Rusticator

[orgmorg]

This guitar is basically the same as the last one I entered in GOTM, but with a different twist in regard to the hardware.

It occured to me that the weathered barnwood and distressed finish would look really cool with modern black hardware.

Pickups are EMG P-60 wired for 18 volts

Kahler 7300 trem with Floyd style locking nut

Hipshot classic open back tuners

24.625" scale, 24 frets

[avengers63]

You do really cool work with the rustic theme. What's the difference between a P90 and the P60 other than the EMGs are active?

[orgmorg]

An EMG p60 is essentially an EMG 60 in a P-90 size housing. They offer the 81 and 85 this way as well.

[!!METAL MATT!!]

I love this build!! Im really diging the pickups, I have A vintage style ss strat that im working on and ive never thought about p90s, very cool look how much do they run$$?

[Metalhead28]

Awesome

[CainMD]

looks pretty badass

[deadmike]

the little hammered finishes look great.

[Rick500]

Really, really nice!

[orgmorg]

Thanks All!

I'm really digging it too, now I just have to get someone to play it who can really play.

I'm OK on guitar ( I primarily play bass ) but I'm pretty useless with a whammy bar.

MATT- The EMG P series actives run about $105 each.

I love the way they look, nice and simple, mount right in the hole with no other hardware.

I forgot to mention the woods-

The neck is cherry, with a osage orange fretboard, and the body is cucumbertree, with a weathered beech barnwood top.

Cucumbertree is part of the magnolia family, like yellow poplar, which it is very similar to, but even lighter and softer.

[mattharris75]

Orgmorg, I really love the finish/texture on the back of this guitar. I have seen this same finish on the back of some of your other guitars. I was wondering, how do you achieve the mottled texture, and what finishing process do you use?

[orgmorg]

It's pretty simple, really.

I usually do it on a really soft wood, like poplar or butternut.

Basically, after sanding it to 240 grit, I take a polished stone ball, about 2.5" diameter and start banging away at it until it is more or less uniformly dimpled.

Then, I do a wash coat of thinned shellac, wiped on with a rag.

Regular old shellac in a can works fine for my purposes, since I don't use any other type of finish over it, but if you wanted to do a top coat of lacquer or such, a dewaxed shellac, like seal-coat would be better.

Then, I use a less thinned mix of shellac, tinted with Trans-Tint dyes, and wipe it on and off, alternating with black and brown, until I am satisfied with it.

After that dries and hardens, I usually sand it very lighty with 400 grit, and apply a couple coats of untinted clear or amber shellac.

It's a really easy, low-tech finish, and there are probably many ways it can be modified.

Varying the diameter of the hammering tool will give different textures, as well.

[ihocky2]

I always love seeing when you do these rustic builds. A lot of it comes from my family having a 5th generation farm, and I see a lot of this type of stuff around. But the way you make it all blend together is astounding.

[mattharris75]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to have to give this a try, if not on a guitar than at least on a furniture project.

All your builds make me want to hop in the car and drive up to your shop to check all your stuff out in person.

[westhemann]

I really like it...but what keeps the top from flaking?Do you have it sealed somehow invisibly?

I think I would worry less if it had a bar top style finish built up over it...I know that would diminish the old wood thing you got...but function over form,you know?

[ae3]

Yep I was wondering the same thing as Wes, and wouldn't it give you splinters?

Looks AMAZING though, good call on the black hardware. How did you 'dimple' all the hardware and wood?

[westhemann]

How did you 'dimple' all the hardware and wood?

Read a few post above yours...

[ae3]

Oh socks, I have to learn to read through a thread before I go asking questions

[orgmorg]

Yes- the function/form thing:

This guitar, and the others I do with the really weathered tops lurk somewhere in the middle there, more toward the form end of the spectrum. Though they are fully playable, and set up as well as any professional instrument, they are definitely not intended as everyday gigging axes.

They are really more of an art piece that can be played if so desired, and the ones I have done previously, with the antiquey hardware and such, are currently in an art gallery in Nashville.

This one is a bit different, and I'm not sure really where it's place is- the high end hardware is really kind of inappropriate in this regard, but I felt compelled to do it.

There is no finish at all on the weathered surfaces, so yes, it is a bit delicate, but not as much as you might think.

Beech is a hard, fine grained wood much like hard maple, and the weathering it takes on sitting out in the elements for decades is a fairly tough patina. It will flake off if treated roughly, but there is little danger of splinters, unless you are really getting amorous with the guitar, in which case, though I would not presume to dictate moral standards, I cannot accept responsibility for personal injury.

I have experimented with different ways of protecting the weathered surface, but any sort of finish really kills the look.

Best I have come up with is clear matte acrylic spray, like for charcoal or pastel drawings, but even that doesn't look quite right.

I have thought about the epoxy/bar top stuff like Wes mentioned, and I may try that, just to see what it ends up like, but it will be a completely different animal at that point.

I also do a different approach, on other guitars, with salvaged wood that is not really weathered per se, but has still developed a nice patina over the years. This looks really cool when sanded lightly to highlight the original saw marks, and then finished normally- well as normally as I ever do anything.

This method produces a much more practical instrument, though not the same as the old barnwood.

Thanks for prompting me to explain this- I have been meaning to come up with a good way of describing the various degrees of utility of the guitars I have been making. This is a good start, I think.