I actually made a bit of a mistake by skipping grain filler. It seemed alright until I sprayed the primer and then it was obvious the grain would show through a bit. I used wood filler fairly liberally and figured that would take the larger of the pore holes and the sanding sealer would take the smaller. I'd read of that being successful but I guess it depends largely on the type of wood filler you use and while mine was good for the many dents and dings it didn't do much for the pores.
I was considering stopping and sanding back to do the grain filler and start the painting again but I think it's going to look pretty good still. If it does look terrible I'll just repaint it in a year or two if it seems like this is a keep it for the long term guitar. As it is I don't want to add extra expense when I haven't played properly yet.
I've sprayed most of the colour now. Despite a few layers of wood filler the filled ferrule holes on the back of the guitar show through. It looks good, but the imperfections bother me a bit. It's metallic so I can't sand very much and the colour is a little uneven. I've got a little more colour to spray, and the headstock to spray once I get the paint for that (there is apparently some in the house already so I just need to wait for someone to find it or go and buy a small can myself). Then of course, it's the clear.
I'm going to Chicago on Thursday and I should be able to get the clear, or at least most of the clear, sprayed by then. I have a roughly cut pickguard that I just laid over the body and it's looking good. There are no holes in it yet, but I'm tempted to just cut a bridge humbucker hole and wire one direct to the jack for now. Then do all the proper stuff later on. I need someone to cut me a couple anyway so I'll be waiting whatever happens.
I can't wait to take the masking tape off the fretboard and see how that looks with the colour. I can do that before I spray the clear as I want to put a bit of clear on the side of the fretboard.
looking good man!
i want to say that i used a two part epoxy to fill those old ferrel holes.
but i may have used a wood filler.
if they look sunken in, then i used wood filler(wood filler has a tendency to shrink when it dries)
The pickguard is rough, I just wanted to see how it looked and thought I'd take a picture. Sometime soon I'll wire it up and try it out properly. I need to let the paint set a little more yet. The paint isn't as uneven as it looks, it's just a low light picture. It seems like when it's finished and set-up it will look great.
I'm not going to use a black humbucker cover. It's just what I happened to have nearest. When it's completely done I'll get some daylight pics and all that jazz, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
