About that Saturday deadline…

The tech guy in me wants to tell you that I know I’ll be done on a Saturday, but I never specified which Saturday.

Cliché, I know.

I missed my last week’s mark for sure and I could give you excuses, but in order to avoid them completely, here’s a short version:

Life happened, in both ways - good and bad.

The gist of it is that I didn’t have much time or energy.

I even skipped writing about my guitar building - which is what usually brings me plenty of joy otherwise.

So, what’s up?

I want to take a minute - like a literal minute - and talk about some of my limitations.

Not my disability, mind you.

I’m talking about my limitations as a hobby guitar builder, trying desperately not to fail.

I still consider knowledge and experience my biggest limitation in trying to make all of these separate parts come together and loosely resemble a guitar in the end.

One such example is the term “fine sanding”.

You should fine sand a lot of things but as a beginner, you have no idea what fine sanding is.

Do you sand the entire surface or just try to iron out the problem areas? Should you pencil mark while you are at it?

(The answer to those two is: at this stage, the latter and maybe, but I didn’t.)

I’ve done plenty of creating in the digital realm, but nothing hit me just as hard as this - the very physical sensation of learning by doing.

The bleeding edge

So, after the white back and sides were all done, I put plenty of masking tape over it, protected the neck pocket as best as I could, and spray-painted the front black.

While I was at it, I also applied the black spray paint over the headstock.

There was very little leakage of black to white areas.

Like teenie tiny amount.

Aleš was kind enough to drop by, after work, in non-woodworkers clothes and worked out some of my paint surf waves, and black leaks, and gave me tips on what he would do in my shoes.

I learned to trust him. He is meticulous but stops short of over-the-top complications.

My kind of mocha latte.

Yes, I have also considered the possibility that he’s just coming over to make sure that this build doesn’t drive me to the edge of sanity.

It looked close for a moment or three, but I guess I’m pulling ahead now.

In what mood’s the wood?

Basically, at this point, the build drives my decisions more than I’m driving the build.

Maybe that will change at some point, or maybe it will always stay like this.

Leaks warranted a rinse-repeat.

Wax on, wax off sounds simple.

Masking tape off, masking tape on, spray paint white, masking tape off, masking tape on, spray paint black - not so much.

Do you want the binding completely covered by paint, without any chips?

Spray a little closer and live with the leaks.

I gave up on that first Saturday deadline somewhere in between those spray paint waves…

Headstock logo still a thing?

Yes.

But the approach changed completely.

I printed the R. U. Guitars text on a piece of paper. Laid that paper out over masking tape.

Took the exacto knife and after 2 minutes, I figured out this will never work.

Ordered some white foil stickers with adhesive back strong enough to stick to wood.

The application got hairy for a moment, but a smart guy always orders two when in need of one only.

I patched that one together and it looks great now.

The matte finish line

My father’s cousins were visiting when I applied the second coat of black and then the first coat of lacquer shortly after that.

They have more experience than I’ll have in 20 years’ time.

Too wet. Too cold. Too wrong.

Told me the lacquer is bound to crack.

I was pissed, so I did it anyway.

Everything looked like smooth sailing…

… except one part turned a little more yellowish than the rest.

Glad it’s just one spot and not the whole back and sides - that would have sucked!

What now?

Here’s the plan, in clear and unambiguous steps:

Step one: try to sand the yellow out so lightly, the sandpaper barely touches the paint.

If it works, wipe off the dust and put on the second layer of lacquer.

(If it doesn’t,… oh, well. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.)

Step two: This should bury the paint deep enough to prevent any chip-out and will allow me to finish-sand the surface for smoothness.

Steps three to n (where n is short of infinity): Then another layer of lacquer. And maybe another.

I’m not the one counting, you are.

What happens when you finish this build?

This blog exists to show people the non-perfect side of the coin, so the website stays.

And yes, I got bit by the “#AreYouGuitars bug” hard enough, to already be planning new stuff - new builds, new jigs, new challenges.

The tone of voice will stay the same, at least until I get good at this.

Some of my friends also asked me to make videos about it.

Honestly, I would love to, but I barely have enough time to write and edit text and put filters on photos.

Youtube adds complexity.

And let’s be real - I’m already in too deep as it is.

But never say never - or spray paint.