Saturday, November 14, 2009

Progress and nerves

So my rough sanding is 99% done.  Just have to sand the set-in jack area. Then it's fine sanding and sealing and painting.  But I have discovered the source of the sanding issue earlier.  Turns out The RGZ 621 is a butcher block construction with a lam on the top and bottom.  Not too bad.  The sound quality can be pretty good with butcher block construction.  The wood is good and gluing can make a joint that is as solid as a solid piece of wood.
But that laminate is a pain because it doesn’t take well to sanding.  So I have some rough spots were the lam wore thin (in this pic you can see it on the bevel where your right arm would cover when playing).  I think that I’ll have to do something like a sunburst to cover those places.
The problem I’m having is that I really like the natural color of the lam.  So I don’t know what I’m going to do quite yet.  I need to cover it the blemishes but I don’t want to go too dark.  
I did a test fit with the pickups and the floyd and the neck.  After this pic was taken I sanded the headstock so it's just wood - no words.

Also I’m not putting a pickup in the middle again so I don’t know what to do about that hole either.
It’s looking good though - better than pink at least … I think.  So nervous!