Step 5 - Headstock Lacquer & Body Tung Oil

Now that I've worked out the whole tung oil/lacquer question, I've put the custom label on the headstock. If you're wondering, the font is called Dymaxion Script. I was looking for a good 50's looking script font and found it over at www.dafont.com. It's a free ttf font, so if you like it, head over and pick it up.

The label material is laser printer polyester peel and stick from www.papilio.com, although I bought it off ebay. Much cheaper that way, someone's always selling a pack of it. I printed several different fonts and sizes to see which one I liked best and which one fit the headstock as well on plain paper first. Don't forget to put the truss rod cover in place while you're sizing it up.

Once the label's on, the first of several coats of Minwax clear semi-gloss lacquer goes on. Supposedly, enough layers will hide the label's edge. I'll keep at it until it does or I figure it's got enough coats. Once there's enough, and it's good and dry, I'll carefully mask the top and start tung oiling the sides of the headstock and back of the neck.

First tung oil coat on the body. I wiped it on with a paper towel, looking for a thin, even coat. According to the can, tung oil has to dry for 12 hours. It's going to be several coats before it's done, so I'm looking at a lengthy process. Not much sense posting pictures of paint drying, so I'll be back when there's something new to show.

Second Stain Coat & A Chemistry Lesson

Second stain coat is on, and I'm happy with the results. Just needs to dry overnight and I'll buff it out with 0000 steel wool to smooth the surface, then it's on to the tung oil.

Speaking of which, tung oil and lacquer do not mix! That's our chemistry lesson for the evening. Tung oil softens the lacquer, removing the nice smooth finish you've worked so hard to obtain. I suppose I could have read the directions on the tung oil can that said in big bold letters: Not recommended for use over existing finishes other than penetrating oils. But what fun would that be? At least now I know to mask the headstock or be very careful when I tung oil the neck. I'll be putting the label on and shooting clear lacquer over it first though.

No guitar work on Tuesday since it's Boy Scout night.

Step 4 - Sand and Stain!

The second round of sanding went a lot quicker, either because I put a thinner coat of grain filler on or because the wood didn't suck up as much filler. I dunno, but it seemed like I got to bare wood a lot quicker. It's smooth as a baby's derriere though.


One thing I noticed is that as I sanded the body I got an extremely fine sanding dust that went everywhere with the slightest breeze. Don't blow off the dust, especially if you're sanding indoors! I had to keep wiping off the worktable, as any little piles ended up crushed and stuck to the body whenever I set it on top of them. When I got done, all the little holes left by the CNC machine were full of the dust, so I (carefully) cleaned them out with a drill bit (fingers only!).

After that, a quick prayer and on to the first round of stain. The first little bit I used a brush, however it dried with some streaks, which I had to sand out. I also found a couple of small grain filler spots that I'd missed sanding. Then I had to fix the sand through spots. Finishing up the stain I used a paper towel to spread the stain, which gave me more control.

As for the headstock, after I shot it with the white, it occurred to me that tung oil might not be able to penetrate the lacquer, which would keep me from getting a close match to the body. I've read that you can, and I've been told you can't, do tung over lacquer, so I'm doing a test piece on some scrap I've got laying about. If it works, great. Worst case, I'll be putting my decal directly on the white and shooting some semi-gloss clear over the whole thing. Either way, the headstock will be pretty busy, and it's gonna be different anyway since it's maple. It's a detail I'm willing to live without.

Step 3 - Grain Raised, Filling is Next

Well, the body took three trips to the sink before the wild wood fibers were all gone. Swamp ash is an open grained wood, so that's to be expected. I noticed that the part of the grain where the fibers were thickest had what looked like fine, parallel scratches. I suspect this is the normal part of the grain that the filler will take care of.

The neck was basically done after the first grain raising, since it's maple. I decided I would go ahead and stain the headstock so I could get a jump on the staining and tung oiling, at least on the neck.

The bad news is the stain looked like crap. I think the problem was due to using a water based stain on the maple, it just didn't penetrate the wood. The good news is it wiped right off with denatured alcohol, even after it was dry. I decided to switch to a white lacquer, since the headstock grain isn't very apparent. I put three light coats on and got a nice smooth coverage. I'll tung oil it to match the body. Once I put the custom decal on I'm going to shoot a few thin coats of clear lacquer to protect it.

As for the body, I got the first coat of grain filler on last night. I'm using an oil-based filler I got from www.reranch.com. When I opened the can, I expected a paste-like wood filler, since that was the consistency of every wood filler I'd ever used and that was what the label said it was. What I got was, well, goop. I'm glad I was wearing rubber gloves to handle this stuff.

This filler goes on kind of like honey. You smear it on, rubbing it into the grain, let it set a few minutes, then scrape off the excess across the grain using a plastic scraper of some sort. I got a pack of three different sized plastic putty knives from Walmart, but you can use one of those fake credit cards you get in the mail. I let it set a little longer after scraping and rubbed it with a paper towel since I'm fresh out of the burlap called for in the directions. Try not to use too much, a little goes a long way. I stuck my finger in the goop and smeared it on until it was evenly spread out, putting a final wipe across the grain.


Once it's dry (overnight) you end up with a hard, chalky substance that's filled in all the little "scratches" I'd noticed earlier. Unfortunately, there's a bit of excess that must be sanded back smooth.


After sanding off the excess I'm back to bare wood, except for the filled spots. Sanding was a real pain in the arm & neck. You've got to remove that gray stuff and get back to bare wood, leaving only the filler in the deeper grain pits. Make sure you've got plenty of sandpaper on hand, I've gone through four sheets of 320 at this point. I used denatured alcohol to remove the dust as I went along, as I didn't want to wait for water to dry or face the possibility of the wood swelling up. It also helps to see where you haven't quite sanded enough.

I don't know if you can see it, but the grain between the growth line and the open field here on the lower horn still needs to be filled. I guess I didn't get it all filled last night after all. One more fill/sand cycle, and it should be time to start staining.

Step 2 - Sand & Raise the Grain (Again)

This morning the neck & body were dry, however they were no longer very smooth. The water did an excellent job of raising the grain. I've read that you shouldn't soak the wood, just wipe with a damp rag, but I actually rinsed the body in our deep sink and wiped it down with a damp rag. The grain around the edges took a little longer to dry, but I don't think there were any ill effects. I wouldn't dunk it in the bathtub, but I think a damp rag isn't going to put enough water on the surface to effectively swell the fibers. In case you were wondering whether it's even necessary, here's a picture of the effects of the first raising.
As you can see, I've no longer got a smooth foundation for the final finish. This is why you'd want to go through the trouble of sanding & grain raising. Imagine what would happen when that water-based Minwax white gets on it! The neck, being maple, wasn't nearly as rough, however its grain did raise up a bit. Shouldn't take as many passes to get it ready to stain though, and I shouldn't need to fill the neck's grain.

So, a little more sanding and another rinse to raise the grain. It should be dry and ready for another round this afternoon. Notice that I'm using a sanding block. It's easier on the hands and keeps you from sanding a trough where you want the wood to be flat.

While I was waiting for Carvin to build and ship the guitar, I was doing research and as much prep work as I could think of. One of the projects was screwing a couple of plant hangers to the ceiling of the garage to hang the neck & body from so they could dry. The neck is hanging from a piece of wire coat hanger put through the high E string tuner's hole. The body is screwed to a piece of 1"x2" scrap and hanging from the other plant hanger. Since the plant hangers spin as needed and the wood is the right length, I should be able to do my staining and oiling without having to worry about laying the body on my nice clean (right!) workbench.

I probably won't post until I'm onto the next steps, which will be filling the body's grain and first coat of stain on the headstock.

The Project Begins

I've been studying guitar for about a year and a half and I had gotten up to six different guitars. Two steel string acoustics (a Dean and a Cort), an Ibanez Artcore, a Dean Evo electric, a Martin Backpacker, and the one I started with, a $40 blue ebay special. It had been a while since my last purchase, so, about a month ago I was getting itchy for a new guitar. Those of you with GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) know the symptoms. You start cruisin' the local guitar shops, see what deals are on ebay, and try to come up with a good reason to add to your collection.

Well, being that my birthday was coming up, I came up with a reasonable (to me anyway) excuse. I spoke to my guitar teacher and he recommended a Carvin kit from www.carvin.com. So after looking at reviews around the net, I couldn't find anything particularly bad about Carvin's products and lots of good info. Even some sound clips and lots of pictures, both on the company website and at the Carvin museum www.carvinmuseum.com. Carvin also sponsors a BBS www.carvinbbs.com where the Carvinites hang out, swap info, and drool over each others gear. Check it out.

25 December I pulled the trigger. I decided on a Bolt kit, which is basically a Strat copy, although lots of folks say they're much better, at least than the Strats you can get now. I don't have a Strat, so I'm just going off what I've read. YMMV. Anyway, the options I got on the Bolt kit were as follows:

Swamp Ash body
AP11 neck and middle pickups (standard)
C22B humbucker bridge pickup (most folks apparently choose this option)
Sperzel locking tuners
Black perloid pickguard
Tweed case

You can also get a Bolt kit with a tremolo, if you're into that kind of thing. So today, the UPS man brought my very own Bolt kit. It was carefully packed and looked great. Here's the body. I'm going to finish it with Minwax white pickling stain and Tung oil.

And the neck. Nice ebony fretboard. I'm going to do the headstock in Minwax white pickling stain to match the body with Tung oil on the back. It's going to have a laser printed clear decal as well.

I'm not sure whether I'll go with the stock black perloid pickguard or figure out a way to move all the electronics over to this blue one I bought.


So, here's the first round of sanding and grain raising. Grain raising involves getting the wood damp so the fibers torn in the sanding & cutting process raise up. Once dry, you sand it smooth and repeat as necessary. I love the grain in this wood.


That's about it for tonight. Tomorrow, more sanding and grain raising, which will continue until everything's as smooth as possible.