12 String Telecaster - Clear Coats

After 3 days worth of clear coats with White Knight gloss acrylic (3 coats per day), the 12 String Telecaster was ready for a couple of weeks hanging over the Christmas period. Now with its builder sporting a rather rotund post-holiday visage, the acrylic has cured sufficiently (just a slight lingering smell) to allow the clear to be flattened with 600 grit. With the orange peel removed and the surface brought down to an even matt finish, I was able to spray the final 3 coats of clear.

Acrylic levelled with 600 grit an final coats applied.

Time now to let this baby hang for a month or so to let the clear coats fully cure. It will then be time for the final cut and polish. In the meantime, I have to get started on the neck finish. I still have to get some 400 grit paper to finish the sanding, then a grain fill, amber dye job and copious layers of Tru-Oil.

With hindsight, I'm not sure that the choice of a trans-black finish was the best for this build. I think that in the end the dye job was too heavy and that the flame maple figure is lost in all that black. I definitely applied too many dye coats, and I should have stopped when the body was more of a "grey" tint with the flames standing out. Oh well, lesson learned. It's still gonna be a nice black Tele.

Jeremy's Mahogany Les Paul: Clear Coats!

A week has past since my last post on Jeremy's Mahogany Les Paul build. In the intervening days, the body has been receiving regular coats of White Knight Gloss Acrylic, and Tru-Oil has been slowly building on the neck. This is the first time I've sprayed acrylic clear directly onto a dyed flame-maple top and I gotta say that I'm pretty bloody happy with the results! I wasn't sure how much the flame maple would pop without a bit of oil soaked into the figure, but I needn't have worried. The flame maple is looking really really great! There's even a crap-load of chatoyance visible in the grain, and I really didn't expect that! I think Jeremy's gonna be pretty pleased with how she's looking.

Acrylic clear coats building nicely and popping that flame figure.

The thin coats of Tru-Oil are building much more slowly on the neck, but already the grain is looking really nice here too. I'm giving it a smooth down with 0000 steel wool every 3 coats or so, so after another hundred or so coats she'll be feeling really nice indeed :). After 3 or 4 more coats of acrylic I'll give the body a smooth down with 600 grit, bung on a couple of top coats and leave it to cure.

Ash Stratocaster: Wet-Sanding & Polishing

After a few hours on the IR lamp, and with no discernible smell of chemicals coming off the surface, I guessed that the acrylic lacquer on the Ash Stratocaster was ready for polishing. I started with 1500 grit wet/dry paper, and wet-sanded until all the low (shiny) spots were removed from the surface. There were one or two pinholes in the finish, unfortunately caused by the ash grain and my own inexperience lacquering bare wood, so this is something to look out for next time.

With the surface nice and matt from the 1500 grit, it was time for the 2000 grit. After a good wet-sanding with 2000 (which took much, much less time than the 1500), the matt look was beginning to be replaced with a dull shine. Time for some Meguiars Ultimate Compound! The photos below show the surface after one application of the Meguiars Ultimate.

Meguiars Ultimate Compound to bring the shine after the 2000-grit.

Nice huh? The transformation under the ministrations of the Ultimate Compound are always amazing to behold. The shine seems to just materialise out of thin air. The next step (tomorrow) is to give the surface a second application of this compound and then move on to the Meguiars ScratchX 2.0 to really complete the shine.

My gold hardware also arrived from Pitbull Guitars today, as well as a white perloid pickguard. The gold hardware really looks excellent with the blue body and the white guard, and I can't wait to get them put together. The hardware also includes gold mounting screws and all the bits and bobs, so in the end there will be plenty of bling to see on this bad boy!

Gold hardware is looking the business! White pearloid looks great too.

The neck also looks great, although a blue headstock would have been better.

All in all, this build is shaping up to be a really nice looking axe. Up until this point, I've not really been much of a Stratocaster fan to be perfectly honest. But you know what, this guitar might just be the one that converts me. I guess it will depend on how nice she is to play. Based on the initial neck profile, I'm thinking she's goinna be sweet with a little attention paid to the setup and the action.

Ash Stratocaster: Ready for Polish

After a day of rain and no way to spray outdoors, the weather was bright and sunny today and I was able to get the can of White Knight clear acrylic out for a final coat on the Ash Stratocaster. The surface was beautiful and level after my previous ministrations, and the final coat went on like a dream. Both the front and back look really beautiful now - it's amazing how much it has helped enhance the underlying grain!

Final Clear Coat for Polishing. The Ash Grain is Looking Amazing.

Nothing for it now but to let this final coat cure for a few days under the IR lamp until the smell disappears. Patience is a virtue at times like these - or at least having a second build to be getting on with! I've learnt from previous experience that there's no point polishing until the curing is done. Disappointment is sure to follow! I am very excited to see this build put together though...

Ash Stratocaster: Clearing, Levelling, Rinse and Repeat..

More levelling and clear coating today on the Ash Stratocaster. Firstly, I took the acrylic clear back with 800 grit wet-sanding until both my shoulder was aching and I was stricken in terror lest I sand through to the dye. The top was *almost* level - just a few grain lines poking through - but I decided more clear wouldn't hurt.

Surface levelled with 600 grit. It's not perfect yet, but it's getting there!

After a good clean it was on with two more coats of acrylic gloss. Man, now she really shines - and the shinier she gets, the more the blue is enhanced and the grain pops. And it's just amazing how different this blue Colortone looks inside the cave versus out in the sun! Anyway, here's the new shine:

Two more coats and a bake under the IR lamp. The shine is getting there!

Looking pretty good! After these two coats nearly all of the grain has been filled. You can still see a few small grain lines that remain in the clear:

It's shiny but some grain lines remain. Back to the 800 grit!

One more round of 800 grit wet-sanding and a final coat of acrylic should remove these lines and allow one more coat of clear to complete the job. After that she'll be ready for curing and polishing. It's gonna to take a week or so to cure fully under my heat lamp (I'll basically wait until all the smell is gone from the surface). But the curing starts on Friday! More levelling to do before then. Better rest my sanding arm!

Ash Stratocaster: More Acrylic from the Can

Today I spent time getting more acrylic lacquer onto the Ash Stratocaster. Yesterday I managed 5 coats - representing most of a full can of White Knight Clear Acrylic Gloss. Today I applied 2 more coats, flattened the surface somewhat with 800 grit paper, and then applied two more coats. Between coats, both yesterday and today, I have had the body in front of my IR lacquer curer (outdoor heater from Bunnings) and that has helped speed up the process brilliantly.

The lacquer is slowly building up a gloss finish.

More uneven grain on the front means more rough places to take care of.

The back is much more level then the front, and looking good!

The result is a guitar body that is starting to level up, but is still a little rough in places where the ash grain is still showing through. In these places in particular, there area few "pinholes" that I will need to take care of with some carefully placed lacquer. That's a job for tomorrow before I flatten the surface again with 800 grit. Hopefully with a couple more coats she'll be ready for a final wet-sand with 1500 and then 2000 grits, followed by a polish with Meguiars compounds.

While the body has been curing I have also been able to slowly build up coats of Tru-Oil on the neck. Currently there are now 7 thin coats over the Vintage Amber dye, and she's starting to look nice and shiny.

7 Coats of Tru-Oil on the Neck and She's Looking Good

Not only does she look nice, she is really starting to feel nice too. I have been applying 0000 steel wool between coats, and between the 6th and 7th coat I gave the whole surface a light wet-sand with 1500 grit. A few more of those and she'll be ready for the decal.

Today I bit the bullet and ordered a set of Stratocaster Gold Hardware from the good folks at Pitbull Guitars. I'm hoping that the gold will put the finishing touch on this axe. I've never seen a blue axe that didn't look amazing with gold. Here's hoping!

Ash Stratocaster: Black Burst? Um, No.

Got more dye on to the Ash Stratocaster today. What I had intended as a black burst ended up like this. Can you see the burst? No I can't see it either.

She's much darker in real-life, but looks great through the camera!

I'm not sure what happened to the black. The wood seemed to saturate very quickly and try as I might I couldn't blend the black into the blue without obliterating it completely. I think the black just darkened the entire body in the end, although the end grain has retained quite a lot of it. The only place on the body!

Anyway, with no burst forthcoming I decided to press on and get the clear coats started. In this photo there are 3 coats of acrylic clear on the body. The ash grain is still poking through the clear coats at the moment, indicating that my Timbermate grain filling process didn't fill them entirely. No matter. To be honest, even though it means that the guitar wont be as glossy as it might be, I like seeing the ash grain pattern in the surface of the finish.

Acrylic Gloss from a Can

The acrylic clear I am using for this project is the canned variety from White Knight. In the past I have used auto acrylic and my own spray equipment, but I thought I'd give this a go. It's more expensive than the bulk auto acrylic+thinner, but it is sooo much more convenient to use. I'm seeing if I can get just as good a finish with this, including the wet-sanding and polishing. The ash grain may well defeat me in this, but we'll see. Tomorrow I'll get more acrylic clear coats on and we'll see if that pesky grain is going to fill up or not!