Cherry Red

I've had a project going which has taken up an awful lot of my thought, time and energy, probably to the detriment of my blipping.

I built this guitar quite a few years ago, maybe 18 years. I was pleased with the result and I've used it a lot. I've learnt a lot more about wood and how to apply the finish since then so I decided that I'd like to try redoing it. I should stop reading now, you could find this a bit boring.

After an awful lot of sanding, grain filling and priming, it took six coats of translucent cherry red nitrocellulose spray to get to the right colour. After that it took twelve coats of clear nitrocellulose. 

Although I was quite happy with the neck finish, I decided I'd like to paint the front face of the headstock in the same colour as the body. This seemed like a comparatively small job and coincided with the  rainy weather coming in and the humidity getting higher. You can't spray nitrocellulose when the humidity is much higher than 60% because moisture gets trapped and you get a white bloom (called blush). It took a while before conditions were good enough and so it was a slow process getting that bit painted and clear coated.

A nitro finish has to 'cure' for at least a fortnight and then you can start the finishing. This means sanding with wet and dry paper, moving through 400, 600, 800, 1200 up to 2000 grit before applying T-cut and then a final polish.

I haven't had to do much with the electrics as that's all as it was when I stripped it down but it all had to be carefully squeezed into the cavities below the black scratch plate and then some outlying parts needed resoldering. It just needs the neck to be refitted some new strings and a bit of setting up and we're done.

I decided to take a photo at this stage because it fits nicely into a compact photo before the neck's fitted. I'm pretty pleased with the finish. It doesn't look sparkly new, it's more 'well cared for vintage' and that's ideal. 

This is what it looked like before if you're interested.