(please click on an image to enlarge it)
Say hello to Bertha.
I finished her on 9/26 - which is pretty crazy since I started this build in April and this is by far the fastest build I've cranked out. In what universe is six months fast? But I guess that speed is not really the point now is it?
Since she was built from a kit there were some steps completed for me but as a friend of mine pointed out - the kit didn't put itself together - so it was fun and challenging and I'm already thinking about my next 'kit-build.' Probably this one from Stew Mac.
So, what did I do to this since my last post?
The guitar had been sprayed with Nitrocellulose Lacquer and had dried for two weeks.
Before that final spray I had been sanding between coats of Nitro. I usually sanded with 400 grit sandpaper until the sanding just prior to the final coat of Nitro. That last sanding I used 600 grit sandpaper.
After the guitar had sat for two weeks I 'level' sanded it with 800 grit sandpaper and then 1500 grit sandpaper (I would have preferred to use 1200 but I was out). With sandpaper so fine you are not really taking much material off - it's more removing the 'high' spots on the surface. It seems like you end up wiping off more dust from the sandpaper than from the work-piece.
I will note that prior to the final sanding I was amazed at how level the finish was. Normally there is an orange peel texture to Nitro finish that has been sprayed with aerosol cans - but not this time. Perhaps it was that I was just the right distance when spraying - or perhaps this is a better brand of Nitro. I don't know. But the finish surface was much more level than when I finished my first guitar.
After sanding came polishing. On my first guitar build I had used a foam pad that attached to my drill to do the polishing. But I ran into two issues (one from the last build and one from this build). First, when polishing my Telecaster I buffed through the finish and the stain and got down to bare wood by being a bit too heavy handed with the polishing pad. I wasn't eager to repeat that. Second, the Tele was heavy (it was a solid brick of Mahogany) this was a very light acoustic. The first time I touched the polishing pad to the acoustic it nearly launched it off my workbench. So I decided to try hand polishing.
Hand polishing can be a bit of a grind if you didn't know. Think "wax on, wax off" and you get the picture. I used guitar specific polish (again from Stew Mac) and alternated between a hand-held foam polishing pad to apply the polish and some cotton rags (a ripped up old t-shirt) to wipe away the excess polish. I had two grits of polish - medium and fine - and then what's known as swirl and haze remover - which is a pretty light (and liquid) polish as the final step.
There are ups and downs to doing this by hand - and I don't just mean the aching arms. I didn't go through the finish - which is good. I didn't launch the guitar body off of the workbench - also good. I did not, however, get a mirror gloss on all parts of the guitar. There are a few spots (one big one on the back) that are shiny but not even close to being glossy - which much of the guitar body now is.
Having said that - the beauty of Nitro is that I can spray right over existing coats if I want/need to. And because I put a decent amount on there to begin with I bet I can just keep polishing and any dull spots will shine right up. All in all I'm happy with the way it looks.
Okay but how does it sound? How does it play?
It sounds pretty good. I notice a difference from when it was unfinished. The guitar really did sound 'woody' and alive prior to the finish being applied. It now sounds a little more muffled. Perhaps I put too much finish on it? There's also the possibility that it just needs to settle in a bit more. If I'm honest I'll tell you that it sounded better without a finish. Good enough that I was contemplating selling my Larrivee because this guitar was comparable. Not any more. It still sounds good and has a boominess the Larrivee can't touch but this guitar lacks the mellowness and richness of character that the Larrivee has. Still it sounds good and with the solid spruce top will only get better with age.
It currently plays awful. The action is all off because the thickness of the finish has changed the way the neck joins to the body. The action is too high and it's difficult to play past the 7th fret. Thankfully this is fixable with a little time and patience. I'm letting the guitar 'settle' a bit and then I will see what improvements I can make with the truss rod and the nut/saddle height. If I can't fix the issues with any of those remedies then I can just remove the neck and sand down the finish where the neck meets the body back to bare wood and things should be right as rain.
To sum up: It looks awesome, it sounds good, and it plays awful. Two out of three ain't bad - especially when I can fix the third. And most importantly - I had a good time building this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment