RichardH

Couple more coats on now.... I'm going to get a couple more on before I do any buffing... still getting a tiny bit of stain pickup with the oil. The guitar is in a cold workshop, so each coat is taking some time to go off.

That's a nifty idea - saves having to adjust your posture/angle all the time.

An electric jigsaw is the best bet - so long as you take it slowly and don't try and force things, even a £25 jigsaw from Screwfix will do a reasonable job.

Decided to have a bit more of a bash... second application on the back View from the workshop! ...and a first application of the blue to the front. My sanding of the initial black coat seems to have been more successful... we'll see how it looks once cured.

OK, did a bit last night... Sanded back the black to try adding a burst, but don't think I left enough black round the edges Thought I would do the back first, as it will be easier to hide the mistakes - so here it is immediately after the phthalo blue was applied. The black round the edges a bit feeble... This morning after it had cured (and in different light/exposure of course) ....then I added some black round the edges, using a separate cloth to merge the black and blue as well I could I found that I needed to apply a fair bit of pressure to get the colours to blend, which burnished things a bit. I am leaving it to cure now, then depending on how it looks, I will probably apply a bit more of the blue over the black to catch any gaps.... may need a bit more black in places to improve the fade up near the neck.

Overall port length - so keep the original dims and bring it forward.

...mind you, let's see what it looks like when I've finished with it before we judge too harshly.... 🤣

Ah, I don't know the proper nomenclature of these things - I thought the SE just meant the far east models.... no, the top is definitely maple, so it is probably a plain one. I have a (slightly) mad idea to try and create a binding effect - once the stain is all on, go round with a sandpaper block and knock the edge off round the top - sanding it back has left it very "sharp" anyway, so I suspect it will wear - so I thought I could knock off enough to go through the stain.... might be a challenge at the bottom cutout though...

....so a hell of a lot more sanding later, I tried some black stain (Crimson's water based Stunning Stains) as a reveal coat Quite an interesting purply hue to it, but that then all came off again... The yellower patches are where the panel wipe hadn't dried off yet. Either that it was my nose dripping in the cold ....and then a fresh coat of stain ...so that's where I am now. Am leaving that to dry/cure fully, then will be attempting a gentle sanding back to give a burst finish, then overlay some blue stain.

Used some paint stripper first, and then sanded a lot.... thought I had done pretty well: Bit of a funny pale patch at the corner of the belly cut on the back, but should be ok.... Nope! Looks like there is a lot more finish to get off yet!

Yes, I know it's a skinny stringer, but thought I might as well document my meanderings... The guitarist aske me to look at a kill switch he'd (wrongly) installed on a guitar of his a while back, which I sorted out fine. So he asked if I could swap the pickups in an old PRS 24 SE of his. He bought it secondhand, and someone had done a horrible job of stripping the original finish and then varnishing it an unattractive brown. You can really see the quality of the finish in this first pic.... ...so I have offered to have a got at refinishing it with stains and oil.

I suspect that the volume of the driver has been deducted...

The best of the flame is away from the scratchplate area - so in a weird way (to my eye), the scratchplate being there almost suggests the flame under it anyway?

One other thing - be careful of where any cooling vents are and make sure they are still given access to free air!

The alternative to Tolex is TuffCab paint - you can apply it with a small foam roller and get a nice textured tough finish - it is easy to touch up if you do get scrapes as well. The good thing is that Blue Aran who supply tuff cab also do all the cabinet hardware you are likely to need as well.

Looks good to me!

Yes - but if you can build in 18mm poplar it will be an easier build - though poplar isn't the easiest to get hold of.

I juts played with that very nifty ply weight calculator: An area of 1.57m2 using 18mm MDF gives 20.76kg (plus the 8kg of the driver and allow some for hardware etc gives the quoted weight of the current cab). Here are the weights for various materials 18mm MDF: 20.76kg 18mm Birch: 17.55kg 18mm spruce/poplar: 12.42kg 12mm birch: 11.7kg I wouldn't use 12mm poplar unless you really know what you're doing with bracing etc. So if you can get hold of 18mm poplar then you'd be nearly as light as a 12mm birch cab - though the cab will still weigh 21kg once the driver etc is added.

I would work out how much of a weight saving this would be before going over to 12mm ply. I can't see the slight dimension change you mention making a difference. The panels will definitely need bracing (adding more timber to the total), and don't forget the weight of the kappa driver will remain the same - so the cab may not end up that much lighter. Poplar ply would be much lighter - in fact 18mm poplar would probably be lighter than 12mm birch. Poplar is softer though and can "ding" without a decent covering - rat fur, tolex or tuffcab (which has the advantage of being easy to touch up if scraped/dinged).

Looks like it might well be graphite - this might be of interest Wal Pro 1E neck rebuild

Pat was a great seller when I bought his Squier Precision 5 special. Well packed, great comms, and a friendly chap all round!

That looks terrific!

No, not yet I'm afraid! Mike (who's putting the cabs together for me as a favour) is very busy with "proper" work, and it's not like I have any gigs coming up.... Hopefully soonish though!

Thanks to Frank for the passing on of a bass neck and bridge - very friendly comms etc!