First build: GS-2Q (also featuring EX-1 custom)

[McCreed]

Have a look for white scourer pads from your local cleaning supplies shop.

3M makes a whole range of coarseness/colours (Scotch-Brite) widely available in the US (not so in AUS).
I believe the green Scotch-Brite are roughly equivalent to P400.

...and no horrid steel specs left afterwards.

STRUTH!!!

This is why I never use steel wool on any woodworking, but especially in guitar finishing.

[Bakersdozen]

Yep!!

And I've heard the white ones are equivalent to 0000 steel wool.

[gpjt]

On the subject of cleaning products instead of steel wool, has anyone tried using magic erasers? They're melamine foam and sound like a plausible option. Googling around I can see some references in auto forums.

[Chaosblade]

It lives.

Went over it again with a wet towel and an iron. That made even more progress on getting rid of all the dings and dents.

Sanded out the cavity with 80 grit the best I could because it was rough. Reeeaaally rough. Decent enough now that I feel comfortable about putting some shielding tape in it at least. Ordered a small sheet of mahogany to cut a cover out of, and some magnets to attach it instead of screwing it in. We'll see how that goes I guess.

Packed the holes with sawdust and glue, which matched somewhat decently, just a touch dark when wetted to simulate a clear coat. Sanded the back and sides with 180 and 220 grit, then grain filled with Timbermate and sanded with 220 again. Made the hole filling worse. It's just going to be noticeable no matter what. All the other problem areas are completely gone now though.

Might need another round of 220 to get a few spots that are still a little saturated with the grain filler, then a 320 pass to finish it out.


I think maybe possibly hopefully I'll be good on glue spots for the body. A coat of mineral spirits and nothing stood out. Ordered a veneer sheet to test dye to get a feel for how much I can sand and how to best approach the dying process. I've done a couple blocks but they aren't nearly as figured, and there's no concern on sandthrough for them.

The headstock is unfortunately not so simple. The glue on it was an enormous glob. Tried to attack it with a toothbrush and Goof Off but it didn't seem to be doing much. Tried to dry it immediately but now I'm worried I just made it worse and have Goof Off and glue in the veneer.

Carefully filing it down with a sanding block got rid of a lot of the height, but I didn't take it all the way to the wood yet. Pretty difficult to see, won't be the case if dye goes on it. Might put some tape around the glue to protect the veneer around it and keep sanding. At least try to get it down to wood.



Oh, and I also made a shim for the neck. Haven't tested it with strings on yet but it was nice and tight, and should have it in place to be straight. That's why I was holding it in the picture posted before. It was a bit loose and if left alone the neck didn't want to line up straight.

[Chaosblade]

Some more or less final comparisons:





The mahogany will look great when it's clear coated.





Moving on.

The binding is a little scuffed from sanding. Unless someone informs me it's an awful idea I'm thinking about wiping it with a light application of acetone to smooth it out, since it should "melt out" the scratches. Since I'm not trying to get any embedded dye out that seems like an easier approach than trying to scrape it.

Another couple minor binding issues are on each of the horns. On the upper horn, the binding is slightly higher than the wood. Might try sanding it level before the acetone treatment, with tape to protect the veneer of course.


On the lower horn there is a very tiny gap between the binding and wood. I suppose I could theoretically use the binding shavings from the sanding above to fill the gap and use the acetone to melt it all together, but I'm open to better ideas. Hesitant to use any sort of wood filler here since I don't want a spot that doesn't take stain well, especially not in an area that I plan to be darker.




Update: Back piece arrived. It's slightly darker than the guitar and the grain isn't going to match, but I think it will still work.




Update 2: After some very meticulous sanding and Goof Off I think I got rid of the glue spot on the headstock. No more appearance of an ugly "stain" in that spot, and it doesn't shine under mineral spirits like it did before. Fingers crossed it will take stain.

[McCreed]

Your patience and persistence has certainly paid off. Those dents and dings came out really well. Good on ya.

[JohnH]

Great work getting those dings and dents out!

[FrankenWashie]

That's some nice recovery work man, well done!

[Chaosblade]

Thanks, don't think I did anything particularly special to get that to come out. The steam iron and a bit of sanding really worked wonders on the vast majority of it.

Bought some 100% acetone nail polish remover at the store today. Basically the same stuff from the hardware store but with ~10PPM of a bittering agent so the less intelligent don't drink it. I threw caution to the wind and applied it to the binding! Veeery lightly, just a dab on a shop towel and quickly wiped it with a dry part.

And... it worked flawlessly. Made me realize just how much the binding had grayed from the sanding. It looks significantly better now, a nice deep black instead of gray. For anyone that sees this and uses this method, a little goes a long way. Seriously. If you slather a rag and soak your binding it probably will ruin it. For the last bit I did my towel felt nearly dry, but it was still enough to work.

Still going to need to deal with the high bit and the gap. Kind of got ahead of myself using the acetone but I have it, so I used it. And it worked.

[Chaosblade]

I decided to grain fill again, think I oversanded or missed some spots.

Starting work on color.

- The top left is just a couple coats of blue. I'm not really happy with it on the test piece.
- Top right is black, sanded back, then two coats of blue. I'm somewhat happy with it but I think it can be better.
- The black one is the next test. It's more concentrated, I used my old black dye before and it came out very gray. Mixed more and it's a much fuller black, so I think it will help it pop more.






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That's more like the contrast I was looking for. Hopefully the veneer on the guitar goes similarly.