IB-7 Custom Kit and Community Input

[Dedman]

You can get a nice flat grey metal finish if you bead blast chrome or stainless. It's basically sand blasting with tiny glass beads instead of sand, much more gentle. Lots of Auto elects and small engineering /repair shops have them, I bribe my auto elect with a 6 pack to use his. to get the brushed look, sand in one direction only, not back and forward. Really only works on bigger areas.
Hope thats of some help

[Mr Bushy Man]

Ohhh okay sanding in one direction. Ill have to test it on some old butter knives or something ahah. Cheers Dedman! Bit scared as i want to get something like hipshot hardware.

Thanks,

MBM

[Mr Bushy Man]

Alright guys so ive just gotten the kit today, its actually gorgeous has a really nice veneer on the headstock. I was wondering if there was a specific order you guys do when doing a kit, fretwork, staining, gluing neck, tru oil etc, marking out hardware?

Thanks,

MBM

[Fretworn]

Doing a dummy build comes first. You need to make sure that the neck is straight, the neck body join is accurate and that the scale length is right before doing anything. Also make sure that pickup routs are clean and the correct size. There are different schools of though regarding is you drill holes before finishing or after, but your choice of finish can also affect this decision. Personally I normally do the fretwork near the end, but some people do it earlier, or while they are waiting for the body finish to cure.

[Mr Bushy Man]

Thanks fret, im waiting on some free time to get some sandpaper, steel wool etc. I need some black dye because I want to do a black-grey gradient. If im doing a wipe on poly finish, what dye will work under it? Water based?

Thanks,

MBM

[Simon Barden]

Both water and spirit based dyes are basically the same basic pigment in different application mediums. Water based dyes seem to penetrate slightly less than spirit ones (but still sufficiently to do the job), and don't seem to get into the tiny stress cracks in binding like spirit dyes do. But being water-based, they will raise any loose grain, so will need a light sand afterwards and are more prone to leaving 'tide-marks' if the edge of the dyed area dries out before the wood next to it has been dyed, so it's important to apply it very wet and quickly.

Spirit based stain seems more forgiving to apply. Being alcohol based (thin with metho) it dries very quickly, but unless an area has gone really dry, then adding more stain to the edge of the stained area doesn't leave tide marks and it's easy to go back over with a stain-soaked rag and rub in more colour. But it does get into those stress cracks in the binding; you get lots where the binding is bent round sharp curves and almost none on the more gentle curves.

And you won't be able to scrape it off the binding, so you'll need some way of protecting it. Water-based stain seems to sit on top of the binding, so it may need a scrape back to clean plastic, but not penetrate the cracks. So if you go spirit-based, then I'd suggest carefully masking around the binding, apply some poly over the top to seal it, then stain the wood. You'll probably then need to scrape that poly off the binding again to remove the stain on it, but it should then remain pristine.

Both types will 'work' under a wipe-on poly, though the solvent in the poly (or any finish you use) will liberate some of the pigment, so you need to be really careful if you try and do a sunburst using stain, rather than just a single colour, as the pigments will blur further as you wipe the poly on . Brushing the first coats on can help as it seems to move the poly around less than ragging, though you could use a poly spray can for the first couple of coats to really minimise any colour bleed, before reverting to wipe-on.

[Mr Bushy Man]

Thanks Simon!

Really appreciate all the advice im getting, I think im going to go with water based as ive got the triple purfling and the binding on the guitar, dont want those nasty cracks showing up. Does the green shed supply anything like that? Should I go off the back of the can for how long I should wait in-between coats? And should I stick to one side at a time, do the front, the sides then the back?

Cheers,

MBM

[Mr Bushy Man]

Hey guys!

Alrighty, so ive been to hell and back trying to get this flame veneer to pop on top. I started with a mixture of artist oil black and mineral turps, going through the typical process of raising the grain etc. Much to my dismay it came out grey looking with all these speckled peppery looking dots, i sanded it back and sadly did not have my dear flame. I kept going anyway, using sanding sealer and going onto the wipe on poly stage after leave that for a few days. Today i looked at it and decided no, i will redo this, it is not worth it. After a few hours of anger induced sanding with coffee breaks i had removed the poly, sealer and disgusting colour. I had that speckle left there still, i tried pulling it out with excessive amounts of turp soaking etc but it didnt work. So i decided hey, lets try to pop this grain again, i found my spare fountain pen ink from last build and happily started popping the grain, as before the contrast between the blonde and black speckles caused displeasure on my eyes. I made it darker so you wouldnt see the speckle, it worked hah. Now its a chocolatey brown, sadly the flame just wont give me what i want, the headstock is gorgeous, one coat of brown ink and it was shimmering. I guess ill start the process for the front all over again. https://imgur.com/a/o1xMN2W pictures arent very clear, theyll be up soon. If youve got any tips to make the grain look better on the body before i wipe on poly, itd be much appreciated.

Cheers,

MBM

[Fretworn]

Damn! But as long as you end up with a playable guitar that is the main thing. Most of us have discovered that the guitar often has different ideas to us about what it wants to look like.

BTW, is there a "bald" patch on the bottom edge of the front or is that a reflection?

[Mr Bushy Man]

Yeh its a bald patch ahah, sadly it wont take there, veneer sanded through or something of the likes. In the end i want a beast of a guitar that has some hella riffage. A guitar like that isnt going to be pretty so im not too disheartened. Ill love it either way, maybe next kit will be a pretty specimen.