New body day

Almost looks like my Faded SG color. Nice Steve.
Also, I sure do like your work. One day I may finally get a building and have a shop instead of doing all my work out of my pickup.

Imagine that, no more tools that are here there and everywhere. Just put em away when finished using, and they will be right where I left em easy to find for the next task.
 
syscokid said:
I know it's a lot to ask, but if you have the time to post a "schedule" on the prep and application of the finish, that would be greatly appreciated. I love detailed stuff like this... :cheers:.
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Well, there's not much to tell really. It's a Warmoth body so it comes pretty much ready for finish already. For the top I just taped it off and applied 2 thin coats of Tru-oil to seal it. I knew already that the roasted maple was going to be the perfect color I wanted as it was so I just went straight to the oil.

On the back I wet down the surface and let it dry completely, this raises the grain some, then lightly sanded it back with some 400 grit sandpaper (because that's what I had on hand) to knock the grain back down smooth. I did that a couple of times. Then I mixed up some dark brown water based wood dye and did 3 washes with that (letting it dry completely between each application) to get the color I wanted.

This morning I applied the first tru-oil coat to seal it and I'll keep adding coats until I get the gloss I want. Nothing fancy here man, I've only ever used tru-oil and I like how it turns out so I just stick to what I know. Tru-oil is really easy to work with, hard to mess it up.
 
DirtySteve said:
For the top I just taped it off and applied 2 thin coats of Tru-oil to seal it.
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So, you taped and covered the body except for the top?
DirtySteve said:
Then I mixed up some dark brown water based wood dye and did 3 washes with that (letting it dry completely between each application) to get the color I wanted.
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And then you taped off the top to add the dark stain to the rest of the body?
 
syscokid said:
So, you taped and covered the body except for the top?

And then you taped off the top to add the dark stain to the rest of the body?
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I just taped one strip around the edge where the top meets the body, I didn't have to cover the whole body, I just wanted to keep from getting any oil on the sides because it would have kept the dye from soaking in when I died the back and sides. I sealed the top first because it would have been a lot harder to dye the sides and not get any on the top. Since the top was already sealed when I dyes the body I didn't have to tape off the top. Any dye I got on it just wiped right off.

I apologize I didn't anticipate anyone wanting the details or I would have taken lots of pictures during the process.

Tru-oil goes on with many really thin coats, just a dab on a small cloth to wipe it on. It's not like it was running or anything. The first couple of minutes of the video below this guy did it the same way I did it on the top. For the back and sides I poured a little on the guitar and then spread it around because for the first coat on wood that's going to absorb a lot of oil it has to go on quick or it gets tacky and starts to dry before you can get it wiped on. The top being maple it didn't absorb nearly as fast. The rest of the coats will go on much the way he shows except I don't wipe it back off with a paper towel, I just haven't ever done it that way, but I might try it.

 
DirtySteve said:
I just taped one strip around the edge where the top meets the body, I didn't have to cover the whole body, I just wanted to keep from getting any oil on the sides because it would have kept the dye from soaking in when I died the back and sides. I sealed the top first because it would have been a lot harder to dye the sides and not get any on the top. Since the top was already sealed when I dyes the body I didn't have to tape off the top. Any dye I got on it just wiped right off.
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Thank you, thank you! And when you say "sealed the top", do you mean by sealing with a regular wood sealer and then applying Tru-Oil? Or are you sealing with Tru-Oil?

Yeah, I love using Tru-Oil as a finish. I've got two guitars finished with that stuff
 
syscokid said:
No. More like an assembler. First Tru-Oil finish guitar for me was an SG Jr. Kit from Precision Guitar Kits (PGK). The second guitar with a T-O finish is my '02 SG Special Faded, which was originally the worn cherry color:
View attachment 55003
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Oh yeah, nice!! Love the single P90!!

One of these day's I'd like to try to build one from scratch, but for now I'll stick with the partscasters. I used to want to do a P90 LP kit, but since I've built my last couple of parts guitars I'm realizing that I really don't care for Gibson guitars much anymore. My Teles feel so much better to play, but each one I build seems to borrow more from Gibson than the last one. This one being (to me) the ultimate cross between Gibson and Fender so far, I'm combining the things I like about Gibson and the things I like about Fender into what I hope is my perfect guitar.

Don't think I got into this, but the full specs for this guitar are:

Body- Mahogany T-style body/ roasted maple top with belly cut and forearm contour. Angled neck pocket with contoured heel.
Neck- Short scale conversion with straigh 12" fb radius, '59 roundback neck profile, Wenge with dark rosewood fret board. Jumbo frets (6150s) no fret markers. Schaller M6 mini tuners. (non locking regular tuners, I hate locking tuners and in my experience they are tone suckers)
Bridge- Tonepros TOM and Stopbar
Pickups- Jim Wagner Darkburst set, DarkBurst Set ...I'm into hard rock and metal and these pickups seriously rock but also do clean tones very well.
Electronics- CTS 330k pots Bridge Vol/Neck Vol/ Neck Tone, Switchcraft jack, no switch for now but I may end up adding one later.
 
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3rd coat of oil on the top. I tried the wipe off method with one of those blue shop towels and I like the way it removed streaks that were visible before I did it. I've fought with that on maple on my last build so I wish I'd known before. This is already dry to the touch and I think it's looking awesome. I'll probably only do one or 2 more coats on the top just til it's all consistant without any "dry looking" spots. The mahogany will need several more coats, it's really soaking up the oil.

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A lot of vids and tutorials say wait 24 hours between coats. F'k that, I've never waited that long. I've put 2 coats on the back today and when it was dry to the touch again I flipped it over and did a coat on the top. This will be completely done probably day after tomorrow.
 
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I had a couple of things come up and had to put this on hold for a couple of weeks, but I'm back on it. The finish is just about done. I just got the word from Warmoth that I have an order shipping, I don't know if it's the neck or the other body I ordered. It might not matter, I think I'm going to go back to my original plan and use the maple neck. Now that it has a couple of oil coats on it it matches the top like they were made for each other.

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