I’m not a fan of the knobs either, mine will be replaced. Good work on having a go at it yourself.
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I’m not a fan of the knobs either, mine will be replaced. Good work on having a go at it yourself.
About to wander downstairs and have a shufti at yesterday's work. It frequently doesn't stand up to a second analysis! :)
You’re not on your own there Drew.
Next time I say something about making my own parts, somebody please give me slap...
If at first you don't succeed - give up and buy them from eBay.
And if they were terrible I would, but they're just good enough to be worth persevering with!
The colour match was better before I tried to sand them and took a load of it off, at which point i realised that it hadn't penetrated into the wood nearly as far as I though. So i've managed to both make the finish less smooth and fail to actually stain the wood. Will have another go with something else next weekend.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/av...w=w637-h958-no
If you made them out of jam jars they'd be worth preserving with.Quote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
It's only a matter of colour. I'm sure you'll get them matched.
Gives me something to moan about when the oil is drying between coats... ;)
Hmmm. Dumb question time. I've been happily sanding, sealing and oiling away on the neck and body of my kit, separately. But it has suddenly occurred to me that the advice around doing this might actually be meant for 'screw on' rather than 'glue in' necks.
So quick question, should I have glued first and be oiling after? Or do I keep oiling and glue after? (with some corrective work around the join perhaps?)
The glue joint should be bare wood on to bare wood for the best adhesion. Just sand back the areas that will make contact in the pocket and you will be fine.
There is no "correct" answer to this. Gluing first can make the guitar unwieldy when trying to finish. Finishing first can mean you need to touch up the joint after gluing. Either way works, but there are trade offs for each.Quote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
Oiling first and gluing later, with some touch-up work round the join is normally the easiest way to work, especially if you are spaying. But if you glue the neck on first, it's not too hard to work with a whole guitar if tru-oiling as long as you've got the space to work on the complete guitar.
Spraying is a lot more awkward to do with it assembled, though it's more than possible to do if you've got the room to hang the whole guitar up when spraying.
Thanks folks. Taping is in place and one of the advantages of this kit is that there's lots of joint surface for the glue.
So, neck has 6 coats of full strength true oil and is, I think, looking pretty good. There are a pair of dings on the back of the neck, no idea how they got there, and a bit of splitting around the tuner holes but otherwise I think this is shaping up nicely. Very smooth and shiny:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3x...g=w497-h662-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RV...A=w497-h662-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ob...Q=w497-h662-no
The fretboard though has never recovered from the initial masking-tape balls up:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-j...4=w497-h662-no
That's never going to look right, but giving it a matt finish will make it a little less obvious.
The body's had 4 coats but at some point we had a breezy day and the finish has picked up a load of dust particles:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QL...Q=w883-h662-no
Hopefully the next round of sanding will lift those off easily enough. I was going to put another couple of coats on before hitting the 600 grit but given this I'm thinking I'll do that now.
Finally, replacement knobs and truss rod cover, still a bit to do on these but I think they'll shape up ok in time. Not sure whether to go with a gloss, matt or satin finish.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bF...8=w497-h662-no
Decisions decisions...
That is starting to look superb Drew, everyone loves a blonde!
Thanks FrankenWashie, weirdly this whole idea started with seeing Kris Drever playing a Godin 5th Avenue with Lau and I was never really able to get it out of my head. I couldn't afford a Godin but when I saw that Pitbull had a kit, well... :)
I'm still undecided about whether I need a scratch plate for this job though, having chosen to try some wooden knobs and truss rod cover I'm going to need to make it from wood as well. Fortunately that's a decision I can make further along the line.
This colour is lovely. Nice depth of shine too. Keep going!
Cheers Andy :)
Haha or giving yourself a good scratch after getting thinners on your hands! Oowww.Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Just caught up mate, noice job, blonde is always hard as it shows up everything, no stain to hide imperfections. Great job mateQuote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
It is looking good. Just note that 6 coats is still a very thin layer. so be very careful when sanding.
Thanks folks, for the comments and the advice. :)
Interesting* aside. I think I am a bit heavier handed with the oil than most on here. So far I've used an entire 3oz bottle of sealant and about 2/3rd of an 8oz bottle of true oil. That's given me 3 coats of sealant all over, 6 coats of oil on the neck and 4 coats on the body. I'm going to need another bottle...Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
* strictly within the realms of this forum. ;)
Well, you have got a bigger body to cover.
The guitar's got a lot more surface area as well. ;)
Ba dum tsh!
Nothing wrong with bigger bodies Simon, we can’t all be JS soloists, some of us are more double neck SG, and others more upright double bass; a lucky few are Longhorns. But we are all beautiful in our own way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I've moved down from a double bass to a cello this year. Will never become a violin but aim to get down to a viola.
I'm in danger of heading the wrong way from cello-sized...
Anyway, I decided it might need a scratchplate so I started to knock one up. Will need to do more work on the colouring obviously, but the real challenge is going to be figuring it out how to attach it.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dy...k=w818-h613-no
Option A is obviously some 6" nails. Option B is the standard screw for the front corner and a bracket for the rear.
Yep, will have a shufti at my Hofner and see how that's attached. Having a think about how to make the bracket.
Didn't one come with the kit?Quote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
Nope, the kit doesn't include a pick guard. I keep vacillating about whether it needs one or not, but if i've made it then it's easy to add afterwards.
This is a pretty standard hollow body style pickguard bracket. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WD-Music-...Cn60sg0Kki8G7Q
I reckon they look better without but each person will have their own opinion.
Cheers Simon, I was going to go even simpler with just a strip of metal bent to appropriate angles (like this my Hofner https://gbmedia.azureedge.net/userco...edidtqa_so.jpg ). But we'll see.
I know what you mean Waz, but then I got the idea into my head! There's nothing interesting happening with the grain on that part of the body so I'm not going to be losing anything that way. Basically I'm going to complete the build then see how it looks with and without and then make a decision. Also, if I screw up finishing the plate I can always just claim that I decided it looked better without it. :)
Question for the assembled experts:
Is it worth upgrading the standard pots if I'm not going to be changing the pick-up? (budget will probably extend to the former but not the latter)
If so, any suggestions on what I should be looking for?
Thanks
Drew
Don't ask Bono.Quote:
Originally Posted by blinddrew
As you can fit them through the pickup hole rather than the F-hole, I'd go for standard sized pots. CTS, Bourns or Alpha. 500K is normal for P90s, audio taper for volume, linear or audio taper for tone. Linear gives a smoother response on tone, whilst audio can be is lot more abrupt in tonal change.
If your knobs are the push-on type, then you'll need split shaft pots. If grub-screw type then solid shafts. Split shafts come in two types, with 20 or 24 splines. You need to know the number of matching splines in your knob. Get them mis-matched and they knob won't fit on the shaft properly, so start counting!
Then you get long or short shaft pots. Short shaft ones are the normal ones for pickguard mounted pots (like on Strats), whilst long shafted ones are often used on guitars like Les Pauls with rear control cavities and several mm of wood between the cavity and the top. You'd be safer with long shafted pots, especially with full-sized pots and a curved top, but you may need to use some spacing washers in order to not have too much of the shaft poking out of the body.
Cheers Simon, I shall start investigating. Still loads of oiling and sanding to do but good to start thinking about next steps.
Worthwhile doing then I assume?
In my view, yes. The standard cheap mini-pots that come with the kits don't normally last very long before getting noisy.