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Picked up this kit back in the August sale, bit of a bargain. When it arrived every thing seemed OK, no major issues.
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Main reason I went for it was the quilted veneer. Unfortunately the headstock veneer had been patched up by the factory and was unusable.
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They used I-don't-know-what to fill the tear out and splits and there was still an almost inch long split to the right of the truss rod rout.
Also the sanding of the veneer around the edge of the body was a bit uneven
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This was taken care of by carefully sanding the edges of the body with a sanding drum to bring them back to the veneer edge.
Looks like the truss rod is trying to escape
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Don't think it will be a problem (please correct me if I'm wrong).
First step with the headstock was to remove the veneer, came off pretty easy and sanded to tidy up. Thought I might as well straighten up the tuner holes, they weren't quite in a straight line. Dowelled up and redrilled.
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Hi Grant, I almost bought this axe last August but you beat me to it. I ended up getting an ash 7 string Iceman which I've started.
Some nice looking grain on the quilt top and ash on the back.
Bummer about the headstock veneer, you will probably have to sand it off and glue another veneer on. The truss rod bolt looks proud, see if you can push it back under the nut.
Also be careful if its from the same factory as the TL-1Q the quilt veneers are paper thin.
What are the build plans ?
EDIT saw your second post, nice work plugging and re-drilling tuner holes, looks much straighter the tuner holes
How many clamps can you fit on a headstock?
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Probably should have cut the new veneer to shape before glueing, but got a bit excited. The reshaped headstock with its new face
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The veneer offcuts have come in handy, glued a small piece in the short side of the neck pocket to tighten up the fit. It could just be the shape of the pocket but the neck had a bit of sideways movement. Nice and tight now.
nice fix Grant, where did you buy the quilted maple veneer ?
Makes it easier to roughly trim the shape of the HS before gluing but you cleaned it up nicely.
I usually get about 10 clamps on a 6 string HS but when the rough shape is trimmed you will get more than six on
Hi Wokks, looks like a few people tried to grab this one, must have clicked the mouse a just the right time. Tried to get the 12 string RC but didn't type fast enough.
That was a tongue-in-cheek question about the clamps, these were all the small clamps I had.
I bought two quilted maple headstock veneers from guitarAust, about $8 each I think. Got two in case I stuffed one up.
Next, sanding.
Body sanded to 320
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Grain filled with ebony Timbermate to exaggerate the grain
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Then made up a witches brew of colortone stains. Started with vintage amber, added a touch of medium brown, lemon yellow and a drop of cherry red, reduced with a little metho.
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Two coats of sealer
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Had to put more coats on than intended because the grain fill took on a green tinge. A bit darker than planned, but still looks Ok to me.
wow love the colour Grant, well done. I did the same with my ash IC-7 grain filled with ebony Timbermate and it really brings out the ash grain nicely.
Is this going to be a full build diary posted at once ?
And now the body veneer.
After reading about how thin they are I was already a bit wary. There were some sanding scratches on the arm cut and some more by the horn on the same side. Very carefully sanded with 400 to remove as much of the scratches as I was willing to.
Don't have all the colortone stain colours, so got hold of the Ubeaut stains for the front. Wanted to pop the grain, diluted the blue with water and put on the first coat
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To say I wasn't impressed would be an understatement. The left-most glue mark was visible on the raw veneer but it looked like part of the quilting, the rest were a complete surprise.
Unfortunately (fortunatley?) Pabs had a similar problem with his TL and Weirdbits offered a possible solution of pin pricking and restaining with a cotton bud. Tried this, I did it a touch heavy handed, but heading in the right direction.
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The original plan was to try a PRS style fade. Now will have to rethink the colours as the bottom edge may need to be almost solid colour to hide the marks. I'll keep playing with it and see where it ends up.
love the colour Grant but that's devastating the glue. Can you just go for a darker blue burst around the edge similar blue to the bottom edge ?
can't beat the look of blue quilted maple, looks like a swimming pool !
Not this time Wokks, just wanted to put this up and acknowledge Weirdy for helping even though he didn't know it.
Yeah, the ebony really makes the grain stand out. When it's finished, you gonna take the iceman with you when you visit DB?
The colours were going to be dark blue at the bottom going to a green/turquoise/aqua at the top. Currently thinking maybe purple at the bottom and work out the rest from there.
This is where I'm up to with this one, no more updates tonight.
Grant
Hey Neverwas, I'm sorry you're having these glue stain issues. If it's any consolation, these photos really show the drastic consequences of the factory being sloppy with the glue. I'm going to forward your photos to the factory and advise them that this is what our builders are dealing with when the factory leaves glue on the body. Hopefully this will prompt them to take some appropriate action.
Hi Adam, please do forward these photos to them. If it brings about a change so no-one else gets a nasty surprise, it'll be worth it.
I guess it's more a workmanship issue rather than QC.
Before I applied the stain, gave it a wipe with a damp cloth and they didn't show up, only when the stain went on.
Thanks for the reply Adam.
Grant
Happy to have unknowingly helped.
So, after staining, sanding, steel woolling, spot sanding the lighter parts of the quilting a total of five times each, it got as good as I was going to get it. Then sanded with 400 all over (which was part of the original plan)
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Then applied a coat of blue all over
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The marks are still easily visible, so made up a purple to try and hide them, thought a darker colour would help.
After that didn't work, had to go for black to hopefully hide them for good (no pic of the purple, didn't stop to take one)
And this is where it ended up
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Colours go from black to purple to blue to greeny blue. The purple doesn't show too well in the pic but should be better after the clear goes on.
With all the extra sanding, etc, at the bottom edge, a small piece of veneer came away. I wanted to get the colours on before i worry about repairing it.
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If it can't be fixed neatly, might need to go for a faux binding to disguise it.
Finally, with the sealer on and unmasked to show the body colour as well. The black looks shinier than the rest but should even out when the clear goes on, I hope.
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And yes, I did cheat and used an airbrush to put the colours on.
Grant
holy cow Grant you nailed the colours and the burst on the quilt, looks excellent. This will be a beautiful axe as always !
You got me mega keen to hunt down some quilted maple veneers !
I bet when Ads sees the pics he will want to post them on Facebook !
Cheers for that Wokks. At first I thought the black spoiled the effect but it might grow on me.
Finding veneers that aren't overly expensive is a bit of a challenge. I have another build diary to start as I had a delivery of some veneers the other day (not quilted but still interesting).
Unreal! That fade is superb. Great colours.