PRS 1Q; First time builder.

[Grug]

Hey everyone.
I've been waiting 3 months for this kit and sure enough, it arrived an hour before I left on a 10 day holiday.
Good thing this is a stay at home long weekend here, and I can now take a good look at it.
I put some pieces together tonight to see how they fit.
The neck was too tight, one side of the binding on the body was protruding into the pocket by a mil so needed to be lightly filed back. Now a very snug fit.
The neck has an ever so slight back bow in it, but a tweek of the truss rod should sort it.
There are a few glue spots on the top of the body, so I'm off to Bunnings tomorrow for some Goof Off.
I have bought some Tonerider Alnico IV pickups with the zebra covers. I want to stain the top In the fashion of a faded burst, but not centred. I'm thinking the top horn will have a bit of red, then graded to orange in a curve from the lower horn, between the pick ups and around the top edge, tapering to a finish near the strap button at the bottom of the guitar. The rest predominantly in amber to highlight the quilted veneer.
For the finish. I am playing with the idea of finishing the top with a wipe on poly to protect the front and make it nice and glossy, but using the TRU OIL for the back, sides and neck for the satin finish and to allow the wood to move and breathe a bit. Also seems to feel better on the neck.
I haven't finalised my ideas on the headstock shape yet, but some rounding and carving may be involved.
I have some titebond 1 for the neck joint. Hopefully that's adequate.

This is my first ever guitar build, in fact my first ever fine woodworking project. It's taken me 41 years to get past failing woodwork in year 8.

Looking forward to the chat and your input.

[maxadudley]

She's a beaut!
Just opted for some zebra style pickups myself. I also love your fretboard inlays.
I think that's an ambitious finish idea! Not in a bad way, like a great, badass way.
Congrats on taking the plunge after what must have been a devastating foray in year 8.

[McCreed]

Hi Grug, and welcome.
I did the Tiger Stripe version of that model (PRS-1TS) 2 years ago.
I just recently did a mod, that in hindsight, wish I had done in the initial building. I scalloped the lower horn to provide better access to the upper frets (similar to a real PRS). Here's a link to the recent thread

I opted for just doing the scalloping now as it was less invasive than what I would have done had I thought of it before setting the neck and finishing.
If I were doing it again, I would re-shape the neck heel and taper the backside of the neck pocket as well as scallop the horn.

The new scalloped horn definitely improved the feel and access up in the higher frets, but it would have been even better with the additional shaping as I stated above.
All this is just food for thought. What you choose to do is of course entirely up to you (especially if this is your first build).

The only other thing I'll add is about your comments re: Tru Oil and poly. You will have no problem getting a high gloss finish with Tru Oil if you use it on the front/top. However if you want the contrast of a gloss front and satin back, you're probably better off using a gloss poly on the front and a genuine satin poly on the back.

If you want a "satin" Tru Oil finish you can "satin-ise" it by rubbing it back with a fine sanding pad, but the result is really just a "de-glossed" look. A bona fide satin poly actually has a proportion of solids within the mixture that diffuse light and minimise reflection.
This still gives the finish some depth whilst not being shiny.

[Grug]

She's a beaut!
Just opted for some zebra style pickups myself. I also love your fretboard inlays.
I think that's an ambitious finish idea! Not in a bad way, like a great, badass way.
Congrats on taking the plunge after what must have been a devastating foray in year 8.

Thanks Maxadudley. If I can match ideas and execution then something good should come out of it.
The fretboard inlays are standard issue with this kit and I agree they look good.
As for the year 8 damage, I discovered year 9 Home Ec was where the food and the girls were at. It was not such a bad outcome.

[Trevor Davies]

Hi Grug,
great looking kit.

[Grug]

Hi McCreed.
Thanks for the welcome.
I've been admiring your PRS 1TS build for several months and it has formed the basis for some of my finishing choices.

I really appreciate the idea of reshaping the lower horn and the neck to increase accessibility, and with a little bit of planning and slow and steady, I will most likely follow your advice. Thanks.

Regarding the finishes, there is more to the brief summary I put in the original post. I got genuinely excited about a YT vid I saw where Richard Fortus of GnR was demonstrating his guitars created by LA based luthier Leo Scala.
2 design features really grabbed me for their originality and thoughtfulness.

1) His Tele and LP based designs have a unique chambering and sound vent system. Instead of using F holes in the face of the guitar, he does a line of thin vents along the outside of the body. In my dreams, I would take the current body and slice an 8mm cap off the top, carve said chambers and vents then reglue the cap back on. It would require the neck join tenon to be lessened by the amount removed by the saw, or a similar thickness laminate to be inserted, which in itself, offers some interesting possibilities. But I must acknowledge that this is not a build for a first timer, so have left this idea off and will explore it later.

2) Scala finishes his tops in Nitro but oils the back and sides. It allows a pretty face but also the wood of the body has room to breathe and resonate which has an impact on the dynamic of the sound. I am using this idea as a jumping off point for mixing the poly and tru oil finishes. My combo finish may lack some of the logic but it excites me at this point. I have convinced myself that the poly will give the face of the guitar fairly good protection and a really nice finish. The tru oil on the neck has a nice feel when playing, so extending that to the back of the body doesn't seem like a bad idea, and maybe, just maybe, I'm not choking the wood of the body by doing it all in poly. And it is an idea that I can actually execute at this point, unlike the chambering and venting, so I feel like its a little something unique I can put into the build.

Thanks again for your thoughts and insight, I enjoyed reading your post and am really happy you took the time.

[Grug]

Thanks Trevor.
Hoping I can do it justice.

[Simon Barden]

Wood doesn’t ‘breathe’. If untreated, it can absorb and release humidity from the air, which isn’t a good thing as it makes it move and be less stable (just refer to how much airfreight conditions can affect the fit of neck joints on the kits). Hopefully it will have been dried out sufficiently before it was used to make the kit. So you really want a finish that seals the wood to stop that happening. What you don't want is a finish that’s so thick that it kills any body resonance (2-3mm thick 1970s polyester finishes were the worst for that). Both nitro and polymerising oil finishes (TruOil/Tung/Danish/Boiled Linseed) will seal the surface. How thick the finish is depends on how many layers are applied and then sanded back.

So certainly finish the guitar just how you want to. TruOil certainly gives a nice feel to the neck. Mixing the finishes on the body will make more work for you, but there’s no reason not to. TruOil is a softer finish than Poly, so will be a bit more vulnerable to marking on the back of the body from belt buckles etc. but is also easier to repair if you don’t want a relic look) with some light sanding and a few applications of TO in the damaged areas.

[Grug]

Thank you Simon.
I think my misconception of poly finishes must be informed by the reputation gained in the 70s. Thanks for clarifying that. Time spent on a rethink could change everything or nothing. Really appreciate your sharing.

[Simon Barden]

I prefer nitro finished as they age so much better in my eyes, but polyurethane is a lot harder and less likely to mark in the first place and polyester is harder still, so it will stay very shiny for a lot longer. But both polys chip rather than wear or dent like nitro does,and the chips tend to be sharp edged and obvious. Nitro is also easier to repair as the solvent in the new nitro will simply melt into the existing finish and they'll join together happily, whereas cured poly isn't affected by new poly on the top of it, so it needs roughing up to provide a surface any new finish can grip on to. Nitro is a bit more flexible than poly, so will dampen body resonance very slightly less than the same depth of poly, but any finish with some depth to it will mute body resonance significantly, so you don't want to apply any finish too heavily, plus it just adds to the weight of the guitar.