Anyone Use Jehle's Tutorial On Decals?

[IPA or death]

I downloaded the free version of Inkscape and I tried to paste an image and edit it. But not being the most savvy guy at this kind of thing, it's not giving me very good results.

What I tried to do is what Jehle did in his tutorial, which is edit the Fender logo to something of my liking. But I'm getting fuzzy lines which won't do at all.

Anyone have any experience with this stuff? Am I asking more than this program can deliver or am I just not finding what I need to succeed? Thanks for any suggestions.

[RestorationAD]

I use inkscape for lots of stuff. It can do professional quality work. Look at the Fill and Stroke property on your lines. Make sure that you are working to scale as that helps. I do a lot of my guitar designs in inkscape.

This is a great place to beat the learning curve.

http://inkscapetutorials.wordpress.com/

[IPA or death]

Thank you for the link RestorationAD, it looks like it could be very helpful. It will take some practice to get the techniques down, but what can any of us do well without practice? I'm asking for it with that statement aren't I?

[Rick500]

You've made me realize there's not an IPA in the house. <sigh>

[IPA or death]

Don't go and do anything drastic Rick. I know the name is "IPA or Death" but you could run to the store . I suggest Fuller's or Anchor Liberty.

[Rick500]

Both good. Have you had Sierra Nevada 2008 Anniversary Ale? Grab some; it's really awesome.

Also had a really good one last week Chicago O'Hare, at Rock Bottom Brewery... Itasca, I think it was. Really great.

[Mickguard]

Anyone have any experience with this stuff? Am I asking more than this program can deliver or am I just not finding what I need to succeed? Thanks for any suggestions.

I use Photoshop.

After fussing about with Jehle's method, I just went ahead and bought a few sheets of waterslide paper (not for inkjet). Cost me $10 for 5 sheets. Works great and looks much better.

[IPA or death]

Nice ones Mickguard. I bought the waterslide paper too, whereas Jehle used clear transparencies and spray adhesive in his tutorial. I actually overlooked that fact at first but it sunk in later . I figure if nothing else I can just use an original drawing and transfer it to the waterslide (somehow, haven't nailed down all the details yet) and use that. But I'm going to look into Photoshop too since you got such good results. I like the little ? where the copyright should be; very nice touch.

Rick, thanks for the beer suggestions. I haven't tried those but I'll definitely look into them. I'm always looking for another good bottle. I used to brew my own but had to put aside one of my hobbies when the kid came along. So rather than losing guitars or golf, I figured I could get by with buying beer for a while.

BTW, some of you guys who have your own technique for making decals should think about doing your own tutorial. I know I can't be the only one who would enjoy another way of doing something. And I think most of us want something on a headstock, be it a Fender bastardization or something completely original.

Edited November 26, 2008 by IPA or death

[Rick500]

I'll stop hijacking the thread now, but had to add that I brew too.

Edited November 26, 2008 by Rick500

[IPA or death]

Rick, I would send you a message about brewing but your inbox is full . Of course, I created the thread so it is it really hijacking when I go off on a different subject altogether?

[Mickguard]

My process:

I found decent-quality straight-on copies of the various Fender logos and opened them in Photoshop. If you're having trouble finding them, contact me.

Since I wanted to keep the look of the Fender name, but wanted to make it clear that the guitar was NOT a Fender, I simply reversed the 'e' and reattached it. I like how people start admiring my Fender then get a quizzical look on their face when they get a little closer...

But it's possible to build many other letters using the Fender letters as the base -- you can cut them up and reassemble the pieces. This allows you to maintain the proper contours. Takes a while, but it works.

I used Arial for the '....caster' font, then stretched it a bit to look more like the real thing.

As for beer....ever since I moved to Europe, I find it extremely difficult to drink the pee that passes for beer in America. Even the microbrewery stuff just ends up tasting like dog's urine, compared to even the cheap bargain beer you get here. Although I primarily drink organic beers now, from local breweries, haven't found a bad organic beer yet.

[Quarter]

If you want / need a good and free open source Photoshop alternative, check out Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

Edited November 26, 2008 by Quarter

[RestorationAD]

IPA... if you are still having issues you can PM me and I will look at your file for you. I am pretty good with Inkscape.

[Dadovfor]

On my last build I used a water slide decal with a design that I put together in Paint Shop Pro.

If you want to do something that looks similar to a Fender logo there are several fonts out there. Bannf is very close, Brush Script isn't bad, and I have one called ... Fender Font. If you only want black type or an outline, you could use one of those fonts in any word processing package and print them on water slide decal paper.

But as I recently discovered, clear decal paper isn't an option on a black headstock

[IPA or death]

I think it would be easier to print off something pre-made rather than try to trace over something--for me at least. I found a website that has free fonts and the Banff-Normal seems to be the ticket pretty much. I'll try to print that off with my tweaking of the Fender name and see how it goes. I'll post a pic when I get something useful.

Thanks for all the help guys. Hope it all helped someone else along the way.

Fonts: GoldenWeb.it

Edited November 29, 2008 by IPA or death