Jon's 3rd build: DTL-1

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Originally Posted by Fretworn

Most important thing is the string alignment between nut and bridge.

Is the neck finished yet? If it isn’t finished you may find that once it is finished it will be too tight, so you may need to tidy up the bass side of the pocket. The neck slightly overhanging the body on the treble side shouldn’t affect playability, it is just a minor aesthetic issue.

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Thanks Fretty - the neck isn't finished, and it is a tight fit, so I suspect I will need to sand the pocket a little. I have also glued a veneer shim into the pocket just to straighten out the edge a little.

I've had a bit of a revelation over the last couple of days.

I had been really struggling to get a clean look with grain filler used to fill the pores on the end grain (and all around the edges.) I'd fill it, and then be sanding for hours to try to get rid of muddiness, by which time there would be no filler left at all.

I did a bit of reading, and found that people recommend spraying a coat of clear before the filler, to seal the smaller pores, so I gave that a go. I used the clear rather than sanding sealer as I wanted the film to be as thin as possible. I left that to dry over night, and then filled with a timbermate slurry as normal, and then left that to dry overnight before sanding. The result was really good - it was much easier to sand back, especially around the edges. I've now sprayed a coat of sanding sealer, and here's how it looks.

Attachment 38587 Attachment 38588 Attachment 38589

That's nice

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Originally Posted by dozymuppet

That's nice

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Thanks DM. I've since sprayed a can of transparent blue, which has reminded my how bad at spray painting I am. Unfortunately I had the nozzle oriented incorrectly on the first coat, so I've got some banding going on. I also had quite a few runs, but they have mostly sanded out. This wasn't the colour I had in mind - it's rather more green than I had expected. I shall get another can of colour, and hopefully it will darken up and even out.

Attachment 38639

Possibly a good colour for another project :) (what is it, by the way?)

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It’s transparent blue nitro from SydneyGuitarSetups.

http://www.sydneyguitarsetups.com/ni...stralia-guitar

Interesting. So that's one whole can already gone? Doesn't quite feel like enough for the job.

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Yes that’s one whole can. How much of it ended up on the guitar is another matter.

Here it as after the second can of blue nitro. I think my technique must have improved, as this seemed to go on much better, i.e. quickly made a big difference to the depth of the colour.

Attachment 38742

In the meantime, I've also shaped the headstock, stained the neck with dilute FW Golden Teak, and applied a couple of coats of Tru Oil. There's a natural maple offcuts there for comparison of the colour.

Attachment 38743

That body colour looks great. It's just screaming for a white pearloid pickguard!