gpcustomguitars

Thanks for the kind words! I don't know what to say really After the holidays I got back to the shop and buffed it, the tuners, nut and the faux TR cover are on. TR cover is held on some 2-sided tape, nothing permanent. Now I have to solder it all and make a brass nut. 0101-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 0102-001 by Goran P, on Flickr Also, decided to finally finish this, after cca 12-13 years. All mahogany, one piece neck with veneer headstock lamination, ebony fboard, tortoise binding, hotrod and 2 strips of graphite. The body is 2 piece. No neck angle, as I got a Hipshot Trilogy strat bridge for it ages ago. The graphite rods are supposed to lower the chance of detuning when shifting between tunnings by adding some stability to the neck. Electronics are supposed to be , from top to bottom: balance pot for the 2 hums, 2 tones one for each, and the bottom pot is master Volume. Nice in theory, but any help on how to solder that together would be much appreciated. IMG_20160109_182919-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Just about all the people that have seen it so far Thanks a lot! This is not very rational, but this has been a type of project I just can't resist - trashed guitar. I started building because my Dad was against me buying an electric when I was a kid, and since I was involved in tech section in school, my way of avoiding that veto was to build one. I always dreamed of finding a trashed guitar as a simple way of speeding things ahead, so even now, if you bring me a guitar as a pile of bits and pieces in a bag, I start twitching...there must be a support group for this somewhere My first (playable) electric was made out of a ooold acoustic I got from my guitar teacher, top was cracked beyond repair. I took it off leaving the binding on, piece by piece, and replaced it with some plywood, made an pickguard and a wooden, archtop type bridge and for a tailpiece used first thing that looked like it even remotely - a safety belt tongue (is it called that?) that a friend with a drill press drilled holes for strings into.

Done with spraying! I was one strap button short, and had some 10mm black acrylic plate scraps around, so I made a set, and polished them - shiny First I added a bit of binding on, but decided I like it better without it. Just didn't polish as nice as the acrylic. Turning was done, as usual, on the drill press... Some fine tuning was needed to sit the pup plate in it's place properly, so now I just have to wait for the lacquer to be ready for sanding. 0101-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 0102-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 0103-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 0104-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 0105-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 0106-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 0107-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

A new jack plate and a revision of the TR cover. Hope it looks better this way. Still needs polishing, but I had a parallel job last night, refitting a bridge on a acoustic, so this was all I managed. I'm also trying to produce some parts locally, so this is my first batch of strat pickguards, '63 dimensions as per some plans I found. Sides are still not angled, I'm making a jig for that. 0100-001 by Goran P, on Flickr IMG_20151221_201250-001 by Goran P, on Flickr IMG_20151221_201332-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Thanks!!! Redid the sides a bit, I think the colour of sides and the back is close enough now, considering it's 2 different types of wood. 098-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Thank you for the nice comments! I tried to do my best with this really weird project. This was certainly much more fun than the flat black top my customer first suggested. I expected to have that problem with the level of the finish / binding, so I sanded down the edges of the gold paint flush to the binding between coats. Turned out well, even with just the first 3 coats and no sanding so far. I hope there will be no trace of it.

Second half is done, the faux glue line is visible as planned, and I've sealed it with 3 coats of lacquer. I'm cleaning the sides a little bit more, after a while I found some spots I didn't like. My photos are bad, but I think it's visible enough Got myself a few new toys! Orbital sander, jigsaw, drill press holder with some new-to-me features, like drilling angle, and one of those mini battery drills from Ikea, which is very handy around guitars, due to it's size 094-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 095-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 096-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 097-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Thanks!!! I guess it is a bit radical Here are the pics of the 1st half of 3rd coat, I've since leveled out some areas I didn't like, so it's perfectly flat. The pattern stays on with no problems, so it's really promising so far. I've masked the top along the non-existing centerline, and did the pattern on that half, in a day or two, I'll mask it from the other side, to the line, and since I can't replicate the pattern totaly, I'll get a "glueline" on my faux bookmatch Golden Curly Maple TM I'll try to make some birdseye patterns on some scrap next, but not for this guitar... I think brass bridge insert I'm yet to make will match nicely with this colour. There should be other metallic finishes in this line, i should look them up. 092-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 093-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

I do hope it will work, as it is a experiment of sorts, but might open a lot of possibilities. I was also thinking it might have some copper in it, that would explain it's greenish hue, I don't know how it comes out on your monitors, but in person it's very much like olive oil. I have a very radical thing in mind to try, can't wait to see what happens.

I've just leveled it and the pattern is still there. It's the only gold i've been able to find locally, other than acryl spray, which is just wrong The stripes are normal for it, as the tiny metal particles float in it, and form the pattern, and the stuff around them levels itself. It's oil based gold patina paint, somewhat greenish, but looks nice to me. My father in law is house painter and they use that stuff for antique looking staircase fences (there is probably a nicer word for those, but I would have to google it ). He said that it has something added to it that makes it extra hard, as it is under a lot of stress being touched by hands all the time. This is just second coat, but the third (and probably final coat should add some interesting twists to this - stay tuned

Second coat! It's brushed on, I hope to get interesting, sort of wood grain effect with that. Cavities will be black. 089-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 090-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 091-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Prepared the top for the second coat!

First coat of gold is on, and it's looking nice ! Almost done!

Thanks, thought of it, but my customer just went trough the shop, and we decided on goldtop - much better solution to me, as it connects with gold engravings and brass bridge insert somewhat, and the pickguard won't get eaten by the surrounding black. He brought his friend along, and I got another potentially interesting project, I'll just say it involves a electrified acoustic and a ...horseshoe Pics soon

Cleaning up! The customer asked me not to strip the neck, but I did strip the back, as the colour was hard to nail on the cherry sides. This is not 100%, but reasonably close, I think. He also wants me to spray the top to solid black, but that would sort of hide first binding lam (black). Thinking of ways to keep it visible, other than adding cream purfling Any ideas? Hope to spray it on Saturday. 087-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 088-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Just a two pics of humbucker finally in place! I did a lot of repairs in the last 2 weeks (on other guitars :)), but this is also in the finishing stage. The headstock is now black, and the sides and the back dyed. Decided to refinish the back too, to make it more color-logical with the sides. Still haven't decided on the neck, but that too, probably. 084-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 085-001 by Goran P, on Flickr In the repairs I did I had to make a tool I haven't had - bridge clamps: IMG_20151114_162033 by Goran P, on Flickr I added some cork padding, this is just in the progress pic. Worked really well :)

Some new photos - strap button goes on the little diamond. I wanted 2 gibson -style knobs, but ordering was a waste of time, so I took a strat set of knobs, and had them machined and a metallic tape was glued in. What do you think? 090-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 091-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 092-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 093-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 094-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 095-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 096-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 097-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 098-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

How about this - I like it so far? Imagine black background, it became gray somewhere between Corel and Picassa :) 089-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Thanks! Working on a few possible logos! Here's some more small progress: 084-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 085-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 086-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 087-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 088-001 by Goran P, on Flickr I want to do something simmillar for the other strap button - a diamond or something. I'll probably change the jack plate to a diamond too - it looks kinda wrong to me now...

Thanks a lot! It is a little bit crazy project, but the truth is, it's so weird I'm having so much fun I'm scraping the sides and binding now, and should drill for the jack next. Still thinking about adding some small details here and there... Scraped the crushed/glued area a bit, it's at least flat now I wanted to bind the headstock too, but since I don't want to do a refret at this time, can't bind the fretboard too, so it's off. I might make a diamond on the headstock ... Please, some ideas as to what to put as a logo - can't sign it, It's still a Yamaha on some level, but I want the work to be marked as mine somehow...Remake by Popovic perehaps? Popovic Yamaha remake ??? ...... 078-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 079-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 080-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 081-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 082-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 083-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

The covers came back from the engraver's, and he did a really nice job! It's still far from finished, but it's starting to give an idea of what it might become. Still some detail work ahead, then cleaning the sides...the customer likes it a lot, which is a HUGE relief 074-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 075-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 077-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

I hope the end result will justify all this detail work Now I have to scrape the sides and sand out any major bumps on the face in the area to be covered by the pickguard. Also I'm planing a few minor decorations to cover some problem areas, still thinking about those... 069-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 070-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 071-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 073-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

The back is slower, it seems that mahogany plywood is a lot tougher than spruce plywood Actually, I think it's the glue - mahogany being more porous takes in a lot more glue than spruce. Anyway, I made a start, plastic is at engraver's, got a piece of brass for the bridge. 068-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Some pics of the weekend progress: The back is on! Made a faux truss rod cover, and decided I don't want to route the binding ledge, so a quick (but nice working) purfling cutter was thrown together. It worked nicely, fun actually, took me about 15mins, cut some abs strips, B&W, 3 x 2mm and since I had no acetone, just used some CA. I managed not to mess up my fingers too much Back will have more details, should be interesting. All in all, I like it so far. I might get the laser cut parts and engravings tomorrow. 053-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 054-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 055-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 056-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 057-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 058-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 059-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 060-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 062-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 063-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 064-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 065-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 066-001 by Goran P, on Flickr

Another update, a really small one - fitted the patch a bit more and glued it on. I have another idea on how to use the offcuts, we'll see if it works... 051-001 by Goran P, on Flickr 052-001 by Goran P, on Flickr