Jump to content

Cthulhu


komodo

Recommended Posts

As mentioned in earlier posts, it depends on the method. If I cut pearl, the only issues are sheer scale and the thin bits. The rest is actually easy, it’s just methodical and time consuming. No guesstimate as I’m working full time, this is side stuff and I have another guitar to finish. I could do it in a week or so if I really focused.

The other way is excavate perfectly, fill with stone and CA. If the excavation went perfectly, It would basically be done. No telling how many ‘fixes’ I’d have to do, and I’m not even sure how I’d do that accurately. But this way would save ALL of the pearl cutting, which is considerable. There may also be some hybrid method, just not sure yet. Leaning towards the second way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, komodo said:

No telling how many ‘fixes’ I’d have to do, and I’m not even sure how I’d do that accurately.

One option would be to fill that cavity completely with dust and glue between the fret slots and re-cut. In the end you'd have a similar looking fill as if you inlaid pearl.

SR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/25/2020 at 10:51 AM, komodo said:

Refined the inlay some more, it's more inline with a Cthulhu vs an octopus. Similar to the one in my avatar. I need to scale it down a little I think, but it's getting close. There are still some rough bits where I was connecting the center design with the extended tentacles. ignore it for now. This certainly isn't getting any easier to pull off LMAO. I'm trying not to think about that part too much.

EDIT - even further tweaks, getting the tentacles to flow better

 

Screen Shot 2020-03-25 at 1.47.27 PM.png

tweak.png

perhaps didn't notice this before... but love the creativity here.  the little tentacle loops as fret markers.  brilliant. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that you can possibly work around the fine line weight by offsetting it with graving; that is, shading the pearl by graving lines and adding wax. It would involve a lot of thought, but a good source of reference material would be woodcut prints, pretty much with black backgrounds and heavy black shading. The pearl can be weightier and simply relieved of that with addition of detail and shadow.

I'd also add that you should have the fret lines increased in weight to represent the true width of the wire you intend to use if you haven't already. Some of the detail will be lost around 12th very easily if this isn't given adequate consideration in advance.

If you pull this one off, I owe you a very well-earned distance quarantine beer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, ScottR said:

One option would be to fill that cavity completely with dust and glue between the fret slots and re-cut. In the end you'd have a similar looking fill as if you inlaid pearl.

SR

Exactly. The fixes I was referring to would be something like - cutting just inside the line, but then you make a little boo boo outside the line. If I was doing the stonedust/CA method, then the "inlay" is now has that boo boo. I'd have to use a sheet of teflon and dam the mistake, fill the gap with ebony powder and CA to fill, sand after dry. Could get hairy fast.

@Prostheta You are right, I need to make sure frets are at width, do a final scaling, re-adjust the length of the tentacles, then print it at 100% and lay it on the table. Then, start the long process of deciding which  areas will be individual pieces, cutting it apart into those individual pieces, matching the cutouts to raw pearl stock I have, and numbering them. Basically setting up a game plan.

The thing is, I have to decide my process first. For pearl, you cut the pearl piece, affix it to the fret board, scribe around it, then excavate. I can't excavate, see how it goes, then decide to cut pearl. For what it's worth, I just bought 1/2 pound of pearl slab from Allied as well as a long truss rod.

What I think I'll do is print out, lay it on the table and stare at it. Then lay the Dremel tool on it with my smallest chucked bit and fake trace around it to see if my balls shrivel up or not.

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whelp, our campus maker labs are totally locked down. 

So, commenced to staring at design printed 100%, chucked a 1/32” bit onto Dremel and pretend routed some elegant tentacle swirls.

Mapped out pieces, and cuts. Approximately 65 pieces. I can span frets and cut after, or use the fret slot as a stopping place for a piece. The benefit of spanning is the more natural curves, harder to do with multiple pieces. The only real limitation it my raw stock sizes. Boy I’d love to route and fill with crushed stone, but cutting is actually not hard. Just a lot of cutting. The hardest part here would be scribing each piece. I’m tempted to do a super accurate route, see how it goes, then do super accurate cutting. 

Hard think inserted here.

0EE9B1DF-1044-4732-A4E3-0346E3D3988C.jpeg

C1D281C2-3810-417D-8E22-EDC511A000F3.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My large slab of fret board  ebony was still roughsawn and had wax ends. After surfacing on the planer to prep it for slots, I discovered that it’s a thing of beauty end to end. Not the jet black I might have preferred originally, but you couldn’t pry this out of my hands now for anything.

 

FD9F74EF-577C-40CA-BD17-5AA26CEF51CA.jpeg

F333E05C-B8E9-4488-AFFC-564BB35840F9.jpeg

0A52928D-C863-4BC2-A2EB-4FEBC53033D3.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know the feeling. When Ebony like that is polished through to a super fine level, it gains a translucent look where the structure of the material seems to sit below a glassy surface similar to tiger eye and similar stones. Should be fun, but maybe a little chippier due to rising and falling grain. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Should be fun, but maybe a little chippier due to rising and falling grain. 

I wonder if anyone has ever flooded / finished a fretboard with CA to "stabilize" it and make it less chip prone? Doing it right now would probably be the best time as it's before all the inlay cutting. How deep would thin CA go?  🤔

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My thinking is that if I were to flood the fret slots with very thin CA, it may enter the end grain and stabilize the slot edges some.  Using it as a finish later on larger surfaces, may have a stabilizing effect instead of just oil finish. Thinking out loud here. I've seen whole guitars finished with CA before.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure, I use Adobe Illustrator. Mostly as I'm a graphic designer by trade and use the full Adobe suite every day.

It's not an octopus anymore, it;s the unknowable, shall not be named, ancient evil of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu.

The center bit was grabbed from the web, I had it a long time ago to use for a custom bottle cap design for one of my beers. The original design was the octopus, but realizing that I wanted the Lovecraft / Cthulhu, it was a good fit and better than I would've done. It was vector art, so after I brought it into Illustrator, it wasn't hard to make the tentacles, as single lines to get the adjustment just right. Then, apply a brush to them and adjust the point size of the line as desired, Once, I had it nailed, then create outlines of the paths and combine everything so it was a shape.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems almost a shame to do a heavy inlay on that board - it's too nice 🙂

Fabulous design skills - you have a great eye. Have you ever used vector editing software, like Inkscape? It's free and quite easy to use for the less artistically inclined amongst us. There again, it looks like you already have the artistic talent 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow thanks for the kind words Norris.
I only use the Adobe suite, but thats because its our industry standard in the design world, and free for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, komodo said:

Sure, I use Adobe Illustrator. Mostly as I'm a graphic designer by trade and use the full Adobe suite every day.

It's not an octopus anymore, it;s the unknowable, shall not be named, ancient evil of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu.

The center bit was grabbed from the web, I had it a long time ago to use for a custom bottle cap design for one of my beers. The original design was the octopus, but realizing that I wanted the Lovecraft / Cthulhu, it was a good fit and better than I would've done. It was vector art, so after I brought it into Illustrator, it wasn't hard to make the tentacles, as single lines to get the adjustment just right. Then, apply a brush to them and adjust the point size of the line as desired, Once, I had it nailed, then create outlines of the paths and combine everything so it was a shape.

you caught me off guard with unknowable.  thanks, I needed a laugh!

right on - you make it look/sound easy.  thanks for the info, I do appreciate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...