It's red!

[Brian Evans]

This is straight off the gun, now it cures for a week and wet sanding and polishing starts. It's redder in person than in these pictures. After my trials and tribulations getting the spraying process to work, I think it's going to be OK. Oddly, or maybe not, the tortoise shell celluloid binding is now quite transparent in places, you can see right through it to the joint between the top and the sides.

[Mike Conner]

That really looks cool, no wait, Hot!
If it's going to be red, I'd say the over the top red you have chosen really makes a statement.

Looks like a bolt on neck. Do you install with a long hex wrench?

Great job!

[John Mueller]

Great Job! Please show us the neck joint.

[Brian Evans]

The neck is a very straight forward square mortise and tenon two bolt joint, nothing fancy at all. It is 1/2" deep and 1" wide, two 1/4" threaded steel inserts epoxied in. Right now the body has the holding stick bolted in where the neck goes, and that is my old engine stand doing duty as a spray stand. Worked a treat, to be honest. I make up a long hex wrench, in through the heel joint. I will make a cover, like a truss rod cover, for over the hole because this guitar's tailpiece is going to be bolted directly to the top of the guitar (that hole over the heel block has a threaded insert).

[Randolph Rhett]

I'm a sucker for red guitars. From red sunburst to a dark wine red. Congrats.

[Gordon Bellerose]

Yep, that's right Purdy!
Glad you got your spraying woes out of the way.

[Bob Francis]

looking GREAT Brian

[Ed Lysne]

Did you tint the lacquer... or dye the wood... or both? I like it!

[Barry Daniels]

Brian, glad you are making progress in your finishing skills. It usually takes several instruments before you get fairly comfortable with the process.

Also, you have already discovered that the dye doesn't look nearly as strong going on as after it cures.

[Brian Evans]

Ed, I did two seal coats, sanded them back, then did three to four coats of tinted lacquer. I found that there seems to be something with surface tension in the finish that makes it want to grab on better as you get more coats on, but that is another discussion.

Barry, I agree the colour looked lighter going on, and I was a little unhappy with the clarity of it until I put some clear top coats on. They went on really well, seemed to absorb some scuff-sanding scratches and increased the clarity tremendously. I put three wet clear coats on after the colour, the instructions say that this Brite-tone has a higher solids content than some other finishes and that it builds very quickly, so I felt that I could try with just three clear coats. It seems quite thick right now.

[Barry Daniels]

Are you going to sand out all the low spots and buff? If so, three coats (even with high solids content) may be pushing it. I use about a 10 to 12 coats of nitro lacquer to provide sufficient depth, but then again I tend to overdo everything.

[Gordon Bellerose]

I agree. I sanded through the Britetone after spraying 4 coats.

I usually spray 3 in one day, let dry overnight. Dry sand lightly with 320 just to knock down the gloss, and spray 3 more.
Same routine again on day 3, and done.
I then let it sit for 5 days before wet sanding and buffing.

[Brian Evans]

I'll spray three coats tomorrow and three on saturday, then. The neck is extremely smooth and glossy, not sure why, but it is better than I would normally hope for after buffing. Do you ever just leave it as it is?

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback.

[Barry Daniels]

It seems like any surface is improved by level sanding and buffing. For some reason that I don't understand, necks always finish better.

[Patrick Hanna]

Congratulations on a nice looking guitar. Please show it to us again when it's all polished up, neck mounted, appointments installed, strung up, etc. I think red guitars are cool!

[Brian Evans]

Gordon, you know I appreciate your advice with the brite-tone. what is your wet-sanding schedule? I was thinking of starting with 600, I also have 800 and 1200 but nothing past that. I have Mother's polishing compounds.

[Eldon Howe]

Brian,
I was going to ask a few months back how did you size the sound holes?

[Brian Evans]

Not very scientifically, I drew the pattern I wanted for visual effect more than anything. I then did a lot of research, which tended to point me in a direction that the perimeter length of the holes was more important than the area of the holes. The total perimeter length of my flames turned out to be circa 30 inches, while the perimeter length of a typical pair of F-holes was oddly close, around 30 inches. My first archtop is plagued with a quite strong resonance around middle D (fourth string open) which makes that note somewhat dead when played with a short, stiff string (6th string 10th, or fifth string 5th fret). This one did not have such strong air resonance (which I scientifically evaluate by singing into the box until it resonates loudly back at me) and when strung did not have any dead notes to speak of. Quite happy with that bit of luck.

Brian