guitar2005 Posted September 21, 2014 Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 I've been working on this one off and on for a while. The body is Alder with a cherry top. Its my first attempt at a carved top and its not 100% perfect IMO. What do you guys think? I still have to scrape the binding off and hope that works out well. DSCF6480 by CarvedTop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetterOffShred Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 I think it looks great boss. I love a good carved top tele. I don't care much for gold tops, but it looks like a real beauty nice work, I look forward to the rest -Brett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 It looks fantastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Actually, I think I see some of what you see. Paint and harsh light will show the tiniest variation in your curves and arcs and transitions. A natural finish probably would not have shown what you are seeing. If you make the transition area of your recurve wider, you find it easier to keep uniform....or at least I do. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted September 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Actually, I think I see some of what you see. Paint and harsh light will show the tiniest variation in your curves and arcs and transitions. A natural finish probably would not have shown what you are seeing. If you make the transition area of your recurve wider, you find it easier to keep uniform....or at least I do. SR Its weird... I see an imperfection, then as I get closer, I can't see it anymore and I start wondering whether its lighting or a reflection. Change the angle slightly and you can't see it anymore. When I look at other carved top teles, I think that this one is nice but I'm having second guesses right now. I tried to get a natural flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 22, 2014 Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 Are you going to go with a gloss clear? The reflectance will hide some of what that matte finish is trying to show. If you close your eyes and can't find any level changes in the curves with your fingers, they probably aren't really there. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted September 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 Yes, gloss clear over the gold. There is a bit of orange peel on the gold base. Should I level it or clear coat and level after? I'm worried that levelling the gold metallic will screw up the color. When I run my fingers with my eyes closed, its really hard hard to discern uneveness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 23, 2014 Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 I would be worried about the same thing, but I honestly don't know the best answer to that. I think the flake in metalic paints like that is so fine that it will be the same consistency throughout the entire layer of paint; still I think the surafce would look different if you leveled it. This would be a good place for Swede or DemonX to chime in with an experienced response. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted September 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 I ended up levelling it because I was worried that the orange peel texture would show through a clear coat. After levelling it, I misted it until the color looked uniform to my eyes. I have a silver strat that I cleared without levelling 1st. We'll see how both come out. It will be a good comparison. I'll be clear coating it this week, as soon as I receive my headstock logos from "Scary Creative". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted September 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Well, what I feared was going to happen, happened, even though I was careful. While scraping, I hit the sides of the body a little and it shows, even with a cost of clear. There's some grooves that I can only fix by filling and re-shooting. The real bummer is that I'm out of the gold color and my supplier will only have it on the 25th of october That's a real setback. When I get it, I'll re-shoot the sides and mist over part of the front where I can see one spot that is a little darker than the rest because I had to fix the carve in that spot. There aren't as many coats of gold in that spot and it shows. That being said, the top looks great with a shot of clear over it. I hate finishing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 That truly is a bummer. You picked a demanding finish for your first carved top. I'll bet the clear really makes the gold gleam. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted September 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 A wood grain finish would have been easier. Black and gold seem to be the hardest so far because they show every little imperfection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripthorn Posted September 30, 2014 Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 What kind of gold are you using? I just shot a Les Paul gold top recently and have plenty of crescent 255 and 256 on hand if you need. Also, here were my observations of gold in nitro: - I couldn't level sand without affecting the appearance of the gold, it simply showed whenever I tried - I could get it to smooth out a little when shooting clear - The best solution for me was to shoot the gold in lacquer thinned 50% (I think that's the right ratio...) - Scraping the binding was more difficult than I anticipated, but I chalk that up to having too thick of a film, as I had to shoot a new coat a few times because something got in it (bug, wood speck, something) All in all though, I think gold tops are cool. I just might do another one someday, maybe on a PRS style guitar... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 I'm using Mohwak rich pale gold. Its a great product once you know how to apply it. The best strategy that I found so far is to lay a couple of coats normally, level and then, mist the gold color over the levelled surface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted October 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 Here we go with the re-sprayed gold, binding scraped and 10 coats of clear. Its a lot better but the binding could have been done better. I'll shoot a few more coats on the sides to make up for differences in level between the binding and body. With binding, some imperfections can be un-noticeable with another finish but with the metallic finish, I learned that I have to step up my game on the binding front. I learned a few things here and will definitely do better next time. DSCF6534 [url=https://www.flickr.com/people/76789855@N03/] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted November 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2014 I'm at the point where I need to decide whether I want to glue the neck in or bolt it in. What do you guys think? -> Is 3" of surface enough to hold a neck down? ( I think its enough but if some of you have tried this, I'd like to hear from you) -> Should I just bolt it in and not worry about it? I haven't drilled the neck mounting & ferrule holes yet so there's still time to go one way or the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted November 9, 2014 Report Share Posted November 9, 2014 3" is more than enough, if you ask me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted December 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Well, I went ahead and glued the neck in instead of screwing it in. I just hope it holds up. There isn't much wood to hold the sides of the neck so I'm mostly counting on the heel base to hold the neck in place. I cleaned up the wood surfaces with compressed air, applied glue and clamped for 12 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killemall8 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Ken lawrences set necks are only like 3" long, it should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted January 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 Seems like everything that could go wrong on this project has gone wrong. I've redone so many things on this one, its not funny. I did try to glue the neck in but it must have shifted during glue up because the string alignment wasn't exactly how I wanted it. I unglued it and decided to bolt it on as was originally intended. As I bolted the neck on, one of the screws broke. No problem you say? Not with my luck. The screw holes in the body were just tight enough around the screw that I couldn't separate the neck from the body. I tried drilling around, pushing the screw out. I had the whack the neck out. Not much damage on the neck but the finish chipped in two spots around the neck pocket and on a gold top, there's no way to hide the chips. Then, on the face of the guitar, at a certain angle, I noticed a finish crack in the lacquer. Heating it up fixes it but it comes back. This is after the body fell to the ground while buffing it back in decemeber. I had to re-shoot the entire back of the guitar. The thought of cutting the guitar up has crossed my mind. The defects on this one bug me. My wife says to just complete it and use it as a reminder that sometimes, things go wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted January 23, 2015 Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 Your wife sounds like a wise woman. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted January 23, 2015 Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 Yes, it's good also to let some time pass for the anger and frustration to dissipate and then treat the situation as if someone had brought the guitar to you for repair. Mistakes are great, we learn so much from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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