Quilt maple soloist & birdseye neck build

[alexreinhold]

That's one special guitar. I am personally a bit tired of how similar builds are but this one... it truly stands out!

The way I think about builds is: "If I was strolling in a guitar shop looking at guitars, would it make me stop and want to examine it?". Although some of the guitars here (mostly judging by GOM entries) are beautiful and focused on details, I'd pass them in a store. But this one is seriously captivating me.

 

[NedRyerson]

As my daughter used to say when she was still learning language and pronunciation, "so shimey!"

We try to bring the shimey because we know the children love it!

It really is up my daughter's alley.  She's all about the unicorns and rainbows through absolutely zero prompting on our part. We try not to pigeonhole the kids into socially traditional gender norms and let them discover their likes and dislikes on their own.  But my daughter just happened to fall into the girly-girl realm (while also being totally in love with digging in dirt and mud...).

 

[Sadie-f]

I was discouraged from femme things back in the day, otoh having been a kid on a farm dirt and mud were de rigueur ;-).

Back to the guitar, the sides are black. Presently there's just a bit of grain showing through at edges and I'm considering whether to allow/leave that, or black them in?

It's plenty easy to do, just a question of which way looks better, thoughts?

 

[Jebberz]

Personnaly, I'd leave the bit of grain there, it gives tha guitar enven more... personnality (lacking a better word) or yummyness...

 

[PhilHill]

I usually look at something like that and decide by asking myself, "Does it look like it belongs there ?" Then, as cats say, "If it fits,It sits."................ :icon_thumright:

 

[alexreinhold]

I was discouraged from femme things back in the day, otoh having been a kid on a farm dirt and mud were de rigueur ;-).

Back to the guitar, the sides are black. Presently there's just a bit of grain showing through at edges and I'm considering whether to allow/leave that, or black them in?

It's plenty easy to do, just a question of which way looks better, thoughts?

I like grain. But out of interest, what would be your approach to black them in after having applied the oil?

 

[Sadie-f]

I was discouraged from femme things back in the day, otoh having been a kid on a farm dirt and mud were de rigueur ;-).

Back to the guitar, the sides are black. Presently there's just a bit of grain showing through at edges and I'm considering whether to allow/leave that, or black them in?

It's plenty easy to do, just a question of which way looks better, thoughts?

I like grain. But out of interest, what would be your approach to black them in after having applied the oil?

On the sides the black dye didn't sink nearly as deep as on the top, and was quite incomplete at bouts and waist, where the grain is parallel to the shape - no surprise there.

So to attain a consistent look, I used the same technique as I've done throughout the top and back, apply oil, then add pigment with the pastel about 12 hours later (still slightly sticky, not fully polymerized). By the 24 hours mark, most of that color will be locked into the hardened layer.

The quilt top is trickier, most of its color went in and was rubbed into the open grain before applying the first layer of tung.

I did similar with last year's build, the red and blue are quite saturated in/on the top and bottom mahogany sides.

 

[Sadie-f]

Personnaly, I'd leave the bit of grain there, it gives tha guitar enven more... personnality (lacking a better word) or yummyness...

I usually look at something like that and decide by asking myself, "Does it look like it belongs there ?" Then, as cats say, "If it fits,It sits."................ :icon_thumright:

Thanks guys .. still not decided, I think it would look awesome to sand back a strip about 1/2" along the side centerline, bordered by jet black to both sides. It  will be a lot more complicated to do this through the narrow top section and around the cutaways, sanding the horns evenly seems not for the faint of heart.

 

[Sadie-f]

Finish work has been on hold for a week for a few reasons, one of which is I've been stuck for how to bring tung up to gloss without going over it with nitrocellulose.

I think I've hit on a good solution (pun intended). We've been keeping bees for a little over a year, and one of the things we can collect from the hives is propolis. Dissolved in alcohol, the propolis from our area is a brilliant red, however it also goes on thin enough that it doesn't affect color visibly.

I did a test yesterday on a couple of patches of my pedalboard, and it brushes out well. Today I was able to sand it to a high gloss using first 800, then 1200 paper.

So I'm thinking whether to use it alone, or perhaps in combination with shellac, or even with tung oil and a turpentine solvent system .. some more testing is called for, however the first, easy test looks good enough to proceed with.

I've also been working on the neck. This was trickier in some ways than the top, because I want a single application of color, worked into the grain, followed by a single application of tung oil. The result is below, with it's rainbow starting at violet, where it meets the body, and stepping back out to red.

I'm starting a test carving of the peghead in poplar, I hope to get by with carving this only twice, one practice, followed by the real thing .. tbd.

 

[alexreinhold]

How's this coming along Sadie?