Resonator build

[Tgraham]

After 4 coats of wipe on poly the colours really stand out - becoming a fan of wipe on poly so easy and effective. Seems to be a good hard finish as well.

Waiting for some filler I ordered before starting on sides and top.

While waiting I’m sanding down some wooden bridges I made for experimenting with height and grooving for strings.

Trevor I added a shim to the neck pocket which changed the neck angle so now the straight edge is just above the bridge channel - I figured this allows more adjustment with bridge height- higher bridge to start with and can always lower as preferred.

[Trevor Davies]

Nice colour! I like the dappled light beams idea.

And good call with the neck angle and shim.

[Tgraham]

Colortone filler arrived, have never used this product before so after reading instructions I am wondering do I apply stain before applying filler or can staining be done after filler is dry and sanded?

Cheers
Graham

[Tgraham]

I just saw a large discussion re staining and filler on this forum seems it’s possible to do either but with different results
Any thoughts team?

[fender3x]

From the SM web site it looks like they intend for the filler to go on first, then finish. I think that is true of most fillers. The exception, in my experience (which is, admittedly, limited) is that only clear fillers, like AquaCoat Clear work over stain. ColorTone says it is stainable, as does Timbermate (which I have not used, but others here have).

It's worth testing since some filler/stain combos stain better than others. Also, it may depend on what you stain with, and how you do it. Some take stain like wood. Others block stain from penetrating.

The other thing to think about is that ColorTone is water based. If you wipe/brush a water based product over it, you may reactivate and "pull" the filler. This is less of an issue if your next cap is sprayed on or something other than Water-based.



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[Tgraham]

Thanks Fender I am in the process of experimenting with different ways before I touch my build. So far filler first then water based stain seems to work ok. I will try some wipe on poly over that today - steady as she goes

[fender3x]

It occurs to me that the back an this may have the same sort of basswood laminate back and sides the the ES kits have...and maybe the top too. If that's the case, they may not need filler...or at least not much. With one of my ES's I decided I liked the color fine, and just put clearcoat directly on it. Polished out nicely. Not sure if the resonators are the same?

[Tgraham]

Thanks fender, yes the back and sides are basswood the front laminate looks like a very fine grained oregon which it probably is not. It’s pretty good except in a couple of places where in the cutting out the edges have splintered a bit, a sharper cnc bit might help, but I think I have successfully filled these.
The sides have little parts where the wood is stressed by curving it to the body shape - small “hairy bits” sticking up which sanding doesn’t remove - hopefully after some top coats of poly the will get rigid enough to break off and will allow sanding to work. Lots of poly coats.
It’s all part of the fun
Cheers
graham

[Trevor Davies]

Colortone filler arrived, have never used this product before so after reading instructions I am wondering do I apply stain before applying filler or can staining be done after filler is dry and sanded?

Cheers
Graham

I have never used this filler before. I have used only used Timbermate - and it will take stain after, sometimes too well. Definitely test on scrap wood first with the stain you intend to use!

I have had a lot of trouble trying to stain after using some oil-based sanding sealers!

[Tgraham]

So far I have stained the back and sides without any filling, applied a few coats of wipe on poly with no problems. Use SM clear filler on the top prior to staining this seemed to go ok, it took the water based stain ok not as well as just the wood without filler, allowed several hours for stain to dry then applied a coat of poly hmmm not impressed the poly was still tacky in places after 12 hours, put it in the morning sun which helped a lot to the point where I was able to successfully sand it, phew I had visions (or nightmares) of stripping the poly off and starting again.
Next time I will definitely stain before using SM filler.
Always learning
graham