Roasted Alder Koa Top Tele build....

[KOABUILD]

Final shaping and prepping for the finish; applying the Black Chalk and then sanding it into the grain and pores of the Roasted Maple.

I feel like the sanding was a huge success, the way it revealed the under lying grain pattern on the back of the neck after most of the Roasted Burns were sanded out can only be a good sign, now instead of struggling with an uncomfortably thick and slow caveman neck its smooth as silk and round in all the right places. :toothy12:

You can see the Roasting on the Neck originally burnt the wood and discolored its character when I stained previously...Gonna have to sand off the headstock now, looks like a complete refinish, well that will make it easier in many ways anyhow.

But Now She's built for speed.

I didnt photograph the rest of the process, but it gets very messy, I grind, rub and sand the Black Chalk down into the wood, then sand it back several times and then I will stain the whole neck, in the same order of multiple botched Oil Stain finish jobs as previously, and ultimately finish the neck into a Glowing Ember of the Great Wizard Gandolfs Life Staff and.....ahh...sorry, tooo many video games... :laughing7:

Now Im bored so Im going to Jam on it for a few Days.......until I feel like doing the next step...... beautiful thing is, the longer I use, abuse and cruze on this guitar, the better it seems to play, feel and look.

 

[KOABUILD]

Okay Next Step:

Took the time to remove the neck and wipe copius amounts of Minwax English Chestnut Oil based Stain on every thing wood I could touch, lol  ....Im liking this justs say f*ck it and try anything guitar Ive been blessed to bring into being..........I left everything as it was before I decided to contour the neck; .... just soft sanded into all the areas my rough sanding scratched into and started wiping all the hungry dry wood with the Stain, the Whole neck , I didnt even take off the tuners, even covered the already finished areas, said, what the hell if looking old and beat up is the idea, then alot of haphazard ideas get to be tried out; perfect formula.

By the way, Boatneck is an accurate description,also found I liked the Mid frequency change that seems to occur when you sand back some of the wood to not only change it shape to suit your needs but also bring out some Hopefully "fingers crossed" killer guitar tone, perfect for experimenting and still leaving pleanty of wood to still Wolf out the tone of the neck.

Still a Nice Wide Thick Neck, but stream lined in all the right places for faster playing, but believe it all that extra wood adds some nice low end oomph and very clear bass on my set up that makes me enjoy continuing on. Looking forward to building for someone in the future if anyone was interested in me building them one I would do so at minimum over cost, just buy me a cool Part or two- Hipshot Bridge, some Locking tuners or some Vintage style Humbuckers of nice quality...I have alot of time to devote to the small details though I could see doing a series of say 10 at one time doing all the steps on all the bodies simultaneously, to completion and then you sell the set at $5000 per guitar...Artist Special.
Any takers contact me and start sending me parts, we could text parts ideas and then move through all the phases ...in the end you have a 10 guitar limited edition Artist Special series to sell at your discretion, I suggest $5000 per guitar, flat.

Next comes the Black Charcoal/Chalk to ingrain into the stain and pores, then shellac to seal it, before the next coat of Minweax Oil Based Special Walnut stain which is one of many of the previous used Stains that originally covered the neck before this .......

 

[KOABUILD]

heres the latest:  blending the old and New Finish to match or at least compliment each other, applied another coat of Minwax English Chestnut Oil based stain and then sanded ,scratched, rubbed and forced the Black Chalk/ powder into the wood, however I found the wood is naturally flawed, probably why I got such a great deal on the price, what I had thought was Roasted Burns turns out to be holographic like wood patterns that turn or change hue from light to dark depending on the angle...unfortunately those areas also seem to suck up alot of stain and are darker than expected...but still pleasing none the less.

You can see my generous higher fret access cut away on the treble side of the neck; or in my case: Round away allowing smooth un fettered upper fret access, very nice, compliments my rounded body corner in the same area to also allow easy and comfortable upper fret access, together its a dream.

A coat of Minwax Special Walnut Oil based stain is next along with some more grinding of dirt into the wood;when ever I get around to it, but for now I think I will just play on this for a few days...new strings..