Good eye!Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I have some refinishing to do, so I haven't attached that yet ;-)
Good eye!
I have some refinishing to do, so I haven't attached that yet ;-)
Last edited by fender3x; 23-05-2021 at 04:40 AM.
Me too, but your post prompted me to look...and it seems you can get it in colors...
https://www.wdmusic.com/gavitt-singl...e-details.html
Could you also dye the white cloth wire to any colour?
PitBull Builds: FVB-4, LP-1SS, FBM-1, AG-2, TB-4, SSCM-1, TLA-1, TL-1TB, STA-1HT, DSCM-1 Truckster, ST-1, STA-1, MBM-1.
Scratch Builds: Pine Explorer, Axe Bass, Mr Scary, Scratchy Tele's.
The little voices in my head keep telling me "build more guitars"
I don't think so. It's not bare cloth. I have heard it called "rubberized." The Gavitt company, that makes a lot of the "vintage" wire used in guitars says that it is "waxed cotton braided wire." I solder using magnification, and the insulation not only feels waxy, you could see it melt when the wire was heated.
Meanwhile, when I was in the process of figuring out that the waxy stuff on the wire was actually wax, I ran across this:
https://www.evatco.com.au/vintage-cloth-pushback-wire
...seems you can get colored push back wire in AUS ;-)
I don't think I would use push back ware for anything but a guitar control cavity. I don't think it's safe for anything that carries much current or where there is much heat. Historically it can get brittle and crumble over time, and the gauge is overkill for guitars. Still the fact that it's pre-tinned and has that nice push back feature makes it really nice to work with. Plus it matches the wire my pickup came with.
Current carrying capacity is a function of the wire thickness, so at 22 AWG, it is good for up to about 1.5A. Its insulation seems to be rated at 300V. Probably 80°C rated.
You can get similar 20 AWG wire (2.5A) with a 600v insulation and 105°C rating, which is what I'd probably use in a valve amp if I wanted vintage-style wiring.
You'd have to strum pretty hard to get to 1.5A ;-)
Has anyone used Crystalac products? I am about to embark on what may be a futile effort to save the translucent finish without completely taking the finish down on the body. Would be curious about the experiences of others.
I have been doing some experiments with their CraftNique water-based gel stain that can go over the top finishes. I am getting it close so far, but we'll see. I am reconciled to doing a solid color if the experiments don't go well. On a test piece I replicated a sand through. I am using their pre-mixed "ruby-red" which is a little brighter than the "empire red" dye stain I had originally used. I used a little black acrylic craft paint on small paint brush to darken the light sand through spots, and then used a few coats on the whole thing to even out the color.
I also replicated the tear out that I got under one of the string-through holes. Those experiments have not gone as well so far. I first tied to fill with plastic wood (mfg: DAP). It says that it is "stainable" and "looks & acts like real wood." This turns out to pure BS. The dye stain turned it hot pink. So did the gel stain. Mixing with stain turned it pink. Mixing it with red and black turned it gray. So far the best I have been able to get out of it, is black that looks a bit like a knot-hole. Suboptimal but not hideous.
So far the best result seems to be coming from dye staining the tear out, then filling with aqua-coat clear, then staining with gel stain. Not perfect: maybe a tad better than black. I have thought about trying to glue in a little, stained, paulownia patch, but the tear out is jagged enough that I think it would be impossible to avoid visible glue spots that would make it worse. Also thought about making a paulownia-and-Aqua-Coat slurry, but haven't yet tried it.
One thing that is exceptionally clear to me now is that the CraftNique gel stain is a lot more forgiving to work with, partly because it can be used on raw wood OR on top of Aqua Coat OR on top of clear coat. You can get about any color you'd want with their color matching system--which is expensive. For cheapskates like me who don't want to pop for the "system" you can get individual colors, but you need to reconcile yourself with having a lot less options.
Have not yet tried the Brite Tone top coat
You can now get CrystalLac in the UK, but like AquaCoat and Solarez, it is very expensive here, with a US pint (16 fl oz) of the clear finish at £35(US$50/AUD$64) whilst the colourant bottles are £9 each (US$13/AUD$16.4).
So I haven't used it yet.
It's a bit less here but not cheap. I paid $22 for a half pint of Brite Tone, and another $13 for 4 oz of gel stain. That should be plenty of the gel stain, but If I used it the way I used the High Performance, I may have just barely enough of the top coat.
I have a few coats of shellac on. Got the dents fixed as best I could with AquaCoat. Not perfect but better. Did better with the sand-throughs. I used a tiny paintbrush with tiny amounts of the original stain until I could not see the damage. To my surprise that seems to have done the job.
At the moment my plan is to let the shellac sit for a couple of days and then begin using the Brite Tone finish. If that does not make it more dent-resistant...then I guess it's just not going to be dent resistant. Since beginning the project, I have found some water based wood hardeners that might have made a difference if I had known about them earlier. At this stage, it would be easier to get a new body and start over than to take the finish back and try again with this one...so they will need to wait for a future project if I try to work with paulownia again.... And I might. I DO like the weight.
I’m not sure how well that stuff would work on good wood. Rotten wood is easy to
penetrate, but good wood less so. You can but try.
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