# My 4th Build - Singlecut Neck-Thru 6-String, Mahogany, Flame Maple, Ebony



## StarbardGuitar (May 27, 2015)

Hey guys,

I just completed my 3rd build (which was my first customer build) and now have the money to fund my next personal build. With each build I've been trying to step it up a notch and try something else I haven't done yet. If you're interested, these are the builds I've done so far, or you can just skip down to the bottom where I talk about the plans for the next build.

My first build was a simple bolt on 4-string bass.







My 2nd build was a 7-string guitar, and I tried some new things like binding, staining a nice quilt maple top, and used a 26.25" scale so I made all the templates myself this time, whereas the first build I used jazz bass templates for the neck and other aspects.






The third build I just completed, like I said was for a customer (I'm not a commercial builder or anything, I just built the bass for a friend). I had trouble with getting good results with finishes in the past so I really pushed myself with this build and was pleased with the results.






So anyway! Here are the specs of this build I will be starting soon.

The drawing:





-5 piece mahogany/wenge neck
-mahogany body wings
-flame maple top
-ebony FB, 22 frets
-binding on the body, fingerboard and headstock
-bridge humbucker, neck single coil
-2 volumes, 1 tone, 3-way toggle
-ToM style bridge
-25.5" scale

There may be more I'm forgetting but here's the idea. The body is based off of a Schecter Tempest. I have really been into the body shape of the Tempest's lately, so I got some measurements of one and drew my own version. The only real difference is that mine's a singlecut. I also have really been into the tone of a single-coil neck pickup lately, so I decided this build will probably have a single-coil in the neck.

As for what is going to be new to me on this build: I've never done a neck-thru, I've never bound a fingerboard before, I've never done a scarf-joint before, and I would also like to experiment with more difficult inlay on this build rather than dots, though I'm not sure what I will do yet.

I'll be ordering all the wood & parts in the next few days, so I should be back within a couple weeks with some updates!


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## StarbardGuitar (May 28, 2015)

Also, this is the general idea I will be going for with the finish.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 3, 2015)

Parts and wood have been arriving over the past couple days, I believe the only thing I'm still waiting for is the mahogany for the neck and body wings.

Some wood porn for you guys, this is the top I'll be using.










Stewmac parts along with other random parts from ebay, the flame maple top wood, the wenge for the laminated neck, and the macassar ebony fretboard.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 5, 2015)

The mahogany arrived today!





All of the wood together:


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 7, 2015)

Here's a better picture of the design, the first one was in bad lighting and hard to see.






Today I cut the templates for the body wings and the headstock. I won't be able to start with the actual woodwork for a couple days, because I don't have tools like a table saw or band saw which I will need for the neck. One of my dad's friends who lives less than maybe half a mile from my house happens to have an awesome wood shop and is always super kind enough to help me when I need help. I will have to give him a visit when I get the chance so I can get this build started!


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## dankarghh (Jun 8, 2015)

Mann where did you get that maple. I'm so jealous of all you dudes top wood. Keen to see this come together.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 8, 2015)

dankarghh said:


> Mann where did you get that maple. I'm so jealous of all you dudes top wood. Keen to see this come together.



I got the top wood from LMII, it was the premium figured drop top and was around $135 if I remember right. It is a bit expensive, but I was having a hard time finding flame maple in the right dimensions for this build elsewhere and I've always had good luck with LMII wood (since you don't always get to see what you're buying before-hand when buying wood online...)


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## asher (Jun 8, 2015)

The top on that bass came out awesome dude, nice!

Cool looking design going here


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 8, 2015)

asher said:


> The top on that bass came out awesome dude, nice!
> 
> Cool looking design going here



Thank you!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 10, 2015)

Did some work over at my friend's shop and got the neck blank glued up. 5 piece - Mahogany | Wenge | Mahogany | Wenge | Mahogany


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 12, 2015)

Unclamped and cleaned up on the planer.





Made a jig for sanding scarf joints, though for next time I will definitely make a base for a router. That way I can get it close with the router then clean it up with the sand paper. Just sanding takes a lot of time.





The jig works well. I'm using a 10 degree headstock angle.





Cut the neck taper and glued the joint up.


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## Pikka Bird (Jun 14, 2015)

Coming along nicely... I gotta say that I preferred the look of the headstock in the first sketch. The template version is almost identical to the 3+3 Framus headstock which I think is a little uninspiring.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 14, 2015)

Pikka Bird said:


> Coming along nicely... I gotta say that I preferred the look of the headstock in the first sketch. The template version is almost identical to the 3+3 Framus headstock which I think is a little uninspiring.



Hmm, well it definitely wasn't inspired by a Framus because I've never really looked at a Framus headstock before lol. Honestly what happened was I drew up my body shape first, and I knew I wanted a 3+3 tuner layout, but I didn't like the headstock shape the Tempest's have because it doesn't fit the body shape in my opinion. So I just sketched ideas until I found something I like which is the headstock shape you see on the sketch and the template. Also, the template and sketch are completely identical as I used the sketch when making the template. I think when this guitar is finished you'll see that it is definitely different than the Framus headstock and I think it'll fit the guitar very nicely.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 14, 2015)

More neck work - cut the route for the truss rod, glued a veneer on the headstock, thicknessed & cut the headstock shape out.





Don't mind the awful looking truss rod access route on the headstock. I wasn't thinking and routed that before gluing on the veneer so it needs cleaning up. I also wish I had thought about it more and realized that it didn't need to go so far down the headstock. I'll just make a bigger cover, but that's something I'll remember for next time...

Also routed for the headstock binding and got that glued up. I use acetone to melt the binding instead of gluing it.





I also go a little crazy with the binding tape, but the less gaps I have to fill later the better. I hope to scrape the binding flush and glue up the fretboard tonight.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 14, 2015)

Cleaned the binding up a little bit.





And now the fretboard is being glued & clamped up.


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## Taylor (Jun 14, 2015)

Looking good!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 15, 2015)

GraveyardThrone said:


> Looking good!



Thank you!

Unclamped, cleaned up the fingerboard edge, routed for binding and got the binding in place. It still needs to be scraped flush so it looks a little funny in the picture.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 16, 2015)

Scraped the binding flush with the fingerboard, routed the body end of the neck down to thickness.





And I've got the body wings glued & clamped up.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 17, 2015)

It's starting to look like a guitar now.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 17, 2015)

Small update...

Routed some of the electronics cavities and the wire channels. I started sanding in preparation for gluing up the top, and I was surprised at how much lighter the mahogany gets when sanded. You can see the color before sanding in the low spots near the neck/body joint.





I wanted to get the top glued on tonight but my top pieces have a bit of a cup in them and I need to sort that out first. At this point, the pieces are thin enough that they would flex flat under clamping pressure, but then the seem where the two top pieces join is very bad. It's hard to joint the pieces properly when they're so cupped.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 18, 2015)

Worked on the top today. I got the pieces flatter than they were but not perfect. Ran them over my jointer again and the seem looks much better. So I started working on the pocket around the neck in preparation for the glue-up. Here you can see how if I squeeze it together the seem is very tight.






Rough cut the shape of the body out of the top.





And glued the top up.





Unfortunately, I learned the hard way why you should glue the top pieces together first then glue them onto the body. It is next to impossible to get them tight against each other while also clamping them down to the body as you're trying to clamp it up. I ended up with a little bit of a seem showing since I did it this way. It's not too bad, but it's a little disappointing and definitely something I will remember for next time.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 19, 2015)

Routed the top flush with the mahogany back.





Mounted the bridge, I probably measured and checked the alignment a hundred times because if it's off even a little I would have to fill the holes and re drill them since it's a neck thru. At least with a bolt on neck if it's just a little off you can usually move the neck in the pocket a little and it's usually enough to fix it.





It seemed to be aligned well, but I couldn't check under string tension since there was no where to mount the strings. So I measured and drilled out the string thru holes and checked the alignment when those were done. Luckily it was spot on.





They're not perfect, I'll definitely make or buy a template if I attempt this again. You can see how a couple of the holes are a little off, but it went pretty well seeing that this was my first string thru attempt. (I haven't cleaned up all the glue on the back yet lol...)





Next I started working on the routes. Bridge pickup first. I gotta admit that this guitar would look killer as a single-humbucker guitar, but that's not my style. I need that neck pickup tone.





Neck pickup rout. I also nailed the wire channel, as it goes through the pickup cavities right where I planned on. I wasn't sure how that'd go, I'd never routed a wire channel before gluing a top on before and I figured I'd probably be a little off, but it ended up perfect.





Also drilled the holes for the pots and switch. I like seeing the stripes of the neck in the routes, it looks cool. Though no one will ever see that when it's together...


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## JuliusJahn (Jun 19, 2015)

The key is to only drill your e and E string holes (only so the barb pokes out the back), then space the rest equally on the back. Drill halfway from each side.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 19, 2015)

JuliusJahn said:


> The key is to only drill your e and E string holes (only so the barb pokes out the back), then space the rest equally on the back. Drill halfway from each side.



Thanks, I'll try and use that trick next time. I was going to try drilling half way from each side, but it was hard with the set up in my workspace to set the guitar up to be drilled from the back with the drill press. (I'm not used to working on a neck-thru guitar yet haha). I actually think the reason why they didn't come out even is due to my measurements or any slop when I center punched the spots out before drilling.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 20, 2015)

Routed the recess for the bridge since I went without a neck angle.





Inlays. Still need to do the headstock inlay. I'd used waterslide decals for my logo in the past but they were so easy to sand through that I'd just rather do my logo in a different way. I'm working with a friend who is a graphic designer to come up with some sort of simple "S" (for Starbard) logo that I can inlay into the headstock.





Hit the back with a belt sander to remove the excess glue from when I glued the body wings on, and also routed the recess for both cavity covers. The control cavity cover recess looks massive, but I used stewmac's control cavity cover & template. However, the guitar is very light and I didn't want to rout out so much for the control cavity because I don't want to cause the guitar to neck dive. So I free-handed a much smaller control cavity to save a little wood, but stuck with the stew mac cover.





Also fretted the neck. I've never fretted a bound neck so that was new for me. I used the same fret cutters to cut the tang and then filed it flush. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting.





I don't have much left before I can finish this bad boy. My to do list is pretty small:
Still need to:
-Sand the body sides to clean up glue squeeze out
-Get binding on the body
-1/2" roundover on the back
-Carve the contours
-Shape the neck
-Inlay my headstock logo

I should start testing my finish ideas on scrap when I have some time.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 21, 2015)

Filed the fret ends.





Thinned out the neck. There is a spot around the 4th or 5th fret where when I originally cut with my jigsaw it got too close, but that'll be taken care of when I shape the neck so that's fine. I routed the back of the neck after sawing it to get it flat. Still need to work on the volute, but I think I'll work on that while I'm also working on the heel transition.





Routed the 1/2" roundover on the back of the body. I don't bother sanding at this stage so that's why there's still router burn. I always wait and do the sanding all at once so I don't have to go over one spot multiple times, since I'm bound to scratch it up while I'm working on it anyway.





I also routed for the body binding. Got as close as I could to the neck then filed/chiseled the transition of the binding channel into the neck. I also wanted some sort of arm contour though I don't have a way of doing binding around an arm contour so that it follows it and routes the correct depth (like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilF8Vq5yRjU). I also personally don't like the look of the arm contours that BM's have so I just put enough of a contour to take the hard edge off so it's more comfortable. What I like about this is that the front will still look the same as it did.





Bent the binding around the body and got it taped up. I'll finish that tomorrow. Looks like all I have left to do now is the headstock inlay, contours, and the neck shaping.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Jun 22, 2015)

This is turning out really well!

The Schecter Tempest is one of my favorite shapes so this is right up my alley


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 22, 2015)

Blue1970Cutlass said:


> This is turning out really well!
> 
> The Schecter Tempest is one of my favorite shapes so this is right up my alley



Thank you!  The tempest shape definitely grew on me the more I saw them, and now they are one of my favorite body shapes too. It definitely looks good as a single-cutaway guitar too - I'm surprised Schecter never tried that. If I ever build another guitar like this, I think I'll do a carved top. That would look great seeing how curvy the guitar already is.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 24, 2015)

Scraped the binding flush, and here you can see how the binding around my small arm contour looks. It is surprisingly a lot more comfortable for being a very small contour.





Thinned out the neck just a little more, it was still a little too thick. Also got the belly contour roughed in.





Started shaping the neck, this is right when I roughed in the initial shape with the rasp.





Then after a lot more work, and rough sanded with 80 grit.





Just a picture appreciating the beauty of a neck-thru. No neck plate, no screws, no bulky neck joint...  





Also got the jack route done. This is the jack location I used on my last build, and I really liked it so I tried it on this one. It was a bit harder but will work fine.


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## pel (Jun 24, 2015)

very nice.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Jun 26, 2015)

Interesting jack placement / design, kind of a cool touch


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## Taylor (Jun 26, 2015)

This is starting to stoke my singlecut GAS. Looking fantastic so far!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 26, 2015)

pel said:


> very nice.





Blue1970Cutlass said:


> Interesting jack placement / design, kind of a cool touch





Taylor said:


> This is starting to stoke my singlecut GAS. Looking fantastic so far!



Thanks guys! @Blue1970Cutlass (nice taste in cars btw, one of my dream cars would have to be a blue 72 Chevelle.) I actually got the idea for that jack placement when I saw a picture years ago somewhere online of an Ibanez that had a strat style jack on the side under the strap button. I thought that was a cool idea, but my designs tend to be too round & curvy to put a strat style jack on the side. So to make it work, I cut a bevel on the side to make a flat spot. I feel like this is a good location because it is easiest to wrap the cable around the strap without bending the cable very much like you would with a strat jack or side jack (without an angled cable).


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## StarbardGuitar (Jun 26, 2015)

This will be a rather boring update, but here's where I'm at...

I've been testing stain ideas on scrap offcuts from this build, and I think I will actually go for a different finish than I originally planned on. I'm not very good at doing those rub-in bursts since I've never tried them before. I think if I wanted to achieve the finish I originally planned on it would just have to be a spray burst. But I did get a nice red mahogany stain for the back of the guitar.

You can see the red mahogany on the top, the sides are natural. I also filled the pores with dark brown filler. I think when I actually go to stain the guitar though, I will either add more of the red mahogany stain to the stain/water mix or add just a little brown to darken it up. I would like it just a little darker.





Here's the same test stain on the neck scrap. There's also a coat of clear on top. 





My awful attempts at doing a faux burst (or poor man's burst, whatever you want to call it...) I originally thought I may be able to rub in a brown-red-amber burst, but I'm not thinking that would turn out well seeing my first attempts haha. The piece on the bottom gave me an idea to try though. That was amber with red mahogany stain rubbed into the side to give it a burst. The burst looks bad, but I like some of the parts where the amber is on top of the sanded back red stain. I am going to try on another scrap one coat of red mahogany, sand back, then amber stain. I think that may look awesome, and if it does that is what I will go for.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 2, 2015)

Have been pretty busy lately so I haven't had much spare time to do any work on this build. I did have a little time today so I tried some more finish ideas and am having a bit more luck. So here's what I've got so far that is very close to what I'm looking for.






To get this finish I started with a stain mix of mostly amber stain, with a little red and brown mixed in. Sanded that back, then stained again with a lighter amber/red mix to get a more orange color rather than amber. Then I sealed that, and sprayed a mix of red and brown together for the burst. I bought one of those preval sprayers that is like a hybrid of a spray gun and a rattle can. I didn't realize these even existed until I was at the hardware store getting things like sandpaper and I saw one of these and decided I should try it. So I mixed some finish and red and brown stain and attempted some bursting. It was very easy to get runs if I got too close (much more than any other cans I've used), so I will have to keep that in mind when I'm doing the guitar. The bursts in the picture were just one coat. It is like a very dark red, and I think if I do it as a couple coats I can get a much darker edge and end up with sort of a brown-red-orange burst like I am aiming for. You can see on the piece on the right how dark it gets if you really lay it on thick, vs the piece on the left I went much lighter with the burst.

So, I am going to use the ideas I used here on this test scrap with some slight variation. The first coat of the orange stain I would like to add a lot more brown, so that when I sand back and stain with the orange mixture the second time, the figure should really pop. Also, I will do the burst in a couple spread out coats to avoid runs and hopefully get a good burst with a nice transition rather than a hard line look.

I just need to do a lot more sanding on the guitar, then I can start the finishing. I've also decided against attempting a headstock logo inlay on this guitar, since I really have no experience doing so, and it is harder to hide mistakes on maple than it is on ebony. I think I will practice intricate inlays on fingerboards first. So instead, I will use my old logo on the truss rod cover.


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## pel (Jul 3, 2015)

very nice, thanks a lot for the tips on stains. I might try it for my 1st build.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 3, 2015)

pel said:


> very nice, thanks a lot for the tips on stains. I might try it for my 1st build.



No problem, that's why I like posting my builds on sites like these. I learned a lot of what I do from reading other people's build threads so I figure hopefully some people can learn from mine as well (whether it's from my mistakes or from things I actually do right haha...) Like everyone says, you should always test finish ideas on scrap first if you've never tried them. That's some of the best advice, if I didn't do that with this guitar I'd have a pretty awful finish on it right now. I will post more details as I actually attempt to stain the guitar so you can see how my finish turns out and how I achieved it. Good luck on your first build!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 5, 2015)

Got to the part that always makes me question why I like building guitars... the sanding. I really just hate sanding so much haha. I also found it is definitely a lot more difficult to prep sand a neck-thru guitar than a bolt-on since there's a lot of tight, hard to reach spots around the neck heel.

Here's the back sanded, no more router burn.





One thing the sanding brought out is that my scarf joint is eeeever so slighty off. If you look at the wenge stripes you can see how they don't quite line up perfectly. It's literally like a hair off. It's only noticeable when you get really close but it kinda sucks. Though, I guess it's not that bad if that's my only problem with my first attempt at a scarf joint. It is still structurally stable.





Got the first coat of stain on the top. It's a pretty ugly color honestly, but it's going to get sanded back anyway and its only purpose is to darken up the flames. I mixed together amber, a little cherry red, and a bit of tobacco brown to get a very dark orangey brown color. I'm thinking that when I sand back with 400 and stain it with the lighter orange mix without any brown that it will make the flames pop.





You can see the orange when it's under a lot of light like the light coming in from the windows in my room. 





Also, I didn't stain the recess for the bridge yet because I figured if I stained it now, it would be impossible to sand in there and then it would be too dark. So I think if I only stain it with the lighter orange stain it will look just like the rest of the top, and it's getting covered with the bridge anyway.


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## Steinmetzify (Jul 5, 2015)

This looks great man. 

Despite having zero woodworking skills, I'd really like to attempt this when I move; you guys drive me nuts with all the cool builds that pop up here daily. Threads like this always get bookmarked because of all the tips in them that I know would make me straight crazy if I attempt this on my own. 

Much appreciated, and this guitar is gonna look sick. I really like the design, the neck thru looks great and I LOVE the 2nd try that you got on the scrap for the burst idea. It's beautiful and would look stunning on this guitar. Good luck and I'll keep watching.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 5, 2015)

steinmetzify said:


> This looks great man.
> 
> Despite having zero woodworking skills, I'd really like to attempt this when I move; you guys drive me nuts with all the cool builds that pop up here daily. Threads like this always get bookmarked because of all the tips in them that I know would make me straight crazy if I attempt this on my own.
> 
> Much appreciated, and this guitar is gonna look sick. I really like the design, the neck thru looks great and I LOVE the 2nd try that you got on the scrap for the burst idea. It's beautiful and would look stunning on this guitar. Good luck and I'll keep watching.




Thanks for the kind words! You should definitely give building a try, it's a lot of fun. Honestly, you don't need any experience with woodworking to start building. You don't even need fancy tools to do a lot of this stuff, those just make it easier and quicker. My suggestion for when you want to start building is to start simple and build something with cheap parts. Build a simple copy (or something based off) of something like a strat or a tele. You will learn a lot on your first build. The best part of building instruments is when you finally get to play them in the end. Even if it turns out to be a POS you will love playing it anyway because of all the time and effort you put into creating it. Good luck to you when you start your first build!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 6, 2015)

Sanded back the stain so that the color pretty much only stayed in the flames.






Stained the top orange. I wish I used just a little less red in my mix to get a more yellow-ey orange, but this will work just fine too.





Got some sealer on the top and headstock. I'm going to get a couple coats of the finish on top as well before bursting just in case I screw the burst up. I'm using Zinsser Sealcoat as a sealer on this guitar. I've never used it before though I've heard good things about it and it is a universal sealer, so I figured I'd give it a try. It dries super fast which is awesome.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 9, 2015)

Lightly sanded the clear on top of the orange to remove some of the high spots and get a little bit of a flatter coat. I didn't sand too far because it's only got 2 coats of sealer and 2 of clear, I really don't want to hit the color by accident. I was able to spray the burst today. Sanding the clear on the orange also makes it easier to see the overspray when spraying the burst. 





It still needs to be cleaned up, the preval sprayer spits everywhere. I also may need to touch up some of the burst later, my sprayer ran out of propellant. I will decide if it needs some touch up later on. It looks pretty good now so I may not need to touch it up.





Getting the burst on the top also makes the orange look better than it did before. I thought the orange had a little too much red in it, but now it looks perfect to me.

Also if anyone's curious, I used a 50:50 mix of cherry red and tobacco brown stain for the burst. I followed the directions on the bottle in terms of the stain to finish ratio.


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## canuck brian (Jul 9, 2015)

Solid work there man! I loved seeing the absurd amount of parallel clamps - i'm very much of the same mind!


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## Renkenstein (Jul 9, 2015)

Niiiiice burst, man!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 9, 2015)

canuck brian said:


> Solid work there man! I loved seeing the absurd amount of parallel clamps - i'm very much of the same mind!





Renkenstein said:


> Niiiiice burst, man!



Thanks for the comments guys! Renkenstein, I've checked out a lot of your build threads and I really admire your work!


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## dankarghh (Jul 9, 2015)

This is looking so great man. Very clean work and awesome work on the finish.


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## Renkenstein (Jul 9, 2015)

StarbardGuitar said:


> Thanks for the comments guys! Renkenstein, I've checked out a lot of your build threads and I really admire your work!



Thank you, man! I've got a couple unfinished threads, but I'll be buttoning those up soon.

This is looking really nice.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 10, 2015)

I did end up touching up the burst a little bit. I still wanted the outer edge to be a bit darker, fade to red then to the orange in the center. So, I got another sprayer and sprayed another coat for the burst. My phone camera exaggerates it a little bit, it's not quite this dark. It's more of a very dark brown at the outer edge, my phone makes it look black.





Also wanted to show the spitting I was talking about with the preval sprayers. Just a heads up if anyone wants to use them to attempt a burst like I did. It works pretty well but needs a lot of clean up work from the overspray.





A little comparison of the first burst coat, then after the second one. It darkened up perfectly - exactly how I wanted it to.





Scraped the binding, cleaned up the overspray, and laid down a coat of clear.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 10, 2015)

Peeled the tape off and now I'm almost considering forgetting the stain on the back. The mahogany will darken up anyway and the coloring is already gorgeous together. I will let this dry for a couple days before finishing cleaning up the back and deciding whether I actually want to stain the mahogany red or not. I'm thinking if I do I will go for a more dark brown/red color than the color I had got with just red mahogany stain on the test scraps before.


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Jul 11, 2015)

Burst came out REALLY nice!



StarbardGuitar said:


> I'm thinking if I do I will go for a more dark brown/red color than the color I had got with just red mahogany stain on the test scraps before.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 12, 2015)

Blue1970Cutlass said:


> Burst came out REALLY nice!



Thank you!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 14, 2015)

I decided against staining the back of the guitar, because the color of the natural mahogany with the top looks beautiful. Here's it's got some sealer on the back. 





Also pore filled with brown filler, and laid down a couple coats of clear. Here's my crappy way of hanging the guitar. I screwed a hook into a piece of pine which is hanging between the rungs of a huge ladder. Hey, it works...


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## immortalx (Jul 14, 2015)

I'm loving this body shape man and it looks really classy with that burst!


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## asher (Jul 14, 2015)

OOOOOOOOoooooo.


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## BlackMastodon (Jul 15, 2015)

Glad you kept the back natural, looks really good with the top.


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 15, 2015)

immortalx said:


> I'm loving this body shape man and it looks really classy with that burst!





asher said:


> OOOOOOOOoooooo.





BlackMastodon said:


> Glad you kept the back natural, looks really good with the top.



Thanks dudes! I have to agree the top looks beautiful with the natural back. The natural mahogany makes the top really pop. I probably won't have much to update about as all that is really left is laying down more clear coat and then it will have to sit for 2 weeks or so for the finish to cure. So, I imagine the next updates won't be for a while, but they will probably be the final assembly!


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## Gallardo147 (Jul 16, 2015)

I think the binding really compliments the top! Great job man, cant wait to see it finished!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 24, 2015)

Just finished spraying the last couple coats of clear today, and now I've hit the hardest part of building a guitar... Waiting as the finish cures. I'll be back in 2 weeks or so with updates when I finally get to assemble this bad boy!


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## StarbardGuitar (Jul 25, 2015)

Couldn't help myself so I made a quick mock up to keep me sane while I wait for the finish to cure.





This is basically what it's going to look like.


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## The Spanish Inquisition (Aug 4, 2015)

StarbardGuitar said:


> Couldn't help myself so I made a quick mock up to keep me sane while I wait for the finish to cure.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Oh that's just perfect. I'll take 3.


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## StarbardGuitar (Aug 7, 2015)

The Spanish Inquisition said:


> Oh that's just perfect. I'll take 3.



Haha thank you!

Update!
Gave the finish two weeks to cure. Looked very orange peel-y as expected.






Wet sanded the entire guitar today, and only had these sand-throughs. There are two right next to the string through ferrule holes, and one small near the seam of the top. 





So, at first I thought to myself that it's not a big deal because the ferrules will cover part of the sand-throughs and it shouldn't be that noticeable. With every other build I've done to this point, I've kind of just dealt with the mistakes by reasoning to myself how it's not that bad, trying to stay positive. But this time I decided that since I have more experience now, I'm going to fix this and get this guitar as perfect as possible. They say it's not about not making mistakes, it's learning how to fix them right? 

I mixed up some stain and tested it on scraps until I got a color that matched the guitar, wiped it on with a q-tip and let it dry for a little bit. Then I sprayed some finish into a cup, and squeezed some drops onto the spots I fixed with a pipette. I'm going to give it 24 hours to dry, then wet sand the drops back down, this time careful not to sand through again, and no one will ever know. Well, except anyone who reads this...


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## StarbardGuitar (Aug 9, 2015)

Started buffing today, got everything but the back and sides of the headstock and the sides of the body done with coarse compound. It was getting really hot in my workspace with the sun coming in, and using a buffing pad in a drill on a neck thru is really awkward in a lot of spots, so I quit for the day. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish up the rest of the buffing.


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## StarbardGuitar (Aug 12, 2015)

Another small update. Finished buffing today, and did some minor things like installing the strap buttons and the string thru ferrules. Also got the first coat of shielding paint in the electronic cavities.










I will probably also wire up what I can outside of the guitar today so that I can pretty much just pop everything in and string it up.


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## Serratus (Aug 14, 2015)

Really classy build! Looks great!


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## Blue1970Cutlass (Aug 14, 2015)

I can't wait to see this thing finished!


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## StarbardGuitar (Aug 14, 2015)

Serratus said:


> Really classy build! Looks great!





Blue1970Cutlass said:


> I can't wait to see this thing finished!



Thank you! Wait no more my friend, it is done!   















It's not perfect of course, but I'm proud of it. There's always small mistakes that just bug me when I look at my builds that other people may not even notice. But like every other build, it's been a great learning experience. Every other build I've done I didn't glue the frets in, and I am definitely going to keep gluing them in on future builds. This guitar didn't even need a fret leveling, it was pretty much dead flat. The action can go crazy low with very little buzz. I haven't finished setting this guitar up yet and it's already playing better than every other guitar of mine. The only real problem I have with this guitar so far is that the Texas Special neck pickup is just way too low output for the DiMarzio Fred bridge pickup. I used to have a strat with texas specials and I remember them being much hotter. So, I have a DiMarzio Chopper on order to replace the texas special neck. I've heard some demos of that pickup used in the neck position before and it sounded very strat like for not being a single coil. As soon as that gets here and I've installed it, I will try to get a video of it up so you guys can hear this guitar!


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## StarbardGuitar (Nov 29, 2015)

I've been very busy with school so I didn't get to make a video with this guitar sooner, but here's a video demonstrating some clean and some distorted tones with this guitar! Clean tones were recorded in the middle position, and all distorted tones were on the bridge pickup alone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk6_3CJaGFw

Also, if you liked this build of mine, I have plans for my next build which I will hopefully start soon so watch out for that!


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## KR250 (Nov 29, 2015)

Very cool build, thanks for posting all of the tips and mistakes as well, that really helps understand some of the difficulties as I go through my own trial and error. Neck thru will definitely be my next attempt. I saw other posts where adding a thin piece of wood in between the scarf joint can help hide any slight misalignment's. Still, nicely done.


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## StarbardGuitar (Nov 30, 2015)

KR250 said:


> Very cool build, thanks for posting all of the tips and mistakes as well, that really helps understand some of the difficulties as I go through my own trial and error. Neck thru will definitely be my next attempt. I saw other posts where adding a thin piece of wood in between the scarf joint can help hide any slight misalignment's. Still, nicely done.



Thanks! I learned a lot of what I do from reading other people's threads on forums like these, so I like to share what I've learned as well to hopefully help others. This was my first attempt at a scarf joint, so I am definitely going to mess with different techniques like you mentioned on my next builds.


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## DistinguishedPapyrus (Nov 30, 2015)

Great looking build, great sound too.


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## CircuitalPlacidity (Nov 30, 2015)

Awesome guit buddy.


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