Grem Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: Post glamour shots of the final finish! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 @Starship Krupa I have no idea what the body is. The neck is of the same wood. It's has Indian Laurel for the fretboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Sorry for some of the large pics. I tried to right click them and shrink them but it wouldn't work on my Surface9. I did fix that nut. Repaired the chunk of wood that had broke off. If you saw it you wouldn't know it ever was broke. Put a Tusq nut with Tusq String Trees. I want to replace all my Strat style guitars with the type of nut. Works really well. I can use the tremolo bar moderately and it stays in tune. Also when tuning I never hear that 'ping'. I also bought some new pups for it, new CTS pots with Orange drop caps, an cloth wiring. All that made a huge difference in the sound and response. She really has a great response with the silky Strat sound that I love. While I was doing all that extra work, I went ahead and put some cooper shielding all though the pup cavity and on the backside of the pick guard. It works really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 The neck. I did a lot of sanding to the neck. I wanted it to have a “well played” feel to it. So I thinned the Tru Oil with Mineral Spirits so that the wood would suck it in real good. And again, after each coat I would sand with 0000 steel wool. I didn’t count how many coats I put on the neck. But it was a lot. I was really happy with the end product. The neck has that well played feel. It has a silky feel that I like. I did have some scaring in places on the fret board where I did my learning when smoothing the fret ends. You wouldn’t notice anything, but I can see it. In fact I sent @mettelus some pics of the ‘damage’ and he said it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. But I notice it! And that brings me to the next phase. The more I played it, the more I loved the sound. But I couldn't get comfortable with the fret board. Couldn't put my finger on it at first, but realized after much playing and comparing, the fretboard radius is too flat. Found out it has 16" radius. I am use to a guitar with more curve than that. SO... I started searching for a new neck. And let me state again, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Seriously. It was like I jumped off the deep end. The real deep end!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 3 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: a Behringer that I refretted Ya gotta tell me about that job!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookiee Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 5 hours ago, Grem said: @Starship Krupa I have no idea what the body is. The neck is of the same wood. It's has Indian Laurel for the fretboard. It looks like sapele, which is very similar to mahogany, but a more environmentally friendly. My Spacy Telecaster body is Sapele has nice tone, and rings when tapped. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 5 hours ago, Grem said: I did have some scaring in places on the fret board where I did my learning when smoothing the fret ends. You wouldn’t notice anything, but I can see it. In fact I sent @mettelus some pics of the ‘damage’ and he said it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. But I notice it! Truth is when you work something, you often see every square inch of it multiple times over. To put this into perspective for folks... IIRC, those scratches were on the lower edge of the board and near the heel to boot. Not a location someone would see without "examining" it anyway. It is similar to a car in some respects... the "6 foot view" is all most people will ever notice. Unless you post that pic you sent me (zoomed in so only 2 frets were in the frame), chances are no one else will notice it either. We are always our own worst critics.,,, the work you did looks damn nice! 6 hours ago, Grem said: I did a lot of sanding to the neck. I wanted it to have a “well played” feel to it. So I thinned the Tru Oil with Mineral Spirits so that the wood would suck it in real good. And again, after each coat I would sand with 0000 steel wool. I didn’t count how many coats I put on the neck. But it was a lot. I was really happy with the end product. The neck has that well played feel. It has a silky feel that I like. I am actually redoing an antique walnut table right now. The original finish was almost "expresso," but that masks the grain, so soon after staining it (and watching that grain disappear back to its "original" look), I immediately wiped the excess off to preserve the grain. For a table top, you want something incredibly thick, so I started with spar varnish, but that dries so slowly that it gathers dust as it goes. I have so much Tru Oil left over that I ended up putting that on with a staining brush to get the thickness I wanted (just need to rough and be sure nothing go embedded between coats). The final polish will be similar to a car after that (why automotive tools tend to find use a lot).... wet sanding, grinding/polishing compound, etc. Automotive paints go on roughly 1.5 mils thick per coat, and rubbing Tru Oil is probably less than .5 mils. The finish on a gun stock is probably 30 mils (guestimate there), so there was no way I was rubbing 60+ coats on a table. Nice thing about Tru Oil is it topcoats itself perfectly, can be put on incredible thin if desired, and polishes up nicely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Joad Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 12 hours ago, Grem said: While I was doing all that extra work, I went ahead and put some cooper shielding all though the pup cavity and on the backside of the pick guard. It works really well. Smart👍🏼 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 (edited) 6 hours ago, mettelus said: redoing an antique walnut table right now. Pics! I know you put your guitar on there to change the strings!! . Edited August 3 by Grem 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 That table is actually way down on my priority list and been on the back burner for 3 decades. I didn't even think to take any pics of the top before I stripped it. It has always been covered with a table cloth and what really bothered me was a sway it always had on the long axis. Even that didn't bother me so much till I got the laser engraver, and the weight of the head forced me to make the sway path of that (like and old dot-matrix printer) go in the most stable direction. Note to self at that point was if I ever touch that table, the first thing it gets is a truss! Since the truss was lily-white, that was where the refinishing came into play. I did take some pics of that, but the base was off and the top was upside down then. I will take more pics as I finish that up... it is actually a set of 3 pieces (table, buffet, and cabinet) I picked up at a garage sale in 1993 IIRC. Old varnish gets a square texture to the surface over time, so the buffet would make a good "before" comparison.... lol... I just remembered the extension leaf is in a closet somewhere... I can put that in when done (I haven't touched that). Quick side note on the finishing... I have always used paint strippers that are nasty (and explosive to boot), so picked up some CitriStrip to try it out. That stuff is friggin awesome!! It actually works on old varnish as fast as anything (5-10 minutes max), and can be left on up to 24 hours to soak in (I just did a repeat application). No fumes, smells nice, and won't catch fire or explode on a pilot light. Works great to get oil-based paint out of brushes after use and cleans up afterwards with simple Dawn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 (edited) 5 hours ago, mettelus said: picked up some CitriStrip to try it out. That stuff is friggin awesome!! Thanks for that info. That will be file for later use. Edited August 4 by Grem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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