I’d love to have seen that. My kind of game. Always exciting. I’ll check for hi-lights. Thanks, for the update. Hope you celebrated with Jello.
FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

I just finished a 45 minute acoustic finger picking practice session. Now it's time for some TV.

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

That’s always a good thing to practice, Marky. When I had my 12 string I found I finger picked more. After some years, without an axe, I found I can still do it today, but not at the level I once had. Funny you should have mentioned it, because the thought of giving it more attention crossed my mind yesterday. I like to finger pick my version of Maleguena which I’ve played for some time. I’m okay with the Taylor’s 1.6875” nut width, but I’m not loving it. Nevertheless, I envy a good picker because, all too often, that is overlooked and it can make a good player sound great depending on the song. Great finger picking is a thing of beauty in the right hands IMHO. Keep being picky, Marky. It’ll pay off.

FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

I put in another 40 minutes of acoustic finger picking tonight. How about you, FSB?

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar

That's pretty cool you all can do that. Finger picking is something that I never really managed to get much a hold of, but then again I've neglected putting in a large amount of time into 6-strings, and always concentrated on bass.

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Stew-Mac LP kit update:
Well my wood came in the mail the other day along w/ the 1st really cold front(30 below normal) and a Arse load of rain. So I mixed up a few batches of dye, some w/ water base and some w/ acetone. Prepped the pieces and got to wiping. Giving the water base coats a full 24hr to dry before follow on coats. Going w/ a medium amber base and a follow on of reddish orange and then max brown on the front. Its drying now, so maybe I'll get a thin coat of sealer on later tonight or first thing tomorrow.
Really taking my time and keeping good notes on the batch mixing and application.
I also got the neck shim cut, sanded and glued. Its fairly easy to break a 1/36 mahogany shim, being a more porous/open almost striated grain wood. I will still have to fill a very small sliver that extends out of the neck pocket towards the high E string.
I wrote a quick take review of the kit @ StewMac several days ago, they sent the request way to early for a 1st timer like me.

Nada today, Marky. Had some errands to run, and then we (I) decided we’d walk at Canada’s largest IKEA about 10 minutes from here. Well, that didn’t work out any better for me than the mall across the way. Worked even better for Mrs. FSB. I got a new box picture frame to mount a mint large embossed paisley RCA Victor and Little Nipper 78rpm to hang in my family/recording room. My better half got new curtains and sheers, for the living room, a new blind for the kitchen, and a new modern floor lamp for the living room. I got my exercise pushing the shopping cart. Now I’ve got my work cut out for me. Tomorrow I’ll be hanging things.

Congrats on the picking practice, Marky. That practice will come in handy for sure. You’ll be migrating to a banjo in no time.
I hope to eventually get to the picking rehearsal time ‘cause I don’t give up easy; but, happy wife happy life comes first, and lifestyle change takes up more time than usual, and that will ease up by the end of the month as winter sets in.

I’ve begun listing everything we make or eat in a go to scribbler so we don’t waste the day doing the math and figuring out what we need in a day. Living in Canada requires difficult metric and imperial conversions at times. It’s a PITA because even within one system there can be conversions yet alone dealing and cross checking with two systems. We developed an easy peasy method. I just finished a ham sandwich, garlic cauliflower, and I am about to have a 90 calorie frozen chocolate dip strawberry yogurt bar.

My walking and calorie counting with custom recipes of things we won’t give up or adapted is paying off. Today I discovered a loss of 25 pounds since the beginning of August, without a cardboard tasting coastal diet or the successful Pineapple diet I once got messed up with. I prefer the more friendly middle of North American diets of which there are few if any. I can’t play like a rock star, but maybe I can look like one of the old ones. One of the real old ones. Hahahaha.
FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Thanks, for the update on your LP project, Eric. I’ve enjoyed staining and working with wood finishes also. The last one was to match mahogany, using a different wood that resembled the original no longer available here unless reclaimed, and I have to say matching is a whole different game than doing. I finally settled on the method and formula after testing 20 samples. Sealed, unsealed, rubbed, finish coat, and so on. There’s some great products out there today. Taking one’s time is definitely the pay off.

FSB

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Thanks for the interest, I can appreciate the time it takes and the endless tweeks involved. I've only just begun the sampling process, there's definitely a learning curve involved especially w/ the spalted maple. Its expensive to boot, it looks like I'm gonna have to use both sides. I sprayed the first side w/ a lite sealer, since they say the grain/color doesn't really pop until its sealed. I have to say I didn't see as much of the lighter amber & red/orange shades in the grain as the max-brown. But the max-brown is perfect one coat for the mahogany back and neck for what I wanted. I think I need to mix stronger colors or increase the contact time or maybe both to get the pops of color I wanted. I may look at getting some powder dyes together also, It hasn't helped that I used different brands of colors. Some don't mingle together as well as I thought they would. Also, the spray booth worked out very well but it needed more light, only took about an hour to lose the nitro smell.

Glad to hear your diet and walking are giving you the results your looking for. Good habits seem to break easier, so keep it up past your goals.

Seems I only practice guitar anymore after midnight, but always try to get a solid hour. It definitely makes it easier to get to sleep fast. I usually listen to a group or player for an hour before practice then try to emulate the techniques as best I can picking out a few riffs that stick in my head. Finger picking is by far the hardest technique to do well, I usually just try to get two or three strings. Either a base line or a tempo and simple lead or just a harmony to a note.

Here's a shot of my test panels. Don't mind the thumb....Looking kind of barn rustic Texas.


And a shot w/o sealer for comparison

So the waiting finally got to me today.
I put the 1st coat of dye on the neck & body mahogany, then watched the baseball game. Will grain fill it on Friday sometime in the afternoon. Hopefully by the middle of the week it will be leveled and sealed(haven't decided whether the waiting or the sanding is the hardest part). Then I'll dye the front and see how it comes out.
Still thinking maybe a good shellacking for the final front finish, gonna have to wait and see how it turns out in the dyeing phase.

Thanks for the post, Eric.

Your photos show a good example on how mahogany can give a variety of looks with and without sealer. Today’s mahogany mostly falls into that category where (like rosewood) it is not New World true mahogany. It is more of a marketing term that can include some characteristics of original mahogany, and yet they can vary depending on type, location, growth conditions, and more. Whether they are porous more or less, are lighter or darker or evenly or unevenly coloured, heavily or lightly grained, it all makes a challenge at times. This can make matching or replication difficult. On the other hand, it can present a wonderful selection from which to choose from. Then one can add any number of types and brands of finishing products, and a choice of application process. Phew!

Where it also gets interesting is comparing a sample with the expected final product. Doing a test run is a necessary evil. The best way is to use the same piece of wood (perhaps, a backside or chunk) or collection of wood if possible. That doesn’t happen very often. Especially on one offs.

Okay, I’ll admit that’s pretty extreme considering we can look at massed produced guitars all day long that look similar, and that’s more than pretty good, huh? Besides, a little uniqueness can be beneficial.
While we’re on mahogany, I just read that the Philippines has an environmental movement to stop logging their invasive mahogany version(s) because of suspected acidity to the soil and no benefit to wildlife. I have that wood, but I think the African variety (of which there are a few different types) look fine as you have shown Eric.

As for spalted maple, which has a character that has gained popularity with familiarization, some have specific concern over breathing in dust from it when sanding or cutting. The general consensus is that even though spalted is caused by decay, rot, and fungus from natural cause or from a man made creation, unless there is an allergy, it is just as harmful, but likely
no more than any other wood dust and, unless in a dust free environment, it is always best to wear a mask. A little bit can accumulate over time, and any dust is not a good thing, Using chemicals is not a good thing without a mask with filters designed for vapours.
Even eyes can be affected with dust and vapours; however, that is a difficult thing to control when working at times.

It has been said that Fender used shellac sealer earlier on. Depending on the type of grain filler it may or may not require repeating it a second time with, perhaps, 24 hours drying time between applications. You’ll want the filler (wiped across the grain) completely dry before sanding so the paper doesn’t clog.

As for the time put in . . . anything worth having is worth waiting for. It looks like you’re off to a great start sfceric64.

FSB

You probably know the above, but for the uninitiated I added the above fodder.

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Hello, big guitar. Meet my little fingers.

Probably not much, today. I have to do some domestic crap around the house, and I'll probably go for a walk later.

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Myself, and the Mrs., got back from dinner for that 46 year anniversary celebration. Taco Bell is fantastic!

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"Electric Lady"

Happy Anniversary! You know, that's as long as I've been alive.

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Happy Anniversary, Glenn.

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Marky

Remember the music is not in the guitar