H's JBA-4 Fretless

[UpperCaseH]

No mahogany on the body - stain is Walnut and a little Japan Black. It is showing the colour I was expecting from mahogany in parts though. "Tim Tam brown" isn't a bad description!

There were a few issues with the first coat of neck stain. There's that light spot on the heel (not the fact that it's lighter, but what looks a bit like a glue spot), some darker spots on the side that you can't see, and a light spot on the front of the headstock. Second coat seems to have taken care of those though!

I made a dilute Japan Black to try a burst, but I hated the way it looked on the section I tried, so I loaded a rag with the FW thinner and wiped it off, which seems to have lifted most of it. I'll check the colours again once this neck coat dries, but I reckon it's very close now, and it's also very close to what I had in mind when I started, so hopefully this will mean I'm done with staining.

Waiting for the Tru-Oil to arrive and then I'll have a go at that. I've read conflicting things about how best to apply it, but the one that seems to make the most sense is "do 2-3 coats without sanding, sand smooth at around 1000 grit, then apply many very thin coats sanding lightly between each until it looks how you want it". Does that sound about right? Should I bolt the neck on before I do that or leave them separate?

[Dedman]

thats a good system for TO, it worked for me anyway. Having just worked with a guitar with the neck attached......much easier in 2 parts.

[wokkaboy]

Hi H, I agree with Dedman easist to work with the neck and body separate. I'd do that apply about 3 coats of TO then let cure and wet sand with 1000 or 1200 grit

[UpperCaseH]

Awesome, I'll leave it in 2 pieces then.

How many coats do you reckon I'm going to end up doing in total? I'm going for a satin-y finish, not glossy. Just a ball park number so if I start to go too far beyond that I can ask what I'm messing up would be great.

[UpperCaseH]

Oh, and sorry for double posting but will the TO wipe easily off the fretboard finish, or do I take enormous amounts of care in masking it?

[Dedman]

I reckon I have about 20 thin coats on my LP :P I'd do a coat, wait till it was dry, do another coat, come back the next morning, sand, re-coat...repeat.
Yup mask the fretboard as TO will soak in

[UpperCaseH]

Cool, will mask and will start to ask questions if it doesn't seem to be starting to look right after 15-20 coats.

Couldn't resist sitting it together with the pickguard and control plate on. The body coming close to the finished colour of the rosewood was one of the first things I had in mind for this build, so I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. Lighting's poor in that room so the body looks less grainy than in reality, especially the bottom left of the first pic which does show grain, just not in this photo.

[wokkaboy]

nice mock build H, looks great. You could also steal Ponch's idea and get Pablo to cut a transparent pickguard or a frosted clear one. Black/chrome looks good though

[UpperCaseH]

I didn't fill the pick guard holes that well, so I'll probably just stick with black. I do like the way it looks.

On the other hand, I thought this kit would come with a white pick guard so I ordered a black one, which means I have a spare and I'm going to try to cut two pickup rings out of it to see how it looks. If it looks crap, pickguard it is.

[wazkelly]

Coming along nicely H.

With initial TO coats I have successfully lightly brushed on 1st & 2nd on all 4 builds as the timber can be quite thirsty and brushing gets more on without dragging any of the stain around as can tend to happen when doing the ragging method.

Reckon it would look good with a chrome, brushed aluminium or mirror scratch plate to tie in with the control plate plus accentuate the lighter fret block markers.