Thanks for checking out the re-build guys, I sure appreciate your feedback!
Well I've been out of the shop for a few days but finally got to do some more work.
I scraped the binding down and sanded everything down with my new RO sander, wow sure beats the old vibrating pad sander! For the first time I can actually get all the deep scratches out of my build and it sure helps the silking in the top show up nice.
Here's the top in the white.
And I'm going for a stained and rubbed vintage finish on this to disguise the fact of the new top. I use the trans tint dyes thinned with water and rubbed on with a piece of rag. Before going to the stain I raised the grain with water, let it dry and sanded it back. Hopefully that will minimize the grain raising from the stain where sanding back might remove too much stain.
This is the amber yellow coat all over.
Here I've rubbed in the reddish brown tint leaving the center yellow.
And this is with the medium brown tint added, leaving a very subtle burst effect, more of a rubbed and worn effect.
Now after letting it dry I went over it with 0000 steel wool and then 400 grit paper on a felt block.
It faded the intensity of the colors a bit and look how the tinting brings out the silking! Wow, how cool. It's like the color staining I've seen used on maple to bring out the rays.
The back, sides and neck were stained with the reddish brown and the medium brown.
I had thought I would make a new fretboard since the old one had some fair sized finger divots and the frets were all rusty looking and corroded. But I hit it with the 0000 steel wool and turns out the frets are brass and the board cleaned up nicely, so I think I will use it so it will retain some of it's history.
These shots are with the fretboard just laying on the neck, but it's looking good. And shows that it knows a song or two to teach me!
Thanks for watching,
Joe
At least I have got to the point of divoting frets instead of the wood. 