 10 coats on it should have enough to be able to buff back after curing, but given I've never done a stain finish like this (and indeed only ever worked with basswood rather than ash) I wondered if I should do even more? Any tips?

[wokkaboy]

nice colour Chuck looks great. I was in Sydney last week for 3 day work conference and the weather was much better than Perth weather lately !!
I'd say 10 coats of gloss should fill in the coarse ash grain. You will know when you have enough layers when you run your fingers over the body.

[nitroburner1000]

nice colour Chuck looks great. I was in Sydney last week for 3 day work conference and the weather was much better than Perth weather lately !!
I'd say 10 coats of gloss should fill in the coarse ash grain. You will know when you have enough layers when you run your fingers over the body.

Yes as woks said and if you keep doing the fine sanding between coats you will eventually sand off the peaks of the ridges and the valleys will fill giving you an even finish, great work.

[Chuck]

Thanks guys, I'll let it settle for a few days then do a fine sand to assess how close I am.

[Chuck]

And so, after the painful week of gloss coat curing, I was able to start the finishing process. As I'd put 12 coats of gloss on, I was happy to start with a light sand with 800 wet and dry to get a feel for how much I'd need to take off. As I mentioned earlier, I could feel what seemed like "grain ridges" in the top coat, but I actually quite liked them. I wanted a finish that was like an old antique (a well polished one!) rather than that "brand new" perfect finish, especially as the aluminium pickguard is such a contrast. So I did my 800 cut, then moved to 1200, then 1500 then 2000. The idea was to get everything in good shape to take the shine rather than knock it back to perfectly flat. Here's where we are at with a quick crack with some Maguiers Compound. Before finishing everything off I'll do some proper polishing, but I really like how it's looking so far - you can see in the lit section at the top the small imperfections I've kept to get the feel I'm after.



Now I've got to this point I can check the alignment on everything and get the pickup surround holes drilled - I wanted to wait to attach the neck to get this done as I still have the ability to expand the pickup holes a little should I need to. Hmm, maybe I'd better get cracking on the neck!

Oh, and that's the pickguard with the protective coat over it - doesn't take any finger prints now but still looks nice and raw.

[Dedman]

looking super cool Chuck. I agree on the finish, the grain waves suit it

[Chuck]

looking super cool Chuck. I agree on the finish, the grain waves suit it

Also one of those great moments when you realise the finish you want will take less effort!!