Ash Mosrite: Tobacco Burst and Tru-Oil

Finally some progress on the Ash Mosrite. I filled the deep ash grain with some Walnut Timbermate and then got to work on the creation of a subtle tobacco burst. The burst is a combination of Vintage Amber, Red Mahogany and Tobacco Brown Colortone dyes.  I'm pretty happy with it, although it could have been a little darker on the edges. I probably should have used some black as the last step, but I'm not going to go messing with it now!

With the Colortone dye applied, I got out the Tru-Oil and slapped a couple of coats on to try and pop the grain as much as possible. The ash just soaked it right up, enhancing the grain nicely, and with no noticeable addition of shine.

Successful tobacco burst. The 2 coats of Tru-Oil have helped pop the grain.

In the end, I'm going to add gloss Acrylic clear coats to this sucker. I'm hoping that the Tru-Oil will fill the pores and create a barrier between the wood and the acrylic, without stopping the acrylic clear from bonding to the timber. I did have a few pinhole problems with the acrylic clear coats on the Ash Stratocaster build, so I'm hoping that maybe this is the answer. I guess we'll have to wait and see if it works.

With the Tru-Oil dry I could finally get a feel for the final look with my P90 scratchplate installed. You can see it in all its whiteness in the photo below.

My custom white scratchplate over the burst.

Unfortunately my first impression of the white with the brown is not too positive. The white just jumps out way too much for the subtle body colour. In stark contrast, the original black scratchplate looks much better.

The original black scratchplate.

It looks like black is a winner! Looks like I'll have to go back and get a black version of the P90 scratchplate made. I might even have to swap out the cream soap bar covers with black ones, but I'll wait and see how the cream looks with the black scratchplate before I make that decision. Time to get the White Knight Gloss Acrylic cans out and get spraying!

Ash Mosrite: Arm Rest & Tummy Cut

I gained a few spare, precious minutes today while my work laptop restored from backup, and that gave me the chance to finally get back to some guitar building - if only briefly. With the increase in weight that the Ash body of my new MKA-2 Mosrite build has gained over the original basswood, I have been mulling over a few simple body cuts. At the risk of turning the MK-2 into a strat (well almost) one obvious solution was to add a tummy cut and an arm rest to the signature Ventures Mk II shape.

Not having ever attempted something like this before, I was a little hesitant, but really how hard could it be? With my trusty rasp and half-round bastard file I decided to find out. After free-handing the cuts with a pencil (using a ruler only for the edge of the arm rest on the front face of the guitar) it was in at the deep end with the rasp. The wood came away easily (a little too easily!) and soon I had the shapes I was after. It was then on to the file to clean up the rather deep gauges left by the rasp.

The file cleaned these up fairly well, and also allowed me to smooth over all the transitions. Lastly it was on to the 80 grit sandpaper to finish everything off and remove the remainder of the rasp and file marks. Man, I do love a good piece of 80 grit paper! The solution to all life's problems.

My first ever tummy cut

With an arm rest to go along with it. It still 'aint a strat, is it??

All in all I'm very happy with the results. In the end it was a very painless exercise, even for someone as inept at woodworking as myself (yes really).  I'm hoping that this guitar will be even nicer to play than my original Johnny Ramone tribute build! Now to get some serious sanding done so I can get on and stain this beautiful Ash body. Stay tuned!

Ash Mosrite: P90s and a New Scratchplate

A little more progress on the Ash Mosrite today, with the arrival of a new scratchplate from my mate Craig - Pablopepper on the BuildYourOwnGuitar forum. The plan is to change the stock pickups to a pair of Entwistle X90s, and so a new scratchplate was required with P90 routes. The new scratchplate arrived yesterday and it looks great.

I had to route out a little of the body to accommodate the larger bridge pickup. I also cut some rubber floor matting to be placed under the pickups. This allows the pickups to sit higher, and allows some height adjustment if needed.

Rubber matting brings the P90s up and allows height adjustment if needed.

The scratchplate went straight on without any sizing issue of any kind (great work Craig!!) and the resulting P90 setup looks really killer. I always wanted a Jazzmaster with this setup, but I reckon the Mosrite shape is going to look even better!

Even without the scratchplate covering she is looking fantastic.

P90 routes are perfectly placed and sized for my Entwistle X90s.

I should really do a mock build with the new pickups in place just to make sure that the strings pass correctly over the pole pieces, but just sizing it up by eye it all looks good to me. I'm itching to get the mock build out of the way so that I can start finishing. I'm planning a tobacco burst, with walnut Timbermate to pop the grain. Should look awesome with the white scratchplate!

Ash Mosrite: Unboxing

Well, the postie has been and gone this morning and left a spanking new kit on my doorstep. A special order from Adam and the lads at Pitbull Guitars, it's an MKA-2 - the version of their popular MK-2 Mosrite kit with a 2-piece ash body. I ordered this bad boy the minute I opened up my original basswood MK-2 kit, and although it has taken a couple of months to arrive, it has been well worth the wait!

Unboxing time - I'm still like a kid in a candy store!

The kit comes complete with a solid ash body, a 23-fret rock maple neck (with the important zeroth fret and Mosrite headstock shape), and an authentically shaped pickguard. The stock configuration is powered by a single coil at the bridge position, and a Chinese mini-hum at the neck position. Exactly the same as the MK-2 kit.

With the box open, I could get a good look at the slabs of wood that I had purchased. The body is made up of a couple of nice pieces of ash with a subtle vertical grain pattern. To be honest, I wouldn't have said no to a little more of that beautiful ash grain - but hey, that's the luck of the draw.

The body is a two piece, subtly grained slab of ash.

The neck on the other hand has the most grain I think I have ever seen in a piece of rock maple, with many vertical grain lines to be seen all over the headstock

Now that's some grain for a rock maple neck!

The craftsmanship on both the body and the neck are spot on with no nicks, dents or even glue spots in evidence. That's great news since I am planning a tobacco burst for this sucker. The neck fit is also nice and tight which will give me maximum sustain once this baby is bolted together.

You might remember that I recently purchased a roller bridge and Xtrem tremolo system for my Thinline Cabronita build. I would dearly love to get a tremolo onto this build too - it would just look so damn good. Here is a mockup with the Xtrem and roller bridge in place. It looks awesome if I do say so myself.

Xtrem tremolo and roller bridge positioned on the Mosrite body - cool as!

Unfortunately there is a problem with that plan. The problem is that the post holes for the stop-bar have come pre-drilled. I was hoping that these holes would be such that the tremolo would hide them - all I would have to do is fill them with dowel and finish right over them. Unfortunately no such luck with the Xtrem. The holes are too far apart for the tremolo to hide them completely. On a stained finish they are going to look awful.

Another option is a Bigsby B5/V5 combination. This will attach straight into the stop bar post holes perfectly, but at around $200 AUD a set (and then some) I'm still considering my options. I may have to finish the guitar sans tremolo (using the original stop bar for now) and purchase the B5/V5 when I have the cash.

Anyway, I'll keep my eye out for other tremolo options while I complete the mock build. For this kit that really only amounts to bolting the neck in place, so in no time at all I will be sanding this beast. Fun times!