My thinline kit arrived yesterday. Pre fitted it all. needs a smidge off the neck pocket, which is great I'll get a nice tight fit. Bigsby style tremolo looks better than expected.
All in all a very nice kit. I'll change out the electronics and some 4 pole buckers an add some sperzel lockers it will be a nice axe.
I'll add some pics next post
Ok, neck is semi finished, 2 more coats of Tru oil, then polish.
I went for a 90s thinline profile with a bit of a hybrid strat headstock. I think it looks nice and balanced.
Stained the neck with diluted tobacco stain.
! Now onto the body.
As much as I like timber finish I'm going with a Mitsubishi blue mica. Haven't played with basswood before but it looks like it would soak up a gallon of Tru oil. So paint it is!
Neck looks good, and the blue finish sounds great. I am doing my TL-1TH in a Hyundai Sky Blue metallic duplicolor. Hopefully the 2 cans are enough because it's a discontinued colour!
It'll look great, blue works really well with teles, gt stripes work good too, I've had a slight change of heart, after sanding the top. I couldn't cover the grain, so stain & Tru oil face and blue back and sides are the plan now.
Damn my weakness for timber!
No No No!!!! Don't use Tru oil with blue. It will turn it green over time and look like rubbish!
Almost there
I'm almost done, paint is Mitsubishi blue mica, stars are quicksilver, 12 coats of clear. Unfortunately the last coats were color spec crystal clear from Supercheap, DON'T USE IT UNLESS YOU HAVE A MONTH TO WAIT. It's supposed to be ready to polish after 24 hours, and it will polish but it stays soft in the lowest coats and takes fingerprints! So I have some refinishing to do.
Top was a lemon yellow / tobacco mix and lots of Tru oil.
I added some bullbuckrs and push pull pots to split them. That was like stuffing 40lbs of s$#t in a 12 pound bag. But eventually was successful.
Plays well, good intonation, bigsby is surprisingly good, holds tune well with lots of sustain.
Next is pull it back down, refinish clear coat, modify bigsby arm, inlay headstock.
All in all thumbs up!
Nice.
I'm not sure I'd panic too much about fingerprints. Give twice as much time as it could possibly need to cure, and wet sand locally with something very fine - 600? then burnish. I've found that there can be all sorts of discontinuities within layers of lacquer without any sign my eyes can detects so long as the surface is correct. If it looks like taking too much thickness to smooth out then I'd try a fair few layers of lacquer locally then a couple overall
Build #1, failed solid body 6 string using neck from a scrapped acoustic (45+ odd years ago as a teenager!)
Build #2, ugly parlour semi with scratch built body and ex Peavey neck
Build #3, Appalachian Dulcimer from EMS kit
Build #4, pre-owned PB ESB-4
Build #5, Lockdown Mandolin
Build #6, Sixty six body for Squier
Build #7, Mini Midi Bass
Hi Jim. I'm not too worried about the marks, they'll come out with a 1200 wet sand. It's just annoying when paint products don't perform as per instructions, my own fault really I should have bought a gun and used 2k, next time!
Did you do 12 coats of clear over 12 weeks? You should figure on at least a month for finishing anyway to do a really good job of it.Originally Posted by Tassieaxeman
I use these products a lot and that sounds a lot like the application was too thick or the conditions were not ideal for spraying.
If you put it on too thick the top will dry and essentially seal in the rest of the solvent, which has the potential to cause a number of issues, super long curing period being one of them. It can also lead to wrinkling and crazing later on.
FWIW with rattle can automotive acrylic lacquer I spray 3 light coats in opposing directions with 2 or 3 minutes in between each to let it flash off a little. Let that dry, usually a week but if I'm impatient, sometimes 48 hrs. Then light knock back with 800-1500 ish (what ever I have handy usually) then repeat above.
I'll normally try to empty the entire can over the course of a few weeks, then let it go really hard over a couple of weeks before cutting and polishing.
If you rush it, you will tend to get a lot of 'sink back' into the grain a couple of months down the track.
The good news is though that its is really easy to patch and repair with, you could potentially give it a knock back and spray some new top coats down the track.
Build 1 - Shoegazer MK1 JMA-1
Build 2 - The Relliecaster TL-1
Build 3 - The Black Cherry SG AG-1
Build 4 - The Sonicaster TL-1ish
Build 5 - The Steampunker Bass YB-4
Build 6 - The Howling Gowing ST-1
"What I lack in talent I make up for with enthusiasm"
Cheers, sonic. I did the 12 coats over 4 days, that's usually fine on a car using duracryl. Guess maybe the timber holds the thinners a lot longer than panel work.
It's not a problem just an annoyance, I'll knock it back in a month add some slip transfers and top it off with some fresh clear.
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