Phil, I was extremely pleased with the ’59 Bound & Flamed kit I received. The neck/body joint was perfect, and gluing it in place was the easiest part of the process. As you can see I opted for a classic cherry sunburst look. I am also extremely pleased with the playability, every now and then a guitar can seem to almost play itself very easily, that’s the feeling I get with this guitar. Thanks for a great product, thinking about my next project.
and a bit more..
Hardware is all nickel plated, Faber bridge, Gotoh aluminum tailpiece, tuners are Kluson copies, pu’s are Stewmac’s Parsons Street (which seem fine, but I had in mind to try some other boutiquish humbucker types eventually).
I really like the plastic I got from Philadelphia Luthier Supply – more of a bonewhite than pinkish cream, I think it looks perfect on the red and contrasts a bit with the more yellowish binding.
The burst top I did with Reranch powder stains hand-applied, 3 colors; started with amber over all, sanded that back to leave an amber overtone in the grain recesses, then applied cherry on the edge, then yellow in the middle – with a lot of spot sanding, touching up and blending the stain here and there with Q-tips.
I grain-filled the mahogany with marine epoxy, the color for neck and back was Reranch cherry spray. 12 coats of nitro clear over all of it (fingerboard taped of course), wetsanded and polished. I’ve done numerous solid color and translucent Fender style bodies before so I already had the basic process in mind, this was my first sunburst.
BTW, my “paint station” consisted of a bungee cord on a tree limb from which I hung the body for spraying, I’ll send you a pic of that later.
Also, gotta say I admire your business model; if somebody can’t glue that neck and body together – they shouldn’t be trying this. Shipping body and neck unassembled must lower the shipping damage risk (versus a full length guitar), make shipping cheaper, and lessen the likelihood of theft, plus it lets the owner say “I built it”, awesome!
