How Would I Do This

[MR marinara sauce]

since my last project was stolen, im going to start another! im thinking for the finish, snow white with a bloody hand print, but one of my friends mentioned bloody fingerprints as the inlays. is that even a sane thing to attempt? ive been brain storming on how to pull it off and i have no idea. any reasonable sugestions? keeping in mind this will be my first neck build.

[cSuttle]

since my last project was stolen, im going to start another! im thinking for the finish, snow white with a bloody hand print, but one of my friends mentioned bloody fingerprints as the inlays. is that even a sane thing to attempt? ive been brain storming on how to pull it off and i have no idea. any reasonable sugestions? keeping in mind this will be my first neck build.

Inlay the tip and them etch it. I wouldn't do it on the fretboard because the etching will ware off, but on the body would be cool. How about just painting it. Dip you fingers in paint and paw the guitar. Just a thought.

[SwedishLuthier]

A variation of what Csuttle sugests that will work very nice on a pretty uniformly black ebony board: Inlay the finger tip shape. Radius the board. Engrave the finger print pattern. Fill the engraving with black epoxy or similar. Sand flush.

[HuntinDoug]

Hmmmmn... Doing an inlay of a fingerprint is a cool idea. If you are looking to do a print life sized, you will loose a lot of the detail in the print. The best approach may be what Clif suggested: Dip your hand in some red, and grab the guitar. The problem is, it will look like a blood splatter paint theme with a hand print.

If you are set on inlays, there are a few different red materials that you can use including bloodwood. You could even scan your own finger, and enlarge it to cover the entire guitar & neck, then paint what falls on the body, and inlay the neck. Mike Learn did a similar piece recently that turned out really nice.

If this is your first full build, I would be careful not to try to do too much, and get in over your head. Did I see you post somewhere that you have limited time to finish this build?

[MR marinara sauce]

well the paint theme is a bloody handprint on a white body. thats my bands "logo". but i think the bloody fingerprint inlays would go REALLY well with it. im leaving for college in august, but im only 3.5 hours from home and will be comming back alot. that and im taking some time off of work this summer so ill have a while to work on it.

so its looking like im going to need to etch it out huh. what if i etched it out, then took a fine red powder and mixed it in with a clear epoxy and filled the etching than sanded? would that work? and has any one tried to etch that kind of detail into ebony? how would i do that? with a smal dentist pick kind of thing?

[Myka Guitars]

I am certain that with some patience and careful work you could pull this off. If you are unsure of the approach I highly recommend getting some scrap wood and testing out these ideas you have before you commit to it on the guitar. This way you can develop the techniques without the stress. And because it is scrap you will be more likely to try some of the more radical ideas to see if they will work.

I think if the etching work was deep enough you could use the red dust and epoxy mixture with success. Just try it first and see how it looks.

~David

[HuntinDoug]

I played around with this a little, and I have a possible solution. Here is the result I got on my first attempt:

Basically it's a scanned image of a fingerprint laser engraved in a piece of maple (about .030" deep). If I have some time, I may try to mix some red analine dye with epoxy, and fill it in.

[biliousfrog]

that's very cool Doug...pretty good way of security tagging guitars too

[Racer X]

Seriously, you may be onto something. Having your fingerprint hidden somewhere on a guitar might be a nice way of identifying your baby.

[jmrentis]

Seriously, you may be onto something. Having your fingerprint hidden somewhere on a guitar might be a nice way of identifying your baby.

Maybe under the truss cover in hopes they don't see it and try to sand it off. Of course you could make it really hidden like on the inside of a trem route or pickup/electronics.

I don't know exactly how well it would work, but I must say there is few other ways that would be as easy in proving it's your guitar. This is especially true for all of the home builds we see here as these don't have receipts and serial numbers. Although, many of the guitars here could probably be identified via DNA from blood spilt while working on them!

Oh yeah, I also like the idea of the fingerprint look, sounds interesting.

Edited May 2, 2007 by jmrentis

[syxxstring]

Do it they way Ibanez did the Jem pyramids.

Route out a cavity the shape and size you want.

Put your finger print at the bottom, either with paper or painting it in.

Fill the cavity with a clear plastic or epoxy.

I think there is a tutorial to help with the concept.

Edited May 2, 2007 by syxxstring

[eljib]

regarding methods for ID'ing a home build, I rout a stylized version of my initials into one of the chambers, then glue on the cap. It takes an x-ray to reveal it, but it's pretty damn hard to get rid of the evidence.

[Xanthus]

regarding methods for ID'ing a home build, I rout a stylized version of my initials into one of the chambers, then glue on the cap. It takes an x-ray to reveal it, but it's pretty damn hard to get rid of the evidence.

F'n genius.....

I think that HuntinDoug has the best method for getting the look you're (I'm) thinking of, but unfortunately, Average Joe doesn't have the equipment necessary. If it could be done, though, it would probably make one of the most fantastic inlays I've ever seen.