The Deluxester Prototype - Sonic's foray into repeatable scratch builds

[Woltz]

Nice job mate. The patience has really paid off on that finish. Love the colour.

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[Simon Barden]

Looking good.

If you want to move this into repeatable scratch builds for sale, then you'll need to move into grain filling and spraying. Unless you don't want to charge for your time, then you'll need to use all the time saving measures you can to keep the final sale price reasonable.

You'll also need to think about sourcing a suitable case and/or gig bag.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah, I’ve been thinking about the case situation. I’ll take this one down to my local and see if it fits in any of their generic cases before I do anything in that regard.

I have a long term plan for manufacture that will greatly increase productivity, but at the moment I’m going to persevere with this traditional style approach.

I’m very keen to speed up finishing though , in this particular case the body wood is not an ideal choice. I’m pushing ahead through sheer bloody mindedness. I think it will be worth it for this build, but it’s definitely not a practical long term approach.

[Sonic Mountain]

Final coats on today! It's been a long wait to get to this point as I have been extra diligent in letting each coat get properly dry before doing the next. There are still some little imperfections, but its as good as I'm going to get with a rattlecan on my back patio.

After a LOT of umming an ahhhing I decided to finish the neck in satin. It looked amazing glossed, but even just handling it unattached, it didn't feel right and I'm sure it would have annoyed me when playing. Plus the frets wouldn't have stayed glossy long. So 90% satin and I'll shoot a finishing coat of gloss over the front of the headstock for aesthetics.

I am absolutely dying to get this thing assembled and see how it plays. So hopefully that's only a week or so away. Woot!

[Sonic Mountain]

Out in the sun for a good bake.

[McCreed]

What's your plan for the string-through holes? Standard ferrules?

I only ask because they look quite small, and I'd be concerned about chipping the the finish when enlarging them.

I drill mine with a small forstner bit, then put a slight taper the top edge of the holes before applying the finish.
That minimises the build-up of finish at the edge, and the ferrule is a bit tight, it just takes a touch up with a reamer or countersink bit by hand to open them up with very little risk of finish damage.

[Sonic Mountain]

Yeah ferrules. The holes are to size but have a bit of build up in them from finishing, I’ll just clean them up a bit with the dremel.

[Simon Barden]

I've found that getting a finish too hot isn't a good idea. Warm, yes, but not very hot. You could easily get the surface up to 70°C+ on a hot day with a dark colour. I'd put it outside in the shade in a breezy location.

[Sonic Mountain]

It’s uv stabilised exterior marine grade poly. It’s fine.

[Sonic Mountain]

Welp, I thought I might be assembling today, but then I went and mucked up the finish on the back while I was cutting and polishing. Bit of moisture in the string through holes led to a slight swell and cut through.

Sigh, totally my fault and one of many I've made tried to finish this godforsaken thing. Anyway, its not too bad, I'm just going to give myself a couple of fresh coats on the back so I can blend the repair edge in on the edges of the body.. so maybe assembly next weekend.

Super annoying but not the end of the world.

I tired a gloss finish on the face of the headstock, but I didn't really like it with the satin, so the whole things is satin now.

I'm very happy with how its come up. I've just done one pass levelling and dressing, mostly to get the poly off. It will need another pass before assembly but so far so good, happy enough for my first ever complete neck build anyway.