Worked on the body
1. GRAIN FILLER.
Started by sanding down and adding ebony grain filler:
What a pain that was. Had to sand that all back down to the wood. They recommend a couple runs. I did one thick coat and then sanded it back.
Once I did that the grain really stood out, or "popped" as they say. The wood seemed to take on a bit of a reddish/pink tone, which was neat.
2. STAIN
Started off thinking I was going to do a dark red stain. I have a couple stains available: cherry red, amber, tobacco brown.
Tried experimenting on some wood scraps, but it was really hard to see the effect of the tint on just scrap wood. You
Mixed the red and brown and got this:
Instead of a being a darker red, the mixture ended up as a reddish brown. Not quite what I was after, and I just didn't like it very much. I liked the way the grain stood out, but just couldn't get into the colour.
I considered sanding it completely back to start over again, but then I red that if you stain darker, you can just carry on, so I tried that by doing a much deeper tobacco brown.
I liked the result. With a black pickguard and a deep amber neck, it looks like a country telecaster. So I went with that.
After two coats of tru oil:
Had to make a funky stand in order to do both sides and let the whole thing dry.
Cut down a hockey stick to the right size and then braced it with some wood and clamps, so that I could coat the bottom side and let it sit in a stable position for drying (also clamped to the workbench).
