SGD-612 Lefty Build

Well, I can't hardly believe it but after nearly 5 months my baby has arrived. And how worth the wait it was!
I've been wanting to get my hands started on this project and with all the research I've been doing, I kinda feel like I've built it already in my mind! Haha...
Components are mostly accounted for with my first check. I have not pulled everything out of their plastic bags yet though.
Initial inspections found minor blemishes on the body timber but the necks are in pretty good nick.
The back plate is a little bit smaller than the routered cavity. Not sure what to do with it yet.
Let the sanding begin!

Yowsa mate! That's a whole heap of guitar! I look forward to seeing how it goes for you!

oh it's a lefty, nevermind...

woohoo! I love watching these behemoths come together

That looks awesome.Be following this one. Was going to stop and 5, oh well maybe 6. Or do the two necks make it 7?

Thanks everyone.
Colin and Ross, you can never have too many guitars! Haha...
If you want to give the SGD a go, I'll keep the info in this thread as real as possible. It is my first build and diary so I may post too much rubbish and then again, I may not post enough lol...

Anyways, I spent a bit over 1.5hrs today doing a 180 grit sanding of the front, rear and sides of the body.
I don't have a good indoor area for working so the back patio (11 degrees in Melb today) was the place to get started.
I'm kinda happy I was outdoors because as the sun went down, it gave good changing light to see more blemishes in the timber. My eyes are also no good at fine detail up close so I took some pics of the marks I could see (attached) and blew them up to help me identify areas that needed more sanding attention.
There are mainly pin hole type and maybe clamping type blemishes that needed the most attention.

I plan to attack the blemishes more because many guys on here say that if I think I've sanded enough, sand a little more so I'll look at the body with fresh dodgy eyes again and do another round of sanding before changing to 240 grit.

High ten Metalligun....keep the SGD-612 alive bro!! and a lefty custom....much respect man.

Cheers Andy. I hope these babies will never die. They are so iconic. I want to give this build the respect it deserves. I keep telling myself that after nearly 3 hours of sanding so far! lol...
Because I'm actually looking really close at the timber for blemishes, if I don't fix them I'll know they will be there forever and that will eat away at me every time I pick it up.
This is my first build so it will be slow going to ensure everything is done right :cool:

Great kit man. What are your finishing plans? I have always wanted to build one of these bad boys.

cheers,
Gav.

Have to agree that this kit is rather tempting.

Some of those blemishes look like filler and not sure how deep they may go? Get yourself some Goof Off and work that into those areas to see if it gets rid of them. If you discover they are filling deeper holes neutral coloured Timber Mate mixed in with stain colour should not look as obvious when you get around to staining the body.

Cheers, Waz

Thanks for the tip Waz. The holes do seem deep so I'm only sanding them enough to not change the surface flatness visibly.
The widest blemish is about 2mm and is on the backside so the filler tip is an awesome one to try. Thanks again mate.

A deep emerald green with dark grain and join highlights, sealed in maybe a gloss finish is the plan Gav. I'm still torn between highlighting the grain and joins with a black application first or trial the green to see if that does the trick.
If the highlights turn out the way I want I may go a semi gloss to give it a working class look too.
When the dyes come in I'll do some samples and make up my mind then :confused:

Ebony timber mate would work in with the dark grain plans as a filler however Basswood has very little open grain for TM to penetrate and assist with grain popping. Black fountain pen ink may be the best bet but be prepared to buy quality stuff and wipe as much off immediately after application, and then next day wipe the remainder off with a slightly damp rag. You may need to do this a couple of times to make any impact and then lightly sand to knock down the furry timber fibres and expose some of the blonde timber underneath in preparation for the emerald green stain.

BIG TIP: Basswood staining = no higher than 180 grit sanding and even that can sometimes be too smooth as some of the top or bottom slab sides can be very shiny straight out of the box and once this happens it tends to repel any staining attempts or make things look like there are glue spots where none existed.

Thanks Waz. Geez, it will be a tricky colouring job then..
I've started on some 240 grit sanding so I guess it will be best to go back to 180 and redo the body. Should this approach be taken with the neck and headstock too?
I've ordered some Keda wood dye powder and was planning on mixing it with water to apply. If the basewood is possibly going to repel stain in areas, is alcohol or solvents going to be better as a mixer to help the colour take to the wood?

I used a green spirit based stain on a re-build I did a few years ago and it worked a treat! However, I veneered the repaired body with a lightly flamed maple veneer which was near on 1.5mm thick and took both the black and green stain beautifully...

The stain is a Feast and Watson and they no longer make it but I bought all of the coloured stain that the local shop had in stock; would you like to try it? PM your address if you'd like to have a crack with it...

Hey Metalligun, just to let you know that i put ebony timbermate on mine to pop the grain. it worked out well. also as basswod is quite porous it soaks up the stain really well.

Lastly I noticed that the jack hole is not on the front. can you check that if the jack is plugged in its not hitting/shorting one of the pots. I found this to be a major issue, so before you finish up on the sanding you may want to consider plugging the exising jack hole and re drilling on the front of the body.

See my build diary and you'll understand.:confused:

@ Corsair - Thanks for the info and offer mate. I'm going to try the product I have first and see how I go but I'll keep your offer in mind. Cheers.

@ Andy - Thanks for the reminder. I checked out your build thread a few months back and know what you mean. I'll check it out tomorrow and report back. Thanks again mate!

Hi Metalligun, maple necks don't need much sanding as they already come pretty smooth in the box. Over sanding them makes it hard to take a stain too.

Due to the number of planks used and the cross grain variations some sections can polish up quickly with light to moderate sanding. It is when things get too shiny that the pores have very little chance of soaking up much colour. It is a bit of a trade off where if a dark colour is really important to you, best to take a safety first approach as you can always get things as shiny as glass afterwards. It just takes a bit longer and lots more clear top coats too but worth it in the end.

Some great news Andy. Looks like the plug location has been moved quite nicely between pots :cool:

Thats great news, fantastic

Welcome Metalligun somehow I’ve missed this thread. Great looking kit - You’re gonna love sanding at the end of it (its worth all the effort)!


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Hey guys. The wood dye came in and I've been having a bit of fun experimenting with them. I was wanting to do a very diluted black wash to try and highlight some grain but am going to give it a miss for the moment. The mixing of the blue and yellow to get a nice emeraldish green is keeping me happy and providing the finish that I'm after anyway.
There are some pics below showing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd coats of the green on a piece of pine. The last pic is of the piece half sealed in a satin, and half gloss.
I was originally thinking a of satin for something different to what I already own but I can't help but lean towards the gloss again :rolleyes:

Ok, let's try that again ;)