JB-4 First build by Cade

[wazkelly]

Hi Cade, if the neck was sanded past 240 it will need a few more base stain coats to come up somewhere near the same shade as on the body due to maple being a tighter and harder grain compared to basswood.

Suggest adding another stain coat to the neck & headstock now and if it comes out too dark after a week or so curing time you can take a bit off with a very light 1200 grit wet sanding to help even out the colour.

Cheers, Waz

[cade711]

Good advice thanks mate. That would definitely be my problem as I didn't account for the difference in grain with sanding so the neck got a light sand back to 320. I'll give it a good coat this time and reduce if needed. I'd seen another JB where the headstock wound up darker than the body stain and didn't really like it so I probably went a bit cautiously with my application the first time also.

[Andyxlh]

Looks great. Like the headstock shape. Kinda reminds me of Gibson Thunderbird ish

[Andy40]

I have never seen a glue line like that before.

You'll find that after 3 to 4 coats of DT stain and 3 to 4 coats of intensifier, the colour will even out and become a lot more vibrant. the neck will start to match the body.

On my SDG-612, I plugged the jack hole with a bit of ply and neutral timbermate and stained the guitar with DT Black stump on the edges. Its gone so dark that I almost cant see the patch. on the first stain there was a big difference between the colours on the plug hole, timbermate and body and the maple neck, by the end they all matched up pretty well.

good luck mate.

[cade711]

Thanks Andy.

After another coat this previous weekend the colour is definitely more vibrant and beginning to blend, this is after about 3 days drying so far. Following the first coat the timber mate in that glue filled join was somewhat lighter, now it seems to have darkened more so than the body. See how a third coat this weekend turns out.

[wokkaboy]

colour is deepening nicely Cade and will get a bit darker as it cures and more coats. Box on buddy !

[gavinturner]

Colour is looking great!

cheers,
Gav.

[cade711]

Thanks guys.

Hardware question: Will these tuners work on the JB-4 headstock without modification to the holes being required?
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/s...rome-left-1pc/

[wazkelly]

Not a fan of the traditional clover leaf/elephant ear tuners? Don't blame you as they can feel a bit clunky.

Those tuners should fit, just might need to enlarge the hole diameters but best to test the fit before using a drill. If you need to drill, run it in reverse and take your time as that stops the drill bit from grabbing in the hole and tearing big chunks out.

[Simon Barden]

Or get a simple hand reamer. I find it a lot less risky than using a drill - even in reverse.

It's normally only the end of the hole on the reverse side of the headstock that needs enlarging, there's no reason to enlarge the hole more than is necessary. You can see in the photo that the thickest part of the tuner shaft is part of the tuner body itself. The locking nut screws inside the tuner, so must be narrower.

But as these aren't exact vintage reproduction instruments, I expect that tuner should be a drop-in replacement for the standard kit tuners. I'm sure Adam would have selected compatible equipment, and would have mentioned if any hole widening or thinning bushings were required. You could always drop him an email for confirmation. It would be nicer though if the required hole dimensions were stated.