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Not Your Momma's Strat......


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She turned out really sweet man... That carve is very original and pretty ballsy really. The nitro really made the back come alive also. I see you carved so much on the back her crack is showing :P

Beautiful guitar you've made Scott!!!

Thanks. I seem to have made a habit of pushing the carving, in fact this one has given me ideas to pursue further on the next one. I wondered how long it would take to get a mention of her "crack" showing. The original plan was going to show even more of her backside, but when I got to this stage, it looked right and felt right, and the piece of tenon looks like it belongs with the markings on the limba.

SR

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That top timber looks awesome, the rear timber itself is worthy of being a top.

Some very beautiful timber pieces there!

Great work too!

This from a guy that is making a habit of putting stunning timbers together himself. As well as you paint, it must be more a decision to clear or paint than the rest of us go through.

Thanks Allan.

SR

Whoa! I love the way this turned out! If it were me I'd probably make the horns a tiny bit thinner, but this is just personal preference. The cerving is awesome (not to mention the wood itself). Congrats Scott!

Glad you like it pan_kara. I normally go a little thinner and pointier with the horns too. These wider rounder ones are part of the nod to the strat.........lord knows there are not too many others.

SR

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I hadn't thought of that.

When the coat goes on sort of dry it does not happen. When it goes on wet, it acts like it wants to pull away from the pores just a little, and sort of builds a rim around the edges of them, as opposed to sinking into them. The pores are filled with shellac, which would not typically reject nitro. I'm assuming the heavier wetter coats are intoducing more solvent into the mix and it is outgassing.....from the pores?

It seems like RAD had something go on like this once in his hot garage, and the head was causing the nitro to cure at the surface and trap the solvents which created bubbles. This last coat was the first time I got bubbles. It may have been the hottest day and the thickest coat. I'm going to scuff up the surface like he did.

Now to decide how long to wait before more coats. I was planning for the last few to go on today. Perhaps tomorrow would be better?

SR

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Shiny before scuffing off the surface.

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Sanded back .......a bit.

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I had a neighbor wander by today and he offered up this piece of curly maple that had been in his dads basement for 30 years or so. It was an off cut of a gun stock.

It is roughly 8" x 10" x 2.75" so it is not going to useful for a top. I gave him $5.00 for it......I'm sure I can find something useful for it to do somewhere down the road.

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SR

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I've always got to find a project to pass the time while the lacquer cures. A friend of mine melted his knife handle.

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I've made handles for several friends over the years. It is a good use of offcuts.

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I pried off the old melted handle and found that it was fairly rusted inside....even though it said it was high carbon stainless.

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The same guy I got the maple from gave me a piece of cocobolo he bought years ago. It was fretboard sized but cupped and twisted. I figured it would be perfect for a new handle.

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Knife scales is what they call the wood when sold specifically for that purpose......

SR

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It's thick enough that you could double book match it & see how it'd look as a 4 piece top (probably for a solid body so you don't have structural issues), you're going to have to slice it up anyway unless you're going to use it as a carving block.

that would be one small guitar, being it is only 10" long.

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I'm pretty sure he means a quarter match Louis, which would make a 4 piece top, bookmatched top to bottom and left to right. It is pretty common with veneers in furniture. And yes, that did cross my mind.

I also picture a top with this in the shape of a pickguard....stratish maybe, set within another wood for the rest of the top.

Sounds like a lot of work.........

SR

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Did you know that if you knock a Sierra Nevada out of your beer fridge onto your concrete floor it will break? Okay that is obvious, but did you know that you can cover the mess with sawdust and say screw it and leave it overnight, the next morning it sweeps up easily and glass, beer and sawdust just disappear into the trash can like nobody's business?

Woohoo!

It will destroy normal drill bits to try to make a hole in knife grade carbon steel. I use masonry bits.

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I had a steel rod of some sort laying around to cut bosters from. The originals were basically rivets and trash. I did have to sand the paint off of it.

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I'll let the next two shots speak for themselves:

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SR

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Getting there.

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I saved some for next weekend.....must have a project while the lacquer cures.

Speaking of which, I sealed the holes left by the bubbles by drop filling with shellac. then drop filled lacquer on that and finished spraying.

We are truly in the waiting mode.

SR

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On 9/6/2013 at 10:48 AM, pauliemc said:

Beer, drunk idiots & swords. Sounds great ! what could possibly go wrong :hyper

Good point.

It would have been fun while it lasted. :D

I finished the knife. The edge looked like it had been used to carve bricks. Maybe the dude got mad at it when the handle melted.

It took me most of a day and a couple of blood lettings to get it sharp again.

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Cocobolo rocks!

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SR

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