TLA-1S my first Fender style kit.

[king casey]

Usually requires a couple of finish coats first to give the decal something to stick to.
Looks like it's straight on bare wood.

cheers, Mark.

[McCreed]

Just reiterating what king casey said, just enough coats of clear to seal the timber under the decal. Then build up enough coats over it to bed-in.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Thanks guys, I gave it a coat of sanding sealer and 2 coats of poly before my first attempt , I think my problem was a small corner of the decal was folded under and I didn’t see it. No worries though, I changed my design and re-did it. P90 arrived today and, as I thought, I will have to widen the pocket by about 4 mm to fit it in. I might try Simons idea and use a small drum sander on my dremmel. Since I have changed the neck pup I was wondering whether it would be worth upgrading the control panel, any thoughts on that?

[Simon Barden]

It won't make it sound any better, so you may be best off keeping it for now, getting your money's worth from it and planning on a full upgrade once a switch or pot starts going crackly. But if you want to replace it now and get it out of the way, then go ahead. It's what I'd do. If you go for full-sized pots, you'll probably have to widen the control cavity slightly. And measure the cavity depth before selecting a replacement switch. Both the normal choice of CRL or Oak Grigsby switches for an upgrade are quite tall/deep, so you need to make sure they fit, especially if you copper foil shield the cavity which makes a signal short very likely if there's next-to-no gap between them.

[DarkMark]

Fantastic veneer on this one. Looks like the wings of an angel.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Thanks again Simon, I will stick with the kit controls for now as COVID has put a strain on the finances for now. Anyhow, I bought a Dremmel drum sander for $10 And fitted to my little Arlec hobby tool and enlarged the pick-up pocket by 2mm either side to accomodate the P90, now it fits like a bug in a rug. I would still like to get some kind of surround though, to finish it off.

[McCreed]

Hi Wayne.
If you want a surround for that p90, you may have to make one. They may be available commercially, but I've not found any doing a cursory search.

You could do one out of pickguard material. I could see a black 3-ply surround looking quite smart there.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Hi McCreed, I was thinking of a flat chrome plate that looks similar to the bridge base so the pup just pops through. I can probably make it myself and get it chromed somewhere nearby. I will make a template out of some cardboard first.

[McCreed]

I can probably make it myself and get it chromed somewhere nearby.

Wow! No expense spared!
I've been known to over-capitalise with bling on occasion myself

[Wayne.Mumford]

How is that, maybe I could just use the cardboard cut out I made with some silver spray paint and glue it on. Ha ha only joking, but that’s what I think I want, but in chromed steel. I know some shop fitters that make our racking who would probably chrome it for me.

My new logo applied with a coat of clear on.