Thanks for the correction Simon - I always get them confused.
Thanks for the correction Simon - I always get them confused.
First (proper) build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=8546
Second build: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ad.php?t=10229
I'm not sure what meths/metho would do to it, probably evaporate too quickly to be much use as a thinning solvent, but turps is what everyone on here (including myself) has said they use to thin it.
Gum turpentine is the nicest to use, the sort you can get from art stores.
Thank you. I'll keep that in mind when I do the next full coats as I certainly don't see a need to be laying down a lot more beyond covering the sanding marks. The thicker it is the more I seem to need to sand back off anyway.Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Flattening out the decals yesterday seems to be making a noticeable difference now - I'm starting to feel like I might get somewhere trying to bury them yet. I'll keep adding layers over them every couple of hours and every few coats I'll gently sand over the decal itself until the edges vanish. I should have enough Tru-oil left to do a stack of coats over the decals and 2 or 3 more full body coats if I cut it with turps.
My last full body coat was only in the past day or so, so hopefully if I keep up regular coats over the decals I'll get it close in the next day or two. If not, I might knock the top off with 1200 wet before it gets too hard then leave it until I'm happy with the decals.
Progress. I put the neck on today.. mostly because I want my hanger back.
The decals are nearly gone under the TO. Hopefully another day or two and they'll be gone. I put the copper tape in the control cavity so that's now all finished. Really just waiting to get these decals buried then I'll do a 1200 grit rub down, add a fresh n' thin coat and let her sit on the wall for a few weeks.
Cheers! I made up a rig to hold the body up through the jack cavity and had the neck hanging until I put 'em together (wanted my neck hanger back). Close cropping to hide the redneck contraption that includes a pair of clamps, some old ali tubing, steel cable ties and part of an old guitar stand!
And yeah - MOP. It's the goods. I found an old boom box in ewaste a few years ago with it on cassette still in the player, and the van I was using for moving gear at the time had a tape deck still, so I started to get some appreciation for it again!
Cheers yeah, certainly was. Worst thing was that I was a senior tech in a room full of young blokes who'd never really heard or seen cassettes before much less an old boom box outside of the movies. Boom box works pretty well too I gotta say. Not parting with that retro-ness (but then I still have my parents Technics stereo circa 1982-83 so ya know...).
Good pic cheers, but the damn thing sitting up there in full view is taunting me. I've determined today is the last day I'm going to keep adding coats over the decals. It's pretty damn close to flat, and buried far enough to not look like they've just been stuck on there. Next sand will be hard over the decals to bring em down a bit further, then a full body sand at 1200 followed by a full coat. If that looks half way reasonable, I'll leave it sit there for a few days then move it to the wall for a few weeks. I've got some leave in October, so will be gunning to get it polished, wired and setup ready to go.
Last edited by lunaticds; 09-09-2021 at 01:11 PM.
Where this build is up to:
- Hanging on the wall post a 1200 grit rub down and recoat. The decals aren't entirely gone but they look like they belong there at least. I don't want to put any more TO on it - the amber is starting to overtake the red, and i know that I'll need more in the future. It looks like i should be able to polish that up nicely once its had some time to harden up properly.
- Pickups are *somewhere*. Possibly still in the US, possibly in AU waiting to be scanned in. Don't know. It's probably a good thing that they're not here yet or I might be tempted to put them in already and make my life miserable when I go to polish this next month.
Given the sheer investment into this guitar, I'm pretty keen to get it set up.
Build summary:
- TB-4 kit
- Gotoh mini black machine heads
- Babicz FCH bridge
- EMG 35HZ Passive soapbars + electronics
- Gotoh black neck plate
I could nearly have brought an Epiphone Thunderbird for what I've sunk into this so far, but I'd be stuck with pickups I didn't want, holes for a pick guard I hate and no real experience in doing anything.
Suitable pickups for this were a challenge to find. There seem to be few options - especially passive and the options that do exist are either cheap and unknown or just expensive.
I'm a fairly impatient bugger, and in lieu of being able to get any of 4 guitars finished due to bits all being in transit, a brand new TV that arrived broken (our old one recently died), and not much else to do.. I decided to get closer to finishing this off.
I gave a few areas a rub down with some 3000 grit, then gave it a fairly gentle hand polish with some Maguiars Ultimate compound before a quick layer of wax - including over the fret board. A quick run over the neck showed a few frets were a little high, so I filed them down, re-dressed them and got that sorted out.
The nut is now graphite. I'd ordered the bone when I ordered the kit, but decided I wasn't putting white on it.. and I wasn't keen on keeping the plastic, so I swapped that out yesterday.
The polishing was done - and its by no means perfect. I decided that too much shine would detract from the grain and the fact that I never spent enough time sanding is always kinda evident when you look carefully at it, so I don't see any point in aiming for perfection.
I decided then to get on with the hardware that I currently have - the tuners and the bridge. The bridge took some getting my head around. Thinking I had the action as low as it could go, I was trying to work out how I was going to get about another 3mm out of it - the action was quite simply too high. After staring at the gap between the mount posts and bottom of the bridge and thinking bad thoughts.. I realised that I could actually get more out of it.. and it's now down to an almost acceptable height. I'd really like to get it a fraction lower, but it's within a mm or so of my trusty old Yamaha so I can deal with it.
I threw on a couple of kit strings just to see how the action was going to look. When I'm finished they'll get tossed for a set of DR Blacks. Right now they're not even on the tuners properly - they're literally slotted through just to hold in place.
Comfort-wise, unless the pickups weigh about a kg, it's horrendously top heavy. I considered an anchor point through the neck plate to see if that would help it balance better but it appears not. I put the kit pickups in just to see how that would effect balance, but not where near enough. The balance point feels like its somewhere between the 12th and 15th fret, so changing the anchor point doesn't seem like it'll be enough to counter balance it.
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