Here's a Fun One--Spalted mango, bloodwood, and canarywood

[David L]

That spalted mango is killa'. I can't wait to see it under the finish!

David L

[darren]

Ken,
VERY nice!
can you show a shot of the double tenon you use? I'm not quite happy with my neck joints and have been considering other options...

[Ken C]

Thanks Gents!

John, I too hope the zpoxy helps with the spalted mango, though, I have soaked rims and back with CA a couple times. I soaked the back with CA prior to final thicknessing, then again when done and prior to assembling, then I soaked the back one more time prior to applying the Zpoxy. The wood is lot denser now than it ever was!! It has been a pain to build with. Every joint witih the spalted mango was done with epoxy, neck block, tail block, kerfing, back braces, attaching the back. Not my favorite way to build, but hopefully it stays together.

Darren, I use the typical twin bolt, single tenon on my necks. About the only thing unique to me is my fingerboard hold down get up, which I use to bolt the fingerboard extension down to the top, allowing the neck to be removed from the guitar in a matter of minutes. I have been doing this for the past four or five guitars, and it works great.

Checked the zpoxy this morning prior to leaving for work, and it had cured nice and hard. Looks like I had a pretty good fill. I'll sand it down this evening and apply a 2nd coat. If that ends up being sufficient, I'll be spraying tomorrow :)

Ken

[Dan Bombliss]

Ken,

Your guitars blow me away. Your one of the few taking pictures of an unfinished guitar that looks better than most guitars with finish, and on top of the fact that your guitars hardly need a finish, you go ahead and throw some wicked smooth coats on there and make your guitars look too good to touch or play. Hah, I'm envious.

-Dan

[Ken C]

Geez, Dan, you're making me blush! Thanks for the kind words!

Finished the pore filling this morning. So far, I have to admit that the Zpoxy was pretty dang easy to use, and I am very impressed with the results. The neck and body were both close to being filled after one application, but I hit them with another. This morning, I had a couple of deeper areas in the back that I spot filled. When applying the pore fill, I found the rubber squeegee that I use with the Pore O Pac wanted to pull the Zpoxy out of the pores, so I applied the filler with the squeegee, then went over the area with a razor blade held only slightly above horizontal. This helped push the fill into the pores while cleaning off most of the excess. I was very impressed with how quickly this stuff filled the pores compared to Target's HSF. It is also easier to sand than HSF. As long as my EM6000 sticks well to the Zpoxy, I won't be going back to HSF! I'll still use Pore O Pac if I want to fill then stain.

I'll be shooting pictures of my spraying and buffing process. I know there have been lots of questions from folks on this. I am happy to share the details of my process, which generally works extremely well.

Anxious to get the spray gun out again!

Ken

[Ken C]

Yeah...I'm spraying!! Prior to spraying, I swabbed the back, sides, and neck with thinned zpoxy (using DNA). This evened out all the color from any areas where I may have sanded through the zpoxy. After letting this dry overnight, I sanded the back, sides, and neck with 600g to smooth out the extremely thin layer of epoxy left on the surface. At this point, I really couldn't see any open pores. Finally, prior to spraying, I swabbed the same areas again with pure denatured alcohol to remove the dust and help the EM6000 stick. Here's a shot of the body and neck ready for lacquer:

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[Ken Hundley]

Looking fantastic. I am quite jealous of your work, can't wait to hear how she sounds!

[Ken C]

I shot 3 coats of lacquer last night and this is what the guitar looked like this morning:

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Note the back and sides are quite smooth. However, the top looks pretty rough. That is because the top had no filler, and lacquer will be used to fill any variations in the surface of the top. The top generally looks fairly ratty until I level everything after the 6th coat. Tonight, I used some 600g paper to knock off any dust nibs prior to spraying another three coats. When I knock off these nibs, I am not removing any of the lacquer from the surface. I want to keep as much lacquer on the surface as possible, so when I level, I don't sand through to bare wood. I'll take some pictures when I level, so you get a sense of what I am doing there.

Ken

[Tony_in_NYC]

That is beautiful. Do you sell these things or is your house full of beautiful guitars?
I honestly cant bear to part with them, but I need to finance my habit so I have to let them go.

[David L]

Gorgeous!!!!!!! I love the rosette. The book matched bindings is an extra special touch.

David L