Lyn #17 - Bret's Red Tele

[robin]

Well its been a month and the clear coat is still not ready to be sanded back.

It has finished gassing off, but is still not passing the fingernail test. I'm beginning to fear that painting it when it was over 30 degrees and high humidity might not have been the smartest thing I've ever done. But I'm prepared to leave it a bit longer to see if it finally gets hard enough.

In the meantime I have Tru-Oiled the neck, fretboard and headstock and will sand that back to a high gloss when I do the body.


That's the headstock done for now.

Now its just a waiting game until I can work on the body.

cheers
rob

[robin]

Hey guys its me again. Finally finished. As I have been struggling a bit lately and there has been no updates so this will be a bit of a data dump.

Well what a nightmare. I started this build 18 months ago but its finally finished. Luckily Bret was in no hurry and he left me alone.

Now where was I when I last updated this thread? That's right, waiting for the paint to go off. So I waited and waited and waited.......

I would periodically try pressing my finger nail into the paint and each time was depressed to see the tell-tale mark left in the paint. I began to wonder if the paint would ever cure. If Bret ever takes off the Scratch Plate he will wonder what the hell all those small indentations are. lol.

I ended up leaving it hanging under the house for six months. Apparently Gibson leave their guitars hanging for about 6 months after spraying, so I guess I'm in good company. By this stage I had lost interest in finishing the guitar, but some months later I gave it the usual test and there was no indentation, so I reluctantly decided to carry on.

I very carefully knocked back the finish with 1200, 1600 and 2000 grit paper and then used some micro mesh pads and then finish it off with Brasso.


Mmmm, Orange peel


After sanding back


Final finish, I'm happy with that.


My secret weapon, Brasso!


Cavity Shielding done.

Now to start assembly

Cheers
rob

[robin]

Because I had applied so many coats of paint and clear finish the string through holes in the back of the guitar had been slightly filled in and the ferrules would not fit. I was reluctant to try and drill out the holes in case it chipped my VERY precious paint job. So I heated up my soldering iron put the ferrule over the bunged up hole, and pressed the ferrule gently into place. I could almost feel the paint melt as the ferrule gently slid into the hole. Thanks Mr Google!


Whew, dodged a bullet there


Ferrules all in place.


Next the wiring. I had bought a pre-assembled, pre-soldered kit so all I had to do was connect the pups and output jack. Easy huh? So you would think, but I still managed to screw it up. I was so convinced that I had got my stuff right I suspected faulty components and chased down that rabbit hole for far too long with resultant frustration. Troubleshooting 101 - check the easy things first.

Anyhoo finally got the wiring sorted so the rest of the assembly was pretty straight forward.

rob

[king casey]

I ended up leaving it hanging under the house for six months. Apparently Gibson leave their guitars hanging for about 6 months after spraying, so I guess I'm in good company.

Wow. Looks great and no top clear coat? edit: Doh!! just read that you put clear coat on it.


Glad I read this as I was about to ditch my current paint plan due to non-drying issues.
So I'll empty a couple of cans and then leave it hanging in the garage for 6 months.

cheers, Mark.

[robin]

Hey Mark, this is the first guitar that I have painted so i am pretty sure that I did something wrong during the process. I am sure that a 6 month curing period is not the norm.

But I have learnt a lot from this experience, and that is, I'M NEVER GOING TO PAINT A GUITAR AGAIN..............EVER!!

[king casey]

Hi Robin. I can understand that.
I've had a few paint jobs under my belt now but the black JM-1 just didn't seem to dry.
All previous paint has dried quite quickly.
Managed to score 4 cans of red from SuperCheap auto for a bargain and after first application the drying is not happening.
So I'll just leave it in the garage for 6 months and forget about it.

cheers, Mark.

[robin]

So, here she is finished.

Because she has been built for a friend who helped me out in my darkest times, I wanted her to be something special. So she got all the good stuff.

Grover locking tuners
Gotoh Bridge
Gotoh Neck Plate, Control Plate, Knobs and Strap Buttons
CTS Pots and Switch
ToneRider Hot Classic pups
Bone Nut

By far the most blinged up guitar I have made. Could probably have bought a nice store bought guitar for the same price.

FRONT




BACK




HEADSTOCK


I set it up as best I could but being a lefty it just feels WRONG but apparently she is spot on. The best part is that Bret finally has the guitar he has always wanted. He has taken delivery of Lyn #17 and he is very happy with her. He has a high-end MIA Fender and a MusicMan to compare her with and he says that she plays every bit as good as either of them.

Gotta be happy with that.

Cheers
rob.

[JohnH]

Looks fantastic!

[Simon Barden]

Yes, looks wonderful.

The downside of lots of coats of colour or clear is that it does take a long time to dry hard (great title for a Bruce Willis movie ) as the surface dries and prevents the costs underneath from drying out properly, let alone fully curing. It’s not helped by putting too thick a coat on each time. I know I haven’t got it right yet. I’ll probably start leaving longer between coats and do them thinner on future builds.

Gibson certainly don’t leave their guitars hanging for 6 months. Probably two weeks max. Otherwise you’d have half a year’s worth of guitar production hanging around, and no large company can afford to do that! But you are talking about 6-12 months for a nitro finish to fully cure to maximum hardness.

[McCreed]

I know I haven’t got it right yet. I’ll probably start leaving longer between coats and do them thinner on future builds.

Hopefully I don't cause cross-thread confusion here...

But I commented in another post last night on drying issues, and described what occurred with my last build (scroll to post #57) taking 7-8 weeks to harden.

In my post, I stated that I was unsure why it happened, but in hindsight, I think I should have allowed more flash time between coats. It's worth mentioning that despite the finish being "hard" now, there is still some gassing off taking place, as I can smell it if I put my nose close to the body.

I'm still enrolled in this Continued Education Program called life.