TMR Zoo Message Board

I'd use a very light stain and then oil it once it dries.

Already ahead of both of you clowns.

Jordan, re: tinting oil, I discovered through the magic of youtube luthier videos, that artist's oil paints can be used to tint oils, as long as the carrier oil of the paint is also a major component of the oil/varnish you are applying. In my case, I am going with a series of paints that have a pure linseed oil carrier, which works just fine with Tru-oil since linseed oil is also used in it. Coincedentally, boiled linseed oil is also the main component of Danish oil, which I did my test pieces with. Now that I have actual Tru-oil and more test pieces, that's what I will be using for the remaining test pieces.

Yesterday I got a bunch more paints to tint the tru-oil. I previously had:
Prussian blue - a sorta dark greenish blue, which is the basis of the caribbean blue/green look
French Ultramarine - a very dark pure blue.
Burnt Sienna - the brownish/orangeish/reddish colour I used for the back.

And yesterday I picked up:
Raw Sienna - the lighter, more tan/yellow version of burnt sienna. I'll use this to add a bit more depth to the burnt sienna, lighten it a touch and add some vibrance to it.
Burnt umber - a darker, more brownish almost carbonized shade, sorta if burnt sienna got burnt even more. Not sure how I'll use this, if at all, but I might use it towards the edges and sides of the back, to darken the burnt sienna. So I might end up doing a siennaburst on the back.
Cerulean blue - a nice middle ground between a pastel blue and the french ultramarine. I might use this as an intermediary between the prussian blue and french ultramarine....we'll see.
Lampblack - pure black, I'll only use this in really small quantities mixed in with the french ultramarine to subtly darken the edges of the blueburst. Also full strength for the painted headstock.


For the neck, I'll likely use the raw sienna to achieve that vintage sorta amber colour. I might need to get a maple test piece first though.

Also, all my guitars are about playability, as much as I can manage it anyway. Right now all my axes play like butter. Two have danish oiled necks, the other two are just smoothed down from natural wear (ie playing). This neck already has a nice thin C profile, 12" radius, medium jumbo frets and a slick rosewood fretboard that's also dark as hell. Darkest rosewood board I've ever seen. In any case, if I'm stripping it of its current finish, it's going to be refinished just the same as the body, with tru-oil.

Part of the reason I decided to strip and redo the neck is cuz it actually have some nice flame figuring on it, that seems to be obscured by the boring layers of tinted varnish that currently lie on top of it, instead of getting into the grain and accenting it. The oil will pull that grain out of hiding and reveal it much better, methinks.

had a productive day today.

Filled the mounting holes on the neck, Dan Erlewine style. Made a routing template for the P90/mini-humbucker soapbar ring. Made a spacer to give the mini-hum a bit more height so it can stand just slightly proud of the face of the guiar instead of being sunken into the cavity.

Settled on a colour for the back of the neck. Also settled on a plan for the front. Translucent black. Should still be able to see the grain a bit through the paint.

Also just ordered the last thing I needed to order for this build. The headstock decal.

Booyakasha. Gonna have a lot of packages arriving next week.

I have been pondering this carved top and what I can do to ensure that it all comes together without looking stupid or incomplete, or compromised.

At the moment, my plan was to carve pretty much everything i could carve on the top and leave the "flat" areas flat (ie the bridge and pickup locations, and the control cavity). Problem there is that the control cavity severely interferes with the topographical carve. I was going to leave that alone and try to carve around it.

But now I have another idea. Carve that part too, and make a control cavity cover out of an Ash veneer. Bend it to the contours of the carve, whatever it ends up being, and mount the hardware to that, after ensuring that the contoured veneer section is reinforced enough to be rigid and support the weight of the electronics. Finish the veneer so it blends in seamlessly or use a different colour as the top so it stands out like a normal chrome tele plate would stand out.

Thoughts?

I got an idea slut.

Get a thick bit of wood for the control cavity say 10mm recess that in flush to the top then carve it. Drill the pot holes and a flat shelf around them for the knobs and ya sweet. After that you could sand down the flat side of the cover to compensate for the thin veneer.

Would be an easy mod and pretty damn unique too. You could even just get the templates laser cut out of mdf. It wouldn't cost much as its such a small job. Or just make them.

The only other thing is you will need is a plunge router and a template trim bit. But even if you took it to a cabinet maker or something it would be a 5min job.

Fuck thats a great idea imo. I am going to do it myself one day HA! Imagine a whole strat pickguard made of wood done like that? Be truly mental aii.

Yeah I was thinking of doing something like that to make the carving easier... Fit a block into the cavity, carve the top and then I have a block custom fitted to that section of body that I could use to bend/contour the veneer.

I have a router. I'd have to make my own templates but that's easy peasy

Making a template and a cover thats exactly the same isn't peasy especially once you're dealing with a thicker bit of wood.. But yeah i think you will be fine. You will need 2 templates obviously. One for the cover and one for the shelf that it sits on. Make them extra big so you can clamp them down around the body. Do clamps and double sided tape.

Are you going to make the control plate shape oval like a tele?

Needs one of geese if its an "Uber" Tele...




"Gets You Where You Need To Go!"
:poop:

(04-16-2015, 04:12 PM)kinnikuman Wrote: [ -> ]Making a template and a cover thats exactly the same isn't peasy especially once you're dealing with a thicker bit of wood..  But yeah i think you will be fine. You will need 2 templates obviously. One for the cover and one for the shelf that it sits on. Make them extra big so you can clamp them down around the body. Do clamps and double sided tape.

Are you going to make the control plate shape oval like a tele?

likely, yeah.

though i'm not committed to anything at this point. I'm still brainstorming.

Gotta spend some serious one-on-one time with the body and visualize the different options to see which one i like best.

yeah my build/ideas consist of 20% build time and 80% gazing into the distance thinking about it.