unclej Posted October 27, 2004 Report Share Posted October 27, 2004 after reading brian calvert's tutorial on material finishing i decided to try it. i found some great fabric that was a lot like his lizard motif only this was parrots. i got the body finished out to my satisfaction but the guitar is a strat copy and the strat style pick guard covered 90% of the parrots on the front so i decided to fabric the pick guard too. i was concerned about the lacquer reacting with the pick guard material so i dabbed some on the back and it didn't effect it at all. i glued the fabric to the pick guard making sure that the pattern matched the pattern on the front of the guitar and proceeded just as i did for the guitar. it worked great! i was a little worried about the lacquer curing out too brittle but after a week it's still flexible and doesn't crack. i mounted the electronics and installed the whole thing on the guitar and it looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vladdrac Posted October 27, 2004 Report Share Posted October 27, 2004 Pictures pleeeeeeeeeeeease!! I´m working in something similar too... A JEM-mination of a RG550... and the pickguard is the problem here.. i thought about to make a Clear Pickguard (acrilic)and put the fabric in the underneath.. cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 (edited) hey vladdrac..here's a couple of pics for you. hope they help some. http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1062390 my first thought on putting the material behind a clear pick guard is how would you attach it without the adhesive showing? if you've already thought that out i'd love to hear your solution for other projects. the way i did it was just like doing the body. i roughed up the pick guard then glued the fabric down with wood glue. when that dried i trimmed the fabric leaving a quarter inch or so to fold under and then glued that. then i just basically followed the tutorial starting with brush on sanding sealer until the fabric grain no longer showed and then shot clear coats of lacquer til finished. Edited October 28, 2004 by unclej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Preety nice job, the match between the pickguard and the body looks almost seamless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vladdrac Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Hi, thanks..it seems very nice..but for some reason a can´t Zoom it.. The glue i´m thinking to use Dries clear or transparent...but first i´m gonna do a test in a small acrilic piece.. But you idea seems very nice..maybe i should try that too, thanks ... can you sent me the full picture, please .. do you a have any picture of the process: the glueing of the fabric to the pickguard..please show us cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted October 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 thanks maiden69. it's causing a bit of a stir in my store. i guess nobody in my part of texas has ever seen anything quite like it. vladdrac. i don't have any pictures of the process but i'll pm you with the details. it was actually pretty easy. and i'll sent you a larger pic that you should be able to zoom in on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joej Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 Questions -- it appears like the fabric blends out into black on the left side of the pict ... but the right side of the guitar apperars to have a hard edge between fabric & paint. Is that the way it is? Did you do a black gradiation along the guitar edge ? or no? -- joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted October 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 joej...the black sunburst goes all the way around the guitar both front and back. the sharp edge that you see on the right is the pickguard. it covers a bit of the black sunburst on that side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G_urr_A Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 Lol. It's not until I read Joej's reply and had a second look at the pic that I realised there is a pickguard on that guitar. Even though that's the whole point of the thread. I guess that says something about how well you matched the fabric... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feylya Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 unclej, any chance you could give me a detailed walk through of how you did the black burst? I'm about to do something like that myself... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted October 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 Lol. It's not until I read Joej's reply and had a second look at the pic that I realised there is a pickguard on that guitar. Even though that's the whole point of the thread. I guess that says something about how well you matched the fabric... well i'm just gonna have to take that as a compliment. unclej, any chance you could give me a detailed walk through of how you did the black burst? I'm about to do something like that myself... brian's tutorial could probably do it better but i'll try. your material is trimmed flush with the edge of the guitar and you really build up the sealer at those edges so that when you shoot it there's a smooth transition from the fabric to the sides of the guitar. i shot the black after i had applied a couple of coats of clear. then i followed brian's directions. you cut a template of the guitar out of poster board first. then you push map pins through the template around the perimiter, say every two to three inches. you then set it on the body. the pins keep it about 1/2" off the body. you then weight the template down a little so that the spray doesn't lift it off. when you're shooting it you have to keep your spray angled down rather than shooting in a straight line toward the side of the guitar. you don't want too much overspray under the template. turn the guitar over. i sat mine up on a couple of wood blocks so that the fresh paint didn't touch anything. do the same thing from the back. after the black dries you can continue with your clear coats. here's a link to brian's tutorial. he's got pictures and everything so it may make more sense. good luck! http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/mat.htm edited to say that one day i'll actually learn how to use the quote function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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