Gms-7z

[altizerc2196]

Staining went well - less glue on the body than others I've seen in this forum, but still a few spots.

Started by lightly sanding the body and neck with 320 grit. I diluted 1 part Angelus Lilac suede dye with 3 parts Angelus Neutral (to lighten). Applied to the face of the body and headstock, first coat went on very splotchy, but a second coat proved to even it out a bit more. I mixed equal parts Angelus Purple leather dye with Neutral as well for the back of the body and neck, as well as feathered in from the sides of the face for a burst look. I then grabbed the original rag from the lilac and blended in the edges of the dark purple on the face to the lilac in the center. All in all, it came out darker than I really wanted, but the burst did cover up a lot of the blotchiness.

I do like how it looks, but may sand back (very lightly) the face to get it a little lighter and go back over with the lilac, and the body to get a more even stain. Also to get a pretty big glue spot off of the top left of the headstock.

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/zAfVgNu

[altizerc2196]

Lightly sanded down with 400 on the face of the body and headstock, and 240 everywhere else until it looked "weathered". Re-stained the face and headstock with a layer of 2 parts neutral to 1 part lilac and the back of the neck/body with 2parts neutral to 1 part purple. I then took the nearly used-up purple rag and went around the edges and body of the headstock with it to maintain the burst. I think it looks better, more even. Though sanding did expose a bit more glue at the machining mark on the bottom left of the body, and therefore shows up more against the stain. It looks good to me though. Going to try to touch up the glue marks with multiple colors of purple sharpie I have. Then will be time for grain filling the Mahoghany and a month's worth of tru oil layers!

New pics of stain: https://imgur.com/a/oVqNDZn

[altizerc2196]

Long overdue update, touch-ups with sharpie did not match colors, so I took it off and was able to touch up a bit more in later stages.

Put on 1st coat of Birchwood Casey grain filler & sealer heavy, working into the grain in circular motions. Allowed the first coat to dry 24 hours before 2 thinner, subsequent coats with 4 hours in between them. Last coat was allowed another 24 hours to dry before sanding the whole guitar with 600 grit to prep for tru oil.

The 600 grit did take off some color in places where I may have been a little more heavy-handed. So I touched up those spots using a dobber with the respective dyes at the same mix (glad I measured!). With the color dobbed on, I blended with a clean piece of cheesecloth. This worked really well, and it's unnoticeable where some of the color was sanded off. I also packed dye into the glue spots that I was just going to live with. Pleased that it took up more dye than before, maybe it could grip onto the remaining grain filler? Those spots are still noticable, but much less than before.

At this point, I glued in the neck so that the tru oil could fill the seam where the neck meets the neck pocket. Made sure that the neck was pulled out at the right amount to achieve the correct scale length by first clamping the neck in and measuring, adding a few straight lines with a sharpie across the neck tenon and body in the neck pickup pocket. Pulled the neck out, added glue put back in with the lines straight. Clamped for 24 hours, with one quick grip on the fretboard and body, two more on either side of a Mahoghany 2x2, pressing a block onto the neck tenon in the neck pickup pocket.

With sealant coat sanded back to 600 and dye retouched, started to put on layers of tru oil. With cheesecloth, first layer thick, 24+ hours to cure, with subsequent thinner layers added with no less than 4 hours in between (overnight and life getting in the way allowed a few coats more time than others). Somewhere in between layers I picked up some tack cloth because there was still so much lint sticking from just being in my house. So a few of the deep layers may have some lint...

Currently have the 10th layer applied and cured for 24+ hours. Tonight, will sand back with 1000 grit wetted with tru oil unless band practice gets in the way 🙃 This will ideally create a paste that will fill any remaining grain and contribute to a near-mirror finish I'm looking for.

Current state (picture makes the dye look much more splotchy than it is...): https://imgur.com/a/lRcC5Zr

Aside from finishing, found my issue with unequal space from the low B and high e to fretboard edge to be an unequally slotted nut. The high e slot to edge of the nut was ~3/16in and the low B to edge of the nut was ~1/16in. I've bought a Graphtech TUSQ XL blank in black that is supposed to be shaped for 7-string fanned frets (but not pre-slotted). I'm waiting for in the mail to try my hand at slotting... Can't wait to make one pass of the file too deep and have to go pick up another one. Luckily, If it the one I bought doesn't fit or I do mess it up, I now know that guitar center carries unshaped Graphtech TUSQ XL blanks.

[altizerc2196]

The build is done: https://imgur.com/a/bLyzV8V

32 layers of tru oil, sanding back with 1000 grit at 10, 1500 grit at 20 and 0000 fine steel wool after 30. 2 layers on top to bring back the shine from burnishing with the steel wool. Then, let it sit for a week to harden before using automotive polishing compound, a foam disc and a drill to polish

Replaced the stock pots with 2 CTS 500k pots, which required drilling the holes to 3/8". Replaced the stock pickup selector with one a bit beefier and with a metal tip (though the switch is loose and causes a bit of static when switching pickups...). Replaced the jack with a pure tone stereo jack - for ease of potentially adding a kill switch down the line. I also decided to go out on a limb with a greasebucket circuit on the tone knob. Copper taped, soldered, all seems to work well with the electronics.

The pickup screws it came with were too long - almost as if they were ment to mount on pickup rings. A couple of cents at the hardware store got me some shorter screws.

Setup and intonation was a breeze; however there is some buzzing going on especially on the BEAD strings when fretted above the 12th fret. There is also a little buzzing on the B string on the headstock side when fretting the 2nd and 3rd frets. Chalking this up to the preshaped Graphtech nut I ordered is too short. After cutting the slots it's now too low. To compensate, I have a little more now in the neck than I would like and the bridge is hiked up. I'll likely replace the nut with a full blank so I can shape it to an appropriate size. The bit of buzzing though is hardly noticable when playing through an amp.

Had fun with my first build and definitely looking forward to the next!

[DrJackalope]

Looks amazing, I love the purple. I have the same kit waiting for me and this is lighting the fire to get moving on it.

[altizerc2196]

Looks amazing, I love the purple. I have the same kit waiting for me and this is lighting the fire to get moving on it.

Thanks! Much appreciated. If you have the model with the Korean made pickups and bridge, I was thoroughly surprised with the sound quality! I'm no audiophile, but I think you'll be impressed

[DrJackalope]

I believe I do. I was planning on keeping the bridge, but considering changing up the pickups. I was thinking of buying a set and then removing from that baseplate and adding to the kit baseplate to keep the same angles. Maybe I keep that for a later mod if need be and see how the stock ones go for now. Thanks for the info!

[Trevor Davies]

The build is done: https://imgur.com/a/bLyzV8V

...

Had fun with my first build and definitely looking forward to the next!

Looks good. Sooo, what's next?

[altizerc2196]

Looks good. Sooo, what's next?

Obviously not too active since completing my first. Currently trying to buy a house so "what's next" has been locked up due to finances and time constraints. Though once I'm set up in the new house, I'd like my next build to be from scratch! I've been noodling around the idea of a "Djazzmaster". A play on "djent" and "Jazzmaster", which would be an 8 string, headless, multiscale guitar with a Jazzmaster body. Here's a quick sketch I've made:

https://imgur.com/a/mb3TCpz

[Trevor Davies]

Obviously not too active since completing my first. Currently trying to buy a house so "what's next" has been locked up due to finances and time constraints. Though once I'm set up in the new house, I'd like my next build to be from scratch! I've been noodling around the idea of a "Djazzmaster". A play on "djent" and "Jazzmaster", which would be an 8 string, headless, multiscale guitar with a Jazzmaster body. Here's a quick sketch I've made:

https://imgur.com/a/mb3TCpz

Nice plan! Good luck!