Did my dry run on Sunday and all looked good.
I took a saw to my headstock and also repaired a ding in the bottom of the neck. Spent the rest of the day sanding and am now getting close to adding some stain.
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Did my dry run on Sunday and all looked good.
I took a saw to my headstock and also repaired a ding in the bottom of the neck. Spent the rest of the day sanding and am now getting close to adding some stain.
Spent last weekend sanding & sanding. Turned out it still wasn't enough!
This weekend I started adding some colour, the pics are early on, it's looking better now. I used UBeaut water based stain for the front & back & Feast Watson jarrah for the sides & neck. The water based dye is very forgiving but it does raise the grain a bit. I found it wasn't a good idea to follow the instructions to wet the surface first, it pulled the grain too much. It worked much better to add the dye to a dry surface in sparing amounts & really work it in.
I was a bit disappointed when I first added some colour to the neck, the 2 different types of wood either side of the skarfe joint absorbed dye at wildly differing rates making the joint really obvious. I always intended going really dark so after a few more coats it doesn't look so bad now.
I'll leave the dye to dry for a few days now before glueing the neck to the body. I'm thinking of using tung oil for the final finish, i've used it on some cigar box project & liked it. Has anyone else used it?
Started with some oil. Decided on Tru Oil in the end. 3 coats so far, several more to go but I think i'll try a light sand with some 1500 wet & dry before the 4th coat.
Great contrast. Nice looking all over.
Yeah I have also found it difficult to keep things even doing a stain. Putting a clear on really does change things though and it ends up looking fine.
i've had this kit a few weeks now and only just realised that the body has a hole for a 3 way switch & a 3 way switch was included in the kit but, as a ES175 copy, the guitar has only a single pickup. Surely the switch shouldn't be there but i'm going to have to include it to fill the hole. Any ideas?
The switch hole obviously shouldn't be there. What pickup do you plan to install? You've got a humbucker-sized mounting hole. To make use of the switch hole, you could install something like a Seymour Duncan P-rails, and fit a suitable selector switch in the hole (not the supplied 3-way switch) for Humbucker, P-90 and single coil sound selection.
https://www.seymourduncan.com/wiring...tions,1-pickup
Alternatively, you could fill in the hole, spray a dark opaque sunburst over the top (similar to the picture) and hide the repaired hole under the finish. You'll need to try and find a spray that is compatible with the Tru-Oil you've already applied, so try out on some test wood first.
Maybe add in a push/pull switch to coil split a humbucker or to do series/parallel?
Hi Simon,
Thanks for the advice, I wasn't aware of the P-Rails. I've had a look at the SDuncan videos & it looks like I would need a 4 way switch for a single PRail so i'm guessing some sort of rotary switch.
It would the guitar an individual. I had planned to go bog standard on my first build but what the heck!
No, it's an on-off-on 3-way. Sorry, I didn't check the link and it didn't show the wiring diagram for a single P-rails. Here it is. https://docs.google.com/gview?embedd...ail_3mt_1V.pdf
Perfect, thanks.
It's obviously missing the tone control, but that's easy enough to add in.
Nice colour combo! I like these guitars and don't have one.........!
Hi Johnny..that looks really good and oil finish will give the body a lovely silky look. I love the Jarrah on the sides, the colour is amazing like satin! Great job
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyrotten
Hi Juanitasanch,
It's true confession time! The colour was meant to be jarrah, I went to the big green shed and picked a bottle from the jarrah shelf, took it home & slapped on the guitar & after a couple of days noticed that I had actually bought a colour called Brown Japan. Probably a fortuitous mistake as jarrah would have been too red & I wouldn't have got the same contrast. Thanks for the kind remarks.
Thanks Andyxlh, a hollow body jazz guitar had been on my list for a few years & I had been scouring Cash Convertors for a second hand one for some time. I'd never dreamed of going down this road and just happened to go to a guitar swap meet where Adam was selling a few kits. I think i'm hooked now & already trying to decide on the next kit, I quite fancy something with lipstick pickups, similar to a Danelectro. Not sure if these are available in kit form.
Hi Simon Looks like a PRail and a switch will cost almost as much as the original kit. I think i'll finish the build without the electrics and see how it sets up & plays. If it's good I can justify the PRailQuote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
That's reasonable. With the fully hollow body and pickup hole, it's a lot easier getting the electrical bits inside than if you had to feed them all through the F-hole.
2 weeks later and about 15 coats of Tru Oil on the body, less on the neck. Rubbed it back with 000 steel wool & polished with gun stock wax. I'm now playing with the setup before I decide about upgrading the pup. Action is too high at the moment, i've obviously got a lot more to learning to do but fingers crossed i've not stuffed up yet!
Just about complete! Just waiting on some nut files. I'm quite pleased with the result and providing the nut files achieve what i'm hoping for I will probably take Simon's advice & upgrade to a PRail to give the switch something to do!
There was such a wealth of tips & advice on the forum without which i'm sure I would have stuffed up so thanks to all.
Well done, that looks really fantastic