Astracaster First Build FS-1

[fender3x]

Dent video...



Some people do small dents with a soldering iron...I have only done it like this guy does.

I think all of the PB archtops are plywood. Back and sides have a basswood veneer as the top. Tops have a figured maple veneer. The latter is super thin. The back and sides are not quite as thin, but I have managed to sand through one of mine anyway. I don't know if they iron trick will work on plywood. It might, but the risk would be compromising the laminations. I have only tried it on solid woods, so am not sure...maybe someone will chime in who has?

I have never tried the stain you are using, but some prefer to go on before grain filling and others after.

You can certainly fill to get the spot flat, but with some stains it might look similar to a glue spot. I'd definitely try it on scrap first. I had some tear-out on one of the holes I drilled for a string through bass. I filled the gouge with small pieces of wood that I shaved off a similar colored wood. I am not sure I recommend this, but I filled the hole with AquaCoat clear filler mixed with some stain. I then put the pieces in place, and then sanded it flat after it dried, and added a bit more stain. It worked reasonably well.

If the hole is not too big, even if it's a mm deep, you could use clear filler. I have a few small dents that I have repaired this way and you can't tell they are there once the clear coat is on. I have even used AquaCoat clear to after starting the clear coat by sanding, filling and then adding more clear coat. AquaCoat is not cheap, but it makes up for it by being pretty versatile.

[Drashkum]

Dent video...



Some people do small dents with a soldering iron...I have only done it like this guy does.

I think all of the PB archtops are plywood. Back and sides have a basswood veneer as the top. Tops have a figured maple veneer. The latter is super thin. The back and sides are not quite as thin, but I have managed to sand through one of mine anyway. I don't know if they iron trick will work on plywood. It might, but the risk would be compromising the laminations. I have only tried it on solid woods, so am not sure...maybe someone will chime in who has?

I have never tried the stain you are using, but some prefer to go on before grain filling and others after.

You can certainly fill to get the spot flat, but with some stains it might look similar to a glue spot. I'd definitely try it on scrap first. I had some tear-out on one of the holes I drilled for a string through bass. I filled the gouge with small pieces of wood that I shaved off a similar colored wood. I am not sure I recommend this, but I filled the hole with AquaCoat clear filler mixed with some stain. I then put the pieces in place, and then sanded it flat after it dried, and added a bit more stain. It worked reasonably well.

If the hole is not too big, even if it's a mm deep, you could use clear filler. I have a few small dents that I have repaired this way and you can't tell they are there once the clear coat is on. I have even used AquaCoat clear to after starting the clear coat by sanding, filling and then adding more clear coat. AquaCoat is not cheap, but it makes up for it by being pretty versatile.

It is definitely not a dent. It is some sort of a scratch which wouldn't go with sanding. Could it be a small knot or mismatched grain in wood?. In that case I may have to accept it and start staining

I also wanted to know how do u choose the colour of the back & sides of your guitar build and back of the neck?

I tried a few stains yesterday which i though could go well at back. These were all natural wood colours like teak, Rosewood and Redbrown.



Redbrown turned out to be as same as red stain. The other two are sort of OK.
I also have this problem. There is colour seepage despite me using a fineline tape. You can see it in above pic if you zoom.

Is there a way to get a fine line or workaround for it?

I may choose rosewood if I stain the top orange and the teak one if I choose the olive green.



Top could be one of these



I have finally masked the top and sides of the body and neck. So that i can start staining the back of the body and neck. Is this OK?



I have gone ahead and ordered this fret crowning file from amazon as my friend is willing to bring it on 20th when he is coming back to India

https://t.ly/2gO_P

I hope this is good too.

One last thing before staining is I am trying to find a couple of slabs of similar colour wood as the veneer and back just to see how the colour would actually look on the veneer and back as the scrap woods I stained were light coloured yellowish wood and my kit is pinkish brown ish wood.



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[fender3x]

If you do your staining in a conventional way, it think it's near impossible to make a good line. Most stains are designed to penetrate, so no matter how well you have things taped off the stain will leach under it. IIRC there was someone on the forum who was able to make a good line but I don't remember how they did it. The binding should help make the line however, unless it has some cracks. If you have the binding well taped the stain should not go under the fine-line tape on the binding. You might try a small section by the heel to check first...

That crowning file should work well. I have the three sided version from them which I have been pretty happy with.

FWIW You may not want to leave the masking tape on the guitar too long. I try not to leave regular masking tape on wood or paint. It's generally OK for short periods, but the adhesive is stronger than blue or green painter's tape and can pull paint off, or even veneer off, if you are not careful. Also the adhesive can leave a residue, particularly if your climate is hot, humid or you leave it on for too long. I actually don't like to leave any sort of tape on for very long... Here's the way I did my last one. I had already painted the top and was doing the sides at this stage.



You can't see it in the pic, but the binding has blue 1/4" (6mm) fine line vinyl tap on the binding. I found a to-scale PDF of an ES 335 body which a printed, cut out and used as a cover. The blue painter's tape is stuck mostly to the vinyl fine line tape and the paper. I tried to have as little as possible of the tape stuck to the paint. Even then I only left the tape in place for a few days. Long enough for the paint on the sides to dry, but not long enough for it to cure.

[m0j0]

I also wanted to know how do u choose the colour of the back & sides of your guitar build and back of the neck?

Basically, I generally start the thought process with "what don't I already have?" and go from there. But I think my most favourite colour combination I've done was my build #13 - thinline ST with spalted maple veneer. (Build diary here - https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=11695)

I went with tobacco brown on the back and vintage amber on the veneer. I also hit the neck and headstock with a single coat of vintage amber and while still wet, wiped over it with a wet cloth to thin it out and smooth out the finish - the purpose of this was to give it a bit of an aged look. Coated the whole thing with many (40) layers of Tru Oil which darkened everything to some very nice tones and made it shine.

[Drashkum]

If you do your staining in a conventional way, it think it's near impossible to make a good line. Most stains are designed to penetrate, so no matter how well you have things taped off the stain will leach under it. IIRC there was someone on the forum who was able to make a good line but I don't remember how they did it. The binding should help make the line however, unless it has some cracks. If you have the binding well taped the stain should not go under the fine-line tape on the binding. You might try a small section by the heel to check first...

That crowning file should work well. I have the three sided version from them which I have been pretty happy with.

FWIW You may not want to leave the masking tape on the guitar too long. I try not to leave regular masking tape on wood or paint. It's generally OK for short periods, but the adhesive is stronger than blue or green painter's tape and can pull paint off, or even veneer off, if you are not careful. Also the adhesive can leave a residue, particularly if your climate is hot, humid or you leave it on for too long. I actually don't like to leave any sort of tape on for very long... Here's the way I did my last one. I had already painted the top and was doing the sides at this stage.



You can't see it in the pic, but the binding has blue 1/4" (6mm) fine line vinyl tap on the binding. I found a to-scale PDF of an ES 335 body which a printed, cut out and used as a cover. The blue painter's tape is stuck mostly to the vinyl fine line tape and the paper. I tried to have as little as possible of the tape stuck to the paint. Even then I only left the tape in place for a few days. Long enough for the paint on the sides to dry, but not long enough for it to cure.

The sides of the FS-1 kit is sandwiched between binding on either side. I really hope it doesn't seep through that. I have been reading from forum and other groups telling me to apply a thin quote of clear over the binding before staining so that it resists stain. I will have to try to do that. I am staining the back first and then the sides and I am keeping the top for the last. The tape I have used is low tack. I really hope I don't have to keep it much longer. I shall try to remove it as soon as Possible

I went to the timber shop the other day. In india they don't have basswood samples. Seems They are not native to India. So they gave me 3 slabs of Steam Beech wood which looks similar in Colour to the veneer and back. Now I have something to try my colours on to see how exactly the shade may look.







Edit: I did try the colours now. Tried Pinks and Purples and couple of them are pink and purple mixed in different ratios. Tried Green, Green and yellow on top, Orange and Blue.

I am still unable to make up my mind on which shade to stain. I like the blue but I have 3 blue guitars already. Orange and olive green and pinks too look good. I may try to dilute the purple today and stain again today.

What do u guys think?

Basically, I generally start the thought process with "what don't I already have?" and go from there. But I think my most favourite colour combination I've done was my build #13 - thinline ST with spalted maple veneer. (Build diary here - https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=11695)

I went with tobacco brown on the back and vintage amber on the veneer. I also hit the neck and headstock with a single coat of vintage amber and while still wet, wiped over it with a wet cloth to thin it out and smooth out the finish - the purpose of this was to give it a bit of an aged look. Coated the whole thing with many (40) layers of Tru Oil which darkened everything to some very nice tones and made it shine.

I have a lot of blue guitars. I have been inching away from Blue. But from what I see from trial in the above scrap wood the blue looks brilliant

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[Drashkum]

Finally tried all the colours on the Steam Beech wood.


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[fender3x]

I do a lot of agonizing about color choices. However, I think I have evolved a sort process. I start with "things I can't/won't change" and things I want to highlight. I also have a bias in that I generally want my electric guitars to look more like a hot rod than like a piece of furniture. So starting from there I just see what emerges.

With my "hybrid" (Fender neck on an ES body) the pickups really drove the color choices. I had cream colored pickup bobbins. I googled cream pickups and looked at a lot of images of guitars that had then. I ended up liking "surf" colors. I had messed up some parts of the top, so it was going to be a solid color. I had also accidentally drilled through the headstock installing the tuners. BUT I loved the grain in some parts. So I painted the top a color like the old GM Daphne Blue, and made a two-tone headstock (part blue, part bare). I thought the grain looked good on the back and sides, so I started looking for stain colors that would go with it...and then realized that the sides and back already looked really good with the Daphne blue without doing anything to it...so I left it bare and just clear coated.

My ESB-4 started as red...trying to emulate the old red Epiphones of the '70's. The paint never worked well, so I have stripped it will start sanding clear coat soon. I wanted it to be a color a but more appropriate for playing with a bunch of folk/bluegrass guys...but was not ready to abandon the hot rod aesthetic... So I painted the top and back of the body cream colored and the sides and neck cream. The colors of the first car my father ever bought new... A two tone Chevy Bel Air. In my memory it's a 1956...but I only remember it from pictures...

To me, if you like the color, blue or whatever, go for it. It does look good ;-) BTW I am guessing that the beech should be a good test bed, since it is a closed grain wood like basswood....at least that's what I read ;-)

[m0j0]

I don't have any blue guitars that I've built for myself. I have a blue Ibanez S540 that's a quilted blue and I built a Pitbull Warlock style that I finished in a metallic blue but that was for my wife, but nothing I've built and is mine.
I'd like to do a brilliant blue flame LP for myself, but I kinda also want to do a surf green ST and an olive MM bass. Too many things I want to build. Not enough wall space to hang them all. I really need to spend more time practising and less time building.

[fender3x]

Drashkum, I almost included the thing about painting the binding with a little clear coat...I didn't because I have never done it. I have seen people talk about it and it seems like a good idea. The thing I would worry about, FWIW, is that any clear you get on the unstained wood may not take stain well. You could use fine line tape on the wood, which would probably take care of the problem, but would take time. You could also paint it with a very small artist's paint brush. I don't have the dexterity for that, but maybe you do with your surgical skills ;-) I was hoping someone who's actually done it would chime in with advice on this....

Too many things I want to build. Not enough wall space to hang them all. I really need to spend more time practising and less time building.

M0j0...Or maybe you need to build a wall? (my dilemma too ;-) )

[Drashkum]

Drashkum, I almost included the thing about painting the binding with a little clear coat...I didn't because I have never done it. I have seen people talk about it and it seems like a good idea. The thing I would worry about, FWIW, is that any clear you get on the unstained wood may not take stain well. You could use fine line tape on the wood, which would probably take care of the problem, but would take time. You could also paint it with a very small artist's paint brush. I don't have the dexterity for that, but maybe you do with your surgical skills ;-) I was hoping someone who's actually done it would chime in with advice on this....



M0j0...Or maybe you need to build a wall? (my dilemma too ;-) )

I have been suggested to take a earbuds/qtips and dip in clearcoat or spray Clear over it and paint it gently over the binding without going over on the wood. May be as you said I can go over it with a artist brush too. Let me give it a try.

One more thing

I have sanded the guitar back and sides with 220 sand paper for staining. The place where I stuck those veneer in Neck looks a bit odd and uneven.
Like this


I can see that when I stain it it might further look odd. Is there a way to fill those gaps for much even surface look as in professional guitars? Like using a a wood putty or grain filler to fill the gaps and stain over it?

I don't have any blue guitars that I've built for myself. I have a blue Ibanez S540 that's a quilted blue and I built a Pitbull Warlock style that I finished in a metallic blue but that was for my wife, but nothing I've built and is mine.
I'd like to do a brilliant blue flame LP for myself, but I kinda also want to do a surf green ST and an olive MM bass. Too many things I want to build. Not enough wall space to hang them all. I really need to spend more time practising and less time building.

These are my blue guitars. I call the Aqua, Zeru and Bleu.

I am still inching to do a Blue fade guitar as in the below PRS and the colours almost look similar



Or it could be a purple fade.

Is this a too much of an ask for a beginner like me or could it be done.

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