Maple Top: Poor prep now showing ? guru advice needed

[Steve_Karl]

The mahogany back is fine ... probably because it's more forgiving than a maple top?

The top:
Everything looked ok after 3 coats of Master-Gel and buffing with a white scotch brite ...
... i.e. until I decided to go the extra mile and use the pack of micro mesh I didn't use on my last build.

So, I buffed the final coat all the way up to 12000 with micro mesh and what I have now is
the quilt maple top feels like glass and reflects like a new car finish ... i.e. at certain angles.
Looking straight at it also looks great.
But ...
... at other angles, I think I'm now seeing down to the wood surface and possible poor preparation
of the initial raw wood surface, and also possibly not enough attention to coat 1 before doing coat 2, 2 to 3 etc.

My camera can't shoot a fast enough shutter speed to catch the flaws I'm seeing, so photos won't show it, but to my
eye, when tilting it under good light, I'm seeing what looks like open grain in the maple, and it's pretty ugly.
If I angle it a bit farther back I get a decent mirror and can see my tools on the desk reflecting in the surface, and it looks perfect at that angle. ( so what's going on with this ? )

I thought that the maple top would be good to finish after going over it with 320, but I'm guessing now that
I should have sanded it up to about 800 or even more.
Also, using a gray or white scotch brite ( 1000 - 1200 grit ? ) to scuff coat 1 and coat 2 wasn't detailed enough.

I should have read the instructions for the micro mesh before I did anything, which generally says
3200 - 3600 between coats, but seeing it now I'd want to go to 4000 or even 6000 between coats, just to be sure.

If I take it back to raw wood I'd just want to do the flat of the top and the beginning of the curved edges.
The curved edges look fine and aren't showing any of the flaws I mentioned.
I'd probably roll the rubber sanding block slightly over the edge but not as far as the mahogany side.

What do you think?

 

[swarfrat]

You got more guts than I have. I haven't had the heart to go back to wood yet.

 

[Cagey]

It's really tough to say without being able to see it. But, it sounds like you went way above and beyond the call of duty as far as surface prep and between-coat attention. I've never heard of anybody going to those extremes before and have never gone that far myself, but still got great results. Usually, a 320 grit is the right thing for surface prep and between coats. You only go finer than that for pre-buffing on the final coat, where you might go as far as 1000-1200 grit. Then, you get into the various buffing/polishing compounds to get the high-end gloss wet look, if that's where you're going.

If that Maple top is figured, you should know that its appearance and reaction to light is very dependant on viewing angle and light intensity. With some grades, you can't even see the figure at some angles, while with others it shows up all over the place as if it's holographic. Bagman's Tele was that way with the quilt. I've never seen anything like it. It was essentially 3-dimensional. So, it may just be the wood and not your finish work. I'm working on a Korina body right now that from the same angle will show a lot of "curl" (flame) or none at all, depending on whether I use the flash. So, it's not just angle, it's the direction and intensity of the light hitting it.

So, you may be too hard on yourself. Show it to some other people, and see what they think.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Thanks Cagey.

It turns out that I need to get the 1/2" jack hole widened to a 7/8" electrosocket to use the 4 conductor 1/4" jack supplied by graphtech. Ring, Tip, Switch, Ground.
A normal, ring tip, sleeve won't work.

So my luthier buddy will be seeing it soon and he does a lot of finishing work so I'll get a diagnosis from him also.

 

[Steve_Karl]

You got more guts than I have. I haven't had the heart to go back to wood yet.

Yea. I sure don't want to. I put it together later yesterday and it's ready for wiring as soon as I get the jack hole
fixed.

It looks like now that if I do ever take it back down to wood it'll not be right away.