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Cool. I'm not gonna bother with a Decal, but good to know if I ever decide to slap one on.

I put several layers of clear nitro over the decals on the neck. Once I finish wet sanding the neck it will be onto wiring and assembly.

I guess everything has been going too smoothly so fate decided to mess me up a bit. I was reaming out the hole on the headstock for the tuners and some of the finish around 2 of the tuner holes chipped away.

Any ideas on fixing this? Do I simply sand down the areas around the chips and reshoot those spots?

I hate ferrules. They nearly screwed up the finish on my Telecaster project as well.

If you can match the colour of the finish you could just drop in some varnish to the area and the 'seam' will not be hugely obvious. Pro-tip: doing any work on tuner holes or drilling any other hole on a finished surface cover them in masking tape first!!

Hope yo sort it Joey. Looking forward to seeing these projects finished

Mask up the headstock & drop fill it as best as you can. The new lacquer will dissolve into the old lacquer, so it won't be obvious. Use thin layers, one big drop might cause an air bubble... or cure funky.

When drilling into paint, run your drill in reverse at first. Then run it forward once you've got a decent pilot hole through the paint. Same thing with the reamer ---> counter clockwise at first ---> then clockwise.

Were you using a straight reamer (stewmac sells) or a tapered reamer? If your reaming the front of the headstock insert the reamer through the front, so your pushing down on the headstock... less likely it rip the paint away from the wood.

I was using a Dremel to ream the holes. Didn't have a big enough drill bit.

Since I just refinished the neck, I have some tinted clear coat left. should be enough fix the areas.

I probably should have reamed the holes prior to refinishing but I didn't have the tuners at the time.

I had tape around the holes,but when i removed the tape the finish chipped out. I will tape off the rest of the neck, sand the chips and reshoot.

Each project is a learning experience. I hopefully can gain some knowledge and make adjustments on the next build.

Is it better is allow clearcoat into the holes or plug the holes while spraying? Which way will reduce risk of chipping?

I've got a large set of DeWalt brad point bits, for like $60 that I've had forever. The bridge holes on my Jazzmaster had heavy paint in them. I couldn't use a reamer, so I just twisted different size drill bits in the hole and turned by hand. I guess the smart thing to do is for us to ream the holes after a couple coats of paint so it doesn't build up so bad at the end.

You can get a tapered reamer at the hardware store for a few bucks.

StewMac tapered reamers $50+



Straight Reamer set of 5 $50

I finished up my own neck last night with a final polish and started putting the tuners on. Freaked me out at first because I couldn't get the posts into the holes, so then I just took a 1/4" drill bit and turned it slowly by hand in the holes to open them all back up again. For the top part with the ferrules, I just simply put them in and used a rubber mallet to tap them into place.

My problem now is that I didn't drill the screw holes deep enough for the tuners, so I ended up stripping three of the screws. Gotta go buy some more from the local shop. Also, I noticed while doing all of this that there are several spots on the face of the headstock that lost the tint, must have been from some of my flat sanding that I completely overlooked. I am debating tapping the ferrules back out and hitting the face with some more tint.

Oh quit beating yourselves up. put em together and rock em out. Imperfections add character.

Joey wrote:I've got a large set of DeWalt brad point bits, for like $60 that I've had forever. The bridge holes on my Jazzmaster had heavy paint in them. I couldn't use a reamer, so I just twisted different size drill bits in the hole and turned by hand. I guess the smart thing to do is for us to ream the holes after a couple coats of paint so it doesn't build up so bad at the end.

You can get a tapered reamer at the hardware store for a few bucks.

StewMac tapered reamers $50+



Straight Reamer set of 5 $50

I will definitely pick up a set of those reamers. Thanks.

I wetsanded the rest of the neck with 8000 and 12000 grit pads. Very smooth. I sanded the damaged areas with 2400 pad. I am set to mask and reshoot the damaged areas.

Joey wrote:Oh quit beating yourselves up. put em together and rock em out. Imperfections add character.

Hehe. Yeah, I know. It's a personal flaw to try to make everything as perfect as possible, eventually I go "fuck it" and just go with it.

When you learn that fucking up is part of the fun, then guitar building becomes fun... when you don't learn that, YOU QUIT

There was this kid on the JS forum, his name was Drew, he used to always say "common sense ain't so common".... anyhow, he built a guitar body/neck from scratch, his own design. He posted pixs of it done, and I asked "how does it play".... he said "like shit" But he had fun, and I'm sure he's built more guitars from scratch that are kickass by now cause he didn't beat himself up over the first one and quit

Well, I do have to say, after the last run of wet sanding the color coat, I finally just said "man fuck this. It's goddamn close enough and the only flaws are going to be under the bridge anyway."

So then I hung it up, did the final color coat, and started clear coating.

I wanna just finish this damn thing already.

Joey wrote:Oh quit beating yourselves up. put em together and rock em out. Imperfections add character.

I loved used guitars because they are not perfect. Not trying to remove imperfections, just do a good job. It would annoy me every time I tune the guitar so I have to fix it.

You should see me first Tele project. Crooked bridge plate, contaminated paint job, messy shielding job, etc and I love it. Wouldn't change it for anything.

Painting and Refinishing is my weak area so I know things like this will happen and it's how I learn. The rest of the neck is ready for polishing, so fixing these won't be too hard.

It's a minor setback, but while the neck is drying I can drill the mounting holes and wire it all up.

Besides, Serfx is sending me something that will distract me while I am waiting for this to dry

Yeh, that's a HELL of a distraction

Don't you guys got wives? Don't they get pissy with you spending all your time in the garage....... mine HATES my guitars, my garage & my computer.

Used to. One of them had to go. Guitars won.

lol.... me too... today is Day 9

Joey wrote:Yeh, that's a HELL of a distraction

Don't you guys got wives? Don't they get pissy with you spending all your time in the garage....... mine HATES my guitars, my garage & my computer.

Yep and for a wedding present she bought me a Taylor 614ce (dream acoustic). I figure she is a keeper

She is very understanding and supportive as long as I don't bug her about it too much.

Besides, I traded my Jaguar SH for it so I am just exchanging out one for one.

Just an FYI, is you're doing ANYTHING to the tuner holes, throw a piece of masking or painters tape on the opposite side and it will keep the finish/wood from chipping like that. If someone said that already, then ignore this.

Joey wrote:lol.... me too... today is Day 9

Sorry to hear, buddy. January will be starting year 5 for me.