April Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in March 2018)

[Gary B]

I will throw my RCA-4 bass into the mix.

Finish - Sanded down to 240grit and stained using Wudtone Burning Sky and Hot Auburn
Neck - Frets levelled and dressed using similar methods to those mentioned by Ahabs_beard
Hardware - Tuners as supplied with the kit. Bridge a 'no-name' item from ebay that I liked the look of. Control cavity cover, neck pup surround and truss rod cover I made myself.
Electronics - Pickups as supplied with the kit. Wired for stereo with new pots, caps, switch and jack sockets.
For those who don't know (and I didn't properly understand when I set out on the build) the bass has two jack sockets. One mono which works as normal and one stereo which separates the outputs from the two pickups then using a splitter cable each pickup can be run to separate inputs (eg two different amps).

Build diary is here http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=8183

[Gary B]

And a few more pics







Thanks for looking,
Gary

[Ahabs_beard]

I will throw my RCA-4 bass into the mix.

Finish - Sanded down to 240grit and stained using Wudtone Burning Sky and Hot Auburn
Neck - Frets levelled and dressed using similar methods to those mentioned by Ahabs_beard
Hardware - Tuners as supplied with the kit. Bridge a 'no-name' item from ebay that I liked the look of. Control cavity cover, neck pup surround and truss rod cover I made myself.
Electronics - Pickups as supplied with the kit. Wired for stereo with new pots, caps, switch and jack sockets.
For those who don't know (and I didn't properly understand when I set out on the build) the bass has two jack sockets. One mono which works as normal and one stereo which separates the outputs from the two pickups then using a splitter cable each pickup can be run to separate inputs (eg two different amps).

Build diary is here http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=8183

Holy crap! And I thought competition would be easier this month - looks like I'm wrong!
I've always been really apprehensive about buying kits with binding, in case I get the stain over them...
How exactly do you go about making sure that the white binding stays (or gets) clean?

[Gary B]

Holy crap! And I thought competition would be easier this month - looks like I'm wrong!
I've always been really apprehensive about buying kits with binding, in case I get the stain over them...
How exactly do you go about making sure that the white binding stays (or gets) clean?

When I saw your guitar I thought - no point entering this month Same could be said every month though.
I wouldn't think it possible to do something unique with a Strat but you have managed it!

I think some people manage to successfully mask the binding but the majority just stain over it then scrape the binding clean afterwards with a blade which gives a nice clean edge.
It is not that difficult but mighty tedious and certainly in my case gives continued entertainment in spotting bits that have been missed

[Fretworn]

Holy crap! And I thought competition would be easier this month - looks like I'm wrong!
I've always been really apprehensive about buying kits with binding, in case I get the stain over them...
How exactly do you go about making sure that the white binding stays (or gets) clean?

If you polish the binding smooth first then it can be quite stain resistant making it easier to clean up after.

[Ahabs_beard]

I think some people manage to successfully mask the binding but the majority just stain over it then scrape the binding clean afterwards with a blade which gives a nice clean edge.
It is not that difficult but mighty tedious and certainly in my case gives continued entertainment in spotting bits that have been missed

When you say 'mask', you mean just covering it with masking tape when staining, and hoping for the best, right?
Stewmac have a good video; is this what you meant by scraping? I'm a noob, but I'm gonna try to hound all you guys for as much information as I can get! haha

If you polish the binding smooth first then it can be quite stain resistant making it easier to clean up after.

What exactly do you mean by polishing? Like, steel wool, sanding sealer etc? What products do you recommend? Cheers!

[phrozin]

quite like Garys Bass lovely and even stain with nice extenuated grain nice job

[Gary B]

When you say 'mask', you mean just covering it with masking tape when staining, and hoping for the best, right?
Stewmac have a good video; is this what you meant by scraping? I'm a noob, but I'm gonna try to hound all you guys for as much information as I can get! haha



What exactly do you mean by polishing? Like, steel wool, sanding sealer etc? What products do you recommend? Cheers!

I'm new here myself so maybe not the best to be giving 'advice'
Masking - yes, covering the binding with masking type. My view was that I don't have a good enough eye or steady hand to get it just right (especially on the really narrow binding on the guitars top) so would be likely to get stain on the binding and have to scrape anyway or, even worse, get tape over the wood and miss bits with the stain.
The Stewmac vid is it. He makes it look easy! I like the tool he uses - I did all mine with what he calls a utility blade (Stanley knife blade in the UK)
I don't know about the polishing, would be interested to hear if Fretworn replies on that.

[Gary B]

quite like Garys Bass lovely and even stain with nice extenuated grain nice job

That means a lot coming from you. Thanks man!

[Simon Barden]

It's difficult to mask binding well, especially when staining, as some liquid always seems to creep under the binding. Standard masking tape tends to allow seepage under the edge, so use something like Frog decorator's tape that's smoother and seals better. Some bindings develop small stress cracks in the surface (from being bent - especially on the sharper curves) that you can't see with the naked eye, but stain can find their way into the cracks and look very obvious with a dark stain. Of course if you just try staining a pat of the guitar at the time, it's easier to wipe the stain off the binding as you go along.

It is quite easy to scrape the binding, it's just quite time consuming.

However it's a lot easier to mask the binding when spraying than spraying and then scraping the paint off. You can scrape it easily if the paint is only a couple of layers and it's still fresh, dry enough to handle but nowhere near cured. The longer you leave it the harder it gets, and the harder it gets to scrape it off. Even so, you'll have to do it quite a few times to do it as easily in the StewMac (or Gibson) videos.

Even so, it it's only 0.5mm or 1mm wide binding showing on an edge, then I would always scrape that edge rather than try to mask it.

If you are just masking the binding, then I'd suggest using 3M 3mm or 6mm wide 'fine line' masking tape as it's a stretchy plastic and it is actually pretty easy to follow the binding with it (look online, or auto stores normally carry it or similar products). Just beware when using it (or even standard masking tape) on concave curves, that it needs to be use din short lengths. Any attempt to stretch the tape here results in the tape being under tension and being pulled away from the guitar. Even small changes in temperature can cause differential movement between te tape and the guitar body and pull the tape away. So use short sections of tape on concave curves.

As Gary says, it is quite difficult to put masking on binding with pinpoint accuracy. You are better off leaving a small part of the binding exposed (and scraping that if necessary) than covering up some of the wood near the binding and leaving a gap in the stain (or paint). Almost all binding stain or paint marks can be removed by scraping. You'll be amazed at how much scraping you can get away with on the binding.

Polishing the binding is done by getting it as smooth as possible so maybe start with P400 paper and work up to P1500 or P2000, then buff with a cloth (or switch to Micro-Mesh and work all the way up to 12000 grit). I'd avoid putting any wax on it as it would be hard not to get it on the wood and so prevent it staining. Whilst you could use steel wool, I'm always wary of the steel fibres it leaves behind that can stick in the wood and affect the later finish, so you then might want to mask the body off first round the edges! However I've never tried polishing the binding before staining, so I'd let others who've done it tell you what they've done.