Strat kit with a dash of neck twist

[fender blender]

Full gloss finish on Maple, yes.
Full gloss finish on Rosewood is looking for trouble.
Rosewood is oily.
Frequently, if you apply an oil based varnish to rosewood it may never try. The oils in the wood react with the oil finish and its a mess.

I built a high gloss teak vanity a few years back and the spar varnish would not harden - then wisdom from my father. Seal it first with several coats of shellac - it creates a barrier between the oils in the teak and the finish. Did that and it worked like a charm.

This is a general rule with using any oily woods - teak, rosewood, ebony, Ipe, etc. That is why you rarely find those woods under I high gloss finish.

I will take a few photos of the neck tomorrow - I am quite pleased with the finish on the frets. The body of this guitar is temporary; I intend to build a new one from scratch, likely with a curly maple top and no pick guard - everything loaded from the back. It is possible, however, I become lazy and using front loading and pick guard.

Wenge veneer on a sub I built a few years ago.

View attachment 634224

Teak vanity.
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Somebody got an "A" in woodshop..*wink

 

[iH8usrnames]

Somebody got an "A" in woodshop..*wink

You ain’t lying. I was born into a woodworking family.

I wanted a guitar kit as a gateway drug into building one completely from scratch; the get the courage to built six string fretless bass.

 

[iH8usrnames]

Pictures as promised.
The quality of the body finish is meh since I intend to build one from scratch.


The neck is still acclimating. Action is still a touch higher than I’d like, but more than acceptable.


I’m not disappointed in the quality my fret finish, not that it’s special but I’m pleased.

 

[JJ119]

Congratulations!!
That's a Nice looking guitar!

 

[Geoff06]

Nice work on the guitar! The "gateway" kit that got me into playing and building didn't turn out great but that young high school me would have been overjoyed if it looked like yours. Nice other pieces that you posted too!

Shellac is awesome stuff. Very, very useful and can be a fun finish on its own. As far as the oily hardwoods go (which I don't have a lot of experience with) I want to try thoroughly wiping some rosewood down with acetone, grain fill with black, then see how a CA finish fares with it.

Have you ever worked with pau rosa? I did a headstock veneer with it and inlaid pine on my Epiphone acoustic, and I really liked how it turned out. I'm not sure if it's more brittle than various rosewood species but I would love it as a fretboard. Not as orange as my picture but a very nice color and grain structure.

 

[drp146]

Well if photos are required.

Playing my mid 70’s Gibson ES-175T until I can get my Strat up and running again.

There are worse places to be, for sure.

Nice guitar!

 

[iH8usrnames]

Nice work on the guitar! The "gateway" kit that got me into playing and building didn't turn out great but that young high school me would have been overjoyed if it looked like yours. Nice other pieces that you posted too!

Shellac is awesome stuff. Very, very useful and can be a fun finish on its own. As far as the oily hardwoods go (which I don't have a lot of experience with) I want to try thoroughly wiping some rosewood down with acetone, grain fill with black, then see how a CA finish fares with it.

Have you ever worked with pau rosa? I did a headstock veneer with it and inlaid pine on my Epiphone acoustic, and I really liked how it turned out. I'm not sure if it's more brittle than various rosewood species but I would love it as a fretboard. Not as orange as my picture but a very nice color and grain structure.

Thanks. High school me would be pleased with my guitar. 52 year old me is pretty happy with it, too.

Beauty of an inlay; I’ve never done that sort of thing, and, I’ve not used that wood.

My typical species are poplar, white and red oak, soft and hard maple, walnut, rosewood, teak, and Ipe.

Those speakers are wenge and were a pain in the butt. The grain filler I used did not like wenge, I imagine due to oil.

These days, if there is a hint of concern about oily wood, I lay down a few light coats of shellac, sand or cabinet scrape out any brush marks, then continue with grain filler or apply the finish of choice.

The teak vanity was trying to kill me with all its finishing issues.

 

[drp146]

Pictures as promised.
The quality of the body finish is meh since I intend to build one from scratch.
View attachment 634285

The neck is still acclimating. Action is still a touch higher than I’d like, but more than acceptable.
View attachment 634282

I’m not disappointed in the quality my fret finish, not that it’s special but I’m pleased.

View attachment 634284

View attachment 634283

I think you're well on your way to building fine guitars, if you continue. It seems you're a craftsman and that and experience are all it takes.

 

[Butcher of Strats]

Respectfully, you are wrong.
There is linseed oil that takes forever to cure, if it ever truly does.
The is Polymerized linseed oil, which is heated in an oxygen free environment thus making it thicker and decreasing trying time.
Then there is Boiled Linseed Oil which has hardeners in it.

In any case, as with any finish, if applied too thick you will end up with a mess - be it BLO, spar varnish, etc.

In my case, I intended to apply the thinest amount imaginable and repeatedly wipe off excess. I think there is a knee jerk reaction where people imagine slathering oil on the fretboard and leaving it wet.

I ended up using mineral oil as I have that on hand too. Just enough to deepen the color of the fretboard.

What?
I said BLO hardens.
You said no, BLO hardens.

 

[iH8usrnames]

What?
I said BLO hardens.
You said no, BLO hardens.

You sail BLO is polymerized; it is not.
There is linseed oil.
There is polymerized linseed oil (the thick stuff that gets gooey)
Then there is BLO which uses petroleum distillates to harden.

Polymerized linseed oil and BLO are different products.

 

[randalltampa]

I'm making the assumption that you know as much as I do, but I've found that an issue is often something so simple that the reason it's missed is like forgetting an item at the grocery store because you didn't bother putting it on your grocery list - because it was the main reason for going, in the first place.
Did you shim the neck? All of my bolt ons have needed to be shimmed, and it requires returning to step one, and rechecking the truss rod.
Are you using the correct fret board radius (7 1/4", 9 1/2"?, Compound radius)?
Of course you did. Good luck!

 

[iH8usrnames]

I'm making the assumption that you know as much as I do, but I've found that an issue is often something so simple that the reason it's missed is like forgetting an item at the grocery store because you didn't bother putting it on your grocery list - because it was the main reason for going, in the first place.
Did you shim the neck? All of my bolt ons have needed to be shimmed, and it requires returning to step one, and rechecking the truss rod.
Are you using the correct fret board radius (7 1/4", 9 1/2"?, Compound radius)?
Of course you did. Good luck!

When siting from the body toward the nut, the twist was quite visible; bottom of rosewood was parallel to the body and the nut had a twist.

Received new neck and everything is working perfectly.