One more for the road

[ragamuffin]

Neck just arrived! Pretty nice! Not the wildest piece of ziricote or canary, but they're nice looking and this build has plenty of wild woodgrain already. And it has a cool eyeball by the 13th fret!

 

[TimesNewRoman]

I love that eyeball

 

[stratamania]

I think the guitar needs to be called Casablanca, Bogart or something, as it will be looking at you.

 

[ragamuffin]

Over the past couple days I worked on the neck; dressing/rounding the fret ends, polishing the frets with a dremel, polishing/burnishing the shaft up to 4000 with micromesh papers, and rubbing a drop or two of mineral oil into the fretboard.

I still don't have the pickup rings and knobs yet, but I was anxious to play so I used some old pickup plastic pickup rings and taped them on with masking tape so I could here how it sounds. I strung it up and plugged it in and it sounded kind of thin; turns out I had wired my bass cut pot backward so I fixed that and it's sounding great!

 

[TimesNewRoman]

Stunning. I may abandon my shellac plan and do this. Is this just tru oil and sand paper or did you add "stock sheen" (whatever that is) ?

 

[ragamuffin]

Stunning. I may abandon my shellac plan and do this. Is this just tru oil and sand paper or did you add "stock sheen" (whatever that is) ?

Thanks! Yes I applied the initial coats with a piece of shop towel, then two applied with 600 grit sandpaper to fill the grain some (you might do 3-4 to fully fill the grain), sanded back slightly to smooth things out, and then applied a few some more thin coats with a shop towel until it got to a high gloss.

I didn't want full gloss, so I rubbed it down with the stock sheen to reduces the shine. Basically it's like a cream with some very fine pumice in it.

 

[Rick]

Looks better all the time!

 

[teleme01]

I think I would have used a different color tape, it just doesn't match.

 

[Spud]

Wowzers! Very very niiiiice. I hope you enjoy playing it a ton, job well done! The tape actually adds a dash of devil may care sort of flourish and should just remain.

 

[stratamania]

Personally those black rings (without the tape ) fit the vibe well. It might be hard to improve on.

 

[Rick]

Now put on the knobs

 

[ragamuffin]

Personally those black rings (without the tape ) fit the vibe well. It might be hard to improve on.

Yeah I don't particularly dislike them, but i think no plastics/black will be an extra classy look.

 

[stratamania]

Yeah I don't particularly dislike them, but i think no plastics/black will be an extra classy look.

I look forward to seeing what you have planned.

 

[Spud]

I look forward to seeing what you have planned.

I personally do not as I feel it is likely to agitate me. I mean, what if it's really cool and I didn't think it up?

 

[teleme01]

I jest about blue tape but I know this is a guitar build and not simply putting parts on a body. I admire that and hope to do 1 or 2 in the future. My biggest fear is not getting the neck pocket and the intonation right. It looks great.

 

[Spud]

I jest about blue tape but I know this is a guitar build and not simply putting parts on a body. I admire that and hope to do 1 or 2 in the future. My biggest fear is not getting the neck pocket and the intonation right. It looks great.

Well I am NOT jesting about the blue tape.

 

[ragamuffin]

Made the new ziricote control plate and truss rod cover. Just need to find my countersink bit!

 

[Spud]

Made the new ziricote control plate and truss rod cover. Just need to find my countersink bit!

View attachment 61422

Great Job!

 

[ragamuffin]

Finally got the knobs and pickup rings! They're really nice looking, but a little lighter toned than the ziricote on my guitar. I think if I wipe them with a bit of mineral oil they'll darken up some.

 

[teleme01]

Where did you find those rings and knobs