Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
This sort of snuck up on me. I found I was playing the builds more than the branded stuff. The last build was very consciously to replace my p-bass which is now 47 years old. Building one like it allowed me to retire the Fender, while also making some changes that I have wanted, but which would destroy the value of the real thing.
None of my builds are perfect, particularly in their finishes. But I have learned a ton about getting them to feel, sound and play the way I want them to. This process has made all my instruments better, whether I built them or took things I had learned here and tinkered with them.
I've started the painful job of trying to flatten over the decals. They were raised quite a bit, in no small part due to the couple of layers of polyurethane I sealed them with. They're now reasonably flat, though I've still got a ways to go to build up the layers to get them all flat. The rest of the body and neck has had a stack of coats and the last sand was wet @ 800 grit. I'm kinda keen to see if I can make them vanish under the tru-oil before I go over the whole thing with 1200 and whatever higher grits I've got before I give it a week to harden before polishing. I don't have a lot left of that bottle, so I need to start rationing a bit. It's overall pretty glossy looking.
Don't forget that with tru-oil it's common to mix in up to 50% meths for the later coats so you might be able to extend what you have left.
First (proper) build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=8546
Second build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ad.php?t=10229
It just makes it go on a bit flatter, so whilst you may feel it's going further, you are still applying the same amount onto the surface. But thinning a little as you go along is a good idea, because the solvent does start evaporating once the bottle is opened, so it does get thicker (in my limited experience anyway) and a drop of turps does help get it back to the original consistency.
And for it to go properly hard, it takes about a month. I'd sand it back flat before then (as when it's fully hard it takes a lot of sanding), but waiting longer to polish will give a better shine.