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Zeta-style "biohazard" Eight-string


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It's going to be Rustin's plastic coating with a good dosing of black dye in there to make it near opaque. I may grainfill, prime and put a yellow pearl or metallic solid underneath but it depends on how the RPC reacts with these paints. I'd like to continue the pearlessence of the inlays across to the body.

Meanwhile, behind the façade of this innocent-looking bookstore, I have decided to try a pair of yellow chickenhead knobs out for size on this and i've also purchased a yellow blade-type switch top to stay in keeping with the yellow/black theme.

I didn't mention that I created an angled recess for the barrel jack....

zeta8_15.jpg

Yes, I still have a LOT of finish sanding to do :-D

Edited by Prostheta
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Not much of an update as I spent most of the day cutting ash for one of my other 8-strings. I cut and shaped a piece of black Corian for the guiding nut and installed the zero fret. I also dry-fit a sacrificial set of strings to sort out string spacing and to check alignment. Everything is 100%, which is a great feeling after all the time spent working on the design! Seeing it go from CAD to instrument and having the specs where they should be is awesome.

zeta8_16.jpg

Next job for me to do is to rout cavities for the pickups, laminate some black and yellow perspex to make pickup rings and to make the cavity cover. Unfortunately, that means epoxy time as i'm using rare earth magnets to affix the cover. Me and epoxy are bad brothers.

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I guess there's no chance of persuadamicating Nathan to spray this one, is there Wez? :-D

I will mainly be doing oil finishes for the rest of the year because nath is so busy with other stuff... and he wants to get a couple of guitars built as well.

still trying to convince my dad that he would be good at it - he did work in paint at toyota for a long time

the main problem is having space to do it, i used to thoroughly clean the workshop and do my brush on finishes in their but it means not being able to get anything else done whilst that happens

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I’m in two minds on this one Wez. I’d very much like to get a “piano black” finish done on the body, and perhaps tinted RPC may be the way to go since it can take a hell of a polish and is readily available. I’m really circumspect about brush finishing although this would be the easiest method to achieve of course, but perhaps not the easiest to get a *good* finish with and would possibly streak. Perhaps I should bite the bullet and buy a compressor, but I have so many other things my money is tied up in at the moment :-\

How much dye did you add to the RPC to get the near-opaque look Wez? I presume you used the Rustin's RPC thinners to cut the whole thing?

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i have never thinned it when brushing and i dont think nath thins it much to spray. we normally add blkack a bit at a time till its the tone we want - if you have some offcuts it will be easy to test

if you use a good quality lacuer brush you will minimise the streaks from brushing and if you sand flat between every 2nd or 3rd coat it will get a nice near solid colour building up

another option might be these spray cans which seem to work well and build nicely - i havnt finished a guitar completely yet as i am still at the primer stage but the cans do cover well and have a fan shaped nozzle that makes them easier to use than standard spray cans. so far i have managed to get all the primer done on about half a can

http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/lacquer.html

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Updateski! You may recall that I had trouble finding yellow plastic rod for sidemarkers. The solution was found on the High Street in the form of a miniature version of the classic UK kids game - Ker-Plunk!

http://www.hasbro.co.uk/games/play-games.aspx?id=9

It also means I have sidemarker material in all kinds of colours for future projects. Awesome! The red material should look pretty cool on the semi-hollow 8-string also. Will post photos after the binding has been levelled and fretwork complete. Will be clearing the neck soon also.

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Updateski! You may recall that I had trouble finding yellow plastic rod for sidemarkers. The solution was found on the High Street in the form of a miniature version of the classic UK kids game - Ker-Plunk!

http://www.hasbro.co.uk/games/play-games.aspx?id=9

It also means I have sidemarker material in all kinds of colours for future projects. Awesome! The red material should look pretty cool on the semi-hollow 8-string also. Will post photos after the binding has been levelled and fretwork complete. Will be clearing the neck soon also.

awsome build man, i love everything about this thing.

and very imaginative finding in the form of ker plunk side dot markers, that made me laugh quite a bit.

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A yellow swirl would look pretty awesome, yes. Unfortunately, I haven't tried doing swirl finishes so i'm not confident in committing to one. I've pretty much settled on a gloss black finish with the cavity cover being yellow Perspex. Most of this work will be done this weekend I hope, although I haven't much time due to me fighting in London on Sunday. :-D

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Thanks man :-D

I finish sanded the neck today after installing and levelling the rest of the side markers. All of the maple was sanded through from 120 grit up to 800 grit with a few wipes of water around the 320 grit mark to raise the grain before resanding at 320 grit. From there the maple felt very satin-y to the touch. After 800 grit, the entire neck was polished up with a 3M abrasive rubber pad which brought up the shine and the flame nicely. I've found that despite the "grit" on these pads being rated as the same "grit" as sheet abrasives (320) they don't scratch as much as achieve an abrasion similar to much higher grits in sheets. The pad seemed to have the same polishing effect as a 1200 grit sheet! Very similar to Micromesh in that respect....

Grit sequence: 120 > 180 > 240 > 320 > 600 > 800 > 320 pad

I decided to finish the neck in poly. First sealing coat went on this evening. Subsequent scuff sands and more coats will happen as and when I have time :-D I have a fight tomorrow so the last thing on my mind will be my finishing schedule!

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My own (admittedly stylistic) concern is that a flat black body will look too "austere" alongside the very colorfully patterned neck. Perhaps a yellow Biohazard decal or inlay behind the bridge might help tie things together better (although it could be tacky), or some sort of yellow/black finish would work best.

I'd say try a swirl on some scrap wood and see how it comes out... you never know!

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I know what you mean Temjin. I'm tieing in the theme of the neck by having yellow bobbins on the pickups, yellow/black/white knobs and a yellow switchcap on the 5-way. Not a huge amount of tieing, but it should be enough I think. The black binding should tie the neck with the body also.

Another coat of poly went on this morning. This stuff dries in 30 minutes apparently. Building up magnificently, and has a slight vintage-y tone to it which is bringing out the flame really well. Very very pleased.

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Already done a huge roundover on the body, so binding is out of the question. I am considering doing a flat-topped Zeta for one of my next builds, perhaps with a ¼” maple drop top. This one literally has a 19mm roundover on a 40mm thick body back and front. This is one curvy body with the arm and tummy contours! :-D

I'm a Muay Thai fighter for Chao Phraya Muay Thai, Lincoln training under Kru Leigh Edlin. I fought a non-competition class C fight over three rounds against a title fighter from London Muay Thai Academy who was – to be honest – younger, fitter, faster and more hungry than I was yesterday. He’s going in to compete for titles, whereas I like the technical and tradition aspect of Muay Thai. I had no nerves going into the fight, and unfortunately that meant no adrenaline till I got hit a few times. LMTA are however a full-time gym whereas CP Lincoln is part-time. Given that however, we took the fight to them and made our mark amongst what was really a home territory crowd with mostly London fighters. Southern pufters!! I went in and did what I wanted to do, other than win ;-) I kicked my opponent up the arse as a riposte after avoiding a hard low kick (that gets you props) plus I took a good flurry of jab/cross/hooks and khao chien to the ribs to him during the second round. My stepping punch followed with a southpaw knee to the ribs caught him unawares, and I love that one….starts out from out of striking distance, and when you’re done you’re striking right within the defence…..I’m still on a high after the fight (and very sore) despite getting a real hammering, hence my yapping. It went pear-shaped for me as Chris pinpointed my left thigh and concentrated on taking it out, which finished my chances of holding up any solid defence from thereonin. The dude was fast and a great fight, and better still, we entered the ring respectfully and left with that respect for each other also. That made it for me.

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