Staining poplar is unpredictable

Thanks, yeah it's all right in the end. A lot like my walnut tele, actually. Six coats of stain and 36 hours to cool off, it looks decent.  I'll hit it with clear and post an update in a week or two. White pearl PG, bill lawrence keystone SC pups. Designated slide guitar, or a resell. We'll see.
 
Just waiting on the Bill Lawence pups, and for the clear to cure a while longer before buffing. When you get up close, there is a lot wrong with the finish, but at a distance looks good. I think the pearl pg was the right choice.
 
She didn't turn out so bad in the end! Used Ebay mighty mite neck turns out to be just fine once I got it straight - must have had a decent fretjob after all. Feels like any average US fender neck. Plastic nut it is a weak point, but it doesn't buzz and isn't too high.
Jury is still out on the Bill Lawrence Keystones. So far, yes to decent strat tones for cheap, no to rich memorable tone. Haven't played enough to dial anything in though. They have a hot (9.5k) bridge and more vintage (5.6 or so) mid and neck output, just one of the many pieces of info that those guys ought to put on a website selling their product. Reminds me again why I don't like trad strat bridge pups. I wired it up so the 2nd tone control is 'series blend' - def. gives new sounds but not sure how much I'd use them.

Should it stay or should it go now? This indecision's buggin me!
 
Oh, and yes I need a short neck screw - anybody got one laying around they could sell me?  :toothy11:
 
tfarny said:
Oh, and yes I need a short neck screw - anybody got one laying around they could sell me?  :toothy11:
Looks pretty good Tim, I like it...How short of a neck screw you need? I have a drawer full of neck screws, if you can measure the length of the long screws you have, I can look and see if I have some shorter... :icon_thumright:
 
Just the one that Warmoth sells for the contoured heel - the one I have that's too long is 1 3/4, maybe 1 1/2 is the right size? If you do have one, I'll go ahead and order a dangerous neck plate from you at the same time - I'll need one eventually anyhow. Do you still have the template for those three that you made for me last year?
 
tfarny said:
Just the one that Warmoth sells for the contoured heel - the one I have that's too long is 1 3/4, maybe 1 1/2 is the right size? If you do have one, I'll go ahead and order a dangerous neck plate from you at the same time - I'll need one eventually anyhow. Do you still have the template for those three that you made for me last year?
Yip sure do, I have both the template and the 1 1/2 screws, you need them in chrome I presume..?
 
The clear is minwax wipe on poly. It got that shiny just sitting there. I had some runs on the backside that I tried to sand out and it didn't work so well. Good enough for a bookshelf, not up to par for a decent instrument.
If I were to use this is a gloss finish again, I'd want a stand where I could set the body horizontally to help avoid runs. I was jamming on it this morning, and it's pretty nice but I'm already jaded about good guitars at this point, so - we'll see.
 
Quick comment on the Lawrences, I have them in my tele, and the bridge pup is absolutely quintessetenitally tele sounding, nice bite.  But the neck pup sounds like a generic strat pup.  Sort of like a taylor guitar, not memorable, but still very good sounding.  Works and plays well with others, but it doesn't stand out.  Some people like it that way.  Others don't.  I think a good combination would be a pearly gates humbucker at the bridge, a texas special for the middle and bill lawrence at the neck.  You'd get a nice choice of sounds that way.

I think the guitar looks great, and I know the Bill Lawrences will do the job.
 
I think it turned great!  I wouldn't know it was poplar if I had just seen it.  :icon_thumright:
 
Rick, I totally agree with your description of the BL keystone teles - even though I have them in a baritone guitar I got the same impressions. Great bridge, good but an atypical even-EQ stratty neck. I'm withholding judgement on the strat pups, but hell they're only $75 the set, so their only real competition is GFS.

I seem to have an intermittent grounding issue, I need to open it back up again unfortunately. And yeah, the brown neutralizes the blotchy greenness which is why I picked brown, it looks like Alder now I guess. Make an offer if you're interested in buying, I'm not sure I want to sell but an offer would make me think. No more space under the bed or in the 'guitar corner'.
 
Oh, yeah, thanks and how much for one chrome neckplate ( W - made in USA) logo as before?
 
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