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  #106  
Old 01-22-2017, 02:32 AM
LSemmens LSemmens is offline
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After playing the beastie for a little while you won't even notice the finish. It is a lovely looking guitar, and, FWIW, I can't see anything wrong with it.
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  #107  
Old 01-22-2017, 03:13 PM
SnowManSnow SnowManSnow is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LSemmens View Post
After playing the beastie for a little while you won't even notice the finish. It is a lovely looking guitar, and, FWIW, I can't see anything wrong with it.


It's just unlevel is all. I tried a brush on finish... really hard to level... at least at my level of experience.... which is very little.


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  #108  
Old 01-23-2017, 08:20 AM
Sam VanLaningham Sam VanLaningham is offline
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Looks great! Nice work.

Sam
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  #109  
Old 01-23-2017, 08:25 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Originally Posted by LSemmens View Post
After playing the beastie for a little while you won't even notice the finish. It is a lovely looking guitar, and, FWIW, I can't see anything wrong with it.
Exactly. That first build is not supposed to be perfect. It's just supposed to look like a guitar. From what I'm told, here on in you're supposed to tweak the process on each subsequent build.

FWIW yours looks just fine. My first isn't perfect but I understand that you see it's flaws as some reflection of your mistakes or inadequacies. It's not like getting a call from the school principle when one of your kids gets called to the office for getting into a scrap on the playground or talking back to the teacher.
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  #110  
Old 01-23-2017, 08:52 AM
SnowManSnow SnowManSnow is offline
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Originally Posted by kwakatak View Post
Exactly. That first build is not supposed to be perfect. It's just supposed to look like a guitar. From what I'm told, here on in you're supposed to tweak the process on each subsequent build.

FWIW yours looks just fine. My first isn't perfect but I understand that you see it's flaws as some reflection of your mistakes or inadequacies. It's not like getting a call from the school principle when one of your kids gets called to the office for getting into a scrap on the playground or talking back to the teacher.


I agree.
The first is VERY much just an introduction to the process.


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  #111  
Old 02-03-2017, 08:02 PM
SnowManSnow SnowManSnow is offline
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Interesting development.
So I attached my feet board to my neck (which I already fitted to the dovetail joint) now my neck won't seat. Not even really close.
I THINK the fretboard is holding it off at the very top.
So that sucks ... Live and learn.
That being said how do I fix this?
Do I slowly sand down that section of the top or do I try and thickness the fretboard down where it is hitting and leave the top alone?





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Ok I wanted to follow up on this in case a "newer builder" was following the thread.

In short there was a gap between the fretboard and soundboard because the neck wouldn't sit back far enough into the dove tail. Although the build in CURRENTLY working on isn't a dovetail joint I had the SAME issue when trying to dry fit the neck! So.... I scratched my head and realized the obvious.

The back of the male joint was simply too long not allowing the neck to slip back far enough. By sanding some of that down it was able to fall into a more acceptable area in the joint. Thus almost eliminating the gap...

Hope this is the correct fix and that the experience helps someone out
B



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  #112  
Old 02-06-2017, 10:06 AM
Truckjohn Truckjohn is offline
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On the finish process.

First - you need to build a sufficiently thick finish
Then - you level the finish.

A good rule of thumb for starters is 0.010"-0.015" of finish build prior to leveling so you can hit 0.002"-0.003" final levelled finish thickness.

That's a lot more than brushing on 1 or 2 coats... More like 8-15 coats.

Between coats with varnish or poly - I scuff and knock down high spots. It's important there to minimize crossgrain scratching.

Once you have built your finish... Move to leveling. I wet sand working my way from 400 up to 2,000 and then hand rub with compound. Change the water between grits so you don't contaminate your fine paper with coarse grit.

One trick here is to start each grit with crossgrain sanding to level and finish with long grain sanding to remove the crossgrain scratches. Then move to the next grit crossgrain and then long grain....

I don't generally sand out 100% of the little dips before I move on to a finer grit... I usually stop at 90 or 95% to minimize risk of sanding through the finish.

Thanks
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