New Member - with a Kit to Build

[John W]

Thanks Trevor

Not yet, this has caught me by surprise (nice one) so just starting to look around to see what I like but it will be some sort of natural stain, I like the wood look. I still have not done my mock build? Any clues on how to see what the options are for finish? Also anything I need to do with mock build ie just fit it together without screwing things in place? All new to me, so plan to go slow

[Trevor Davies]

Thanks Trevor

Not yet, this has caught me by surprise (nice one) so just starting to look around to see what I like but it will be some sort of natural stain, I like the wood look. I still have not done my mock build? Any clues on how to see what the options are for finish? Also anything I need to do with mock build ie just fit it together without screwing things in place? All new to me, so plan to go slow

For the finish, anything goes. It really depends on your skill set, equipment and work area. I really like the Feast Watson stains available from the Big Green Shed (as I also like the wood look and natural colours), but I have used water based dyes and inks. For the clear finish I have mainly used Tru-oil for its ease of use, but have used Feast Watsons wipe on poly, and rattle can SCA acrylic. Lately I have been spraying water-based poly.

I find the Basswood is nice to work with. It does not usually have a huge amount of grain pattern. For basswood bodies, my TB-4 build is FW jarrah stain with Tru-oil, the AG-2 build is red ink with Tru-oil, and the back of the TL-1TB is FW Brown Japan with Tru-oil. The TL-1 I'm working on ATM is Ubeaut Blue water-based dye with Cabot's water-based poly.

For the mock build: yeah, basically fit it together to check to see that all the parts fit. Make sure the neck fits nicely into the pocket. Make sure the bridge (with the pickup) can fit nicely in the bridge cavity, and that you can achieve your scale length of 648 mm. Also that the strings align well along the neck with the bridge.

P.S. Don't forget to start a build diary.

[John W]

Thanks again Trevor, don't have a great skill set so I think I need to keep it simple and not try and get too clever. Will keep looking around and check out your suggestions. I did do a mock up and started a build diary. Looks like have all the parts and everything seems to fit well, I have not checked the scale length, so might need to go back and do that? Do I just check that by measuring the distance between the nut and the bridge, or do I need to put some strings on to get a more accurate result?

[John W]

Trevor Quick question, after looking at lots of Guitars I really like the Butterscotch Blonde. I am not sure where to source what I hope would be a good Butterscotch Blonde stain. I have a white pickgaurd but happy to puchase a new Black one to better match the look. Any recommendations ? Hope this sort of question is not too trivial! Cheers

[Trevor Davies]

Trevor Quick question, after looking at lots of Guitars I really like the Butterscotch Blonde. I am not sure where to source what I hope would be a good Butterscotch Blonde stain. I have a white pickgaurd but happy to puchase a new Black one to better match the look. Any recommendations ? Hope this sort of question is not too trivial! Cheers

Actually, I'm not sure! I know there is a Dingotone Butterscotch - but I don't know how successful it has been. Some of the Dingotones have issues with drying!

Hopefully others will pitch in with some suggestions.

Also, it would pay to start a build diary to keep track of your progress.



PS; Feast Watson do a stain and varnish liming white in Natural Buttercup! Not sure how this would go !

[fender3x]

I have not used Dingotone products. And I won't use them. I have been using this site since 2016, and the unhappy stories about using dingotone far outweigh the happy stories.

Meanwhile...

PS; Feast Watson do a stain and varnish liming white in Natural Buttercup! Not sure how this would go !

There are people here who have gotten pretty great results with Feast Watson finishes. Might be worth a peruse through the "scratchy Tele's" link in TD's signature for examples ;-)

[John W]

Thanks Has given me some mor ideas will have a closer look at Feast Watson stains

[Trevor Davies]

Trevor Quick question, after looking at lots of Guitars I really like the Butterscotch Blonde. I am not sure where to source what I hope would be a good Butterscotch Blonde stain. I have a white pickgaurd but happy to puchase a new Black one to better match the look. Any recommendations ? Hope this sort of question is not too trivial! Cheers

Just for clarity, when you say Butterscotch blonde, are you just after a light brown stain, or the semi opaque (milky look!) type of finish?