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I worked on sealing, and getting it smooth. Put a coat of my varnish with a little yellow varnish I bought mixed in, to get it more toward gold than amber. The varnish I bought is too thin for me, and mine is quite thick. I mixed mine with some isopropyl (even thought it is oil, resin, and turps, it thins with alcohol) Makes it thin enough to sort of brush, if it didn't dry so fast. I suppose turps would be better, but all I have is some really old stuff I use for cleaning brushes. It came out decent enough for a coat to throw some color on it.

It IS supposed to be a Strad guitar, so it has to be red-ish anyway, so I mixed mine with some of that other guys red varnish. Same thing, thin with alcohol, but I ground in some cobalt blue to tone the red down. Mine looks like grey green, and together it is a red-brown.

Putting color on is a trick. Haven't figured it out. Today I found something interesting. The color wants to blotch. Film thickness I guess. So I went back over when it got somewhat tacky; by the time I finished each section! I patted my 1" fine brush over the top, and used it like a pad to transfer the color around, like a paint roller. It wouldn't work until it got somewhat tacky.

Next time, I'd go without the alcohol. Get thicker varnish, and tap it on with a pad. I don't like the real thin varnish, it is way too hard to get even, and dries so fast. I can work mine for 5-10 minutes? Longer than the other. It just doesn't have much color unless I grind some in. I've tried but sometimes I've lost too much transparency. The blue is pretty transparent.

At least it looks somewhat decent. We'll see what kind of surface finish I get, and what it looks like dry. The color in the photo isn't what I see. Looks more red-brown. You know how hard it is to take photos. The difference from down in the basement, outside, inside with low light. They ALWAYS look different.

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Why be normal?

What a fun project. Nice work!

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Very nice indeed.

Ken, I really like this guitar, it has a great, unique aesthetic. I hope we can hear a sound sample or two when you string it up.

Ahh, was finally stringing it up yesterday. Tying the loop for the bridge, the knot never does get tight. Is there some kind of trick? They hold, but the knot just looks loose.

I used a slot on the top of the pegs instead of a hole. It works good if you do it just right. Sometimes the strings have other ideas.

Suddenly...CRACK!!!. The tiny little bridge broke off. Most of the strings were at least a minor third flat still, the high G's were just up to pitch, they sounded pretty cool, and I was going to bring up the low C, and it snapped off. A nice clean break, no wood anywhere, and it took off half the mustache on one side too. It was already broken there before gluing on, so there is no damage there either.

That is quite a surprising thing. I noticed a little bruise near my elbow, I have no idea if it smacked me there; it was such a surprise.

It has such a small glue area compared to a normal bridge. I think I used some thin 192 high clarity. I do have a bit of 315; I think I'll use that instead. Scrape both sides smooth, and try for a good slip fit; there is no way to clamp it. I do those on plates all the time, and they end up without much surface too.

I'll glue it up this afternoon, and start stringing again tomorrow. I still have two violins to varnish.

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I got my strings on, and up to pitch yesterday. Well sorta. they are still stretching. It sounds pretty good. If you push it, it gets clangy, but I think that's how it supposed to be. I changed the first and last course up on the tuners. In my mind it is better that way.

Now I have to figure out what size strings to get to tie frets. I will probably have to move the strings around at the bridge, and maybe play with the nut. I've been playing it some without frets. That may work on a bass doing single notes, but it's hard to do!

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Why be normal?