The Odd Boy

[selmac]

thats awesome, a fire proof guitar! well not really but hey, sweet job man

[hyunsu]

beautifull ...

[TeiscosRock]

Yep. It'll be in the model rocket section.  Can't say if it's better than anything else at grain filling, but it is fire-proof.

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Damn, there goes my hopes of Jimi'ing the guitar any time soon if I finish my project like yours xD

[haggardguy]

Awesome, when I saw this earlier I wasn't sure how much I'd like it but now that I see it,i t looks fantastic with the exception of the headstock but its all good.

[Jehle]

Well, at least I don't have to worry about anyone stealing my headstock design. To be honest, it's not exactly what I had in mind.

Trying to come up with a functional shape given the tuners that I had was part of the problem, and then trying to work with the template that I had made for the Flying V was another part. Why not make a new template? Because that would have required a new template and I was focused on using what I had laying around.

The curve sanded into the headstock came from borrowing the curve of the lower horn on the body. I thought it might make them look better together. So much for that idea.

[TeiscosRock]

Hmm.. there any sanding sealer (or post-lacquer sealer - whatever) that you'd recommend that can be picked up at someplace like Home Depot?

[Mattia]

Hmm.. there any sanding sealer (or post-lacquer sealer - whatever) that you'd recommend that can be picked up at someplace like Home Depot?

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Sanding sealer means you seal right after you sand. Close of the wood pre-finishing. If you want to pore fill without staining, pore fill first, then seal, or if you're like me, seal then pore fill. If you use epoxy as a pore fill, you're set to go, all sealed already, otherwise, my fave sealer is good ol dewaxed blonde shellac. Should be readily available, although I hear good stuff about a Zinnser product, I believe Zinnser Seal Coat, which I've seen in a spray can as well. Few coats of that wiped on (paper towel will do) or sprayed on, and you should be fine. Does a fine, fine job of 'popping' grain as well. If you want more info on shellac, hit up Frets.com

Shellac is lovely stuff; I liberally wipe it on to any surface that I've just cleaned up that I won't be gluing anything too later (and will be finishing), because it dries in seconds, sands off really easily if necessary, pretty much any finish you care to try will stick to it, and it keeps dirt and dust out of that freshly sanded/cleaned up wood (particularly true of spruce, f'r example). I also use it to seal light woods that I'm going to glue stuff to with superglue; thin CA (superglue) wicks in everywhere, and can seriously discolour wood, and mess with future staining. Few coats of shellac will prevent that, and CA sticks to shellac just fine.

[TeiscosRock]

Gotcha.. for some reason I was getting my finishing basics mixed up.. that'll teach me to post recklessly without my nap.

Anyway, while on the subject... Do you need to clearcoat the enamel finish?

[Mattia]

Uh, correction to the above: if you want to pore-fill and stain with the pore filler, pore fill first. If you don't want to stain with the pore-filler, seal first. If you want to stain direct, stain first, then seal, then pore-fill.

It's pretty self-evident, really. Just try everything on scrap first.

And yes, you'll want to clearcoat any colour/enamel (check your clear is compatible with the enamel first!!) finish. You want to level and polish clearcoats, not colour coats.

[Jehle]

Exactly what I was going to say mattia. I could have left the enamel naked, but it would have been near impossible to polish it without sanding through. That's where the clear coat comes in. It builds up and levels the surface so that it can be sanded back and polished to that mirror like finish.

[Jehle]

I'm still finding new tones in the guitar. The first 3 here are useful. Enjoy!

The bridge bucker with the single coil has a bright snappy telecaster sound as heard in this Clean Country

The same pickups now through my standard "marshall" setting is just a little edgy. The single coil really tames the bridge humbucker as heard in Australian Dirt

And lastly just the bridge pickup with the same amp setting. I put a doubled guitar way down in the mix to fatten it up a little, but you can hear how well it drives the amp in California Dirt

[loquito5765]

haha... Australian Dirt is Ac/dc's "Have a Drink On Me." The intro to it.

[Drak]

Yep. It'll be in the model rocket section. Can't say if it's better than anything else at grain filling, but it is fire-proof.

I can see BB King having an interest in that application.

[Hunter]

Bwaha, "California Dirt" is the riff from Steve Vai's "Erotic Nightmares"

Do I win a prize?

[Jehle]

Prize? No, LOL. That's just one of those stock riffs that fits under the fingers nicely. It sure beats the standard A power chord to check how a guitar sounds.

So, anyone care to guess what riff Clean Country is?

[TeiscosRock]

I use E power chord... can't seem to get away from playing Back In Black everytime I pick up a different guitar...

[Jehle]

Still no guesses on the Country tune? Tut... tut...

I did want to mention that I put the screws into the pickguard finally. It completes the look of the guitar.

Notice the one screw that's in the center of it, just above the single coil. That's a leftover hole from the Tele Deluxe that I carved the pick guard from, but it's actually been a great extra feature to have.

All my Strats have this annoying feature of ever so slightly being raised off the body right in the center. When my picking hand touches right below the middle single coil, I can feel it give just a little. It's not much, but it can play tricks on your muscle memory. Just adding that one little screw has fixed that problem for good. I'm really really tempted to add that extra screw on my strats at the risk of making them look non-stock.