MIMF

Inspired by a Premier Guitar article ( http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/20834-mod-garage-the-infamous-telecaster-neck-pickup ): Few players really love the Tele neck pickup. Why is this? I think it has to do with the remarkable sonic differences between the Tele’s two pickups. The bridge pickup...

Just as an update. The Oxalic acid worked flawlessly in removing the tanin stains. I attempted to return the aged cherry look with lye again, but when I attempt to neutralize the lye with vinegar, the tannin spots show up again (this time with no metal). There may be something else out there that wo...

Making a name for yourself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7QCpt2sgP4

That's fine. To be honest, I love the dry colors of this body, but it was getting a bit dark with naptha/mineral spirits so I assumed the finish would be darker than I wanted it to be. If I lighten it up a bit, perhaps I can use Tru-Oil and get a bit more luster out of the grain but still hit the sp...

Just like that eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTHiqtdZMMI

CHERRY

NOOB mistake today. Read a tip that said steel wool will help get dust off a surface before finishing. The problem is, I did a lye wash and neutralized the lye with vinegar. The vinegar then reacted to the steel wool and gave me some nasty black stains. I'm sanding away, and that's getting a lot, bu...

I don't have any specialized finishing equipment, and don't care to make that investment at this time. I was initially planning on finishing with Tru-oil, but did the Naptha trick to get an idea of what it would look like, and it was quite a bit darker than I wanted. Any type of finish is fairly ava...

John Kingma wrote:Here is a photo which shows the fretboard better.

Why on earth did distributors and manufactures think those wouldn't sell? The assumption that players would prefer extreme figure on all of our woods except the fretboard is just bizarre to me. I love it!

I love the streaks in the ebony. To each their own I suppose.

Also, having the volume knob in reach lets you do volume swells. Maybe you just need to add that to your arsenal, and the knob will be right where you need it!

Greg Robinson wrote:

Ok, guess I'd best go get some photos and soundclips organised!

Yes Please! I'm excited to hear it and see what you did for the patina.

I'm working woefully slow on my project, but I'll use this method and be sure to start a finish thread on it.

It's been years ago now, but my family would once and awhile make soap the old fashioned way, and we'd leach our own lye. Granted this was a little bit more of a honed process because you needed a bit more control of your pH and chemistry so the soap would be safe to use, but I recall the process be...

I've never had problems with cherry giving a blotchy finish with oils. If there's any end grain it will soak in, of course, and maybe that's what people are talking about. The best solutions there are to seal with a film forming finish, and patience. One of my favorite finishes on cherry is somethi...

I love Danish oil... it and hand rubbed shellac are my two preferred finishes. 1st) Wood prep... Sand with 120, 220, then 320 grit. 2nd) Burnish raw wood with fine steel wool. 3rd) Apply a quality Wood Conditioner (Minwax) to help avoid blotchy absorption issues. 4th) Apply Danish Oil with a clean ...

I'm going to be putting on the finishing touches to one on my first complete guitars! It's a deep red colored cherry tele with a maple neck. I have no sophisticated equipment, and am looking for a natural finish with a bit of shine, but don't particularly like high-gloss finishes. Do any of you have...

The Lupot certainly has more volume/projection, but to my ear, yours is a bit more articulate and has more clarity.

Nobody ever buys my guitars and so I design for my own use That's a pity. Agreed, and at the risk of sounding redundant, another home-run. My skills are nowhere near yours, as well as my sense of taste and design, but each of your pieces have been absolutely refreshing, and has given me a level to ...

I had a friend in highschool who had an old Supro (I can't recall the model name), that he hot-rodded with some TV-Jones pickups, and that particular guitar was original and had no truss-rod, so it was a bit finicky because of that. If the guitar was kept in reasonable climatic conditions and was re...

Sounds quite credible to me. A little on the higher end for my personal taste, but I know quite a few players who prefer the higher registers to be accented like this.