Bottleneck Polishing

[thunderbird]

Hey all. I've recently put a quarter round on my home-made bottleneck and it's ok but I cant seem to polish it to a high enough shine. It's a bit scratchy - esp. on the bass strings. Any tips on how to get it to the same 'glossiness' as the rest of the bottleneck?

Thanks

[Deleted]

Ahh...that's be telling! But seriously...how did you do the roundover, and how rough is it? If it's reasonably smooth you should be able to get a decent finish with 600 or 1000 grit emery paper...work it wet and use plenty of pressure....but it may take a lot of work to get there, especially if it's pretty rough to start with.

[Ian McWee]

By far the best way to go is via CBJ's recommendation - go through the various grit's of emery cloth (wet & dry paper....the dark grey stuff ) going to the finest grade commercially available, 2500 grit.

Next - if you can get hold of a small amount of professional car re-finishing cutting paste (Farecla is the industry standard), polish your 1/4 round profile for around three hours (honest!) and that'll get you really close to a mirror finish.........alternately, pop down the M6 to us in the West Midlands and we'll happily do the job for you while you wait - we'll make you a crackin' coffee too

Slide On!

Ian.

www.diamondbottlenecks.com

[thunderbird]

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll give it a bash... and then probably end up coming for that coffee Ian to get it done properly Great offer by the way, cheers.

I originally cut and polished the slide using a Dremel multi drill. I went as fine as I could with the attachments available, which was ok when it was 'straight cut' as th unpolished surface didn't contact the strings. Now I have put the quarter round on (done with the Dremel again), I'm contacting the strings with the unpolished surface so it needs to be like... well, glass.

t's not that rough at the moment, with the exception of a few deeper scratches, it's like a fine frosting. You can see through it, ie it's almost fully transparent after starting out with an 'opaque frost'. Should I go from 600-2500?

Thanks again.

[Ian McWee]

Hmmm - the scratches will prove to be a problem to flatten out with the wet 'n dry paper, because to take 'em out completely you'll probably end up losing your original 1/4 round profile. Try testing the deeper scratched area with 150 - 250 grit 'course-grade' wet 'n dry (and a LOT of water!) to see if you can lose some of the scratches without too much of your profile, then if you're successful, re-shape the profile using the 600 grade & upwards wet 'n dry.....please bear in mind these are all tips from the very experienced glass repairers here in our factory..........i'm just the slide guitarist

Slide On!

Ian.

www.diamondbottlenecks.com

[thunderbird]

Thanks guys, your tips helped alot.. job done! I got the deeper scratches out with wet n' dry (the water made ALL the difference) I then polished it with T-Cut scratch remover. Took HOURS but got there in the end.

I was considering making a spare but I reckon I'll just send it to you guys at Diamond! I have one ready cut, just needs 'dressing'. What sort of cost are we talking (inc. post) for de-seaming, quarter round and general polishing if I send you my spare?

Cheers.

[Ian McWee]

Hey T.B.....Log in and check your 'inbox' - you got mail ;D

Slide On!

Ian.

www.diamondbottlenecks.com