Refinishing a damaged Koa / Mahogany Soloist with Tru-Oil (by a beginner)
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VinceClortho
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Great work with the 3d printing. Looking forward to seeing it with the veneer. I especially like the two buttons in the battery cutout. I recently installed 4 mini rocker switches in a cover plate to control the options in a set of Fishmans. It works well but as it was cut by hand it isn't nearly as clean as yours.
stratamania
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With the tremolo cover in the recess you may need to check the depth will clear a claw and tremolo block.
Dazkeirle
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stratamania said:
It's funny you say that, that was something that dawned on me a few days ago (as I added some rubber to my strat to stop the springs vibrating against it's non-recessed cover). This will only sit 2mm into the cavity total but that's definitely enough to cause an issue in most guitars. It defo clears the block (I tested), as for the claw that's difficult to tell without getting the claw in and stringing it up - guess it depends the angle the claw holes were drilled. Perhaps this will be a "show plate" lol.
I may just run it without a cover at all (I'm not totally against that, I was just in the flow of 3d designing and printing and got carried away), this is part of the reason I painted it flat black just in case that happened. There's also still a very real chance that the veneers look terrible. In which case both the other panels will be spray painted gloss black anyway.
This will be my only multiple tunings / tremelo guitar and so I'm likely to be in the back a lot anyway.
Thanks for the heads up though, definitely something I didn't consider until way into this.
stratamania
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Yes it reminded of this post in one of my build threads with claw height...
https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=22445.msg338072#msg338072
https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=22445.msg338072#msg338072
Dazkeirle
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stratamania said:
haha, at filing down the claw! That's definitely a good option. There was me consider how I would fill, and re-drill the screw holes perfectly parallel to the body! You went the other way.
I'm not gonna lie, If I didn't think I'd have to make trem adjustments for other tunings I'd just get it setup and bend the bloody screws inwards.
stratamania
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Another option as you have an HH body is to look into a Schaller Sure Claw, with that and a small access hole in the cavity cover it might be just the ticket for you.
Dazkeirle
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stratamania said:
Mate that's awesome, didn't even know that existed.
This seems like a massive improvement on the normal claw and will help me making adjustments which is absolutely what this guitar is all about!
Plus as it's HH don't need to worry about the screws going through to the pickup cavity.
Also can easily add a backbox tremsetter for tremelo recovery too.
Thanks, really appreciate you mentioning that.
stratamania
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Dr Excess said:
No worries glad to help :icon_thumright:
Dazkeirle
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stratamania said:
although I think I'll add it to my birthday wish list or something. Right now dropping £50 on a tremelo claw after spending out £120 on the Tremelo, £26 on pickup rings, £100 on pickup, £50 on pots, £15 on veneer, £20 on a switch and £17 on coil split switches... I think I've spent out for the next month or so on this project.
Time to get back to sanding and oiling (and keeping my eye out for a PRS Vintage Bass pickup and a new neck.
stratamania
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Got it on the spend. I have a few things backed up myself. Still you have plenty to do with the finish which will take some time...
Dazkeirle
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So some progress over the last couple of days.
First I had some deliveries, not everything but bridge pickup, the switches and the pickup rings.
The pickup looks super sweet, it's deep, really deep like 25mm and I have a few concerns about the pocket but going on my other guitars it may be ok.
As for the switches for the coil tap, they came in this lovely little bag, lol fairly naff but they look decent quality and importantly work.
The pickup rings I'm super impressed with. I've always wanted anomaly rings and they didnt disappoint, very elegant and the packaging is lovely (plus made in the UK!)
So back to the body, last night I was just having an OCD meltdown about the pickup cavities looking so messy, painting over layers of overspray, urgh. So I sorted it, sanded it back and resheilded. Necessary, no, but I knew it was there. Also has the benefit of giving me 1-2mm back in the cavity, I may need that.
I gave the body another sand as some of the grain had raised. I think we're nearing diminishing returns now and so tru-oil in imminent.
I also re-worked all three of my 3d printed panels, tweaked strength, height and filament choice (everything looks better in marble). Plus I needed to add a cutout to the switch holder as I hadn't considered how to get it in with the wires in place.
The back tremelo cover was reworked to allow string changes. I'm also gonna have a hole at the top for the Sureclaw, but I'll wait and drill that to get it bang on.
Anyway with Sureclaw now the option my posts needed to move.
So the conclusion to these efforts looked like this:
Much neater, and the back:
So now I have some hardware I can at least see how a direct mount would look:
Nope, to me that just looks janky. Now with the new Anomaly rings:
Love this. It's pretty close to original mockups and will look even better with the shorter concentric knobs.
Plans for pickup are to add a 2.2k to the split so I'll get 15.7k for full and 10.2k for split. I think that's plenty lol. Still on the search for a gold PRS Vintage for the neck.
So what now? I think I'm gonna go 1-2 coats of tru-oil just to get the colour into the grain. Then I'll follow immediately after with Birchwood Casey clear sealer / filler and start the process of fill grain, sand back to 400, fill, sand back, fill, sand back.
I'll basically do that until this looks like a glossy veneer and all grain and scratches are entirely flat, then I'll start working up the Tru-oil.
There's still a very real chance that I may need to route out a bit of pickup cavity. The HFS is a thiccboy at 25mm deep. The cavity is 19mm. Now on my other guitars the PRS bridge does tend to stick about 6-7 mm up out the body, but this has the 720 mod and a recess for the VS100 so is likely to sit a little lower. We'll cross that bridge if it comes to it. As it's a floating trem that may give me a few mm back at the bridge.
As for the pickup rings, I'm gonna follow some advice and drill those holes once all is almost complete so I can line up the pickup poles exactly with the strings. We're a way off that being a concern anyway.
Here's hoping my veneers turn up tomorrow. That's a whole other challenge.
First I had some deliveries, not everything but bridge pickup, the switches and the pickup rings.
The pickup looks super sweet, it's deep, really deep like 25mm and I have a few concerns about the pocket but going on my other guitars it may be ok.
As for the switches for the coil tap, they came in this lovely little bag, lol fairly naff but they look decent quality and importantly work.
The pickup rings I'm super impressed with. I've always wanted anomaly rings and they didnt disappoint, very elegant and the packaging is lovely (plus made in the UK!)
So back to the body, last night I was just having an OCD meltdown about the pickup cavities looking so messy, painting over layers of overspray, urgh. So I sorted it, sanded it back and resheilded. Necessary, no, but I knew it was there. Also has the benefit of giving me 1-2mm back in the cavity, I may need that.
I gave the body another sand as some of the grain had raised. I think we're nearing diminishing returns now and so tru-oil in imminent.
I also re-worked all three of my 3d printed panels, tweaked strength, height and filament choice (everything looks better in marble). Plus I needed to add a cutout to the switch holder as I hadn't considered how to get it in with the wires in place.
The back tremelo cover was reworked to allow string changes. I'm also gonna have a hole at the top for the Sureclaw, but I'll wait and drill that to get it bang on.
Anyway with Sureclaw now the option my posts needed to move.
So the conclusion to these efforts looked like this:
Much neater, and the back:
So now I have some hardware I can at least see how a direct mount would look:
Nope, to me that just looks janky. Now with the new Anomaly rings:
Love this. It's pretty close to original mockups and will look even better with the shorter concentric knobs.
Plans for pickup are to add a 2.2k to the split so I'll get 15.7k for full and 10.2k for split. I think that's plenty lol. Still on the search for a gold PRS Vintage for the neck.
So what now? I think I'm gonna go 1-2 coats of tru-oil just to get the colour into the grain. Then I'll follow immediately after with Birchwood Casey clear sealer / filler and start the process of fill grain, sand back to 400, fill, sand back, fill, sand back.
I'll basically do that until this looks like a glossy veneer and all grain and scratches are entirely flat, then I'll start working up the Tru-oil.
There's still a very real chance that I may need to route out a bit of pickup cavity. The HFS is a thiccboy at 25mm deep. The cavity is 19mm. Now on my other guitars the PRS bridge does tend to stick about 6-7 mm up out the body, but this has the 720 mod and a recess for the VS100 so is likely to sit a little lower. We'll cross that bridge if it comes to it. As it's a floating trem that may give me a few mm back at the bridge.
As for the pickup rings, I'm gonna follow some advice and drill those holes once all is almost complete so I can line up the pickup poles exactly with the strings. We're a way off that being a concern anyway.
Here's hoping my veneers turn up tomorrow. That's a whole other challenge.
stratamania
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Nice... 
ccasion14:
ccasion14:
Dazkeirle
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Hendrix said:
Hendrix said:
I got the HFS from Ebay (£86!) but yes you can buy a number of their pickups directly from them from your local accessories store:
https://us.prsaccessories.com/ , https://eu.prsaccessories.com/ , https://uk.prsaccessories.com/ etc.
Prices vary as does availability but a HFS is usually about 150.
It's likely I will buy my neck pickup new as I want gold screws / slugs and that's pretty difficult to find aftermarket second hand (just lucked out with HFS).
There are good PRS buy and sale groups on facebook too.
Don't go snapping up my bargains now Hendrix!
Dazkeirle
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So I got a little bored last night and entered into some whisky enduced tru-oiling.
This is not meant to really be the first coat, more of a colour test and deep grain fill I guess. TBH I was bored of looking at the dry wood and really wanted to get an idea of colour so I could start thinking about necks. It's always gonna be blotchy on coat 1 and some areas just sucked up the TO (bottom of the hog end grain), and some it just wiped over.
The wood was definitely thirsty, but I was very happy with the colour that we have here (with just 1 coat sorry lighting is poor).
Back:
Front:
The hog has gone a very silky golden colour, it's got a bit of the chocolate warmth of hog you'd usually see stained but a bit more golden hue as is natural. The koa darkend up nicely and there's a lot more contrast between the light and dark striped.
Here's a half and half of each:
The 3d flame you often see with Tru-Oil is very apparent in the hog, not so much in the KOA, it's just a lot richer. Although to compare properly you won't know until the Koa has had 20-30 coats and is totally flat. Right now it's super grainy.
I had already assumed I'd need some more sanding but I think I need quite a lot more. The oil has highlighted some sanding scratches / marks I missed (it's good like that), but it has also highlighted a fairly big issue.
You may have noticed the light white specs in the grain of this body. They weren't there originally (I assume dyed), and they're not everywhere but now with the oil they're highlighted a bit more.
They appear to be within the deeper grain / splits within the wood, I'm guessing some kind of cross grain. They also don't really take the TO colour.
I would live with them but I've noticed areas where I've worked the wood hard (horns, where I had scratches etc), they don't appear anymore. This leads me to believe that I should just sand more and flatter and work the entire top until these white dots are gone.
I guess I could use a coloured grain fill, but I'd like to avoid that if possible. Any advice welcome.
Here's how it looks after 10 hours drying (1 coat):
(sorry / not sorry. This is now my favourite corner of the house Anyone would think I like PRS pickups, at least the new body works aesthetically with the other two while being different enough).
This is not meant to really be the first coat, more of a colour test and deep grain fill I guess. TBH I was bored of looking at the dry wood and really wanted to get an idea of colour so I could start thinking about necks. It's always gonna be blotchy on coat 1 and some areas just sucked up the TO (bottom of the hog end grain), and some it just wiped over.
The wood was definitely thirsty, but I was very happy with the colour that we have here (with just 1 coat sorry lighting is poor).
Back:
Front:
The hog has gone a very silky golden colour, it's got a bit of the chocolate warmth of hog you'd usually see stained but a bit more golden hue as is natural. The koa darkend up nicely and there's a lot more contrast between the light and dark striped.
Here's a half and half of each:
The 3d flame you often see with Tru-Oil is very apparent in the hog, not so much in the KOA, it's just a lot richer. Although to compare properly you won't know until the Koa has had 20-30 coats and is totally flat. Right now it's super grainy.
I had already assumed I'd need some more sanding but I think I need quite a lot more. The oil has highlighted some sanding scratches / marks I missed (it's good like that), but it has also highlighted a fairly big issue.
You may have noticed the light white specs in the grain of this body. They weren't there originally (I assume dyed), and they're not everywhere but now with the oil they're highlighted a bit more.
They appear to be within the deeper grain / splits within the wood, I'm guessing some kind of cross grain. They also don't really take the TO colour.
I would live with them but I've noticed areas where I've worked the wood hard (horns, where I had scratches etc), they don't appear anymore. This leads me to believe that I should just sand more and flatter and work the entire top until these white dots are gone.
I guess I could use a coloured grain fill, but I'd like to avoid that if possible. Any advice welcome.
Here's how it looks after 10 hours drying (1 coat):
(sorry / not sorry. This is now my favourite corner of the house
Anyone would think I like PRS pickups, at least the new body works aesthetically with the other two while being different enough).
Hendrix
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I most interesting in prs silver sky pickup , the guitar wood is same as fender , but the pickup is something prototype and changing endless time until John happy about it, I think that the main reason he switched to PRS .
Fender is too big to "wasting time " on such "small" detail.
Sadly PRS not selling it alone.
Fender is too big to "wasting time " on such "small" detail.
Sadly PRS not selling it alone.
Dazkeirle
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Hendrix said:
Yeah they dont have them retro yet, and I've not seen a single one being sold on.
They're also all TCI now, which supposedly means they're tuned to the actual guitar. This means people believe they can't be parted.
Right now SS is basically a meme, and the Blurple Nebula is the guitar equivalent of Yeezys. Give it a few years and the pickups will gets sold on.
I'll keep my eye out for you, I've bought and sold probably 10 sets of PRS pickups in the last 1-2 years.
stratamania
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I did notice the lighter specks before. I assume it is some type of grain filler in the deeper pores. It might be worth putting a darker grain filler on (across the grain so it gets deep into the pores) sanding back and possibly using some of the Birchwood Casey Walnut stain which if not too heavily used can lift the colour a little. If the pores are closer to the colour of the Koa, it will be less obvious.
