Saturday, April 23, 2011

Progress On The Highline Prodigy Guitar

Today, I finished sanding the Prodigy's body and neck from 80 grit down to 220 grit. Next, I applied a thin coat of pure tung oil, which highlighted a few nicks and scratches that needed further sanding. After the touch-up sanding was complete, I slathered on a liberal coat of the tung oil and let it soak in for about an hour. Then, I went back and sanded the entire surface of both the body and neck with a couple of 1/4 sheets of 220 grit. This process generated a good amount of oil-soaked dust, which I rubbed into the grain with a cloth and more tung oil.

Since pure tung oil dries hard, it acts like a binder for the sanding dust.  And by rubbing it into the wood, it works perfectly as a grain filler. I'll let the oil/dust layer dry for 24 hours before repeating the process to insure a nice, smooth surface. Then, I'll start applying pure tung oil by itself with a cloth rag until I achieve the light sheen I'm after. Check out the progress so far:

The body after filling the grain with tung oil/sanding dust. 
The neck heel was sanded to match the body's contour.

I use threaded inserts to bolt the neck in with machine screws rather than bolt it on with wood screws.

I'm going to use a nice slab of Cocobolo for the fretboard.

2 comments:

  1. Is there a plan for this guitar available?

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  2. There will be. When the guitar is finished in a few weeks, I'll add the plans to the order page.

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