First build-Blues Creek custom Ziricote

[Danl8]

You might have to reconsider retirement; that is one impressive build!

[TEETERFAN]

Thanks for the compliment, trying to do a good job. Unfortunately, I would go broke building guitars. My wage would calculate out at about $2.25 an hour! That’s why I have a deep respect for those that do this for profit, balancing time, money, and results. Seems very difficult to do.

[Diane Kauffmds]

You get faster as time goes on, plus you have to figure out what you want as a bottom line. I always figure 100 hours in a build.

[TEETERFAN]

After a trip to see our first grandchild, I am back on the gee-tar. I have finished all my body pearl and beginning the final detailing before I start the finishing process. I am doing french polish on the body and nitro on the neck. Here’s some pictures of the body with a “naphtha finish”.

[Diane Kauffmds]

You're doing a great job.

[TEETERFAN]

I saw a picture of the body pearl being installed at Martin about 50 years ago and I was hooked. It is a ton of work, without question, but it’s about the only way I would ever have a D-45 style instrument. Thanks for the compliments!

[krrtlr1]

Absolutely beautiful Kevin

Do you have an idea of how you are going to tint your clear to bring down the whiteness of your binding. I going to want to do that also.
I am wanting to mimic the look of the authentic 37's. Looks like the antique white might be Martin proprietary right now.

Nobody anywhere carries anything like it. Talked to LMII and they only had white, ivory, which she said was too yellow and the ivoroid which has a pattern.

[TEETERFAN]

Yea, it’s gonna be a pain, but I gotta knock back that stark white on the B/W/B and B/W binding, to match the ivoroid a bit better. My plan is to mask off everything with the exception of the white using 1/16” masking tape so that all the white is revealed (and a whisper of the adjoining black). Then I will tint some clear lacquer with Mixol and slowly build the coats until it matches the ivoroid. I imagine I will come back with untinted clear on all the binding, to provide protection and additional material. I will use an airbrush to keep things real smooth. I will have to play with the edges, since I intend on french polishing the portion of the body that is wood (sides/back/soundboard). Might have to experiment a bit with that.

[TEETERFAN]

Got the back of the neck shaded with tinted nitrocellulose lacquer, applied with old school auto touchup gun. Lots of very thin coats. I mixed a portion of fairly dark tinted clear first. I added more clear to a portion of this, which were my first coats. Successive coats had more of the dark, slowly focusing on the heel and headstock. The color came out pretty good and should look nice against my ziricote body. My next step is to tint the stark white headstock binding a whisper, to look better adjacent to the ivoroid binding. When that’s completed, I will topcoat the whole neck (minus fretboard) with clear. Then sand out to a nice satin.

[TEETERFAN]

I completed tinting the bright white binding on my headstock to “sit” with the ivoroid outer binding. After carefully masking off everything, I tinted some nitrocellulose lacquer with Keda Dye (Amber Yellow). My strategy was to tint the lacquer weakly to require 4 or 5 light coats to achieve the color of the ivoroid. That way, I could wet sand afterwards with 3000 grit to adjust the final color. I compared a scrap of the ivoroid to the white binding as I worked and stopped when I thought I had slightly more than enough. I removed the tape and evened things out with the 3000.
I am going to french polish the body of the guitar with button shellac, so after I see the final color of the body bindings and ziricote I may need to add some overall toning to the headstock to match.