DJP ATL-1SB Better late than never ...

[DJP]

Ok. This has been a long build so far, and it has been a love-hate thing. Right now, I am lovin it ... so I thought I would continue my diary ....... but getting online - it does not look like I ever started it Oh, well, I can add some photos from my phone. I actually started back in April 2019 ... had a few setbacks, then a few more. A few disappointments, but perhaps its turning out OK at last.

[DJP]

Had planned on trying a different headstock shape - but chickened out ! Rough cut here.

Turned out OK ...

[DJP]

OK The body .... had a month periodically sanding and trying to decide a colour scheme.
Decided on blue - and waited a while for delivery of some blue wood dyes from the USA.
November - tried the dye .... hmmm. At this stage, was really not sure. Not exactly lovin it.

more blue ...

[DJP]

Still didn't like it. More blue .....

That is more like I had imagined it

[DJP]

RATS ............. it went way dark.

[DJP]

Mocked up with neck and pick guard etc....
Was not sure I like it - maybe / maybe not. Could work.

[DJP]

So we are at end November - I've got a darker blue body than I envisaged, and I'm not lovin it.
Put some acrylic on it and ...... it's even darker. But by this time - am so far steeped in blood etc . that I can't go back.
Got to live with it.
Mind you - the grain really looks quite nice.
So thought - maybe a solid black body instead of solid blue .... I had no confidence I could get a reasonable match for the blue.

[DJP]

Shiny enamel black. Happy - this could work.

[DJP]

OK- so up to March 2020. Sprayed quite a lot of black enamel ... had quite a few runs to deal with. I'm messy at best. But finally, have got to stage where I can start spraying a few acrylic top coats.
At this stage with a few coats on it was looking nice. I'm feeling happy. Lovin it even.

...... then it fell from 4ft onto red brick patio.

[DJP]

Careful sanding back to enamel finish, picking out bits of grit, re-spraying area focussing on edge where there was a dent allowed me built up finish - bit heavy with some runs, but when dried allowed sanding to a nice finish. Then back to the acrylic. Over 2+ months it took 16+ coats to get a smooth finish over the spalted maple. Everytime it looked smooth, you could see a few of the spalted areas showed as low spots. I thought that if I got loads of coats on then it would give me some leeway to sand deep and even out the final coats. Needed to allow some drying / hardening time between phases (id 9 coats first - wait a month - sand , then 2 batches of three with a week before a light sand, then a few final coats and about three weeks before final sanding) - allowed some drying time in between - then sanding of the spatlted top ended up with a nice even finish ... which was yesterday. So here we are close of business yesterday, with the back and front sanded to 800 grit.