Drak 'prairie Dust'

[Drak]

A few rear shots...

[Drak]

Pics showing how I connect my ground wire to the TOM stud,

wrapped with a little conductive copper shielding tape then hammered home to Momma.

The pic of the soldering iron inserted into the stud hole is showing how I heat up the hole before inserting the stud to soften the lacquer finish first and avoid any chipping.

[FireFly]

Good idea on the soldering pencle!

[Drak]

Prairie Dust is done, love it.

I changed the pickups since these pics were taken, it now has a (gold cover) Pearly Gates in the bridge and an (gold cover)Eric Johnson in the neck, spectacular combination, she's done hon.

[orgmorg]

Spectacular!

I love how the burl fits into the burst.

[Drak]

Thanks, I loved your guitar entry in the GOTM this month, killer build, especially the backside, how did you 'work' that back to the texture it has?

Also, how did you texture the pickup covers, also loved that too, very 'rustic'.

Loved it.

[orgmorg]

Thanks Drak, always nice to recieve a compliment on ones' backside.

The back is buckeye, which, as I'm sure you know, is very soft. Instead of worrying about it getting dinged with the slightest bump, I take a polished stone ball and beat the heck out of it. Then I seal it with thinned shellac, and work a dark stain into the places where the wood fiber has torn. After that, I wipe on darker shellac, lightly sand it when dry to lighten the high spots, attack random areas with steel wool, repeat as necessary, and finally rub the whole thing down with fine steel wool to kill the gloss. Lots of fun.

The pickup covers are nickel plated, and I darken them with an antiquing solution, then slip them over a wood block that fits inside, dimple them with a ball pein hammer, and wet sand with 600 grit.

[Drak]

I could see that you had beat it with something, but I couldn't tell with what or exactly how, so thanks for the info.

I loved the technique and would never have thought it was Buckeye unless you told me.

I dislike the entire relic'ing world and what it does to guitars, but what you and NotYou (if I may group you together, it is a compliment ) do is completely different and Extremely artistic.

I love the work you guys do.

Very inspiring, full of talent, craftiness, and very forward thinking outside the box all at the same time.

You guys have definitely staked a claim to some original 'turf' while still being very different at the same time.

Hats off.

[ScottR]

That's absolutely gorgeous Drak.

When I saw the first picture (prior to scrolling forward)I asked myself did add some more tint coats....but the next shots answered that.

Your timeline in this thread indicates you shot this 5-6 months ago. How long did you let it cure before leveling? What do you consider the minimum cure time for the conditions you work in?

SR

[FireFly]

I'm really glad you went with gold hardware on this one

[guitar2005]

Drak - are the black sides sprayed on or did you stain that? If you sprayed it on, did you mask the surrounding areas or went with an airbrush of soem sort?

[Drak]

Thanks!

Actually it's not black, it's a medium-dark brown, I just kept adding coats until the desired darkness and opaqueness was achieved.

And yes, it's shot on with a gun, can't remember if I used an airbrush on it, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't for the sides, I think standard door jamb gun was used for this one.

The front and back are masked off to shoot the sides at first, which already have finish sanded smooth on them, then the masks are removed and it's blended in to the front and back until it looks normal, then more clearcoats until it's finished.