Mud's 1st Finish & Build Complete: Ol' Piney #1

[mudbean]

YAY!! At long last (O.K., so I haven't been exactly slaving away at this thing) I have a guitar! A Blackguard!! Not a hunk of pine, not a WIP, not a horrid mess, but a guitar! And she's a FAT BLONDE, to boot! All 1-7/8 inches of 'er (yep, I said fat!) ... I've always had a thing for fat blondes ... but I digress ... here she is:



I like the black velvet photo dealio, but I'm having a devil of a time getting a good (read: true-to-life) color balance ... this one's more accurate:



O.K., specs:

Body - Pine, two piece, rough cut, purch from TDPRI member guitarbuilder Marty.
Neck - AllParts TMO-FAT, med jumbo frets, TUSQ nut, purch from Mark at mjw customs (highly recommended - Mark does a very nice job of dressing the fret ends before shipping to you, and has great prices).
Pickups - Don Mare Blackguards (hee hee!)
Bridge - Wilkinson 3 saddle, brass, compensated
Control Plate - Nice thick plate from Guitar Fetish, matches PG thickness
Electronics - Stew Mac Tele wiring kit, Electrosocket jack cup
Tuners - Stew Mac vintage split post style
Knobs - geniune Fender Domes (hey, I wanted something "real"!)



I had no idea how cool it would feel to hold & play a guitar I made myself! Suddenly, all my store-bought Teles don't seem so special anymore ... hmmm ...

mud

[jkingma]

Wow, looks great.

[getbent]

nice work mudman!

[mudbean]

Raw pine body from Marty (Marty made this body just fine, BTW - the fat part came from me, my sprayer and a helluva lotta bug shells!):



I did the edge radiusing by hand (I worked it hard, wanted a soft edge) with 150 grit sandpaper, then smoothed to 320:



The DIY section here at TDPRI has been my inspiration, education, and exhasperation ... I opted to try shellac as a base coat under my planned Butterscotch Blonde nitro ... my first forays into shellac application were rocky, at best:



Sanding block to the rescue:



mud

[mudbean]

On the spraying stand, after several coats of ReRanch Butterscotch Blonde nitro:



The body did not have the jack hole drilled (I forgive you, my friend!) ... I needed to get a drillpress anyway ... I set this up referring to Jack's photo, worked great (yes, I know, I painted it before I drilled the hole ... ssshhhh):



Then came many coats of Deft Gloss Nitro Lacquer, and waiting, and sanding, and spraying, and waiting ... here, wetsanded to 1200 grit:



Lastly, on to the buff ... figured I'd try it by hand - my shoulders lasted approx 10 minutes (ouch!) before I ran to the auto parts store for an electric buffer - best 20 bux I ever spent. It's amazing how the finish changes through the process - after wetsanding to 800,then 1200 grit, the matte surface looks soft, even though it's not ... as you progress through the rubbing compound, then polishing compound, it "hardens" in appearance as it takes on a shine - but it's not until the magic last step: Meguiar's Scratch-X2.0, that the shine explodes. Here, we still see some fine scratches in the surface - subsequent Meguiar's treatments remove these as well:



mud

[lespauljr]

A fine job anybody would be proud of.

[pchilson]

You've done some fine work there mudbean, be proud. Will you be doing it again?

[woodman]

nice piece o' work, mud — i wondered where you'd been!

[edgemarc]

Very Very Nice! Excellent job!

[guitarbuilder]

Jack Hole+10 dollars....:-). Nice work by the way!

[mudbean]

Hey, Marty! Gotcha - I'll keep that in mind for next time ... I do believe I turned blue, holding my breath throughout the drilling procedure!

Many thanks, all - yes, this is my first try, more now hanging to cure (a couple ready for wetsanding!).

I gotta tell ya, I'm hooked at the first bite of the Partscaster bug ... I may just sell my MIM Stds ... go figure ...

Also, weight of finished body (before metal) was 4.45 lbs. Total assembled weight of guitar is 7.42 lbs. She may be chunky, but she's light on her feet!

Here are a couple more looks. Checkout my homemade decal - also checkout where Mudthespazz drilled a pilot hole right through the headstock (yup, on the last one ... grrrr). No worries, easy repair, and the headstock is not totally done (I couldn't wait, slapped 'er together to show the family for Turkey Day):





mud

[gagidlof]

That came out great, I'm building a pinecaster blackguard with a goal to come out just like yours only difference I'm going with the rosewood fretboard.

That really looks nice way to go, that is something to be proud of. I hope mine looks as nice when I'm done.

[JCBurke59]

Nice, nice job.

My 'Blackguard' partscaster is northern ash and a little heavy - 8.5lbs, or so. I'd love to do one in pine one of these days.

It is addictive, isn't it?

Joe

[Zillinois]

Nice work! At some point I'm going to have to commission someone here to build me something nice!

[FirstBassman]

Wow, congrats! Very sweet looking.

And I'm sure she sounds great. Enjoy.

[mudbean]

Thanks, guys!

Quick follow-up note: I had a static problem with my pickguard - a little strip of aluminum foil under the PG, secured by the nearest Control Panel screw, cleared it right up. TDPRI saves the day yet again!

mud

[52Tele_lover]

very very nice guitar mate.