First Build

[josh]

Do i get the stain off the white beeding around the guitar? I noticed a little stain on it?

[josh]

Next step is the intensifier liquid. Im pumped.

[GregLane]

Hi Josh. Looks great. Can you tell what you did about the popping the grain? Stain or Timbermate or ?. And how much sanding? I am going round and round in circles about the best way to do my first build - LP-1MQ.

[wazkelly]

Do i get the stain off the white beeding around the guitar? I noticed a little stain on it?

Yeah, best to wipe it off as soon as you can. If it has dried try some fine wet & dry, maybe 600 or 800 grit and use your thumb as a depth marker guide so that you don't sand too deep along the sides. If you are doing sides a different colour to the top would suggest taping things off at the edge of the binding, and if same colour all over still tape it off and trim to the edge of the top. It may still bleed a bit under tape so buy the best quality masking tape you can afford.

[josh]

My old man and i used timbermate. We did what some of the others told us to do earlier in this post. We made one mistake, we piled it on. Next time i would only use half as much. Took ages to sand thru the gritts.

Wish we used better tape, it has bled a bit onto the white bindings. Will have to sand it off as it has dried. nevermind.

[Andy40]

Holy Splame!!!

that Karijini red really brought out the flame in that spalt! the spalt looks like your guitar is gently weeping!

awesome.

looks like about 4 coats of Stain?

Make sure you wait till its fully cured before adding the intensifying coat.

good luck

[josh]

spot on Andy40. 4 coats exactly. It just got better and better. leaving it for minimum 48 hours to dry.

[stan]

great work Josh, it looks killer

[UpperCaseH]

Josh, that looks sweet as!

On my telecaster I didn't remove stain from the binding until all the stain and intensifier was on, and it ended up being a fiddly and annoying job to clean it all off at the end. In future I'd definitely do it as I went (preferably wiping it off after every coat) instead of letting it build up and trying to get it all in one go.

[Andy40]

Hi Josh, I don't want to dampen you eagerness, as I would be super pumped too,

buuuuuuuut unless you are currently in a dry hot climate (which is not Australia right now), I think it may take more like 5 days to cure, especially if you laid those stain coats one after the other without at least 3 days drying times.

Do the finger wipe test, if your finger is red, its not cured yet for a few days.

Just remember, the intensifying coats are very different from the stain coats. If you have any troubs just ask.

BTW dont worry about the binding, you can sand/scape it at the end (or if you've got nothing to do, sand/scape it off now, polish the binding with 600, 800, 1200 and 2000 grit and then mask it with painters tape. it will prevent a lot of staining later.