'54 Goldtop Tele project

[jackthehack]

Did a quick test shot of the toner; look like Behlen Walnut Medium brown is dark enough to mask the mahogany coloration difference between neck and body and pretty damn close to the original as can be seen from the below (pic of neck/body comes out a little darker than actual).

As is often the case, the neck needs another fill that can be real hard to discern from sanding sealer coat, but immediately obvious with toner application.

Tip: When filling grain with dark/colored filler, easier to do last fill or two with clear. You still have the coloration in the grain, but easier to sand back without pulling filler from grain pores if you're not also trying to remove coloration from rest of wood, and the color still shows fine.

This Behlen toner is THIN; going to stick with it as this solves my color issues, but has to be applied in EXTREMELY thin coats, just barely laying any down and slowly building up toner layer.

 

[jackthehack]

A thickish application of clear filler as done the trick; sanded that back to #320 and applied a couple of coats of sanding sealer. Need to let that cure until tomorrow and sand back to #400 before starting to battle with toner....

 

[jackthehack]

Went and baked in tanning bed, 1st serious toner attempt. Neck came out perfect and already has  2 gloss nitro top coats. Not sure about body... Toner's kind of going a little opaque if applied enough to even color out with neck, may sand back and try again...

 

[Nando Vallart]

Wow Jack! You're getting the same level of -CB- in finishing!! It's getting nice this guitar!

 

[-CB-]

I sincerely hope he far far exceeds my level..... and that would be an EASY thing to do, btw.

Maybe if I had access to a tanning bed at a titty-bar I could do better... but alas, its not to be (right now)

 

[jackthehack]

Next step....primer. After spending almost an hour tearing off teeny tiny pieces of masking tape to mask off the top lip of the binding, we shoot a goodly coat of white nitro primer. This reveals that the seemingly completely smooth piece of flame top maple isn't really completely smooth and goes on like, well, primer! This leads to the next two major pain in the ass steps, 1.) sanding the primer back to #400 so it's smooth and 2.) shooting at least a couple of coats of sanding sealer and sanding that back as well... This is complicated by not wanting to dislodge the masking that just took an hour...

As it's cloudy - as can be seen from the lighting below, and more humid today, don't know if the dry times will allow getting to the Goldtop coats today...

 

[jackthehack]

Lack of sunlight offset by warm breeze; got sanding sealer coats leveled back, about 5 coats of the Goldtop Gold - using ReRench.com's repro paint in aerosol, goes on THIN - and it's time to unwrap all the masking...

The ReRanch.com Goldtop Gold goes on real thin, and it takes a lot of coats to cover. It's really like the equivalent of 5 coats, but many more light applications. It dries pretty quick, and subsequent coats "melt" in and kind of self-even a little. The can comes with 2 nozzles, immediately throw the white one away and just use the red. Don't know what the white nozzle is for, but if you let up on it while over the wood it ALWAYS sends drip splatter flying. Color is great, used flash on the pic below, no sun here today, but the flash pic is pretty damn close...

Now what's everybody's opinion on binding scraper tool? X-acto knife? Something else?

 

[-CB-]

Exacto blade, with end snapped off works good.  I used an Olfa blade, same diff.

 

[Tonar8352]

I use an OLFA cutter.  The blades snap off clean so I keep a sharp edge as it starts to dull.  So what are you thoughts on painting a guitar with binding?

 

[jackthehack]

Definitely more of a challenge/pain in the ass/not for the faint heart depending on your perspective. Then again, I still have to find an OLFA cutter and scrape the binding without screwing up/chipping into the Goldtop finish....

This has gone a lot smoother/quicker than I'd imagined it would - knock on guitar wood - need to order the rest of the parts in the a.m. as I thought it would take me a least another week to finish it, but it got unseasonably warm here and I cheated with the tanning bed so I haven't had to cope with extended dry times.

I definitely would leave any finish on a double bound body to Warmoth, wonder if they have some solid masking forms they use to do bound tops or that "natural" binding finsh they do. I would certainly sell out and but one of those....

 

[-CB-]

It takes the ladies at Gibson about 5 minutes to completely scrape an ES-335, front and back.  If he's still there, there was only one male scraper on the line, and about 20 female scrapers.  Gibson themselves say... for some reason, the ladies do it better, faster, neater.  I believe them.  Been there, done that, but... hours later, it was scraped!

 

[jackthehack]

And they do how many in a day? Send a cute one by and I'll let her scrape the binding....

 

[Nando Vallart]

hehehehehehehe  :cool01:
Txu ru ru ru ru ru!

 

[Tonar8352]

Binding will definitely test you and make you a nervous wreck.  I’m right there with CB, I get it done but it takes me way to long.  

 

[-CB-]

Jack, one thing to remember also, is to "break" the edge of the binding for the clearcoat to go around.  If you dont do that, it will avoid the edge and give you fits.  I'm not sure if I did it correctly, but I swiped a slight 45 degree (more or less) onto the binding after scraping, then hit it with some 400 grit to sort of smooth out that edge and made a bit of a micro-radius.  Sharp edge after scraping = not good.  And, man... that went against all my perfection of gunsmithing where beautiful sharp crisp edges are something to be proud of. 

 

[jackthehack]

You mean 45 degree angle DOWN from edge of wood to outside edge of binding? Or just a 45 degree angle off the outside edge/tip of binding? Either way makes this scarier... Have to go pick up OLFA cutter tomorrow.

 

[-CB-]

Imagine the corner of the binding - the place where the two edges of the binding meet.  Normally that would be a 90 degree angle, or perhaps a bit less when scraped (very slightly beveled scraping is found even on Gibson).  Ok.. that corner... that 90 degree angle.... it cannot be left there.  It must be "broken".  Just run the scraper along the edge and get a sort of 45 degree flat on it.  Very very narrow.  Maybe 1/64 inch at most.  Just "break" the edge.  Now you have a 45 degree break on the edge.  Take that 45 degree break, and sand it just slightly.  Barely... so that those 45 degree angles are rolled a bit.  That'll do it.

Its an easy thing to do after the scraping is all done. 

Easy as 1....2....3  (the bevel is shown MUCH larger than it should be... for clarity in the diagram.  Please... it should be a very small bevel on the edge....)

There's the snap off OLFA blades, which fit in a little cutter handle.  They've got a few cutter handles available, but thats basically the blade.  That pack of 100 blades will last more than my lifetime, they're pretty good stuff.

 

[rockdude326]

I can't wait to see how this one turns out.  The concept is definitely kickass...I'm sure that thing will rip.  :headbang1:

 

[jackthehack]

Don't have time until the weekend to get back on this, hopefully the weather will hold and I'll be able to get all the initial lacquer coats on after cleaning up the binding a fixing a couple of "go-overs" on the top. All the rest of the parts should arrive Friday.

 

[jackthehack]

Should have had you send one of those 335 girls down; have managed to screw this up and scrape a hair too far; don't know you can tell from pic below, but I guess there isn't anything to do but sand the top back and start over? Part of the problem is that damn white primer, makes it hard to delineate the binding edge. Any ideas before I sand this back and start over? Don't see anyway to "touch up"....