So, I got to work with pore filling and getting everything ready for the first lacquer coats. The pore filling went well. I used the same filler that I have used on the other guitars, figuring that I would put enough coats to make sure the pores were filled. I got 3 coats on and all sanded back and everything looks good. It is hard to tell if the pores are completely full, but looking at the body with the sun reflecting across it, I can't see any pore marks. Looking straight at the wood, the pores are visible but shiny so that makes me pretty confident that they are full. I then worked on getting the neck stained. I liked the way the 000 neck turned out after I did multiple stain coats with sanding back so I went with that method on this one too. I first masked everything off that I didn't want stained and then stained the neck with pretty much straight mahogany red. That helped me locate any pore filler that I missed while sanding. I sanded it all off making sure to get the spots of pore filler. Then I re-stained with a mixture of mahogany red and tobacco brown. Once that was dry I sanded it back leaving about 25% still on the neck. Then I finished it with a final coat of mostly mahogany red with a little bit of tobacco brown mixed in to get a mostly red brown color. What that gave me was a neck that had a red under coat, dark brown pores, and a reddish brown final color. It gives the neck an old look that I like. I was able to get it to look very similar to the 000 neck, but a bit more red in color. I like the look. All that is left now is to wipe it all down with a tack cloth, attach some handles, and start spraying.
The packages of wood should start arriving next Monday for the double build so I should be getting started on them in a little over a week from now. I will be doing two of the same guitars so I will be calling the project guitars "the twins".
First up, pore filling the body.
...and the neck...
For all of those who doubt the purple color of this wood, here is what the scraped off pore filler looks like and that is after the body has been vacuumed, tack cloth wiped, and wiped with naphtha. It has some really purple pigments in it!
I masked off all of the light colored woods that I didn't want stain to get on. I also coated them with shellac for good measure.
This what shows after a quick coat of stain where pore filler didn't get completely sanded off.
You can also see these spots here around the volute. These were easily scraped off and sanded smooth. This was the first red coat of stain. The ebony still has pore filler on it, that is why it looks so bad. I left it on because it would protect the wood from any stain that got on it.
After sanding the red off, re-staining with brown, and then sanding most if it off. It really looks ugly at this point, but don't worry, it is about to look a lot better.
The neck after the coat of mostly mahogany red with a little brown mixed in. Oh, that thing on the edge of my table is a blank mortise. I use it when hammering in the frets on the extension. The tenon of the neck sits in there and it provides support of the extension while hammering them in.
The shellac and tape on the maple worked great! No stain got on the maple bindings.
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