Pictures are very useful here.
Hi Simon,Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Sorry, I was literally on my way to the airport and just noticed the crack, didn't have any time to really investigate.
as soon as i'm home tomorrow afternoon i will take photos and upload for you all.
thanks for the feedback
Hope the flight was enjoyable!
Without pics or seeing it in the flesh, it's difficult to tell if they are just minor surface cracks that can be ignored or filled, or deeper ones that need some work.
If it is down to low humidity and shrinkage, it would mean that some of the glue is adhering a lot better than other parts, otherwise there's no mechanism for shrinkage to pull a joint apart with parallel body blanks.
Hi all,
i got home last night from my trip and had another look at the crack i mentioned. it doesn't look as bad as i remember from the beginning of the week. so either i have fishing brain (it was thiiiiiis big!) or the heat (having reduced during the week) is causing a small crack to expand and contract.
I'd love to get some advice on what to do if anything. a friend who built a guitar suggested some superglue. i thought wood glue might be better. but would really like advice from some of you
Photos Below:
Doesn't look that serious so really just needs filling. What's the planned finish for the guitar? A solid paint colour and I'd use a thick superglue. Any glue is going to get onto the surface so will ruin it for staining. Otherwise I'd use a wood filler, not a glue, just to fill the cracks and get a level surface.
Once you get a finish on it, the wood will stop reacting so much to temperature and humidity changes.
Looks like you've got some sanding to do to get rid of the machining marks, so you may well reduce the crack depth to almost nothing at the end of that process.
Thanks Simon. I intend to finish the sanding and then stain it a mid brown. then Tru Oil to keep that natural grain.
so i'll use a wood filler on it.
Thanks for the advice
Awkward crack because some of it is wood rather than joint. What to do depends, as Simon says, on your planned finish. If its going to be a relic finish then nothing[grin].
I wonder if one could mix tru oil sealer filler with sanding dust to make a better matching filler? Youd have to somehow contrive to get a suitable amount of the dye into the mix though which might be very tricky to get right.
Hi All,
Been a bit busy, but wanted to show some of my progress so far.
So I completed sanding down to 1500 grit. Guitar body and neck looking really nice now. the crack I found definitely seemed to be caused by the heat in the work room. with heat building up in the daytime and very little airflow, I think the body just expanded a bit. Moving it inside the house after, rather than leaving it in the workroom made a huge difference.
I also measured the neck position and set the neck. Super stressful knowing that you can't come back from that... but I measured about 10 times, so hopefully I got it all right.
I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether to stain and then glue, or glue first. Eventually, after reading many posts of different opinions and watching too many videos explaining the different processes, I decided to glue first and stain later, and I'm pretty happy with the result.
Next, I gave it a light sanding at the neck joint to remove any glue and smooth out the joint, and get it as clean and smooth as possible. I didn't manage to get it perfect and you can see where it has been glued, but it isn't very noticeable, so I'm pretty happy.
After that, I ordered a stain from a local kit supplier (they don't have many lefty kits which is why I imported from Australia, and stained the body and neck. I decided to go for a mid brown mahogany colour which has a slight reddish tint to it as well. Originally, I wanted to do a Shou Sugi Ban effect, but decided against it for fear of damaging the guitar and then having to get a new body/neck.
Next was Finishing the body and neck. For that I again spent way too many hours watching videos of various techniques and products. In the end I decided to use Tru-Oil as this seemed to give the effect I wanted,and seemed to come pretty well recommended.
Lastly, I've finally started fitting the hardware for setup. I've fitted the machine heads, bridge, tailpiece and pickups, and hole covers. I've also shielded the cavities.
I'm really happy that I placed a second order for the black hardware. I think it is looking amazing at the moment, and I can't wait to finish up the wiring and start setting it up.
Keen to hear your thoughts and get your feedback
Nice colour choice, looks great with the black hardwear. I'm a fan of explorers as you can see from my builds. Hope you didn't put the pickup ring screw through the bridge pickup like I did
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