PRS-1Q by AxeMurderer

Hello, good thanks.

My PRS-1Q kit arrived today and I'm very excited to get started. Seems like mine is the first build diary for this kit.

The wood is beautiful and the neck pocket joint is nice and tight.

I guess the first step is a mock-build dry run. I'm thinking I should drill the holes for the tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece before doing the finish. This is the bit I am most nervous about in terms of getting alignment with the neck and getting the bridge position right for intonation. Any tips are welcome.

As far as the finish goes, I plan to use the U-Beaut dyes with an oil finish. Heres the plan;

• Starting with the back and sides and leaving the quilted maple till last
• Sand through 220 and 400. Very light sanding on the veneer.
• Apply one coat of U-Beaut Sanding Sealer.
• Sand lightly with 400, 600 and 800.
• Apply base coat of dye - probably the black/green or cedar colour to highlight the grain
• Light 400, 600, 800 sand to remove most of the base colour highlighting the grain
• Coat of chosen dye colours to required depth of colour.

Then I'm not sure what next. Do I put oil on top of the dye or do I need some shellac to seal the dye in?

I bought a few slices of quilted maple veneer from the bay of evil to try this approach before attempting to murder my axe. I've put sanding sealer and three stripes of dye on one of them so far. Dye drying.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Photos to follow.

Cheers Dean

I'd use 240 or maybe 320 on the veneer at most. Not sure if going to 400 may adversely affect the veneer taking the stain as well as on the Mahogany.

Which oil are you planning on using?

Overall looks like a good plan.

Thanks Andy. For oil I have the Tru Oil and U-Beaut Aussie Oil. Seems Tru Oil is the preferred around these parts.

Just a question about your kit.
Is the top flat, and the rear of the body contoured ? or does the top have the slight downward contour a the bottom ?

Only reason I ask is that I can't make this out in the Kit photos

Once you've sanded the first coat of sanding sealer, see how flat the guitar is after that. You may want to do another sealing coat. Sanding sealer has a low viscosity, so does sink in a lot. Probably not a problem on the close-grained maple veneer, but the back and sides may need another coat. The flatter you can get the finish at this stage, the flatter and shinier the overall finish will be and the less coats of tru-oil you'll need to apply to fill in the grain.

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Originally Posted by AxeMurderer

Thanks Andy. For oil I have the Tru Oil and U-Beaut Aussie Oil. Seems Tru Oil is the preferred around these parts.

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Gav Turner has used Aussie Oil and was very happy with the results.

Can recommend both oils. Tru-Oil has the amber tint, and Aussie is clear. Aussie does require a lot more elbow grease though.

cheers,
Gav.

Great, thanks. I want a clear top coat so the Aussie it is. Will I need something between the dye and oil? I read somewhere that oil on dye can be a problem with leaching or something.

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Originally Posted by Tweaky

Just a question about your kit.
Is the top flat, and the rear of the body contoured ? or does the top have the slight downward contour a the bottom ?

Only reason I ask is that I can't make this out in the Kit photos

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Hi Tweaky. The bottom/back is flat and the top/front has a mound in the middle. Not sure what that is called.

Here is a blog post of my experiences/technique/results with Aussie oil if you are interested.

http://guitarkitbuilder.blogspot.com...20Aussie%20Oil

cheers,
Gav.

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Originally Posted by gavinturner

Here is a blog post of my experiences/technique/results with Aussie oil if you are interested.

http://guitarkitbuilder.blogspot.com...20Aussie%20Oil

cheers,
Gav.

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Thanks Gav. Seems like a fair bit of elbow grease required. I think this stuff was developed for use in turning where the lathe does all the hard work. I wonder if a Dremel would work to make life easier.

Cheers Dean

I've officially begun...

There are three parts of this build which have elevated pucker-factor; locating and drilling the bridge and tailpiece holes, finishing the top without wrecking the wafer thin maple and glueing the neck. I think most other things have some margin for error or can be recovered.

Well... one down, two to go.

Over the last couple of days I've layed out the bridge position and today I put my big boy pants on, took a deep breath and made some holes. Then I used PVC tube in place of the ferrules to do a temporary install of the TOM bridge and tailpiece with the E-strings in place. All looks good to this novice so onwards and upwards.

See the attached photos for evidence.

Trial installation for alignment check...

Done! Seems that no guitars have been harmed in the making of this build diary.

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Originally Posted by AxeMurderer

I've officially begun...

There are three parts of this build which have elevated pucker-factor; locating and drilling the bridge and tailpiece holes, finishing the top without wrecking the wafer thin maple and glueing the neck. I think most other things have some margin for error or can be recovered.

Well... one down, two to go.

Over the last couple of days I've layed out the bridge position and today I put my big boy pants on, took a deep breath and made some holes. Then I used PVC tube in place of the ferrules to do a temporary install of the TOM bridge and tailpiece with the E-strings in place. All looks good to this novice so onwards and upwards.

See the attached photos for evidence.

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Dafurq is the black device in the last pic? A fancy schmantzy drill guide of some description? I must know!

hey Dean good progress, neck/string alignment look good.
As Frankie asked what is the black device in the lower pic in your first post today ?

Looks like some sort of dowel jig

Nice work!

I'd avoid using a Dremel for any oil application or polishing task. Even at its slowest speed setting, it will be rotating far too quickly and the heat from the friction will almost certainly ruin the finish. They are OK for polishing metal, but if you want to take the hard-work out of the task, you'll need a purpose-designed and much slower rotating polishing tool. Even then, you need to keep it moving over the surface so there's no heat build-up.

That contraption is a dowel jig which I used to get the holes vertical. My drill press is in storage.

Good point Simon. The Aussie Oil is supposed to heat up with the friction of applying it but the Dremel may be too fast.

Next step was to sand a belly curve in the back similar to the PRS Custom 22 that this is modeled on.

Not sure if it is deep enough. Thoughts?

Meanwhile I've got a few slices of quilted maple veneer for colour testing. I'm reasonably happy with the popping of the grain and I'm liking the yellow over green/black of the final shot. The grey cards on the last shot mean that it is closest to the actual colour.

Cheers
Dean

Looking at pictures, the belly curve seems to have been a feature on some PRS Custom 22s, but not all. Here's the back of a 2007 model. Looking at that, I'd say you could go a little deeper, but not too much.

Attachment 15511

Thanks Simon. That shot is clearer than any I could find. Looks like a little more elbow grease required.

As part of the colour and finishing trials I made a new scratch-plate/pick-guard for my Epiphone Les Paul. This is a quilted maple veneer with U-Beaut sanding sealer, dyes, shellac (2 coats), Aussie Oil (5 coats) and Traditional Wax (1 coat so far)

I also swapped out the chrome parts for gold to create a more consistent scheme. I'm loving the texture of the quilted maple.

Cheers
Dean

Yes, not many pictures are taken of the back of the guitar, and almost none of a decent edge view!

Nice scratchplate! You'll now want to cover that with something so it doesn't get scratched!

Looks heaps better than the original white pickguard axey. good work mate

Looking good! Personally I would take your belly cut a little deeper just where the curve in the body is.

cheers,
Gav.

This is coming along very nicely indeed. I look forward to the end result.

Love that pickguard. Aside from how awesome the grain looks, I love the way it looks with the 3 ply edge.

nice progress, and love that pickguard

Nice work. For the belly cut I would personally go a bit deeper (I have a pot belly...) I suppose it all depends on your personal body contour and what feels comfortable

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Originally Posted by AxeMurderer

My PRS-1Q kit arrived today and I'm very excited to get started. Seems like mine is the first build diary for this kit.

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Nope...
http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=4956

You'll probably finish yours before me tho'...

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Originally Posted by AxeMurderer

Next step was to sand a belly curve in the back similar to the PRS Custom 22 that this is modeled on.
Not sure if it is deep enough. Thoughts?

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Have a look at my build thread - bottom of page 7.
http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...?t=4956&page=7

I figured I'd start with staining the back. That way if I needed to sand back to wood as I learn how to use the stain I could. I did and I did.

The original idea for the colour scheme was to be purple on the sides transitioning to red on the back with yellow in the middle as a red to yellow burst.

I started with a coating of a colour called cedar to highlight the grain under the red and yellow. Sanded that back and it had highlighted the grain as I wanted. Next, I applied the purple, red and yellow. I wasn't happy with the way the end grain soaked up the purple and was very dark, the colour of the purple or the blend from purple to red.

the purple had to go.

After sanding as much of the purple off as I could - there are still dark patches in the end grain - I started again with a more simple red to yellow burst.

Although it's not a professional job, I'm not completely unhappy with the outcome given I am still learning how this stuff works. The grain has certainly been highlighted.

No on to the front/top...

OOOOOO I like where you're going with this! I can see what you mean about the colour transition, could you do a dilute wash across the transition bands to even it up?

Keep at it mate, this will look fantastic when you're done!

The front starts with a coat of green/black for grain popping. I seem to have found the small amount of glue which I will attempt to scrap off.

Attachment 15798