Rabz ST-1 Inattentive Diary

Hi Ho Fellow Hacks and Guru's,

What follows here will be an inattentive build diary of my attempt at a lime washed ST-1.

The proposal:
A basswood ST-1 that will have a lime-wash look, sort of a Mary Kaye finish (but not really).

Water-based walnut stain to pop the grain.

Water-based liming stain & varnish - an F&W product.

Clear water-based Cabothane to hold it all together and give it a hard (enough) finish.

Undecided whether it will have a going over with cutting compound. That will depend on what it looks like after the final poly coat.

It is an inattentive build diary as time to "share with the world" in a stalkbook fashion just isn't available, nor is it in my DNA.

So the first steps:
Neck & Headstock
Attachment 5945Attachment 5946

Body after staining with walnut stain diluted by 10 or 15% with water:
Attachment 5947Attachment 5948

I should have said that the neck and headstock is simply hand-rubbed clear Cabothane.

This is in an effort to let the timber be the timber.

that cabothane comes up well, looks good

Ok so the stain is knocked back and it is rubbed down to 400 grit.

Next step will be a very thin clear coat, followed by three lime wash coats.

Wish me luck!

Attachment 6126Attachment 6127

Is the clear coat before to grain fill? I would have thought the lime wash be more effective on to raw wood.

Hi Pabs,

I will be using an F&W limewash & varnish combination.

The reason I decided on the clear coat is to seal the stain. While I was experimenting I found the limewash/varnish would soften and lift the stain onto the brush and rag. Which means it was all a bit messy. So I am trying to put a bit of a clear barrier between them.

Here are couple of shots after the clear coat:
Attachment 6128Attachment 6129

Looking OK so far...

Well I'm about four of my three hand rubbed coats of the Lime Wash / Varnish in. (Yes, you read that right).

Frankly it doesn't look much different to the photo's above.

I like the smoothness of the hand rubbed finish, but it'll take about ten or more coats due to the thinness of the coats.

I feel like I should do a couple of thick brush coats, but I know that will create a different load of work when it comes time to smooth it all out.

Any suggestions, other than "patience Grasshopper" or "shut up and keep applying"?

Hi Rabbitz, sounds like thick coats will just be too uneven and cause too much sanding later, so as DB always says best apply several thin coats so patience will pay off

Trouble is, I am sitting around at home with tonsillitis, so my patience is lacking and what is left is really being taxed!

Did a couple more sneaky coats today (Don't tell SWMBO) but it is frustrating.

Attachment 6204

I think it is whitening up.

I think :)

About 7 liming coats.

man that neck looks sick, might try that stuff myself

Update.

After 20(ish -lost count) hand rubbed coats of the lime wash, I've knocked it back with some 400 grit.

So far I've put 5 thin coats of clear. I'll again knock it back and add a few more coats. I need enough depth to do a cut and polish.

Logo is on the headstock - after the pizzling I copped on my last build for not having a logo! :p

Attachment 6267

And the body:

Attachment 6268Attachment 6269

Enjoy

We've had a couple of nice warm, lowish humidity days this weekend.

I've been able to recoat the Cabothane after about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.

All jolly good.

About an hour ago I did another coat, just as a storm passed over. It is still warm, mid 20's but the humidity is now 90%+.

The last coat has hardly dried over the last hour - it is amazing how the humidity makes such a difference.

I guess I'll slow down now :)

It's a disaster.

Received the new DB crafted bone nut.

While getting it ready to fit to the neck I dropped it.

I now have a two piece bone nut.

%&$#@* ^&*(%%$# %^!@#$#@&

:mad:

Uh oh.. Bone nut accident aside the lime wash is coming along nicely and like the headstock decal

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

Hi Andrew,

I am pleased with the lime wash. The stain "highlights are a little darker than I envisioned but I like it.

I guess that DB will be getting another order for a new nut :)

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I last touched this one.

Got the new nut from DB & Adam in about three days - excellent service.

Jiggered around with that and it is in place, a real interference fit, so no glue for now.

Used Orange Oil on the fretboard and it came up nicer than I expected, the rosewood(?) has a really nice dark grain figure through it.

So all the bits are now on. I strung it up and left it for a couple of days to get used to the tension.

Righto, time for a quick tune then to check neck relief, and start on the intonation.

Low E - √
A - √
D - √
G - √
B - √
High E - *TINK*

What the?

Grab another .010 string - *TINK*

*Ok. Stop. Look. Think.*

Tie a knot in the busted string.

Slowly, bring up towards tune - the string is VERY tight. Back off tension and run up the fret board. I get to the 12th fret and it is still showing flat.

*Scratch Noggin.*

Drag out another axe, which was tuned yesterday.

*Hmmmm*

No High E.

*Scratch Noggin Again*

"Ahhh" says I - the bloody tuner is not registering High E. Break out the AliExpress $4 special tuner - looky there High E - √

Now I am in a bad mood. I think I'll put it down and come back tomorrow...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rabbitz

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I last touched this one.

Got the new nut from DB & Adam in about three days - excellent service.

Jiggered around with that and it is in place, a real interference fit, so no glue for now.

Used Orange Oil on the fretboard and it came up nicer than I expected, the rosewood(?) has a really nice dark grain figure through it.

So all the bits are now on. I strung it up and left it for a couple of days to get used to the tension.

Righto, time for a quick tune then to check neck relief, and start on the intonation.

Low E - √
A - √
D - √
G - √
B - √
High E - *TINK*

What the?

Grab another .010 string - *TINK*

*Ok. Stop. Look. Think.*

Tie a knot in the busted string.

Slowly, bring up towards tune - the string is VERY tight. Back off tension and run up the fret board. I get to the 12th fret and it is still showing flat.

*Scratch Noggin.*

Drag out another axe, which was tuned yesterday.

*Hmmmm*

No High E.

*Scratch Noggin Again*

"Ahhh" says I - the bloody tuner is not registering High E. Break out the AliExpress $4 special tuner - looky there High E - √

Now I am in a bad mood. I think I'll put it down and come back tomorrow...

---

Have you checked to make sure you have the pickup heights for all the pickups set correctly?, if the pickup is too far away from the high e-string it might cause problems with tuning the string up to pitch with a tuner, also, is the neck set correctly in the neck pocket?, sometimes when the neck of the guitar isn't centred properly that can cause more tension to be put on one of the e-strings.

Hi Doc,

Another guitar showed the same symptoms and a different tuner picked up the sound. So I am pretty sure it is the tuner.

When I get a chance I'll pull the tuner apart and have a squint. It is 30 or more years old so it might just have had enough :)

(Maybe I should ask Santa for a new tuner?)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rabbitz

Hi Doc,

Another guitar showed the same symptoms and a different tuner picked up the sound. So I am pretty sure it is the tuner.

When I get a chance I'll pull the tuner apart and have a squint. It is 30 or more years old so it might just have had enough :)

(Maybe I should ask Santa for a new tuner?)

---

If it is 30 years old I'd guess that some of the Electrolytic Capacitors on the circuit board might have dried out, if it's an analog tuner, sometimes the input socket on the tuner develops cracked solder joints where it solders to the circuit board too.


The tuner I use to tune my guitars is a Korg Pitchblack +, and it works pretty good, the great thing about it is it has two inputs that you can set up with different tunings, so you could set up input A for standard guitar tuning (E to E), and then set up input B for tuning a Bass guitar or maybe an open tuning, it has a few different tuning modes including Strobe-Tuning which is very accurate (the manual quotes an accuracy of +/- 1 Cent in Strobe tuning modes).

It looks like this one except mine is Red in colour:Attachment 6894

Hey Doc,

Until I pull it apart I wont have any pre-conceived ideas. I am not even sure how an analogue tuner works (yet).

Compared to some of the whizz-bang stuff I've played with, it cant be that hard can it? :)