GS-2Z build - first one in a looooooong time

[jeffers]

Couple of coats in, and the grain is coming up really nicely under the Tru-Oil. Am doing quite thin coats, letting the oil get tacky then wiping the excess off.

Here's the body without any finish on it:



Then after the first coat last weekend:



And after the second coat this morning:



Not sure exactly how many coats I'll end up doing, something probably in the 10-20 range.

[McCreed]

Am doing quite thin coats, letting the oil get tacky then wiping the excess off.

No need to wipe off excess (especially if you're doing "quite thin coats"). Just let it dry a little bit past tacky and apply another coat.
It will take forever to build up a nice finish layer if you keep wiping it off.
You may not even need to sand between coats unless you get dust or debris in the coat.
I let it build to at least 8 coats before I think about hitting with sandpaper (I use sanding pads)

Not sure exactly how many coats I'll end up doing, something probably in the 10-20 range.

I go a minimum of 24. Others go well over 30. It's entirely up to you. Just depends on what your looking for in a finish.
FWIW, I've seen some people do as few as 4 or 5. That's not near enough for my liking, but to each his own.

Worth noting I tend to get 3-4 coats per day on with no problems curing.

Here's my example:

[Cliff Rogers]

Looking good, what did you do with the back?

[jeffers]

Talk about a while between updates... (moving house is a good enough excuse, right?)

Lost count of how many coats I did, reckon it must have been at least 25 or 30. Setting the neck went quite smoothly, left it for a good week or so before putting any tension on it. There was a bit of filling required in the neck pocket, which the old sawdust & wood glue trick took care of quite nicely.

Decided to make the switch to gold hardware, and painted all the the black plastic parts white to match the binding. Also grabbed a couple of gold pickup covers to keep with the whol.e gold/white theme, and I ditched the tone pot in favour of having an individual volume knobs for each pickup, what with tone knobs being a little less useful when it comes to metal.

The result is a rather pretty looking guitar:













Absolutely stoked with it. Looks like a beautiful classic rock guitar, sounds like a high-gain screamer - exactly what I was going for. The sustain is pretty impressive too, particularly given it's quite a light guitar.

It could probably do with a little more work - the nut is still a little high and I'll end up replacing the painted pickup rings with actual white ones (I've already put a little scratch through the paint on the neck ring inside two weeks) - but I'm happy to call this one finished.

[Trevor Davies]

Nice. great looking veneer. Is the back straight tru-oil on mahogany?

[jeffers]

Yep. Same finish front and back - TO diluted with mineral turps, going over it with steel wool and later sanding pads after every 3-5 coats.