The Beginning

I have an unfinished PRS style guitar which I plan to finish in the same style as a PRS. This is my first attempt at finishing a guitar, and my first attempt at blogging, so its learning all the way for me on this project!

The guitar

The guitar body is mahogany with an ash burl top. The neck is also mahogany and has a rosewood fretboard with some really cool PRS-style bird inlays. I plan to stain the body and neck a natural darkish brown colour and the ash burl top an emerald green type colour. I'm hoping the ash burl top will really pop once the stain is on give and it that 3D look.

Here is the guitar

The plan

I'm going to start by sanding the whole guitar with 220 grit wet-n-dry and then move up to 320 grit and then finally 400 grit. Hopefully this should give a really smooth finish. Then, I'm going to apply grain filler. A lot of people have told me that ash is a very porous wood and needs grain filler, but there seems to be a mix of opinion as whether its best to grain fill then stain or stain then grain fill. I've decided to grain fill then stain as apparently the ash can absorb the stain at different rates and can cause blotchy-ness without filling first. Then I'll apply some sanding sealer so the lacquer has a nice flat surface to go onto.

Over the coming weeks I'll put my plan into action. I may not always have time to work on the project as often as I'd like but I will keep this blog updated whenever I do work on it. I'll make sure to list all the materials I've used in-case anyone else is planning a similar project, and include as many photos as I can.

So, in the words of Alan B'stard: "I have a dream.....more later...."

Next Up: Some Testing