AES-1 Special

[DarkMark]

Thanks folks. Not the sort of finish on a guitar I would walk into a shop and buy these days, but it does appeal to my inner 16yo self and it is growing on me.

[McCreed]

Looking good.

[DarkMark]

Thanks, McCreed.
4 coats on and I see cloudy streaks. I believe the my rubber gloves or the residue on my gloves is reacting and leaving marks after the last coat. Quick wet sand..,freaking out a little. I think I burnt through to the surface at one area but it looks like I got away with it. Can’t tell that some stain has gone with the next coat of poly on.

[DarkMark]

I think the cloudiness was due to applying the poly a little too thick and taking longer to dry in the current weather conditions.
Body 8 coats, light 1200 wet sand.

[DarkMark]

Quick update.
4th 1200 wet sand after coat number 17.
Earlier I found a soft spot in the side of the cut away. Made some parallel slices along the grain and wicked in as much super glue as I could. Problem solved.

[McCreed]

Quick update.
4th 1200 wet sand after coat number 17.
Earlier I found a soft spot in the side of the cut away. Made some parallel slices along the grain and wicked in as much super glue as I could. Problem solved.

Good work. Nice to hear it's made a full recovery!

[Bakersdozen]

Nice maguyvering there DM! This one's gonna be great

[DarkMark]

Finally got motivated enough to do the fret level, crown and polish.
I had a go at this method from “Making An Archtop Guitar”, Robert Benedetto.
It’s always bugged me that sanding bars are flat and people run them up and down a curve surface . This makes sense to me how the stone moves across diagonally.
I wouldn’t recommend using a stone for a first timer, but if it has turned out good it would be my method of choice if I was to build in the future. Beware, the stone works fast.
...and thanks McCreed, BD, not the first time I’ve had to do this.

[DarkMark]

Head stock ideas. Originally inspired by the look of a guitar I see Frank Vignola playing on YouTube, brought some classic guitar style Chinese no name tuners. Changed my mind and brought some Wilkinson 3x3 tuners. Now I’m not so sure. Saw Mr Vignola’s guitar again and I’m leaning that way again. I’ll leave these photos here and ponder.

[Simon Barden]

From a practical point of view, the standard 3x3 arrangement is far easier to restring and easier to build. The slotted headstock has a more vintage look to it and is supposed to give a better string to neck 'contact' (presumably because the string post is held at both ends).

Presumably the 'classical style' no-name tuners had thinner metal rather than thicker plastic posts? I'd imagine even plastic posts themselves would last a decent amount of time with metal strings, but the main difference will be in tuner accuracy. Even if both tuner types had the same gear ratio, say 14:1, the larger diameter of the plastic posts would make it a lot harder to tune accurately.

Say the metal posts are 4mm and the plastic 8mm in diameter. As circumference is pi x diameter, the plastic posts would have double the circumference of the metal posts and so would wind on twice the amount of string per turn than the metal posts. So whilst the gearing of the tuners might be the same, and is high enough to stop the post moving under tension, the plastic posts would make it feel like a 7:1 ratio in terms of being able to move the string a small amount and not keep over or undershooting the correct pitch when tuning up. Fine on nylon strings that stretch a lot and need a lot of movement, but not good with steel strings.