Binding on an unfinished body?

[jkellington]

I'm not really looking at DIY'ing this, I would take it to a pro, but what's your take on putting binding on an unfinished body? (wenge/wenge in this case)  Is there anything in the binding process that requires a filler/sealant/finish, or will it just look horrible anyway?  I'm thinking of it primarily because I will be adding cream pups, pup rings and nut to this guitar and because the rest of the guitar is so dark I thought a cream binding would bring the whole thing together and unify the look a little bit.  Your thoughts?

 

[uOpt]

The first thing that screws you is the roundover of the edge.

 

[Unwound G]

The most important thing to get a neat binding is to have a clean and even binding channel rout.  StewMac sells a binding channel routing attachment for Dremel.

Also make sure the thickness of the binding matches the channel.

Pre-bend the binding strip before glueing it on which makes life much easier later.

Take your time glueing on the binding strip.  You don't have to do it all at one go.  Wipe off all excess glue and tape to secure the strip.

The final stage is to round off the edges which is a tedious and messy task but well worth the effort.  It will improve the look of your guitar tremendously.

 

[line6man]

No offense, but if you have a beautiful piece of raw wood, grown from a nice tree and perfected by nature, why would you want to disgrace it with a piece of plastic formed from synthetic material in a factory?

Usually the binding is under the Poly or whatever, but when you have bare wood, why put plastic on it?

To each his own i guess.

 

[Mor Paul]

^Don't listen to him. He epoxy'd a whole fancy bass neck. From that nature wood stuff, to a plastic.. thing.

 

[line6man]

^Don't listen to him. He epoxy'd a whole fancy bass neck. From that nature wood stuff, to a plastic.. thing.

:icon_jokercolor:

That's different.
The entire neck became encased in Epoxy/Poly, much the way most bodies with binding are encased in Poly.
Had it have been a raw neck with the fingerboard epoxied, that would be wrong, in the same vein that having a raw body with plastic binding would be.

I guess what i mean is that raw wood and plastic don't go with each other, but it's fine if it all goes under a finish.

 

[Mor Paul]

You're not making sense, Joe!

Poly is plastic. So it shouldn't go on raw wood in your opinion


:icon_jokercolor: /Just causing trouble

 

[jkellington]

Well I have the body here and I've taken a good lok at it with the pickups in and I won't be binding it, it looks fine unbound.  But I don't think I can leave it raw...

 

[tfarny]

Hey, you've got a wenge VIP body and we haven't seen pictures? I'm boycotting your threads till we see pics!  :icon_biggrin:

 

[m4rk0]

Yeah, you should be banned for that!!!  :icon_tongue:

 

[jkellington]

I know, I know.  I jsut got it last week and I've been super busy.  :sad: I'll try to have them up tonight.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I like binding, so go for it.  I don't have a clue how to do it, so no help there.

 

[jkellington]

Pics!  Find them here:

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=7493.15