Sweet Victory..... & Sweeter Tones

     Well Its all over! I am sitting in my living room looking at two beautiful hand made guitars that over the past 5 months through my sweat, blood, tears, and hard work, have taken shape from piles of wood and hardware. These are Two of the finest instruments I have ever played and they came to life by my hand. It has been such a rewarding journey, and dream come true for me. I have learned so much and done more than I knew I could this year. Thank you all who have supported me throughout this experience. I cant wait to dive deeper into the world of luthiery next fall in the Guitar Development Program. But until then I'm going to head to the basement and enjoy the fruits of my labor! So without further adue, I introduce to you the finished Aaron Paul Luthiery All Mahogany Simple Man, & Surf Green Mustrat!

The view from the couch....

The Simple Man.......

Solid Mahogany Top, Back, Sides, & Neck

Macassar Ebony Bridge, Fingerboard, & Headplate

Cream & Tortoise Binding

Bone Nut, Saddle, & Bridge Pins

Grover Vintage Open Back 2 Tone Tuners

The "Mustrat"

Alder Body, Custom Surf Green/Sonic Blue Paint

Vintage Amber Tinted Subtle Flame Maple Neck, Cocobolo Fingerboard

Tortoise Pick Guard, Chrome Hardware

Seymour Duncan P-Rails Humbucking Pick Ups With Triple Shot Mounting Rings

Offers P-90, Single Coil, And Humbucking Tones, Over 30 Switching Options

Master Volume & Tone Controls, & 3 Way Selector

Bigsby Vibrato, Schaller Roller Tune-o-matic Bridge

Bone Nut, Schaller Locking Tuners

Week 8, Sanding, Spraying, Filling, Sanding and Spraying, but mostly Sanding

     The time has finally come! We are finally putting a finish on our guitars that we have worked so many hours to construct this semester! Its been a long rewarding road, with a few bumps along the way, but it has been worth all the sweat, blood, and stress.

     I began the week with my acoustic mostly prep sanded to 220 grit. I sanded what remained and inspected every inch of all of its surfaces under a low angle light to ensure there were were no random scratches, dents or other imperfections. This sanding step is crucial to a flawless finish and is closely inspected by our instructors David, and Brian.

     After getting the ok from the instructors it was finally time to spray a coat of vinyl sealer and get a sneak
peak of the wood would look like under a clear coat. Its quite a tease because it looks sooo good and the next step will make it look so much worse!

     That next step is to smudge oil based pore filler all over the guitar and squeegee it off pressing the filler into the open pores to fill them and leave a smooth surface to finish. Most guitars with spruce tops only get pore filled on the back, sides, and neck. My guitar however is all mahogany having large open pores that must be filled on all surfaces. I was in the work mode and did not get a chance to snap a photo of my guitar all smudged up so here are a few i snapped of my classmates just to show you the horror.

     The paste pore filler is painted on, rubbed off, and left to dry over night. Any time these guitars are drying they are hung from hooks on racks in the finishing area. 

     After drying over night the paste pore filler is sanded off smooth to reveal the wood again with all the pores full and smooth ready for finish. This sanding step took me an entire day to complete. It has to be done once again with just as much scrutiny as the prep sanding to ensure there are no scratches left that will be extremely apparent under the clear finish. This should be the final prep sanding. The next step is to re seal this pore filler with vinyl sealer. The guitar is now back to its beautiful almost finished state. After the weekend of drying I will spray 4-5 coats of clear lacquer on the guitar and really bring up the shine and depth of the finish. By the next time you read the guitar should be Finished and ready for strings and set up! 

Week 7... Builds finished... Winding down

     Well Its all over but the sanding and spraying! This week saw the finishing touches go into the electric build, the final buff of the last finishing project board, and the strat repair wrap up. Now just enjoying a 3 day weekend before its time to spray, spray, sand and spray!

     Monday and Tuesday, were spent this week finalizing all shapes and aspects of the "Mustrat". The guitar has been shaped, and prep sanded with the grain to 180 grit along with the neck. All the electronics have been pre wired into the tortoise pick guard and chrome control plates so they are ready to drop into the guitar after spraying the finish. The frets are leveled, crowned and polished, and I made a fresh bone nut for it. The sanding is tedious work following every grain line around each curve constantly checking to be sure all the larger sanding and carving scratches are gone, but the finished product can only be as good as the prep work that goes in.

Next time you see this thing it will be a cool minty surf green with lots o chrome!

     On Tuesday I was interviewed by a woman from the College Communications office to be used in a web based student spotlight! She took some snap shots of me working, the guitars i have built , and we sat down and had a chat about my experience here at school, my past, and my plans for the future. The article will be featured on the Southeast Tech web page next week in preparation for the big annual guitar show, which showcases all of the amazing instruments built here each year.

     Wednesday i took to wet sanding and buffing my "sea foam green" project board to a mirror shine for final grading. Its so rewarding to watch all the scratches fade away and reveal that flawless high gloss.

     A few coats of gloss lacquer were sprayed onto the guitar shaped sunburst board to seal those in as well

     Friday I desoldered, cleaned up and re soldered all the connections in my trusty #1 Strat. The guitar has been hastily wired a few different ways over the years with different mods ( Treble bleed loop, kill switch in, kill switch out ) and it was grounding out somewhere causing the tone controls to kill the guitar when turned down. After cleaning and re wiring everything with fresh wire and solder she is back to her sweet quiet bell like self. I cleaned her all up inside and out and re joined the freshly fret dressed neck with new bone nut to the body. Then spent a good hour setting it back up with new strings and perfect action and intonation. plugged her in and played a bit... Shes a happy girl! We've been through a lot, she deserved it......

     Well next week and a half will be spent spraying lacquer on the acoustic and waiting for paint to dry! Its sooo crazy what i have accomplished in these past 8 months! I cannot wait to hear these things play!! Thanks as always for reading and all of your support and encouragement! I'm off to enjoy this awesome weather we are finally having!!!