Stain and epoxy seal test.

Finishing has always been my weak point. After a 400 grit sand, I stained the body. I stained the maple a light red/mahogany followed by a vintage amber. Too red so I wiped and I wiped with denatured alcohol to get most of the red out. Test on a scrap piece? No way, I'm jumping in with both feet first! I masked the mohoagany and sanded the maple only. With the mask still on, I applied a darker mahogany stain and sanded with 600 grit and then applied a lighter stain. I liked it. The neck is just vintage amber and some places took more of a stain than others. Even plain maple showed some figure. Once I was happy with the color, I tried the John Catto epoxy grain fill method as a test. He advised to use small amounts of epoxy at one time. Well, I used a little more than that. He was right. Too much meant that I had to find spots for the epoxy and becasue there was so much, it started to dry while spreading. I did not want to mess with dark filler. The problem is that there are pieces of maple crisscrossed with mahogany. The normal filler would've stained everything. Lesson learned: keep the guitar flatter next time. The epoxy was spotty as I was just trying to get it on most of the face. I missed some areas, but it was just a first coat. I'll give it another coat and things should even-out. Keep denatured alcohol handy as that cleans up the soft epoxy real good.

Ground wire channels.

The hole drilled for the ground wires was going to be via a different route. Once I had the strings on and the rest of the hardware, plans changed. The angle through the bridge stud hole was too sharp so I opted for a side drill. It will require a MOP dot for concealment, but it'll work fine. A 1/8" bit works good for one wire but not two. I had to redrill the pickup-to-jack hole and increase it to a 3/16" bit. The bridge studs are drilled and look well centered. I had to be carful. I didn't want to go through to the back or into the tuner cavity on the back. I just need to test the jack cavity, mount the pickup for testing, and it should be ready for final sanding and pore filling.

Finish testing.

Today I did a test on some figured maple to see how it would look. First, I used dark red mahogany staint then I wiped it with denatured alcohol. After five minutes I sanded it back a bit, then applied amber stain. I coated it with several coats of shellac. Notice how the angle makes a big diference on the figure. Same piece, same side. I am wishing I had more of this maple on the guitar. I can't wait for the finishing part. Real soon...real soon...

New bridge setup.

I did not like the bridge I had for this guitar set up. The tuners being mounted on the body side caused the bridge studs too much strain and loosened when they were extended. There's a lot force on that string angle . The studs are fine for regular tailpieces, but not my setup. I opted for a bridge that had large studs to better take the force. This all started because the tuners would be too high on the body and would interfere with my strumming arm. So I had to lower the profile of the tuners. That's why I routed the tuner area down. That required the bridge studs to extend too high. Not a lot of bulk on the Schaller bridge studs. This new bridge not only has big studs, but has better rear clearance for the string going toward the tuners.The hardest part of this project has been the calculating of the beidge height and string angle. It is still messing with me. To remedy this, I added some "lift-mounts" for the studs. I used a plug cutter and cut a piece from an old ebony fingerboard. I sunk them in to hold better. I used a 26mm forsner bit and sanded the plugs to size. I think it not only looks better with the new bridge, but gives it a classier look with the ebony touch. I have not yet installed the studs. Every alteration requires another one somewhere else to compensate.