Mos-Wrong

1-2-3-4!

I bought three MKA-2 kits, one for me, one for Nat and one I was gonna experiment with and possibly sell on to a friend or something. At just over 90 quid each with flat rate shipping it was hard not to order more!

The plan is for mine to be (of course) classic Ramones style white lacquer, but with a skull/crossbones decal at the butt-end.

Nat is gonna do a deep blue stain, we have ordered some Azure Lagoon from Wudtone and hope that a fair few coats of this will make it deep enough?

The third we were thinking of doing a real deep purple burst or something.

Mine:
Attachment 6431

Nat's:
Attachment 6432

Last night we commenced sanding!

Spent about 2 hours on the 240 grit, Nat had a couple of machine marks on her butt to get rid of ;)
Now she has a lovely smooth bottom

The 600 grit only took about 20 mins, gonna finish up with the 1200 grit tonight.

There is absolutely no difference in the pictures, but here they are sanded... (Imagine tree bark when looking at the above ones, and silk when looking at these!)

Mine: Attachment 6434

Nat's: Attachment 6435

Love it when folk get into the sanding :)

Only thing I can say is you are best not go past 400 grit, finishes need a fair amount of tooth to hang onto.
Sanding to 1200 polishes the timber to the extent where your finish has nothing to hang onto.

Hi Mos-wrong, both kits look excellent. It's a shame you are going to cover that ash grain with white lacquer !
The azure lagoon wudtone won't get really dark. You will need to get some darker dyes if you want a real deep blue. It will still look a bit darker on the ash grain though.
Good luck to both of your builds

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dingobass

Love it when folk get into the sanding :)

Only thing I can say is you are best not go past 400 grit, finishes need a fair amount of tooth to hang onto.
Sanding to 1200 polishes the timber to the extent where your finish has nothing to hang onto.

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I was just going by the Pitbull sanding video!

Cheers for the feedback :)

Oh... Think we might need to have a revised video..... :p

Great kits Mos! Great to have another Ramones fan on the forum and another Ramones inspired axe. Very interested to see how your skull decal comes out.

cheers,
Gav.

Nice one, good looking kits! I also like the idea of a couples guitar project, must suggest this at home Lol. In my workshop it's me, the neighbours cat and a possum on the roof!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mos-Wrong

I was just going by the Pitbull sanding video!

Cheers for the feedback :)

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I think that video is for rattlecan finishes. I'm pretty sure on the Dingotone video DB says to stop at 320 or 400 or something like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fretworn

I think that video is for rattlecan finishes. I'm pretty sure on the Dingotone video DB says to stop at 320 or 400 or something like that.

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Well is it possible to sand back to 400 or hope that 600 is ok?

Moswrong which finish is going on. Acrylic paint? 600 grit you should be fine to lay a primer coat over

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Moswrong which finish is going on. Acrylic paint? 600 grit you should be fine to lay a primer coat over

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Mine is going to be acrylic over primer, but nat's is going to be the stain

600 will be OK for both :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dingobass

600 will be OK for both :)

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Thanks DB ;) you da man

Hello everyone!
Stain question for you - using Wudtone.
Do you have to do the entire body in one go, or can you do it in sections? Will there be tide marks?
I'm asking as I'm ever so slightly hesitant about making one of those fancy neck attachments you lot seem to use...
Also there is a bit of back bow in our necks, is it best to sort that out now or at least wait til they're screwed on and under tension?

Cheers
Joe

For the Wudtone (I'm using some at the moment) I do the top and side, let it cure for a day or so then flip over and do the back. I suppose tide mark depends on the transition of top to sides, if rounded maybe do whole lot at once then hang body to cure. The guitar I'm finishing has little to no transition to the sides so easy to keep each section from overlapping.

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Hi Joe, the neck hangers are really easy to make and makes applying stain easy to do the whole body in one hit. If you don't have a bench vice you can clamp the hanger to a bench and work on both sides. Tide marks shouldn't be a problem if you do one side at a time, give it a light super fine steel wool rub in between coats.
With the neck worry about the back bow when it is assembled and strung up. Under string tension it may end up being flat or a small tweak of the truss rod will sort that out.
Any photos of progress ?

alternatively, put a cup hook in at the base of the guitar to hang it from, the hole it makes can be the pilot hole for the strap peg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stan

alternatively, put a cup hook in at the base of the guitar to hang it from, the hole it makes can be the pilot hole for the strap peg

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That's a top idea .

OK!

So I got home from work and masked my neck up. Put a layer of vintage amber on there. Sexy!

Attachment 6622

Attachment 6623

Then we moved on to the deep stain azure lagoon on Nat's and it looks delicious, the pictures don't do it justice. It zings from every angle.
Was worried she wouldn't like it where it hasn't exactly taken but she loves it. Which is the main thing. It's very peacocky.

Attachment 6624

Attachment 6625

We stopped being lazy and made some hangers and put our unused standing rail to use too! Will it be cool next to the radiator or should we move it? England's not exactly warm this time of year...
Attachment 6621

Some more pics
Attachment 6626

Attachment 6627

Looking fantastic, great job with the Wudtone. The grain is popping nicely. Seems like your having the opposite issue with me in regards to the weather & Wudtone curing. Its been too hot here (37.5c) to use it effectively and yesterday I had a sand-back job as a result....

nice one Joe and Nat, that azure really brings out that ash grain. Vintage amber on the neck should go really well with the azure. Should be ok to leave the body hanging near the radiator as long as the temp of the body is below 25-30 degrees centigrade. Any hotter may not be good for the stain to cure properly.
Well done making hangers for the body, makes it much easier to stain the whole body at once and hang for curing.
You can also re-use the hangers on your next build.
Also I would turn the body 180 degrees on the hanger so each side gets fairly equal heat from the radiator

Cheers guys, yeah definitely gonna reuse the hangers when I get many more kits ;)

Been eyeing up the Firebirds and Semihollow Tele's

Think I'll start the priming on mine tomorrow after work