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Days Four and Five

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In one sense these two days are a continuation of Day Three because as the levels of Boiled Linseed increase along with the depth of the colour. More importantly, so too does the time it takes for the oil to be absorbed into the wood – except on the end grain, naturally. After I'd wiped six coats on the body I was happy that most of the redness had been removed and I began applying the coats of polyurethane varnish. This was planned from the outset to be a satin finish – I was very struck by the look of a recent Fender guitar model finished in satin though I didn't properly appreciate the implications of taking the same route. First of all, I chose a coloured polyurethane varnish intending to move further from the mahogany colour – my choice was Rustins in light oak. This was a good choice and worked well. As with the first guitar build I used a very diluted treatment and of course, this meant the polyurethane was absorbed into the end grain. Ultimately this meant the body need
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Day Three

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At this point, I remember from my schooldays – specifically my woodwork classes – that this is the dreary, mind-numbing stage of converting a lump of wood into something useful.  I've bound up the ebony fretboard with green frogtape (low-tack masking tape) part of the neck and started the process of sealing the body and the neck with 1:1 coatings of boiled linseed oil diluted with White Spirit applied with a lint-free cloth. The boring bit's actually the waiting while the various coatings are absorbed by the wood. Of course, that takes longer with each successive coating.  Right now I'm at coating four so about a third of the way through. The amber colour of the linseed oil is having an effect on the reddy natural shade of the mahogany and is also darkening the overall effect, especially on the body. If I have any serious concern it is that the wood of the body (a two-part lump) is somewhat redder than the neck whereas I'm hoping that by the end of the sealing and then
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Day Two

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Day Two I recall this stage from my first build as the one when my right arm aches with the sanding by bedtime. I start with 180 grit, then 400, 600 and finally 1200 grit. Damp cloth after each sanding to raise the surface nap. The result this time was much more satisfactory than the first time due primarily to there not being a veneer. However, the custom woodworking of the headstock took much longer, and that's despite my having purchased a Dremel kit in the meantime. Most kit-building people seem to want to echo to one degree or another the Fender shape. I imagine that's partly because the basic shape of the headstock supplied by Coban lends itself to the Fender design and partly because it's such a well-known and easily-recognised shape. I decided against it and chose a design that references but doesn't copy two brand guitar headstocks. One is well-known, the other very rare. It involved two fret saw cuts in the headstock, one quite long. By adding my own signature
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Day One

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As I noted in my previous post this post should have taken place two months ago about the end of December. The brief facts are that the container ship on which the kit was en route from China had a fire in the engine room. A temporary repair was made in Southern Spain and the ship limped to Wilhelmshaven where the cargo was transhipped before a complete repair was carried out. So un-boxing. The company's improved its green credentials by substituting a stout cardboard box for the polystyrene in which the PRS model came. The contents were in excellent condition. If anything I'd say the preparation of the wood is even better than before, it's especially noticeable in the care given to the cleaning up of the routed areas of the body.. Once again Mark Banthorpe at UK Music Supplies agreed to double-check the fit of the neck/body joint of the specific kit he was sending and once again it was first class. The finish of the 'external' surfaces is as good as the PRS guitar
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Another guitar?

 Why have I decided to build another instrument? Glutton for punishment? Guitar masochist? Lockdown crazy? To be honest, not even the latter, though building my first guitar did fit in very conveniently with the completion of my latest novel, Easbury Green – my usual way of enjoying my retirement - details on Amazon. That was during the pre-Christmas lockdown. That instrument's now complete and the mistakes I made in my first attempt have been rectified; good quality strings have been put on and the guitar's been properly intonated. Referred within the family as my 'PH guitar' (from my signature applied clearly on the headstock to avoid any charge that I'm trying to pass it off as a Paul Reed Smith instrument), I now enjoy playing it regularly. Quite apart from the novelty ie newness, it's quicker to pick up than my Gibson, Gretsch or Martin, all of which are in cases. So what did I choose? I thought about a Strat-type model but there really are so many of those
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