RCM-12 The Dirty Dozen

[wazkelly]

Sometimes the timber underneath thin layer of veneer doesn't look too bad. If mine, I would be tempted to sand the lot off and then decide whether to do a fresh veneer.

[Gary B]

That is a good call thank you waz :-)
I've nothing to lose by giving that a go.

[Gary B]

As suggested by wazkelly I have sanded off the rest of the veneer.
Funny how you can sand through it so easily then it takes ages to get the rest of it off :-)



So it is very, very plain which would be great for a solid finish.
But I had my mind set on a stain so decided I am up for the challenge to do a new veneer so the binding has been removed.
There's quite a bit of stubborn glue left to deal with but we're getting there.

[wazkelly]

Not much grain definition but looks like it would take a stain colour really well. Suppose the veneer may add some grain pattern but otherwise what you have there doesn't look too bad.
Agree that it takes quite a lot of sanding to remove original veneer. In fact, I reckon the layer of glue is almost thicker than the veneer.

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[Tadhg]

Gary, you've taken the veneer off, but it's still got a maple cap? Just a plain one, rather than something with grain? How thick is the cap?

[wazkelly]

Hi Tadhg, I sanded a flame maple cap off an ES1 a few months ago and what is now showing is the base plywood used underneath. On mine it had some grain definition but from that shot this one doesn't seem to have much at all. Almost makes you wonder how much more to take it all the way back to only Mahogany?

Just a word of warning, where set neck joins the body you may end up with a slight gap between guitar top and bottom of neck underneath fret board overhang which can be easily filled with natural timber mate and then stained to match that part of the build.

[Gary B]

Tadhg, its about a 2mm thick ply cap over the mahogany body.
Waz, I couldn't take it back to the mahogany as there is a cavity under the (not very) F (shaped) hole which the top covers.
You've got me thinking about staining as it is though.
By the time the control cavity cover, pup rings and bridge are fitted there isn't that much of the top on display anyway :-)
I will ponder on that before doing anything else.

[Gary B]

Well, this didn't turn out to be a very good build diary!
I have been working away from home so time at weekends has been in short supply so work on the guitar progressed in fits and starts and I had little time to document it on here. So to bring things up to date....
I followed wazkellys advise (thanks man) and stained the top after I had sanded off the veneer and it really did bring out some grain in quite a strange way but I do like it. For a while I wasn't convinced that the green stain on the mahogany was a good idea but I am pleased with how it turned out.
I had already removed the edge binding in anticipation of redoing the veneer but that gave me the opportunity to do a pearloid binding to match the rest of the plastic parts that I made.
I fitted the binding after staining which was a mistake as it was very problematic trimming and sanding it to size without damaging the finish (d'oh!). Hence the finish doesn't stand up too well to close scrutiny and the fitting of the binding is a bit untidy in places. I can live with all this as I think the vibe of the finished guitar is great and just what I was hoping for.
I had shimmed the neck pocket to stop a bit of side to side movement and when I test fitted everything the break angle looked good so I went ahead and glued the neck in.
What I didn't account for (and not sure how you could) was the tension from 12 strings putting a good bow on the neck and even with some tweaking of the truss rod leaving the action too high.
So I have countersunk the holes for the bridge posts so the knurled flange that usually sits on top of the body is now recessed in. Also have the guitar tuned down a tone at the moment and have a lovely buzz free action. I need to get a decent capo so I can play in standard tuning when I want to.
Speaking of tuning, took a very long time to settle down but stays in tune well now.
And that's it - been together for a couple of weeks now and I absolutely love it. Even played acoustically it has 'the' sound and Im working on my repertoire of Byrds riffs.

[TZK321]

Looks great!

[cork sniffer]

Ya done good!
I like it a lot :-)