Maple Guitar Project (Stratocaster)

This guitar actually started it's life as a Fender Squire.  I found it in a Guitar Center, and it had a ding in the front about 2-3 mm in diameter.  I struck a deal with the salesman and brought it home and immediately dismantled it.   Here is the original body before stripping it down.

 

In order to do this I had to route out some wood to accomodate the veneer.  I carefully measured the strip so that it would 'follow the necks trajectory".   I used a  chisel to put in a stop line for the router and then very carefully routed the wood.  I then went in with a block of wood and sandpaper to clean it up.  I did the same on the front.
 

 

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I ended up doing initial 'little circles' and figure eights, then using the 'brushing technique' explained in the Millburn Guitars Web Tutorial.  Then I would go back to the little circles then the brushing.  I could usually do this with recharging the muncea once.  I would do 4-6 layers then level.  Leveling is simply taking a felt block and wrapping it with wet/dry sandpaper and sanding the surface level, taking care not to hit the wood.  I had a fair amount of shellac down before I leveled.  I would say at least a good 20 layers.  The goal of leveling is to have the entire surface look dull which means that the sandpaper was able to hit the surface at a consistent level.  If there are depressions than they will remain shiny.  You have two main choices, continue bodying and eventually after several levels you will obtain a flat surface (which is what I did), or you could sand until you the areas are no longer shiny.  This in my opinion is a fairly risky solution.

Also don't forget about the sides.  When I would do a surface say the front, I would do both sides down to the bottom but not the heel so I could stand it up.  When I did the back I would again do the sides but do the bottom and stand it on it's top.  That way the sides got a very liberal application of shellac.  this guitar has absolutely beautiful grain on the sides to begin with.  In this picture I think I had level for the first time.  You can see the shellac build up and a shine starting.  The shine took a while to develop.  Definately starts as a matte finish and then with each leveling and reapplication the shine seemed to pick up a notch.

Heres another shot of the end grain.  This had been leveled 2 times.

When I got to the 4th leveling, I only had a couple of shiny spots, one near where the veneer meets the body, so I doubted I would be able to make that meet and it was only noticeable on leveling.  Probably should have fixed that during the sanding process...  But barring that, it was pretty consistent in it's dullness across the body.  At this point I could have moved on to glazing.  That is the same as bodying but you use the brushing technique 80% of the time and only use circles to fix up areas.  Since I thought I had a fairly consistent surface I decided to move to the automotive polishes.  I have a medium, fine and swirl remover.  I had just purchased an air driven polisher so was excited to give that a try.  Above is the result using the medium and fine.  I think there can be a fair amount of hand rubbing to get it to where I will then use the swirl remover.  The hand rubbing does seem to put more of a sheen to it but the polisher was definably a god send for the brute force.

Here is a picture of the back.  You can notce a fairly detailed sheen starting to develop by the outline of the lamp.  I am going after a high gloss but want to stop short of the mirror effect.  I would say I am about 70-80% there...  You will also notice that I used honey amber flakes which definitely added a nice rich amber color but not so dark that it obscures any of the grain.  It is a little more red than I intended which could have been the cherry stain...

I got to the point where I thought I had enough base coat to finalize polishing.  I had no idea how long I needed to polish.  I ended up polishing through the base coat in an area about the size of a dime.  It slowly increased to about the size of a quarter and I knew I needed to start over.  

I had a test board I did some polishing on and I think that the polishing needs to be brief.  It is not sanding.  It is knocking the very fine ridges down.  So when polishing with medium grit the goal is to go from fine lines going up and down to fine swirls.  Then fine is to bring it down to almost clear.  Again, very brief polishing is needed.  Then swirl remover.  I ended up doing the swirl remover mostly by hand.  On the test board I followed up with some paste wax just to provide an extra protective cover.

In summary, I thought the advantages of using a french polish to be:

1. Ecologically Friendly (If you used grain alcohol you could sip the polish :-)
2. Fairly easy to work with (epecially liked the quick drying aspect)
3. Fairly easy to repair.  Was able to fix issue with elbow grease instead of abrasives
4. High shine and nice amber color (though you can choose darker tints).
5. Inexpensive.  I bought about $50 worth, and I would say could easily do 3-4 guitars.

Disadvantages

1. It is a fairly slow process.  You also need to provide significant (2 days) gass off periods for drying.
2. It is not as hard as some other finishes.  I am thinking that this would be fairly vulnerable to fluids and alcohol.

Gecko Fretboard Project

This project was 'one of those' if you get my drift.  It started in a funny way, I purchased a rosewood fretboard from Stew Mac.  When I got it, the fingerboard looked dull and lifeless in color.  There was also a crack at the top of the fretboard.  I called Stew Mac and they said they would said a new board out and keep the old one for scrap.  Oh, Ok.  I must admit, I purchase quite a bit from them, and have had three issues.  All three times I had a replacement free of charge in 3 days.  Anyways this wasn't an advertisement for them.

The fretboard I did recive was actually spectacular in color.  Deep rich oranges and some yellow in a gorgeous swirl pattern.  I instantly new I wanted to work with Paua Abalone.  So I went to Andy DePaules site and started narrowing down my choices ;-)  I thought the oranges and yellows seemed tropical to me so I decided on the geckos.

I knew that doing a design on rosewood would be tricky from the start, but using such a contrasting color would be interesting.  Following my norm I began laying out the pieces.  I had originally thought of them as one per fret but actually decided that I would place them 'randomly' on the fretboard. some crossing fret lines.

As is also my norm, I apply liberal amounts of white out to the fret board and place the inlay on top.  After the white out dries, the inlay sticks enough for me to scribe the outline.  I then use a chisel and outline a stop gap.  Then using my router with a precision base I rout out the area.  I went a little deep on this one, which meant a lot of sanding dried epoxy latere which took a while.  Also a slightly thinner playing surface.

Veneer - White Glue Method

I am starting to explore using veneers for some of my guitar work.  The following is a brief description of some of the work I have done using veneers.  I have used the following site as a reference.

http://www.oakwoodveneer.com/tips/ironon.html


Veneer comes in packages of very thin sheets, mine were very curled and cracked.   I decided to use a Veneer Softener.  I sprayed the veneer sheet I was going to use.  I soaked it down, not to the point of saturation but I did want to ensure a good 'spread' of the softener.  I knew I would be giving the veneer plenty of chance to dry back out.  After wetting down the veneer I gently wrapped it in paper towels and put it in a cold press for more than 24 hours.  The veneer came out much straighter and some of the cracks had healed but I won't know how good until I apply...

The basic premise as I understand it is that preparation work must done to the veneer then glue is applied to the veneer and the wood that will be veneered. The glue is then allowed to dry while separate.  Once dry you can then placed on top of each other. Using an iron you then apply heat to the veneer through cloth or some type of intermediate heat transfer media in between the veneer and the iron which will reverse the glue and allow it to mix together. Than you put it back into your cold press to dry.

My first test is with TiteBond 3.  I really did not allow much time for the glue to dry, perhaps 30 min so we'll see how it comes out...  I used a foam roller for the application of glue to the wood.  I squirted out some glue, ran the roller over a couple of times to spread the glue out then applied to the surfaces of the wood.  I put enough on that provided the ability to see the glue on the surface but no more.  The first layer soaked into the wood pretty well on both pieces so I did reapply the glue once.

 

Here is a photo of the veneer applied to a thin board.  The board is on top of the sheet that I cut it from.  The two blue oval objects next to it is something my wife worked up in polymer clay.

I imagine veneer doesn't have much tolerance for sanding so I started at 220 and went to 340.  It was enough to move all of the adhered fibers and dirt off.  It was nice and smooth.

I treated the wood with my fingerboard oil (Dr. Fret).  The result I think is excellent.  The edges I think will be the most difficult part.  

I did want to try some stains, so I prepped the veneer with a pre-stain.

 

Ibanez GAX 70 Project

I had an Ibanez GAX 70 that I never really played.  After sucess with the Stratocaster Conversion I decided to try and tackle this one. 

Originally I was going to redo the fretboard with the vine inlay and leave the body intact.  I actually completed the vine inlay project only to find out that the fretboard scale was a Gibson vs Fender. 

So I purchased an additional fretboard slotted to that scale length and started over.  I went to Andy DePaul's website and selected the Lotus, I decided to do the white mother of pearl because initially I was going to keep the body black. 

The first step to inlay is making sure you have your pieces correctly setup.  I have almost inlayed some pieces out of order but caught it before I routed the wood.  So now I always line my pieces up and keep them in the order they will be applied.  This helps with not losing any (yes I have lost pieces and have had to buy individual replacements) and keeping you on track.

The next step is preparation of the fretboard.  I knew that with this design, ensuring the inlay was dead center was going to be paramount.  I marked the center of each of the frets I was going to inlay.  This would help me when placing the pieces so I at least knew where center was.

As I normally do, I paint the area with white out, then while still wet I put the inlay piece on top so that the white out will hold the piece in place when it is dried.  I do this because I have had problems in the past with contact cement and other adhesive where I break the inlay getting it back off.  This seems to hold it in place firmly enough so I can do the scribing but is fairly easy to remove. 

  

Once I scribe the general outline I then follow up with a mallet and chisel so that I have a stop line when routing.  This helps considerably in preventing a 'run' with the router.  I usually do the general outline with a 3/32 bit then go in after the crude shape is cut and then use a 1/32 bit to fine tune it.  Then I use a chip knife and chisel for the final fit. 

Just a word about the final fitting, this is really the most crucial part.  You can try to just fit the entire piece in and trim back where there is overlap but in the past I have gotten a 'drift' of the rout as one side fits and the other doesn't so you trim that side.  You can end up 'chasing yourself' and end up with more of a 'pool' effect where the inlay doesn't fit snugly.  Now I usually choose to fit from the bottom or top first.  In this case the bottom was larger and flatter so I tried to fit the bottom in first.  Once I had a snug fit I could then trim the top to fit.  This prevented the bottom from floating as much.  I did run into a little chip out close to some of the fret slots and will have to fill these later with epoxy.

Glueing in the inlay is also tricky.  I use epoxy and hardener from Stew Mac and then mix in ebony dust I have from routing.  I create a fairly thick mixture, more of a paste.  I then put the paste into the rout and press the inlay piece in.  If your rout is somewhat of a pool, you have to be careful that piece doesn't slide once covered.  I have a caul to fit over the fretboard when I am ready to press and dry.  Also if your pieces had broken during the fitting phase, you will have to reassemble them and ensure that they have a clean fit again.  I then cover with wax paper, put the caul with the reverse radius over it and clamp and let dry.

Once I let it dry for 24 hours I am ready for sanding.  You can see some air pockets are the inlay which will need to be filled.  Usually glueing ends up being a two part process.  First is to affix the inlay in the route, the second is to even out the drying of the glue.  As the expoxy hardens it does contract and if there are air bubbles you will get pockets.

I usually will use flat 80-100 grit just to remove a percentage of the glue. In this case I really didn't need to. I started in with the 180 grit on a 9.5 radius sanding block. This picture shows it sanded down to the point just before I will change to 220 grit for the final sanding. You will also notice some of the fret slots will need to be re-cut but not all of them.  The most important part with sanding is paying attention that you don't apply a lopsided radius.  It is easy to do.  I usually stand so that the finger board is horizontal to by body.  I will then rock my body and arms from the left to the right which minimize the turn you apply when you use your arms only.  This is slow work and you have to pay attention to inlay and how far you have sanded it.  Most inlay's are only a few mm in thickness.

Here is the fretboard, sanded and frets re-cut.  It is ready for it's first coat of oil.  These boards are usually very dry by the time I get them and since I live in a very arid part of the county they get bone dry.  At this stage I will normally oil it up once to let the wood recover before I put the frets in.  At this point you can evaluate the inlay.  In this case I did fairly well but 2 of the inlays were just slightly off.  It will be interesting to see if it becomes more obvious once the frets and strings provide a basic grid...  My goal is never perfection, if I wanted that then CNC would be the obvious choice, so a little bit of patience with yourself goes a long way.

Here is the fretboard after its first drink.  You can see the natural color of ebony coming out and the grains are more pronounced.  This will all settle down after a couple of days.  I usually won't do any sanding after oil application.  The next step will be the installation of the frets.

Now we can turn our attention to the headstock.

I am not sure what the headstock was made of.  I believe it to be an ebony veneer but am not sure.  The lotus design had two pieces to it designed to make one whole flower, I decided to split them apart.  You should be able to see the center line running through the center of the headstock.

 The procedure remains the same, whiteout, attach the pieces, scribe around the pieces, provide a stop cut with the chisel and then rout out the main part of the design with the 3/32 then trim with the 1/32 inch bit except this time it was done by my son :-)

For most of my routing I use the Dremel Drill with Router Base.  It seems to meet the need nicely.

Here is the headstock inlayed, sanded down to 400 grit and oiled.  I will apply whatever finish I do to the body.  I haven't decided that yet, although I do have some Spray Nitro that I have ben wanting to try.  It just hasn't been that warm yet.  While the work was being done on the neck I began prepping the body.  I soaked it in paint stripper for a couple of days then scraped the paint of which came off quite easily.  Underneath the paint is what I call the "zoot suit".  I have not found a stripper or toxic chemical yet that will remove the "zoot suit".  This is when the random orbital sander comes in handy, but the sides and horns need to be done by hand which is tedious at best.  Make sure you are wearing a good breathing filtration device, you don't want to inhale this stuff.

This is an important picture.  It is the first glimpse of the vision.  The wood is .  It was a butcher block three piece which is fairly standard on cheap guitars.  One of the boards looked exactly like mahogany.  One looked a little like ash and the other was just ugly (IMHO).  I had in mind an opaque color for the body to match the fretboard and headstock.  I thought of putting a 'racing stripe' of elm burl veneer down the middle and up the black.  I tested the veneer process and painted three swatches on them.  Ebony, natural and Cherry.  Everyone like the cherry but me.  I liked the natural and ebony.

I researched several different ways to "ebonize" the body.  I wanted a very deep opaque black.  I had  the materials for 3 Ways.  One was a Color Tone Stain, another was oil stain that they use for leather and a mini-wax ebony stain that I had used on the Stratocaster.  I pre-treated the wood with a pre-stain and let that dry for about 30 min.  I was decided on the oil stain and was read to go for it when I just had a desire to do it Cherry and see how it would turn out, if it didn't work out I could always 'ebonize' it.  So I put one coat of the cherry on pretty thickly,  waited 10 minutes and wiped it dry.  Let it dry for 4 hours and then I applied a second coat pretty thickly also.  Let that dry for another 10-15 minutes and wiped that off.

Here is the shot from the rear.  Really not a bad lookin guitar...  I am thinking of doing a quick wipe with the ebony mini-wax and see what turns up, I can always try my black spray paint :-)

Well ended up not opting for the black spray paint but finished with a Watco Danish Oil Finish and a nitro finish on top of that.  For the Danish Oil I 'soak' the guitar in the oil, let it dry for about 10-15min then wipe it down.  The next time I repeat with wet sanding 400 grit.  This creates a slurry which fills the pores and any uneveness.  I let it dry for 10-15 min.  Then I wipe it down.  Then let dry overnight.  I will repeat this until I get to about 1000 grit and the guitar is very smooth to touch.  I let dry for at least 48 hours. 

This provides an excellant base for the nitrocellulose finish.  I am trying out the spray can version since I don't currently have an airbrush.  I did the last guitar with a hair brush so I figured one step at a time...  I improvised a spray booth in my garden shed.  I warmed the spray can to about 80 degrees by sitting it in a hot water bath.  I have never spray painted so it took a little getting used to.  I got some beading and a couple of small runs which seemed to resolve a little with second and third coats.  I spaced the coats out by 2 hours and then will let it dry overnight.  Tomorrow night I will sand and apply more coats.

In the meantime I was working on attaching the fingerboard to the neck.  Having never worked wtih this scale neck before it was a little different.  Where the stratocaster finger boards have space for a nut, the Ibanez did not.  Trying to glue the nut square to the fingerboard was a little tricky and I did have a little uneveness where the 6th string would go over the nut.  I then drilled three guide holes for the fingerboard, applied glue and clamped together.  Unfortuntately I did not think ahead and I was already gluing something so the number of clamps became an issue.  I also forgot I have a fingerboard caul...  So I ended up using only three clamps.  It came out ok, but with some gaps between the finger board and the neck.

I decided to move forward anyway and trip the fretboard to the neck.  Normally I do this with a hammer and chisel.  I forgot I had purchased a scroll saw which would have made quick and efficient work of the overhang...  Once I roughed it in with the chisel I sanded it down to approximate width.

I also noticed some rattling (never a good thing) from in the neck.  I decided due to the poor glue job and the rattling I was going to have to re-glue the fingerboard,which meant taking off the fingerboard I just glued on.  Using an iron and a spatula I separated the fingerboard from the neck and found the problem.  The top of the truss rod had come free from the threads.  I don't know if it's repairable or not, will have to look at it more closely in the morning.