Jon's 3rd build: DTL-1

[jonwhitear]

Well, with my first two guitars nearly finished, it must be time to start a new one, and here it is.



This is the swamp ash body, and it really is quite hefty. It's very nicely finished - no dings or glue that I can find. I had to get a replacement neck, and the new one doesn't fit quite as nicely as the original, so there's a bit of work there first job.

I'd like to have a go at a nitro finish, and I'd like to make the most of the grain, so I'm planning the following finishing schedule:

Raise the grain with a damp cloth and sand back.
Ebony timber mate - possibly a few coats sanded between.
Sanding sealer - I think FW is compatible with nitro. Possibly a few coats sanded between.
Once it's good and flat, nitro colour (translucent blue) then clear.

The pick guard that I have doesn't seem to sit well with the bridge, but I think I'll replace it with a cream 3-ply. Will any tele pick guard will fit? Depending on how the neck looks with that, I might try and age it a bit with a dilute stain like golden teak.

I'm more used to set necks. Once the neck's fitting well, I'll clamp that in place, secure the bridge with a couple of screws, and make sure the E strings run nicely down the neck and the scale length i good.

I'm looking forward to this build. I suspect it's going take quite a while and that's OK - I want to make the best job I can of the finish.

[Simon Barden]

When you've got a screw-on neck, I don't really see any need to use a clamp, as screwing the neck on will give you the neck angle you'll get at the end, allowing you to position the bridge correctly. Just remember to drill out the body holes to the same diameter as the fixing screws first (which allows the screws to pull the neck down tight). Though you may first want to plug and re-drill those mounting holes. As normal, the factory can't drill holes in the right position to save their lives. Those holes look about 3° off centre to me. And they probably won't line up with the holes in the neck plate.

Tele scratchplates are normally similar sizes. The only area where you may have an issue is the neck cut-out, as these come in slightly different shapes. But you have a 22-fret neck with an overhang, which will hide any small gaps there are. You'll also need to decide whether to get one with top-mounting holes for the neck pickup or not. With the 22-fret neck, I'd suggest you do top-mount the neck pickup, otherwise you'll need to remove the neck to get the scratchplate off every time you want to try and adjust it.

I'd suggest using a nitro-based sanding sealer if you are spraying nitro on the top, for guaranteed compatibility. As I have a spray gun I'd just use very thinned clear lacquer (as Stew Mac suggest in their guitar finish book), but if using cans, then a dedicated nitro sanding sealer should be available. But there are several ways you can grain fill and seal the surface, and my suggestion is just one of them. But I do prefer to keep all the finish products the same type. If you don't know about compatibility, then always test on a test piece of wood first. Sometimes a finish may look compatible (no immediate bubbling or crinkling), but then you find that it remains soft under a hard surface and never fully cures/dries all the way through.

[blinddrew]

Sometimes a finish may look compatible (no immediate bubbling or crinkling), but then you find that it remains soft under a hard surface and never fully cures/dries all the way through.

Can confirm.

[jonwhitear]

When you've got a screw-on neck, I don't really see any need to use a clamp, as screwing the neck on will give you the neck angle you'll get at the end, allowing you to position the bridge correctly. Just remember to drill out the body holes to the same diameter as the fixing screws first (which allows the screws to pull the neck down tight). Though you may first want to plug and re-drill those mounting holes. As normal, the factory can't drill holes in the right position to save their lives. Those holes look about 3° off centre to me. And they probably won't line up with the holes in the neck plate.

OK, so the general approach is to get the neck fitted, and then position the bridge to suit (rather than the other way round as is the case with pre-drilled bridge post holes and a set neck a la G style guitar.) I tried to line the body holes up with the neck plate, and they are somewhat out - would you plug them with dowel rather than just fill them?

Tele scratchplates are normally similar sizes. The only area where you may have an issue is the neck cut-out, as these come in slightly different shapes. But you have a 22-fret neck with an overhang, which will hide any small gaps there are. You'll also need to decide whether to get one with top-mounting holes for the neck pickup or not. With the 22-fret neck, I'd suggest you do top-mount the neck pickup, otherwise you'll need to remove the neck to get the scratchplate off every time you want to try and adjust it.

There's no way I would have picked that up until I came to adjust the pickup height ;-) Thanks. Should the fretboard sit fairly flush with the pick guard? I have quite a gap between the body and the 'board at the moment, and the only way I can see I could reduce that would be to shave the heal down.

I'd suggest using a nitro-based sanding sealer if you are spraying nitro on the top, for guaranteed compatibility.

Yes, fair enough. I was thinking of using the FW purely because I already have it, but a can of nitro sanding sealer isn't going to stretch the budget.

[Simon Barden]

That's pretty standard for a Tele. The pickguard will fill most of that gap. It's more noticeable because of the overhang but just look at a picture of a 21-fret Tele and you'll see a similar overall fretboard height above the body.

There's no built-in neck angle on a Tele or Strat (far too complicated for Leo Fender to have ever considered using), so the necessary height above the body for the strings to clear the pickups and be high enough for the bridge comes from that neck height above the body. Gibsons, with a built-in angled neck, have fretboards that normally sit just above the body; their string height is provided by the neck angle.

[jonwhitear]

I spoke to Anthony at Sydney Guitar Setups (from where I've bought the paint) today. He suggested that I try to get a local auto body repair shop to do 2-pack clear coat as a sealer (and presumably filler) because the ash is so porous. Now I'm a little confused! I've watched quite a few Youtubes of people finishing swamp ash bodies, and the filler / (nitro) sealer / nitro colour / nitro clear approach seems to be a well trodden path.

[Simon Barden]

It is a standard route. Less than ash is so porous, but more that the grain lines are relatively deep compared to other woods, so more filling is required.

It's the grain filling that needs care. Almost any standard filler will shrink a bit as the solvent (be it oil or water-based) dries out. Water-based will shrink the most and be most likely to be affected by another application on top. So it's worthwhile letting the grain filler really dry for a few days after the final application to allow it to shrink as much as possible before you sand it back flat.

The only non-shrinking filler I know of is made by Solarez, which is UV curing so has no solvent to dry out. But it's both hard to find and quite expensive outside the US. I bought a tub, and it is good and cures within a couple of minutes on a bright day, though I haven't used it on anger on any build yet as none have needed grain filling. But you can't stain it, so best for jobs where you don't want to highlight the grain, or else you stain then sand back first for highlighting.

You really don't want to go mixing different finishes in my opinion. If you start out with 2K, you may as well stick with it for the complete finish.

[jonwhitear]

OK, thanks Simon. I've ordered some nitro sanding sealer.

In the meantime, I've plugged the neck holes. There was just one that was quite out of alignment, so I was just going to plug that, but then I found that none of them were drilled perpendicular to the body, so I plugged all of them.



I've sanded the corners of the neck heal so that the neck fits nicely now, albeit rather snug. With the neck fitted, and a line run down the middle of the neck (judged by the middle of the inlays, but then measured to make sure) the bridge screw holes are somewhat out of line. They all measure 666mm from the nut (which doesn't match up with what Stew Mac says) but with the neck and bridge fitted, a straight edge run along the top of the neck just meets the low E saddle adjustment screw, while run along the bottom edge, it misses the high E saddle by a couple of mm. So I think I'm going to plug them as well, and re-drill.

[Simon Barden]

Be a bit wary of the StewMac hole distances as they’ll refer to a classic Tele ashtray bridge (or classic Strat trem or Gibson Tune-O-Matic etc). Other Tele style bridges can be a bit longer or shorter and have holes in different locations. It’s the distance to the saddles that’s important. And I’d drill the neck mounting holes and screw the neck on before re-drilling the bridge mounting holes. Despite best efforts, the screws may go in at slight angles and force a slightly different neck angle. Even a 0.5° tilt from expected can shift the required bridge position slightly, so you may end up having to fill and drill them again.

[jonwhitear]

Yes, good point. I'm actually thinking of doing all the grain filling before I drill the holes, so I don't get them full of runny filler.