WIP: The Spindrifting One

Well, things are still a bit on the slomo side as far as putting guitars together again goes, but I managed to get the bodywork done on The Spindrifting One if nothing else, so the world hasn't died a death.

What I wanted to do with this was basically give it a bit of an old wood vibe - not a relic, but I wanted it to look as though it has been played and generally been a bit of a workhorse for a fair few years. More of a finish worn away than a aiming a belt sander at dawn,
whoever she is.

I started with a shiny new three piece ash body, and from there stained it rosewood, sanded it back and the stained it again having mixed in a little mahogany with the rosewood to give it a darker shade. From there I used hard wax oil, which made it shiny. A few coats of that. And then took the shine away with wire wool and generally roughed it up a bit.
From there, I like to use a coloured beeswax and bring it up to a sheen. The nice thing is that it smooths out the distressed parts and gets away from that whole just-happened look, fresh minty relicing so often has.
After that, it was a few more coats and a lot of buffing so that it has a nice sheen but still looks careworn.

The hard part with all of that is of course stopping as it is such good fun, whilst the groovy bit is that it genuinely feels as though it has been played for years, feels nice and smooth and like an old friend's sock.

And I'm pretty pleased with how it has turned out. I did go for a few dents and dinks here and there, basically because it wouldn't have looked right without them, but I don't think they are excessive and other than a chip on the front, they aren't really that noticeable unless you are having a good old shufty for them.

From here, I've got a nice Gotoh hardtail bridge which I've put on, some of Mojo's aged Gotos Strap Pins and dug out the Mojo Pickups wiring loom with the beautiful old looking book PIO cap and all, and I'll sort some pickups out when I've got some pennies. Saying that I've got some Strat pickups somebody gave me, so I might pop them in until I get something better.

Other than that, I had some nice pretty things arrive yesterday, but more about them later methinks


La la laaaaa