Build#2 - DSCM

[grantxx]

How exciting is it when this arrives.



Had a quick look, looks like I got a good one, nothing to be concerned about minor mark on the back, but I think will blend pretty easy.

Now to decide what to do with it as far as finish goes, the mahogany is much nicer grain than the basswood, so plan A is to make the grain pop. Very open to suggestions, I again got the black hardware with this one.

[Trevor Davies]

Looks good.

[Simon Barden]

It’s hard to make the grain in mahogany ‘pop’. A dark grain filler will accentuate the pores but you can’t really do anything (that I know of) to heighten the grain lines. The darker the finish, the less the darkened pores show up. A light finish will show up more, but even so, with small pores it’s an effect that you’ll only really notice from quite close up.

You can go the ‘TV Yellow’ route by first applying a light cream or light yellow base coat, and then grain filling the pores on top of that, with clear coats over. That definitely highlights the pores, but hides the grain lines.

[grantxx]

Thanks again Simon, may have used wrong term in making grain POP, more want to enhance the natural timber.

Ready to start on this one now, have decided to do all the neck work first, set the neck and then apply the finish.

Couple of questions, I was hoping to go finish with red stain / dye, then clear poly to finish, but may just go with clear only, not quite brave enough to use a dye or stain yet.

I have had a very good look around on this site. Little confused as to best approach. Before I set the neck I want to do some grain filling, to if my plan is to use clear only, I was going to use this Timbermate natural , any thoughts on this, I figure if I use this I can still stain or dye if I become more brave.

With the binding, and assume I choose a wipe on poly do I just coats over it and clean off later, or do I mask it up, not sure there.

Once again tips tips or comments really appreciated.

EDIT - do i need to protect the binding when sanding

[Trevor Davies]

Hi grantxx,
I think clear poly goes well on natural mahogany, and timbermate natural as a grain filler would work well to help level the surface. I'm not sure if I would use Natural or a slightly red fill (like Mahogany or Hardwood) - it may not matter. I used Tru-oil on a mahogany neck and it came out very vice.

You could add a small test amount of poly (or try a stain) to the bottom of the pickup route to get an idea of the colour before committing to the whole body. Even adding a small amount of water to a section of the body will allow you to see the natural colour of the wood when clear coated.

As for the binding:
if using clear coats only, then coat over the binding as well (no need to clean it off later!),
if staining, mask the binding before the staining to try to reduce the amount of stain getting onto the binding (on my SSCM-1 I added 2/3 tru-oil coats to the binding only before adding the stain - not sure if it helped or not! ). Even with masking some stain will still probably bleed onto the binding. Scraping stain off the binding is not a lot of fun in my opinion.

I'm not sure if the binding needs protecting before sanding - I didn't! Take care near the binding though.

For sanding:
Before adding the timbermate I would sand the body to 180 g, then
If only using clear poly I would sand the timbermated body with 240 g or higher before adding the clear coats.
If staining I would sand the timbermated body with 180 g to ensure the stain is taken up more evenly.

Hopefully others will add to this.

[grantxx]

Thanks Trevor, I am leaning more to no stain for sure, gives me a reason to do another after this one. I will get a couple of colours with the timbermate and experiment to see if I can get it to where I think I want it. My aim is to enhance the natural colour of the body and neck, time to leap in with step 1 get the timbermate onto it and do the neck / frets and shape the head stock this time.

[Simon Barden]

You’ll need to apply the Timbermate at least twice, and probably three times for best results. It dies shrink as it dries out, so best to take it slowly and let it dry well between applications/sanding so that it does most of that shrinking before the next layer goes on, so you fill the shrinkage. Almost impossible to get it fully flat, there will always be some shrinkage, but by waiting before sanding back, you can minimise the resulting slight dips. Otherwise you end up applying a lot more clear finish to fill in those dips before you start to build enough height above the wood surface allowing you to sand back flat and then polish.

[grantxx]

Thanks SImon, had figured more than one application, just finished sanding the first coat and clearly needs another, after sanding, I wiped it down with metho, is a huge imporvement however, will get antoher coat on in the morning and let it sit all day, used the hardwood colour for first coat, will use mahogany for the next one or two, while its not hard to sand there is a lot to sand.

I am doing the heavy sanding with 240 then will finish use a 400 or maybe even 600 before any clear goes on, slow and steady for this one

[grantxx]

Headstock shape roughed out, balanced it up after this pic, was a bit out of balance I thought, looks good now. Wanted to keep it fairly simple for this one.

[Simon Barden]

It's always recommended by the manufacturers to remove as much of the grain filler as possible using a plastic or rubber scraper before it sets, to minimise the sanding required.

Nice headstock shape and not derivative.