Haven't updated for a few days because I've been waiting for fretwire and for the Aeropoxy I used to fill the body grain to cure fully before moving on. Once the fretwire arrived, I got the fret job done. In the end I was too lazy to build a press and so I hammered them in with a copper faced hammer. Then I got those levelled off, crowned and polished.
Then the neck had three coats of Danish oil with 24 hours between coats before rubbing each one out. I'll put one last coat on with some 0000 Scotchbrite for a near gloss finish. The colours have come out nicely, and there's some nice figure to the edges of the fingerboard.
The body has had the holes drilled for the pots and the string ferrules. I don't have a drill press here, so the string holes were marked out on both sides and drilled through half way from one side and then again from the other side. The holes at the back will need enlarging to take the ferrules with a step drill and reamers which I should have done before applying the finish really, but they haven't arrived and I can't wait forever. The finish is RAF insignia white acrylic which should look nice with the gold hardware.
I think I now have enough neck bolts in there. Everyone has opinions on wether to paint or not, but "modern" mahogany is a very boring, plain looking timber. For me, its value is in its stability and the spiral grain structure that allows you to make deep cuts and carves without losing any strength rather than the way it looks. Once the paint has cured fully, it will be knocked back to 1200 grit and machine polished. Thanks for looking.
Then the neck had three coats of Danish oil with 24 hours between coats before rubbing each one out. I'll put one last coat on with some 0000 Scotchbrite for a near gloss finish. The colours have come out nicely, and there's some nice figure to the edges of the fingerboard.
The body has had the holes drilled for the pots and the string ferrules. I don't have a drill press here, so the string holes were marked out on both sides and drilled through half way from one side and then again from the other side. The holes at the back will need enlarging to take the ferrules with a step drill and reamers which I should have done before applying the finish really, but they haven't arrived and I can't wait forever. The finish is RAF insignia white acrylic which should look nice with the gold hardware.
I think I now have enough neck bolts in there. Everyone has opinions on wether to paint or not, but "modern" mahogany is a very boring, plain looking timber. For me, its value is in its stability and the spiral grain structure that allows you to make deep cuts and carves without losing any strength rather than the way it looks. Once the paint has cured fully, it will be knocked back to 1200 grit and machine polished. Thanks for looking.
. What can I say, I'm just not a mahogany type of guy. Anyway, the paint isn't cured enough to take a polish yet, but it's hard enough for a quick string up and check over including hours of fun with a chopped off lead and crocodile clips to get some sound out of it. This has got me seriously considering with dumping the three band pre, going for a two band set-up and installing a 5 way rotary as the fifth control to get all the musicman HH type series/ parallel/ tap options - I think that will give me far more sound options than a mid control. Don't really want to drill more holes for mini toggles, and push-pulls won't give me all the options. Besides, all those switches could get confusing, like falling into a river and forgetting which side you fell in from and which side you wanted to get to in the first place. I'm liking the white and gold retro 80s look of it, it's got me stoked to finish it.
