My First Build: A Bolt Guitars Thunder Road (T-Style)

SteveF · June 2023

Most of you will have seen @TTony and his thread about building one of these, so hopefully this isn’t too much repetition.

I have never built a guitar or partscaster before but always been keen to try. Full courses have been prohibitive from a time and cost perspective and I have always been put off by kits, assuming that they were not of great quality. I had thought about a partscaster but every time I costed one up it seemed like I’d be spending a lot of money and ended up just buying something close-ish to what I was after from one of the usual brands. So when @BoltGuitarsUK posted on here and offered an introductory discount for tFB members, I thought I would finally have a go. The fact that they looked like they were good quality, decent design, with everything needed in one box, including the finish, really appealed. I had a look at the first couple of videos online and thought they were really well done and easy to follow. That made my mind up.

ParcelForce did make an effort to ruin my plans by throwing the box around a bit and it arrived a bit bashed up but everything inside was so well packed that it all survived unscathed. My only criticism from the packaging was that the cardboard mount that holds the turners wasn’t too secure, so a few tuners had broken free in their battle with Parcel Force and were rattling around a bit inside. No damage to anything though as everything that could have got damaged was so well packed. I did pass a bit of feedback to Sam and the guys at Bolt and I noticed from @TTony ’s video and a couple of other posts I have seen on Facebook that they have started wrapping that part up to keep everything together. Excellent response to feedback.

SteveF · June 2023

SteveF · June 2023

It took me a while to get going as I had a busy spell at work, but finally got started this week. First thing first, get everything set up. I don’t have a fancy workshop, but figured an ikea kitchen trolley with a bit of work surface clamped to it would make an acceptable table and my bike repair stand would do for hanging the body.

SteveF · June 2023

First up was prepping the body. First I had to raise the grain. Which is essentially slightly wetting the wood and letting it dry which makes the grain come up and get all rough so you can then sand it back nice and smooth to prep it for finishing.

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/abd89abdf30188ac233424d1beb648736c3e3ee633c91e3982

Then a bit of sanding with 240 and then 320 grit.

Then same process on the neck. This was just after adding the water to raise the grain. You can see the flame starting to pop already. Interestingly you sand the fretboard between the frets. I assume if I was doing this from scratch this would happen before the fretting took place. Either way it was nice and easy, just had to be careful around the frets.

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/37ac1cd2fa441779ec248a73ab1fd8bc0bf718bb969354c8f1

Body and neck smooth and ready for finishing.

SteveF · June 2023

Next up was adding the first coat of oil to the neck before giving calling it a day.

get a load of that flame!

SteveF · June 2023

Next up was starting on the body finish. For this, and Martin says it in the videos, you have to trust the process. When you put the first coat on you will think it doesn't look great but literally at the second coat it starts to come together. It's a very easy process.

I was in two minds about whether to go with the "beach washed" look and stop at 2 coats or do some more and go for a more even, solid colour. There is a slight knot in the wood on the back just below where the neck plate goes that was quite prominent still after a couple of coats, so I decided to go further.

I managed to get a little bit of cotton fluff or something on there after the third or fourth coat, so I gave it an additional light rub back with some 320 grit and then added some more. I stopped at 8 coats as I think it was looking pretty even and I could still see a little bit of grain which I liked. The colour is slightly less yellow in reality - the setting sun is making it look more yellow than it is.

First I needed to attach a piece of wood to the neck pocket to hang it from my bike stand.

After the first coat. I think I actually went a little heavier than they had suggested in the video (following @TTony advice from his thread) so the colour is relatively even. It goes on very easy and the process is simple:

1. Mix the gloss into the colour up to the fill mark on the bottle and give it a shake.

2. Take a bit of t-shirt cloth or similar and fold it into a smooth pad (use the flat rounded edge to apply the finish)

3. Wipe on the finish, small amounts, in smooth strokes. My system was to do the flat bit at the neck join first, then the edges, followed by the front and back. After the first coat you give it a very light sand back in case any more grain has been raised. As I mentioned, I also did this after the third coat just because a bit of lint had come off my cloth into the cutaway.

After a few coats:

Then where I stopped for the night:

I wonder whether using one of those sponge type paintbrushes might make it go on even easier and reduce the risk of any lint from a cloth, but I am happy with how easy the process was. I might try it on a bit of scrap and report back another time. There's plenty of finish to go as opaque as you like - I did 8 coats (they suggest around 3 for beach washed look) and still have more than half left - I reckon you could probably get two guitars out of a bottle easy. Even if you don't want a full kit, I believe they're making the finish available separately and I would suggest (being a beginner myself) that you won't find an easier system to colour your guitar.

This was the first two nights' progress and I had to leave it at that point. Will update as I progress further.

TTony · June 2023

Looking good Steve

It's definitely worth spending the time on this stage and getting the finish to how you want it to look.

drofluf · June 2023

Looking great - and appears to be a far better quality kit than the 12 string I got earlier in the year.

Wish I'd thought of using my bike work stand when I was doing mine! Genius idea!

BoltGuitarsUK · June 2023

Great work @SteveF looks like it's coming on beautifully!

Keep us updated with your progress

SteveF · June 2023

So. The inexperience showed today. I started the next stage of the process which was to slightly sand down the body finish with 600 grit (and 800 on the edges to help prevent burning through to the wood) and then coating it with the gloss.

Unfortunately this didn't go as smoothly as it had been yesterday. It seemed that as I was trying to put the gloss on, I was getting a lot of streaks and disturbing the dye coats underneath. My previously glorious looking finish was starting to look... less than glorious. In particular, I got a streak of some kind (sort of like I'd rubbed off a load of the dye underneath) in a very unfortunate place - right between where the bridge plate and control plates go - so it would be visible on the finished guitar.

I took a moment and spent a bit of time chatting to Robert from Bolt on their Facebook group chat. I think I have either (or both);

- Left it not long enough since I did the dye coats yesterday before moving to this stage. I did a load of extra coats to get a more solid finish, so maybe it could have done with longer to fully cure before sanding back and adding gloss; or

- tried to go too thick with the gloss coats.

Robert was extremely helpful and happy to advise (despite it being after 8pm) and suggested that I could try sanding it back to level and then build a bit more colour back up before trying again (offering to send out more finish if I needed it - great customer service again, as this was clearly my own error and not the fault of the product). He also suggested that another method of completing the finish would be to continue adding the gloss to the dye mix to give more gloss content, rather than putting the clear directly over the top. I think I might try this. Again, Robert reassured me that there was nothing to worry about as they would soon fire me out some more finish if needed.

I have a couple of social events over the next couple of days so I am going to let the current finish cure and then give it a light sanding on Friday before deciding fully how to proceed. I was pretty bummed about the setback, but have to say it was great to have the Bolt support there to chat to - something I wouldn't have had with a 'standard' kit. Before I finished, I decided I would finish on a high and gave the neck a rub down and another coat of oil so it could also cure fully by the end of the week.

TTony · June 2023

Those necks are a bit special!

Interesting suggestion to add more gloss to the mix, I might try that myself - I also had a slight problem, self-caused, after I’d “finished” it all, and put it all together.

SteveF · June 2023

What was that @TTony I might have missed that in your thread?

Roland · June 2023

SteveF said:
I wonder whether using one of those sponge type paintbrushes might make it go on even easier and reduce the risk of any lint from a cloth …

My experience is that a sponge brush tends to put on a thicker layer, and is consequently prone to leaving ripple lines, especially along the brush edges.

Andyjr1515 · June 2023

It's looking good. Even for the more experienced, there's a fair bit of 'take it back a bit and do that bit again' involved.
The neck looks super, btw

SteveF · June 2023

Roland said:

SteveF said:
I wonder whether using one of those sponge type paintbrushes might make it go on even easier and reduce the risk of any lint from a cloth …

My experience is that a sponge brush tends to put on a thicker layer, and is consequently prone to leaving ripple lines, especially along the brush edges.

Thanks @Roland really useful and saves me a trial and error on the next build

Andyjr1515 said:

It's looking good. Even for the more experienced, there's a fair bit of 'take it back a bit and do that bit again' involved.
The neck looks super, btw

The neck looks super, btw Cheers Andy, reassuring to hear that it happens to others too!

TTony · June 2023

SteveF said:

What was that @TTony I might have missed that in your thread?

Entirely self-inflicted error.

I moved the (finished, assembled) guitar off my main workbench, but, being careful not to damage it (!), I laid it on a gripper mat on another bench. And left it there during a hot day. Next morning, I lifted the guitar up and the mat came with it. I had to peel the mat off the back of the guitar, but that left a gripper mat pattern on the back of the guitar.

Tried a quick fix - rubbing hard and trying to polish it out, thought it had worked, added another coat of gloss, but the pattern then revealed itself again when tilting the body to the light.

So, out with the sandpapers.

drofluf · June 2023

drofluf said:

Looking great - and appears to be a far better quality kit than the 12 string I got earlier in the year.

P.S. In case there was any doubt my kit was not from Bolt!

BoltGuitarsUK · June 2023

@SteveF I've mentioned in previous threads the painstaking work we did to develop the finish so that we have a process that works. The amount of bodies we dyed, sanded back, messed up, dyed again, finished, messed up, sanded back and finished again was ridiculous.

We tried all different types of materials (even sanding the finish in) to use, and the tried and tested one that came out tops was a plain old bit of cloth. Rob is right though, in that adding a bit more of the gloss to the mixture should help the process and really seal the coats you've put on- and the curing time and applying almost atom thick coats is key. It feels touch dry very quickly, but needs the time to cure and fully seal before proceeding.

All that being said, it still looks like an absolutely bang up job you're doing, and that neck is pretty special, even if I do say so myself

Any more issues don't hesitate to drop us a line.

Cheers,
Sam.

BoltGuitarsUK · June 2023

drofluf said:

drofluf said:

Looking great - and appears to be a far better quality kit than the 12 string I got earlier in the year.

P.S. In case there was any doubt my kit was not from Bolt!

We don't do a 12 string kit... yet. Watch this space

Funkfingers · June 2023

@BoltGuitarsUK The kit illustrated in this thread combines a fretboard extension overhang with a neck pickup cavity of vintage dimensions. Surely, this will create pickguard fitting problems (regardless of whether the neck pickup is mounted directly to the body or suspended through the pickguard). It would be a royal PITA to have to remove the neck just to tweak the pickup height.

TTony · June 2023

@Funkfingers - the assembly process is a bit unusual ...

Attach the neck
Pop the neck pickup (incl unattached springs) into the cavity
Slide the scratchplate into position, ie under the fretboard extension.
Drop the neck pickup screws through the holes in the scratchplate, through the springs beneath the scratchplate, and then jiggle everything around a little bit until the screws find the screw holes in the pickup baseplate.

It was a little fiddly, and took a bit longer than fixing the pickups to the scratchplate first, but did work.

The springs are held in place, upright, against the side of pickup cover, so the screws did drop straight into them. More or less.

drofluf · June 2023

BoltGuitarsUK said:

drofluf said:

drofluf said:

Looking great - and appears to be a far better quality kit than the 12 string I got earlier in the year.

P.S. In case there was any doubt my kit was not from Bolt!

We don't do a 12 string kit... yet. Watch this space

I shall

Just didn't want someone from the future finding the thread and thinking I was reviewing you.

Funkfingers · June 2023

That assumes pickguard mounting.

WezV · June 2023

Funkfingers said:

That assumes pickguard mounting.

which is a perfectly reasonable thing to have on any guitar that isn't a replica of a vintage tele.

Although admit the plate could lose a few screws for me too

SteveF · June 2023

Are vintage tele pickups screwed straight into the body? I had never realised that. I had thought the only way with a Tele was mounted to the guard

BoltGuitarsUK · June 2023

Funkfingers said:

@BoltGuitarsUK The kit illustrated in this thread combines a fretboard extension overhang with a neck pickup cavity of vintage dimensions. Surely, this will create pickguard fitting problems (regardless of whether the neck pickup is mounted directly to the body or suspended through the pickguard). It would be a royal PITA to have to remove the neck just to tweak the pickup height.

You are right @Funkfingers in that it would be pretty much impossible to fit if you were to screw the pickup into the fretboard and then try to fit it.

As @TTony rightly says, our method is to place the neck pickup in the cavity, then the pickguard rests on top and you do have to do a bit of jiggery pokery to get the screws through the springs, but as the pickup has a great big magnet in, the screws don't move a great lot- so it's a little bit of hassle, but a minor one.

The screws are then on the face up side of the pickguard, so no need to remove the neck to change the height of the pickup.

All that being said, though, we are very much open to evolving and adapting our methods, so any feedback is very much appreciated and helpful.

Cheers,
Sam- Bolt Guitars

SteveF · June 2023

Got back to this today. First positive was that it was actually not looking as bad as it had done now that it was fully cured. Still, I decided that it would bug me if I didn’t try and improve it so here we go.

First sanded back the gloss and got it nice and smooth again. This went quite far through in certain areas especially around the edges.

Next I did a couple of coats with the colour mix, giving it a good half hour between coats - possibly over cautious as it seems to be drying very quickly in the warm weather. A couple of coats in and it’s starting to even out again.

SteveF · June 2023

So after a couple of days drying time, I’ve sanded back the finish very slightly and added the remaining gloss to the colour for the final coats. It’s had 2 thin coats here and seems to be working well.

SteveF · June 2023

And I think we are about as there as we are going to be. Assuming it all looks good when fully dry I am pretty happy with that.

thermionic · June 2023

For a non-sprayed finish that looks excellent.

TTony · June 2023

thermionic said:

For a non-sprayed finish that looks excellent.

Indeed.

Congrats @SteveF ;

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My First Build: A Bolt Guitars Thunder Road (T-Style)

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