Progress on my walnut build, I think something is growing on it....

[OpenG Capo4]

So I'm working on 3 or 4 bodies at once right now. One of them is a walnut top/pine back.



When I started with the pine it was over 2" thick. I glued the walnut down to it and surfaced it down to tele spec 1-3/4". Let it set overnight, bandsawed it out, ROSSed it, and routed the outline. Thats when I noticed the blue stuff on the back. I found more when I routed the cavities. I think its some kind of mold? Theres a vein of it (like a hairline crack almost) that runs from the neck pocket to the back.



I tried wiping it off with naptha and that didn't help. Its like its penetrated the wood. I didn't see any signs of this when I was milling the log I got this body from down into a blank. It must have always been inside the wood and just came to life all of a sudden when I started cutting into the wood?

And I've built other bodies and blanks from the same slab and they're all fine. I'm really at a loss.

Not sure how to get rid of the stuff but I guess I can't just let it keep eating my new body

[Davecam48]

If it is a mould you should be able to kill it with bleach.

[trev333]

some mineral oxidation as it hits the fresh air?.... can that happen?

a pocket of something locked in the wood... hits the air and changes color...

next... ;)

[gatimberframer]

It is called blue stain or sap stain and it is a fungus that inhabits wood (usually pine) and feeds on the sugars in the sapwood. It is not structurally damaging to the wood cells. It is impossible to remove because it is inside the wood cells and usually throughout the thickness of the piece and not just on or near the surface. Bleach can lighten the color of the blue stain, but it also affects the surrounding wood. There shouldn't be a problem if you are doing a solid color. Otherwise, you may have to call it the denimcaster.

[OpenG Capo4]

Well I guess I have some bleu cheese to go with my walnut

At least its a relief that its not going to be structurally damaging to the guitar. There are also some bands of blue in the walnut sapwood and some of the other pine pieces, but they didn't look like fungi to me, I just thought they were mineral deposits, as the wood there has lots of different colors going on other than just the blue. And they were already in the wood when I cut into it, they didn't just appear on wood that was perfectly fine after sanding. You can see a little on this body near the control cavity:



Might plane the walnut topped body down past the roundover, hog out some chambers, and put a 1/4" walnut back on it. That knot in the back has a void in it anyway where a chunk fell out as I was doing the roundover.

Or I might fill the void with filler and hope I can get away with a darker stain. That pine is 1pc and I like the figure and knots, it'd almost be a shame to hide it.

[OpenG Capo4]

Here you can see more of the walnut sapwood. For a minute I thought about putting the sapwood in the middle and bookmatching it that way.

[mgdesigns]

That is probably mold, and I have had pieces of hackberry that I was turning get it all the way through. I had left a roughed bowl turning in a brown paper bag for a month before I could et back to finishing it, and it molded throughout. It went from pure white to ashen grey with green specks. I finished it with a face mask to avoid inhaling the spores or fungi, and sealed it in brush on polyurethane high gloss. It's prettier than it would have been.

[OpenG Capo4]

Originally Posted by gatimberframer

. Otherwise, you may have to call it the denimcaster.

http://denimpine.com/documents/home.html

I think its probably copyrighted already.

[OpenG Capo4]

I don't know if theres enough of this stuff on there to call it blue pine/denim pine. But as quickly as this stuff appeared out of the bare wood it will probably have spread all the way across by the time I get home tonight.

The gears are turning and I'm thinking I might do a blue pine build sometime.

This guys sells blue pine lumber:

http://thehandsomewoodman.com/index....c2cac8a5258c83



Some nice looking stuff.

[allen082]

same thing happened to my pine body.....

[gatimberframer]

If it is still spreading, then your wood is not dry. This stuff is only active when the moisture content is 20% or higher.

[OpenG Capo4]

The wood feels like its dry. And this particular board has sat in my drying area for about 1 year. I don't have a moisture meter, but everything I've built with it so far seems so be stable and dry.

Its probably not that its spreading as it is I'm just seeing it more as I look at it from different angles/lighting.

Anywho, the body is getting closer to finished. I routed the control cavity, drilled it for the electro-socket and controls today.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to drill it for ferrules to mount the neck, drill for the bridge screws and string thru, and decide if I want to bind the top or not. I think some cream binding would look nice with the walnut and offer the edges some protection against dings which is important on a pinecaster. But the end grain on the walnut is pretty nice too.

Oh, and I'll have to fill that void in the knot. Maybe a mixture of titebond/shavings to fill it and then an application of timbermate to smooth that out. Can you add dye to timbermate to color it?

[OpenG Capo4]

Mounting the electro-socket in a recess rather than having the lip sitting proud on the body. Hopefully it'll look better once I sand the edges a little bit. Also made a decision on the controls. LP style switch, volume, & tone. Got some gold "bell" knobs with silver inserts.



This photo is from GFS but I believe mine are the genuine article. They were in a box of used parts labeled "Gibson parts".

Also took delivery of some Caribbean rosewood (aka Chechen?) Board's surfaces are pretty distorted. They are both "scooped" if that makes sense. When you look at the end grain it looks like this ) ( But its not cupped, its like someone cut a cove into it on both surfaces or something. But I think I can plane it flat and still have enough for 2 1pc. necks. I got it cheap, anyway.



Pretty sure I'll add the cream binding I got from StewMac but it doesn't match my switch tip. And I'll get a cream cover for the P-90, but then I'll still have a black Tele pickup.

[OpenG Capo4]

I had previously thought sculpted heels were too "B.C. Rich" for my builds, but after taking delivery of some neck mounting ferrules and seeing some guitars local guys have built with them I thought I might as well try my hand at it....



It was then that I realized I had to relocate those holes. Luckily I had not drilled the neck at that point. One of them would have probably grazed the truss rod. So I doweled them up and re-drilled them to avoid the truss rod. There are now 3 on the bass side and 2 on the treble.

I've also tapered this area off some since the photo was taken.

5 bolt attachment, hopefully at least as solid than the usual 4 bolts and plate. The higher frets are definitely easier to access now. This thing is light. Even when pickups/controls/binding/finish is on, it might still be a neck diver.

And I drilled the neck for the tuning keys and strung it up with a Lindy Frailin stock wind tele bridge pickup wired direct to the electrosocket. Sounds amazing.

I've pretty much finished the woodwork save for routing the binding channels and doing a final sanding to smooth the sides.

[OpenG Capo4]

Got all this Wednesday night. about 70 bd/ft of common grade 4/4 Walnut and some nicely figured Cherry slabs for $100. Most of it is kiln dried 7-8" wide boards over 10ft. long some of them planed already. Others are rough sawn, the guy said a few of those boards were over 100 years old.

Should keep me busy for a while.

[OpenG Capo4]

1 coat of "Golden Oak" Danish Oil and 3 coats of Tru-Oil on the top, same on the neck. Put it together to make sure everything was aligned correctly and it is. Got the pickups wired straight thru the switch now.

Neck pickup is a Lindy Fralin stock wind AlNiCo V at 6.8k or so, the neck pickup is a generic AlNiCo P90 at 8k. I will probably get a lower output P90 to go in the neck to match the Fralin, as the neck really overpowers the bridge in the middle position.

Its coming apart soon so I can route a channel and instal cream binding, and put a finish on the back. Still not sure what to do there, I'd like something with an amber tint that won't cover up or discolor the blue streaks in the pine.

[fenderchamp]

That looks very nice.

[OpenG Capo4]

Originally Posted by fenderchamp

That looks very nice.

Thanks!

I ordered one of the 5.2k Soapbar P90's from Allparts yesterday, along with control pots etc. They are on clearance sale because apparently they used the Dogear keeper bars when they assembled them so they aren't drilled for mounting screws. But I am pretty sure the 50mm humbucker keeper bar I ordered with it will swap out, or I can just drill the holes in it myself.

And I ordered fretting supplies from Stew Mac as well. Fret slotting miter box & saw, fret press arbor & cauls, neck support caul, and Fender scale template.

I get a bunch of time off from work for the holiday season so hopefully I'll be getting some necks built.

[OpenG Capo4]

Got the cream binding on it. Whats cool about this one is that the drop top is thicker than the binding so I have a thin layer of the top wood showing, which creates the illusion of another binding under the cream.



I'm hoping the new, lower output neck P90 will create a more balanced sound in the middle position.

I made a mix of sawdust and glue to fill the void in the knot on the back and I'm waiting for it to dry now. Then I'll sand it smooth, stain the pine back, and clear coat it. Hoping to finish it soon and get it on the market.