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

[jeffers]

G'day all,

Figured there are few better ways to spend the hours locked indoors right now than building a new guitar, so here goes! I did a couple of kits (a V and 7-string) six or seven years ago without ever posting here, and a non-kit build before that, so I daresay it'll take a while to pick it all up again. Still, looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Opted for the GS-2Z, with a couple of bells and whistles; upgraded the tuners to a set of mini locking Grovers and the pickups to a set of Entwhistles - a Dark Star for the bridge and an HVX for the neck. I'm... I'm not really aiming for a subtle sound here.

Kit arrived today and gotta say, very pleased with how the veneer looks:





Plan is to stain the back and sides black, and the top and headstock red. Hopefully the brown streaks in the zebrawood darken up under the stain to give it a strong red/black contrast on top. I had originally thought about doing a first coat of black stain, sanding it back, then getting started with the red to emphasise said contrast, but I'm not sure the veneer will survive through that. Anyone tried something along those lines with a veneered kit?

Before staining there's a bit of work to be done around the binding. Most of it's fitted nice and snug around the edges, but there are three areas - two in and around the top cutaway in particular - which will need to be filled:





Any ideas for what'll work best there? Initial thoughts are to get some sawdust from sanding the back of the body and fill it up with a mixture of that and superglue, but would be grateful for any other suggestions.

Other than that, I'll do a mock build either tomorrow night or the weekend and mark off where I need to glue in the neck to get the scale length right, and get sanding and staining after that.

[Fretworn]

Outside of replacing the binding, your fill method is probably the only way to go. I might be tempted to use a glue that will be more appreciative of your stain than superglue though.

[McCreed]

Outside of replacing the binding, your fill method is probably the only way to go. I might be tempted to use a glue that will be more appreciative of your stain than superglue though.

I'd even be tempted to go a filler like Timbermate or Earl's. The repair won't be invisible, but at least the filler will take the stain. CA will not.

If you use a filler, you could either try and match it to the colour of the veneer or even completely contrast it with something like ebony.

[jeffers]

Filler's a good shout. Think a quick trip to the big green shed might be in order.

[Simon Barden]

I'd get some acetone, some white (not cream or off-white) binding material, melt some binding in the acetone and fill the gap with the mixture. You'll need to sand down the result, so build it up a bit (but not too much), but it should then be an invisible repair. The end of the headstock wood is defined well enough and not all jagged, so it should look really good.

Use just enough acetone to melt the plastic, you don't want it too runny.

Just be very careful when sanding the thin veneer, and I'd mask as much as possible it with tape first.

[DarkMark]

Other than Simon’s suggestion, what about filling with a matching timber mate colour and drawing on the grain with matching colour pencils?

[McCreed]

That's a great idea Simon. Wish I'd thought of it!
I reckon once the gap was filled the outer edge of the binding could be sanded to give the appearance of a uniform thickness.
Good on ya!

[jeffers]

In the absence of any filler which matched the body colour, decided to grab some white filler to match the binding. You can notice it up close:





But from anything resembling a distance, it's imperceptible:



Naturally will need to ensure it's masked off well when I stain the body, but it's certainly looking considerably better than what it was a few days ago.

[jeffers]

In addition to filling in those gaps in the binding, did a mock set-up today. There's a fair bit of wiggle room in the neck pocket - not ideal but by no means the end of the world.

Slightly more irritating is the holes for the bridge have been drilled slightly too far from the pocket, so that when I have the neck clamped at the correct 628mm scale length, the end of the fretboard is too close to the neck pickup cavity to the point where the pickup ring can't fit above the cavity properly - it's off by about a mil. Didn't take a picture of it (smart move, that) but I'm thinking the way to fix it will be by carefully sanding back the end of the fretboard and the top edgde of the pickup ring.

Other than that, sanded everything back to 180, with the exception of the headstock and body veneer. No sign of any scratches or glue marks on the neck, back and sides anymore, so I'll go over it all with 240 and 400 tomorrow.

One thing I did notice is what I assume are small drops of glue which have seeped through the headstock veneer:



Not sure if that's actually what they are, but at any rate they'll be a bit noticeable for my liking once stained. They're a pain to get rid of, but with some light sanding and plenty of Goof Off I managed to remove most of it - although not all:



There are some similarly affected areas of the body which I'll deal with in much the same way - unless of course I'm not on the right track and someone else has a better idea!

[DarkMark]

That’s a nice fix. If you wanted to...I think if you had a fine brush and acetone, you could dip the brush into acetone (not too wet) and carefully paint over the edge of the binding (without doing too much damage) and drag it over the area you have filled. It wouldn’t take much to drag a little of the binding colour over the filled area (which looks like it sitting slightly lower than the veneer which is advantageous). But if you have any doubts about your ability to do that I would leave it as is, it’s already fixed.
That glue is a pita but you look like you are on top of it.