#guitar kits

[kvjohansen]

Progress on the Guitar Kit

The sanding and staining is done. I started with the neck and head, as less daunting. Dark oak on the head, forest green on the neck. For the neck, I rubbed it on and off fairly quickly and then put the dark oak over it, which gave a nice effect. And then ... the quilted maple top of the body before I lost my nerve. It's a very thin veneer. So, sanded, stained it dark oak, stained the sides and sort over the edge onto the back (the body, like the neck, is mahogany). Sanded the back to fade the dark in. Sanded the front down, nervously, because I enjoy sanding and that makes it way too easy to go too far on veneer. Once I was finally happy with that, I applied emerald stain to the front, using 0000 steel wool to rub it on and then rubbing with a dry cloth to even it and make sure I didn't get lap marks.

I hadn't been taping bits off, other than the fretboard, because I was finding that the tape was lifting splinters from the mahogany. Also, all the curves that fade into one another make deciding on edges tricky. I mostly wanted the two greens and the brown to fade into one another. However, I went over the edge onto the sides a bit with the emerald where I didn't want to, so once I was done the front and it had dried I did the sides with emerald and then went over that again with the oak, before doing the back with forest overtop the oak fade. It's not noticeable enough to be called a 'burst'. (And does one do bursts on the back? Well, why not, I mean, it's your guitar and you'll see the back, even if nobody else does.)

I find the Saman water-based stain does raise the grain, even though it says it doesn't, so after the first bit I did I took to wiping over the wood with a damp cloth and then giving it a final light sanding, just a touch, with 400, and that prevented that. Using 0000 steel wool to apply it, rubbing it around with a clean cloth after, made for a rich, dark colour and very even application. I had used a cloth on the neck, which made for a less saturated colour, but that was an effect I wanted there.

So, now the staining is all done and I need to glue it. Solo recommends gluing the neck before starting the finishing on set-necks, but I decided that handling it for sanding and staining was going to be easier in two pieces.

The plan is to use Tru-Oil as a finish, if I can get some. From what I can tell, it's mostly luthiers and guitar-kit makers who use it, and it's almost impossible to find in my deer-hunting province, so why do they even bother calling it gunstock oil? Call it guitar-oil and get Solo to carry it!

[shepherdingthepie]

okay so if Cavetown ever asked me to write a verse for Devil Town I would be ready to go

Lyrics:

The lights are out in devil town

That’s fine, no one’s there to switch them now

You’re the star up in my sky

And I’m the sailor, you’re my guiding light

Devil Town is warmer in the wintertime,

The snow will melt as we say our goodbyes

Hold my hand tight,

You’ll be with me another night

I get scared when they leave out of the blue,

But I feel a little safer staying with you

Falling doesn’t feel so bad when I know you’re falling this way too

[castawavy]

bands in the sims would fix me if im honest

[jtl07]

not sure if youve discussed drummer ava but like i think thats so perfect for her fr. get out all the energy. a reason for those fucking arms. also people who are both drummers and singers are so cool and talented fr i just love that and i think she could and would.

i agree with beatrice doing like polyphia level technical guitar its just so her overachieveing and detail oriented vibe

i am ROARING because Ava on drums would be incredible - exactly for getting all the energy out and there's something therapeutic about drums, both the act of just hitting something but also learning how to control and channel that energy, not to mention being able to listen to the empty space in order to keep time and to trust the rest of the band and have them trust her in turn - it's delicious, that is brilliant omg such a need for this now (i think i read a fic with drummer!Ava but honestly we need more. ohno. what have you done what have you done)

i can also see Beatrice going one of those explainer videos - maybe like those Wired "explain in 5 levels of difficulty" and every single one of the guests just falls in love with Beatrice, especially the 5th level who just completely nerds out along with her lololol

[scrunglepaws]

Sails, that is not what that song is abou- oh, whatever.

[hunter-husky]

wide-eyed wanderer

The mouse just released a rock cover of can you feel the love tonight and whenever I hear cheesy shit like that visions of him appear to me like a phantom

[wiiildflowerrr]

The 5SOS exhibition in the Friends Of Friends Lounge

10 August 2023, The 5SOS Show Uncasville

Collated by 5SOS Updates

[tennessoui]

can’t believe there’s no balcony neighbors to friends to lovers obikin au

so like imagine like anakin and obi-wan live in apartments that face each other and are separated by a narrrow alleyway, so when both are out on their own balconies, they can pretty easily see each other and talk. they don’t but they could is the thing, it’s just a weird sort of line to step over, being in someone’s space so intimately but not being invited there, witnessing someone’s life move along like an unstoppable ocean current, but not being in the water with them.

anakin knows what book obi-wan is reading and which newspaper he subscribes to. obi-wan knows anakin’s favored brand of beer and how he sounds when he sings his baby to sleep. anakin has overheard many arguments between obi-wan and his lawyer and his estranged wife about the divorce case. they’re physically close enough that when anakin steps out one summer night, obi-wan can wordlessly pass him a cigarette over the divide. “i don’t smoke normally,” obi-wan says, with a flick of his wrist to shake loose the ash. “i know,” anakin says, because he does. “divorce was finalized yesterday,” obi-wan says. “i know,” anakin says, because he does. “my name’s obi-wan,” obi-wan says. “anakin,” anakin says because he hadn’t known that.

[pc-98s]

i also want to learn to play drums but i've been priced out of that my whole life; it's so much easier to find a cheap ass guitar at a thrift store than even a single cheap ass drum

[ohdorothea]

Besties if you could have one wish granted regarding the sound of The Tortured Poets Department what would it be???

[youre-only-gay-once]

the book i started to read leaving my memory for like 8 months until something reminds me of it again

[kvjohansen]

Adventures in Tru-Oil

I decided to finish the guitar kit in Tru-Oil because it was pretty low-tech and low-chemical and forgiving, according to what I read, and if you're doing this stuff indoors in the winter in Canada, and the only place you have to work is a corner of the unheated cellar by the woodpile, that seemed my best choice. (Now that I know more about wipe-on poly, maybe I'll try that next time? But I got fed up with modern polyurethanes after refinishing all the floors in the house and finding it really quite bad, not the polyurethane of the eighties.) (Or tung oil. I've always wanted to try tung oil but some stuff I read said it wasn't great for instruments. But now I've seen some beautiful tung-oiled guitars that people seem happy with, so that's always a possibility too.) (The Spouse doesn't read this so, hah hah, I can talk about a next time without sarcastic comments about you can only play one guitar at a time anyway and so on.)

Anyway ... where was I? Oh yeah, Tru-Oil. I do like it, but it's been very frustrating. I've worked with Danish oil before, and this seems pretty much the same kind of thing. However ... wipe on thinly, wait, another coat, wait, 0000 steel wool, clean thoroughly, another coat ... ARGH. Is it dust, is it lint? I try different Very Clean Lint-Free rags, I try the carefully folded bit of rag, I try the paper-towel or cotton-ball inside a rag, I try the 'just use your fingers', and it's the same thing, over and over. Hideous. And the cellar, I'm sure, is the only dust-free and dog-fur-free place in the house.

The guitar, by the by, is not dog-fur-free. Like a bug in amber, there it is. An Ivan-hair. Kind of like when you get your kid to make their handprints in some bit of home-repair concrete, only not. But the back, due to an unfortunate encounter with the rather peculiar cellar doorway, and due to wet-sanding an early layer of Tru-Oil with what turned out to be really junky quality 600-grit sandpaper, has a bit of an aged and well-lived, though not outright relic'd, air about it anyway, and people put hair in lockets as mementos, right? So the single white hair of the dog that, yes, bit me rather frequently when he was a small wicked puppy, remains.

I digress. I am a maze of tangents.

So my really horrible rough finish on my really lovely silk-like sanding ... Is it because I'm applying the stuff at 8 C? No way to change that. I keep the bottle up in the living room so it's a reasonable temperature when it goes on, and I bring the guitar itself, once it's not tacky, upstairs to dry properly in the living room, which is the warmest room in the house. No, it's the damned steel wool.

I've always used superfine steel wool, 0000, for rubbing down things I've been varnishing, but I conclude, like the junky sandpaper, that this is bad quality steel wool. It's not Bulldog; I couldn't find Bulldog. It's just some stuff in a bag. And it's leaving tiny steel fragments all over my finish, which the tack-cloth is failing to pick up. Or that's my best guess.

So today, for the ?tenth? coat, I sanded the back and sides with 1500 sandpaper (good quality but it's my last piece so I need to find more somewhere). Dry sanding, just lightly, to take off all the nasty grittiness that is probably steel-dust that eluded the tack-cloth. I've gone right off wet sanding for the time being, after the Horrible Scratching Incident. Wiped it all clean. Feels like silk again. This time I used a cotton ball with the Tru-Oil on it wrapped in a bit of official Clean Lint-Free Rag, and wiped the oil on with long, quick strokes, as instructed by what's come to by my favourite guitar-finishing video channel (a chap named Manicuro, I think).

Now I wait, and then I'll do it again. And again. Because damn it, that back is going to be Nice before I do anything more to the front.

But the neck -- the neck is lovely. (So it isn't the temperature.) For some reason, the neck is perfect. If it's the steel-wool dust messing it up, it did come off the neck properly with the tack-cloth. The only issue with the neck is that I was intending for it to be satin, because I really like the nearly-raw feel of my Squier necks, and I rubbed it down to satin and decided, bleah, it looked much nicer when it was glossy, because I did a neat thing in staining the neck that doesn't show up as well on the satin. So I wiped on another coat, then, being indecisive (I write like this too) vigorously rubbed it off --

OH! Oh, that is why it is so smooth, I bet that took all the steel-wool dust off better than the tack-cloth! And then I changed my mind again -- this is all within about thirty seconds -- and wiped on another coat. Which, once it was dry, I just rubbed the 1500 sandpaper over lightly to take just a little of the shine off. It's beautiful, a semi-gloss neck that shows off the streaky mossy-log blend of forest green and dark oak on the mahogany's reddish undertone. And what the heck, I'm a classical guitarist really; I'm used to playing a glossy neck and, being also a somewhat slow and ponderous guitarist no matter what I play, speed is beyond me. A fast satin neck isn't going to help.

[shepherdingthepie]

so I learned a new song on my guitar and I’m very proud so I’m posting it here

it’s called The A Team by Ed Sheeran

I’m not normally an Ed Sheeran fan but I liked this song so yeah!

(yes this is technically a voice reveal I guess)

I’m sitting behind the camera so the sound may be a bit soft so you might have to turn your volume up to hear me

but I’m very proud cuz I learned it really only like 15 mins ago and I really like how it sounds already!

[gambitandrogues]

Hi I highly recommend asking those ai bots their favorite Taylor Swift songs because it’s so funny

[just-your-average-tangerine]

I'm normal and can be trusted inside music stores

[mcflythrills78]

BTS content for @mcflymusic ‘s live session x