First Build - IC-1 Custom 7 String

[project_chris]

I stained the back of the guitar now and successfully achieved my two-tone look I was after. Unfortunately had some red stain bleed through the veneer, oh well.

https://imgur.com/a/FgrVNc1

I have started finishing the body with boiled linseed oil, and have done a bit of wet sanding too. It's coming up really nice, im quite amazing at how much of a difference wet-sanding .

Should I wet sand the top? (veneer) or leave it? I don't want to risk sanding through it.

I also realised that my kit came with a tone pot instead of a volume pot, so Adam is sending me out one, glad I noticed before I wired it up.

[Simon Barden]

The bleed is minimal and hardly noticeable. It's one of those things that you know about and nobody else will notice. Without binding, it's very hard to stop something like that happening, and with binding, you have the problem of binding cracks taking up stain. Hard to win!

You're basically applying enough layers of finish to build up a thickness deep enough to sand it back level and then polish, whilst leaving enough thickness of finish to protect the body.

Intermediate sanding is only really about removing noticeable dust specs and trapped hairs from the finish as you go. If you haven't got dust or hair issues, then personally I see no need to sand at all as you'll build up the thickness quicker and you can do almost all the levelling at the final stages.

If the body wasn't flat before starting the finish, then lightly sanding with a hard flat block should rough up the high areas and show the dips as still glossy. You'll almost always get small dips (which I wouldn't worry about until you've got lots of layers on), but if there are any large low areas, you might want to spend some time just applying finish in those layers to fill things up.

Unless the linseed oil is very highly thinned (so the resulting layer is much thinner than normal), it will be too viscous to settle just in the dips and level things out automatically, and it will just follow the surface contours. So it's often quicker to just get as much depth as you can before sanding it all back flat with a reasonably fine grit, say P600, before working up through the finer grits and then polishing.

[dozymuppet]

Yeah it took me a while to notice the stain leak. Looks pretty great overall.

[Simon Barden]

And if you start wet sanding, then I'd ensure you've got a few coats of oil on the inside of the potentiometer and switch holes, and fill the post holes up with something like plasticine. Very easy for water to get into the wood in those areas, it then swells up and cracks the finish. The swelling should go once it dries, but the cracks won't.

[grahamjohnston80]

Looking good! Loving that neck colour.

[project_chris]

Thanks for the comments guys, really appreciate the feedback!

Big fan of your IC build Graham, looks killer.

[project_chris]

Unless the linseed oil is very highly thinned (so the resulting layer is much thinner than normal), it will be too viscous to settle just in the dips and level things out automatically, and it will just follow the surface contours. So it's often quicker to just get as much depth as you can before sanding it all back flat with a reasonably fine grit, say P600, before working up through the finer grits and then polishing.

Cheers Simon i'll keep building up layers of BLO then

[Simon Barden]

If you do get dust or hairs stuck in the finish, then you do need to remove them, which hopefully a light sand will do. So don't be afraid to do that when necessary. Otherwise build up as necessary.

If you do sand automatically every six coats or so, then you'll still get there, but it may take longer to build up the thickness. As it's almost impossible to measure the depth of the coats on the guitar without cutting a slice through the surface, the less you sand back in the meantime, the better an idea you have of how thick the finish is.

[grahamjohnston80]

Thanks for the comments guys, really appreciate the feedback!

Big fan of your IC build Graham, looks killer.

Cheers Chris!

[project_chris]

Been a while since I posted an update here, been busy with some general life stuff.

The body and neck are finished now, I ended up applying a couple very thin coats of clear on the top of the body and headstock to achieve the correct amount of sheen I was after. I finished wiring everything and it all makes the correct noises when tapped with a screwdriver, awesome.

Im very please with how the spalted maple top looks, perfect colour I was after and I love being able to feel the wood grain.

https://imgur.com/a/IMtKGS1

I needed to do a bit of work on the nut though, so im glad I have a spare set of Ernie Ball strings for when im ready to play it.

This afternoon I will be installing the rest of the hardware (as well as grounding the bridge), installing the neck and tuners.