u6crash

Not much new to share in the way of pictures, but here's how it's going. I have a temporary spray booth. I've actually been taking it off the hook, holding the makeshift handle, and spraying it that way, then hanging it to dry. I can also heat this room (it's a tiny bathroom) to make it dry better (I hope). I ended up stripping the vast majority of the shellac off. I had too many flaws (dirt, etc) that were trapped under a layer or more and trying to fix them without removing the finish was very difficult. So now I'm applying very light coats of shellac with a spray. I kind of miss the way the brush marks looked and I did buy some new brushes. I might opt to introduce that texture again. Here's another headstock take. I can kind of move the points around to see how I like subtle adjustments on the curve. I think my plan will be to buy a gold metallic paint pent to write the name on the headstock and then clear coat over it. I might experiment with underlining the name. I feel like it needs a little something.

It's probably my preference at least, but not a requirement. I would have to buy more tuners (or could I flip these upside down?) and I kind of hope that I'm done buying parts for this. I might think on this a bit. This is derived from the only other time I've cut a headstock out of a neck. I might see how I like it in black. I'm still leaning towards the "Coup de foudre" name. Due to the geometry, it would be difficult to get that curve in on the tuner side, but this was something I envisioned for a "company wide" headstock shape if I ever I put more than one instrument together in a decade. No progress pictures to show. The finish on the body has a problem. I brought it inside to work on and the finish was soft enough that it picked up the texture of the towel it was laying on. I may end up removing the shellac and outfitting my washout booth as a spray out booth (which requires a little bit of modification first). Actually, I have a junky shower in the basement. I might be able to hang some plastic and heat that room.

I may do this when the time comes, but they are few and far between where I live. I'd have to make a day of it and go to the city.

I've never had an OO or an OM. My parlor guitar is an Art & Lutherie (of the Godin family) and I bought it sight unseen because it was a discounted model.

Some stuff about headstocks. I feel like I messed up and should have ordered a paddle headstock even thought I'm doing a 6-inline design. There isn't a ton of material to work with if you like a larger headstock (I kind of dig the CBS Strat headstock). Here's the actual headstock: I taped a sheet of paper flush with the nut and used the hard edges of the headstock to "emboss" the paper. Then I gave those edges more definition with a pencil. I have a pre-slotted nut that helped me figure out where the strings will go. I scanned that mess into the computer and drew some vector lines on it with Illustrator. That allowed me to print out some paper templates to sketch designs. This is maybe the front runner. It's more or less the original shape. It's just eyeballed because I'm limited by the stock I have to work with. This would maybe be a good (though unoriginal) way to pay homage to the original manufacturer. "Coup de foudre" literally translates to lightning strike, but means "Love at first sight" in practice. This is an original design (unless you can find that I've ripped it off, which is possible) that is close to a shape I used on a Carvin bass kit I built. "Douleur Exquise" refers to the pain of unrequited love, which has got to be the subject of 40% of all songs, right? Variation on the preceding design. I don't like this one as much. File under "Not happening". But sometimes you have to get a design on paper to see what it looks like. Based the katana shape found on Yamaha's "Flying Samurai" guitars. I also really like the cantilevered design of Parker guitars, but that's not going to fit the vibe of this model. Still to do: - Mix up another quart of nickel salts in order to create a bath large enough - Polish brass parts for plating - Finish body (I brought it inside yesterday because it was too humid outside) - Drill tuner hole template/practice drilling on scrap - Do an inventory of parts (I'm starting to wonder if I have strap buttons, but I should have most things; I've kind of been looking for a "fancy" neck plate)

Had some problems with the shellac the last couple of days. I had some beginner's luck with it initially and then it wasn't cooperating. The problems (I think) were that I switched from applying with a cloth to applying with a brush that was too thick. I also feel like the humidity might have been a factor. I switched to a cheap chip brush and I'm having much better results. It's really difficult to tell the thickness of the coats. Sometimes when sanding between then I sand right through them. I kind of dig the way the brush strokes look when they dry, so I'm sanding super light with 320 now. Hoping to start work on the headstock this week. I'm probably going to mimic the Fender shape. Debating leaving it blank or coming up with some symbol, letter, or something to put on it.

I don't know what the rules are. I'll share this. I'm mostly a cowboy chorder who is getting 0.5% better every year. Give or take.

Asking for inspiration. I've been looking for work since March, and one of my first celebratory purchases will be a nicer acoustic guitar than I've usually purchased. I've got a mahogany Carvin Cobalt that I kind of like and a Art & Lutherie parlor guitar. I don't have any brand allegiances, but I do kind of enjoy being a contrarian (I like less popular things, so probably not a Martin or Taylor). Kind of been eyeing Guild. Open to other things. What's your dream steel string acoustic?

We don't have much for pawn shops here. I'd buy a $40 guitar on spec knowing if it was broken I could turn it into a piece of art or something. A silverburst is still on my list, but green is not a color I get too excited about. Good binge. I haven't bought a new (to me) guitar in quite a while.

The closest thing I ever had to a Les Paul was an Epiphone LP-100. I'm kind of a contrarian these days, so I feel like if I get one now I'd be more likely to get a Heritage H-150 or a vintage Yamaha Studio Lord, which came in a variety of models ranging from plain tops with bolt-on necks to more upscale versions that have more in common with a traditional Les Paul. All of which is to say, I'm more likely to get something is a Les Paul shape than an actual Les Paul.

I decided I didn't like the way the black looked, so I got rid of most of it. There's still going to be plenty of imperfections. Brought it inside to see if I could get a better picture of it. I scraped the outside binding and cleaned up the binding around the f-holes. For a moment I considered trying to paint the gaps where the f-hole binding has shrunk and been filled in with epoxy, but I decided to leave well enough alone. I'm going to do a couple more layers of clear before I mess with touching up any of the bursted areas. I kind of like that the top right horn is a little more red since I have the snafu with the top there anyway. Just about every hour I go out and do some touchups and add a new coat of clear. Originally I was going to do the final coats in nitro, but I'm considering doing it in the clear shellac. I know nitro is a smidge tougher, but with all the character this body has, I'm not worried about it too much.

Well, here's the direction I think I'm going. Lighting is the garage is not great for taking photos. I am going for sort of a hand applied faded burst through French polishing and successive coats of tinted shellac. I have clear shellac, amber shellac, and amber shellac tinted with additional napthol red pigment. This is a progress shot. It's blotchy. After every thin coat dries, I am sanding a little and feathering the blend with more alcohol. I am going to try and leave that bit in the very center untinted. Part of my inspiration came from natural Coronado II I found on Reverb: I liked this a lot, but having sanded through the top ply in one spot and having some other imperfections, I knew it wasn't going to get this clean. I'm pretty sure they never did a natural version. With this guitar you can see they just embraced the existing imperfections (mostly the shrinking around the f-holes), but I had quite a few more. So my method is to distract with extra imperfections by introducing a bit of charred barrel effect in the areas of the body where there are more flaws. I'll keep playing with it as I go along and see what look I like best. I still don't know how I'm going to get the f-hole binding clean. I'll either make some mini-scraper or maybe try a q-tip or something with alcohol. I debated just letting the amber shellac tint the binding, but the binding on the neck is white (although I could apply amber shellac to it). Anyway, a lot of words for one progress picture. I'm not really a fan of making a guitar looked like a relic, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this guitar is a relic. It is nearly 60 years old. There aren't a whole lot of electric guitars out there that are much older.

This is the most controversial thing I have considered. Some sort of hand painted design. Some are awful. Some are classic and iconic. The thing about this idea that appeals to me is that it for sure a one off and no one else has anything like it. IF (this is still a big "if") I do something like this, I would first cut out a silhouette on quarter inch plywood and do a study to see how I like it. Then and only then, if I still like the idea, I'd put down quite a bit of clear coat on the body before doing any painterly things. Obviously this image is a painting of a guitar, but I like the idea of working in different colors, almost as if the guitar has be reworked several times in it's life (and it has).

Anything opaque or semi-opaque is on the table. If I go with that color, it will be mixed with nitro and sprayed. The acrylic wash was not consistent enough to use on its own. I've kind of been toying with a Gibson color called Smokehouse burst (which can have a few different looks) that is kind of a brighter version of a Tobacco Burst, but not quite a 3-Tone burst. I've also considered doing a mild version a Wildwood guitar, since that's a thing that would have been available and can have a lot of different looks.

Did some.sanding today. For a while I thought, "Holy crap, I'm sanding out some of the previous flaws and stains and the grain looks good. Maybe I'll do a natural finish!" Then this happened: And I either had a boo-boo, or there was a flaw there I hadn't seen before. So now I'm back to doing a finish that helps hide the flaws.

The nickel salt solution is reusable, so I haven't dumped anything. I'll have to do some research. My sandpaper arrived yesterday and I have to shine up all the parts. I'll also have to do the plating in a different shape container so that top of the part being plated isn't so close to the surface of the solution. I'm going to end up stripping the back and trying something else. There are a few weird spots that the wash is not adhering to. I may not have sanded enough of the body. I think there was sanding sealer applied to it at one point, maybe even clear coat. And I remembered I have quite a bit of clear nitro, so it makes sense to mix some of that up and spray it. I might get to that this week.

Hey. I'm not dead. Just busy. Here's some updates on this guitar. Here is some double stick tape and sandpaper to contour the floating bridge to shape. I kind of wonder if I could cut the sides off a little. And then here's something you don't see all the time. A nickel salt solution for electroplating. That went on for about two hours. Here were two of my tests. I've since acquired super fine sandpaper and I'm going to try to really shine up the parts before I plate them. The one in the middle is untreated. I have extras because they were fairly cheap. I drew up vector files in Illustrator and had these parts made by Send Cut Send. They now offer nickel plated copper parts, so if I'm not successful, I might look into that. Here is one on the body along with one of the black plastic pieces I ordered, also from Send Cut Send. Here are some test swatches. These are on birch plywood finished with lacquer. I'm trying to do sort of a semi-translucent wash. Think the Mary Kaye finish with a hint of brown. When I got a consistency I kind of like, I went ahead and did the back. I'm mostly happy with the look so far. It will get clear gloss nitro when I'm happy with it. I haven't figured out how I'm going to scrape the f-holes clean. I might have to make a tool for that.

Modest work while lounging in the living room this evening. Made a cardboard cutout to prewire my controls. If possible I'll wire them in a way that they can't be seen through the f-hole. After doing this I realized the shaft on the pots may not be long enough and I did a test fit on the body. It fits if I don't use a nut on the bottom side. There is still a lock washer. Didn't have any luck using peroxide on the binding. Scraped it a bit with a razor and didn't improve it much. I might just have to accept some of those stains. Pigments for lacquer and epoxy showed up today. If time permits tomorrow I will work up a mold for the pickup rings and get those poured. Also got knobs ordered today. Pretty excited because I found some cheap that look just about like the generic originals. Sorry folks, this is going to be a slow one.

The binding is pretty pitted. It was that way when I got it and I would guess from sanding. I will look into trying the peroxide thing. Fortunately it's only on the sides and the top binding isn't stained. There is some brutal aging around the f-hole binding. I'll smooth it out as best I can, but it's not going to be perfect. Tuners are vintage style staggered height inline. I had them on hand from a previous project that didn't work out. I do intend to paint the headstock the same as the body. Bought a cheap spray gun with a 0.8mm nozzle. I have a screen printing studio in my basement, and can turn my washout booth into a spray booth in about 10 minutes. Pigments should be here sometime next week. There will be some serious tests first.

I have to go with not, and I'm usually a fan of unusual and funky looking guitars. On this one there is no one deal breaker, just a combination of wrongs. Knob and switch placement, pickguard, color, body shape. Any one of those things would maybe be okay, but the combination of them all makes me pass.

Stuff has arrived so here's a layout shot: Forgot to include the tailpiece. Also, I still need knobs. By accident I had some cheap plastic knobs at one point that were nearly identical to original Coronado knobs. If I can find those again, I might go that route. On the pricey side of things, there are some Etsy sellers who do knobs with buffalo nickels that I quite like. I kind of want do do something different than just nickel/chrome knurled knobs. I even briefly considered chickenheads. We'll see. As part of this fit I have a 0.5 degree neck shim in place. It is more than enough to accommodate the bridge I have. The bridge base still needs to be sanded to more perfectly fit the contours of the body. Went with the TV Jones T-Armond pickups. I think I'll make some sort of surround trim pieces that mimics the original pickup shape. I've done a little bid of sanding and attempted some repair work on the front. The wood has shrunk a bit at some points around the bound f-holes. I tried to fill in the gaps with super glue, but now I think I should have used epoxy. Here's my neckplate: Might spring for something engraved special for this project, but I wanted something for now and this might be good enough. Mostly it couldn't be blank. I can't believe how much the simplest parts cost. A couple shots of the binding and sanding scratches from a previous owner. The sides were stained with what I'm guessing was basic wood stain. It is into the binding on the sides and I'm not sure how deep it goes. Since the binding is already worn, I'm not sure if I want to take too much off to see if I can get it white. As this isn't a build from scratch and I'm using a vintage body, I'm not prepared to do things like replace the binding. So I have to decide on a balance between preserving some of the original mojo and putting a new finish on it. For the sake of authenticity, I'm going to use a nitro finish. Bought a quart and I'm going to pick up a basic HVLP gun. Planning to experiment with tinting the nitro myself. Beginning October 4 I am switching to part time at work, so I hope to knock out some work on this during that month. Also have some exterior home improvement things done before winter gets here.

Ordered pots, bridge base, and some other stuff from AllParts. I don't understand how I can never get all the parts I want from one place, especially if your name is AllParts. What they didn't have was a nut blank I was satisfied with. Sketched some headstock shapes. Not sure I care for either of them. The one on the left is in the vein of the one I did for my bass, but I almost feel like it's too much. The one of the right is kind of an anti-design. It's about as boring as you can get without leaving the paddle exactly how it is. I plan to come up with some sort of name/logo/doodle for the headstock and that design gives me more real estate to do that. Also, I have a new top contender for color, though I don't know exactly what shade it will be and it could be that I'll just end up mixing and testing it as I go. Here's a mockup: I'm stuck with white binding, so I didn't think Olympic white would contrast enough. The closest thing I like in a Fender color is Desert Sand, but in my mind I'm going for more of latte foam kind of color. Almond. Something along those lines.

I've only briefly considered naming any of my guitars. Mostly I refer to them by color because I don't have any that are the same color. Not electric, but this one is kind of named "One Eye Willie".

I'm not sure I needed to know this.

I think I've decided on the TV Jones T-Armond. I had them in the cart and thought, "That's a lot of money..." The other thing is that I haven't nailed down a color scheme yet, so I might play around with that. It could be that I want the Guild DeArmond Dynasonics that come in white. Playing with the headstock early this morning. This is just a template I did in Illustrator. The cool thing is that the geometry of the headstock lines up with the tuners I have to provide a straight string path, which is a look I was after. Where I feel I screwed up is I should have gone with a paddle headstock to have more material to work with. I've previously assembled a Carvin bass kit and this was the headstock I sketched out then: And then it actually looked like this: I was kind of hoping to do something similar. You can see on the tuner side that instead of being straight, it is curved. I don't really have enough wood to work with here to do that. I could glue on a piece of wood, but that's not a road I want to go down. I'll print off some paper copies of my template and do some sketches (I can't freehand in Illustrator so well). Went through my bin of guitar parts and I already had an unslotted TOM in nickel with thumbwheels. AllParts has a rosewood base with studs. I'll probably order that along with some pots today.