GHQ-1M - Pinky

[B'Lark]

So first off I want to preface this by saying DAMN YOU, ADAM!! I was all content to work on other stuff then you had to go and get a REALLY REALLY interesting kit in that I couldn't bloody resist.

So with that out of the way, yea I couldn't help see a Headless Semi-Hollow and take the plunge with it. Too intriguing of a design for me, and hey we'll see how it goes.

First impressions: Holy hell it's light. I don't have any scales to weigh it, but i am pretty sure the Trem itself is heavier than the whole guitar. Weighs damn near nothing.



Body work was pretty decent. Lot of the routs on the top have little shavings hanging off them, a "freshly routed but not cleaned up yet" sort of feeling. Feels solid, and some decent thickness on the neck, which I always appreciate personally.

Haven't had a chance just yet to grab some good pictures to show the figure, but the top figure looks pretty decent, and there's a bit running through both the fretboard and the back of the body!

In doing a dry fit, it was mostly good. I'm a little unsure what screw are used to hold the bridge down at the moment, but I'll grapple with that part later. I did notice though that the Bridge Pickup Rout was not wide enough for the pickup, strangely. Will have to file that back, nothing that can't be fixed.



Also on the Treble side of the neck, right near the Zero Fret, the fretboard has been cut in a little bit more than the neck. Not sure what my plan is with that at the moment, I don't think it was particuarly noticable when I held the neck because of how close to the end of the neck it is.



At the end of the day though, it's pretty much just little fix-ups to deal with.

In terms of finishing, I'm planning on staining it Pink, with Wipe-on-Poly on top.



Stain of choice. Saw a sample image on their Facebook page and it looked pretty much right on what I wanted.



However Cass did include a sample of their Purple because the pink apparently has a tendency to be a bit thin. I'm not sure if I'll go with straight Pink, or a blend, that's gonna be down to some testing. Also not totally sure how the Maple will take it, but hey we'll see.

[FrankenWashie]

here's another one my 5YO will want

[G-Axe]

I love that you're taking something that is already pretty eye-catching, and staining it hot pink.

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[B'Lark]

In doing some testing with the stains on some Pine I had lying around, I definitely understand what Cass meant by the Pink being a bit thin. It doesn't get soaked in to the wood as well as the black stain I used on my Strat neck, or even the Purple stain here.

That being said, the colour of the Pink is pretty much spot on what I want, and if I do a couple of coats of it, it does get in there well enough to give the colour I want.







Also did a couple on the back of a Maple neck for another build that will be covered over later, to see how that took the stain





Happy enough with that all to lock the colours in

[B'Lark]

I love that you're taking something that is already pretty eye-catching, and staining it hot pink.

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What can I say? I just love the colour!! Haha

Snagged a couple of damp top wood images too. The top is quite nice, the fretboard didn't come through as much as I expected, and the back of the body has some nice little rivers through it. Quite happy with the figure.





And finally: While I was testing them out, I mentioned to my partner that I had the idea in the back of my mind that maybe I could stain the fretboard pink too, but after seeing how it came through on one part of the Maple neck (not shown cos it didn't turn out great, and was more grainy than figure-y) I thought I'd pass. But she suggested instead doing the fretboard with the Purple. So I did a quick mockup to get a rough idea of the colour pairing and now that is the plan!

[B'Lark]

Got delayed a bit 'cos I needed some coarser sandpaper (only had 600+ around somehow...) but sanded it smooth, filed out the pickup rout to get the pickup in, and taped up the binding to start staining





Second one's probably the most accurate picture to the real life colour at this stage

Then did the fretboard and back, and this is where we're at





Super happy with the colours. The Pink took a bit of work to get in there, and doubling back over parts, but the stain is pretty easy to work with. Purple took a bit to work in to the Maple of the fretboard, but MAN it the Mahogany ate it up when I did the back.

Overall though, super happy with the stains, and will almost certainly use more at a later date.



Did end up with some bleed and carelessness getting some on the top, but I'll sand that back and give it a finer go again with the Pink, not today though haha

[Fretworn]

I like where this going. Be interested to hear about how the finished guitar plays.

[B'Lark]

Gosh I really am awful at getting builds done in timely fashions. Small update, pics soon.

Cleaned up the binding, edges and most of the stain runs. Still a couple of little bits visible but I'm ok with them. Little accidents and flaws are what makes something your own.

Went over the back of the neck with Purple, the Pink just didn't come through super well on the non-figured Maple.

Snagged some PRS SE pickups for cheap to pop in there. Heard good things from the videos I've seen with them and always prefer the extra options of 4-wire pickups. Will be hooking them up with Series/Parallel switching (hopefully just a single Master Toggle for it).

Gonna start oiling it tomorrow, expecting good things as my test pieces with the oil didn't tint the pink drastically.

And just need to pick up some screws to lock the bridge down. Even though I did a try fit when I got it, I didn't investigate thoroughly enough to check the smaller things like screws. I think it was also missing a Trem arm, but I've heard bad things about these Trems, so I'll be locking it off since there is a bit in the back of it to do so.

I think that's pretty much all. Was good to finally get back in to it, even if it's a small step overall. Have a good day, everyone!

[B'Lark]

Alright first coat of oil on the front. Doing front of both neck and back first and at once since it's a set neck and I have no good way to set this thing up to hang if I was doing everything at once.









Not sure how much it's gonna show up in the pictures, but it is definitely showing the grain better now, as pretty much would be expected. Got some nice depth to it. It's also made the Purple a bit, i guess richer? Deeper? It's a bit darker and less washed out than it looked before, which is good!

Also while it overall hasn't drastically changed the colour of the pink, there are some parts of the figure in which the amber of the oil does show through a little more but I don't think it shows in the pics. I wasn't sure how I felt about it as I was putting it on but it looks fine, and it might even just be something that I only notice because I'm extra aware of what I'm doing with it.

Either way, happy results.

[B'Lark]

Man, I was so close to being done on this tonight. Ah well.

I've declared the oiling done, partially because well it's probably got enough on there, partially because I'm gettin' damn tired of waiting on it and I wanna get it done gosh darn it!

Mocked in the PRS pickups I got in to it, I'm not normally big on Zebras but I'm pretty happy with how they look there.



Also upon putting the bridge plate in there to get it lined up to drill it, I noticed that there just was only half enough wood under two of the intended screw holes. Woops. So chunked off a couple of bits of wood I had lying around, glued them up and they're drying now.





And well I have lost my chuck key for my drill, so I can't even get the other hardware pieces on there tonight sadly. With some luck, might have it all ready to go tomorrow though!! Also pictures of the back will come then. Didn't really wanna move the guitar around too much while the glue's drying.