Trynyty

The relic job on that Hendrix/Zappa tribute is one of the best I've seen. A finish like that paired with a relic'd neck would be some serious mojo. Great stuff.

I help someone who is suffering from a brain tumor. It's a noble cause. Good on you.

Shadoe Mckee does this a lot at 'beyond custom guitars' these days. You can find them on the bay quite often. I'm not sure exactly how she handles the multiple sheets without seams. If you haven't already seen this project guitar link, you might find it useful. A lot of the tips would apply to a body as well. I haven't done this myself, so I can't be of much help, but my suggestion would be trial and error with some scraps. I recall Shadoe saying that it took several tests to get the clear-coat to work properly. Sorry I can't be of more help. Good luck!

No, thankfully I am not my own father.

Some people have requested more pictures, so I put more pics in my picasa folder of the body at various stages after it was clear-coated. Soon, I will try to have some more pics of the full guitar.

I'll post a ton of pics that were taken after the clearcoat but before the electronics tonight -- I'll post after I do. I'll also look for any others that are useful. I have a TON of pics of the guitar 'in process'. I probably won't be able to get my own pics done for a week or two. I'm very busy at work and on weekends right now and the sun is gone by 5:30 which sucks.

I relied heavily on Rick Canton for this project. This post is for both myself and him. We are both long time lurkers at Project Guitar. When I posted this, I pointed him to it and I think he is going to register. He is hoping to take his building career from just a sideline to a full-time profession and is going to invest (or already has invested) in a CNC. If he doesn't post, I'd assume he is waist deep in technical manuals and wood shavings by this point. I have a fabric finish Ibanez project that I'm doing myself and hopefully will get to finish it some distant day in the future. For this one, though, I didn't want it to be a learning experience. I knew this idea was big and felt it deserved better. I've been very happy with all of the positive response towards it. Everyone has been very nice and I appreciate that. Thanks!

I'm not sure exactly what types of paint she used. She said 'acrylic'. That's all I know right now. I'll try to get more details later.

I just moved to a DAW myself. I'm using ACID Pro 6. It's now got the same audio recording capabilities as Vegas -- in fact, it is done by the same team. Great stuff! Very simple, intuitive and enough features for me. I'm thinking of adding a control surface, however. I'm looking at the Mackie Control Universal Pro. Any thoughts?

Done! Thanks for the help! I added some more info in my entry for those interested: http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...st&p=364254 Thanks again and by the way, I sleep with this guitar in one hand and a Glock in the other, so 'sneak' in at your peril!

Here is my entry: The Ouroboros I conceived of this project almost 2 years ago. Luckily, I found the perfect people to help me realize this dream and also add their own personal touches and ideas into the mix. It was a long process, but I learned alot along the way and I think the end result was definitely worth it. It is a custom basswood body shaped like a Steinberger GM except the edges have been rounding like a JS model Ibanez. The neck is a headless composite neck from Moses Graphite and the bridge is a TransTrem Steinberger bridge. It only has one pickup, an EMG 89 in the bridge position. It has a Sustainiac in the neck slot -- but it isn't wired as a pickup. There is no tone pot. The volume post has a push/pull as a coil split. The blade switch controls the various Sustainiac modes (off, fundamental mode, mix mode 1, mix mode 2, and harmonic mode). You can hold a note or a chord and flip it into a mix mode, let the harmonic come in, flip into the other mix mode until it kicks in and then flip it off. It sounds like an amp feeding back. Major cool factor and really easy to get used to. There is also a momentary kill switch for all the cheesy Buckethead-esque antics that you can dream up. I wanted to have a setup worthy of a screamin' lead machine with lots of bells and whistles, but minimal controls. You'll even notice that the volume knob is a half-size dome knob. I think I got what I wanted. The body was custom created by Rick Canton. No CNC was used. It is all hand-shaped and routed. He spent many hours shaping the sides until we both felt it was exactly what I was trying to achieve. I think the body shape is very sexy. The artwork is a representation of the Great World Snake (or Ouroboros), which represents the infinite life/death cycle. This is the snake that is eating it's own tail. In this case, it is the red snake in a figure 8 that is dead center on both the front and the back of the guitar. It is depicted subtlely, so that it doesn't slap the viewer with it's presence. You can see it best on the back of the guitar. This was added due to the 'sustainer' on the guitar, which lends itself well to the notion of 'infinity'. The other snakes represent different aspects of life and are depicted as offspring of the Ouroboros by the artist. Originally, it was loosely inspired by the Donnie Hunt 'Snakes' guitar, but has really taken a life of it's own. The artwork is hand-brushed acrylic paint by a very talented artist in Santa Fe named Therese Des Jardin. I gave her my concept and initial parameters (which wasn't much) and she discussed it with me for a while and then created this work of art. She is really great to work with. A lot of the paints used are metallic acrylics and really shine in the sun or under bright lights. The brushwork also adds dimension to the artwork that is visible under the clear-coat. My main goal was to have an intricate, intertwined collection of snakes that seamlessly transititioned around the entire body done in a rich, classy color palatte. I think I got it! This shot was before the clear-coat was added: The clear-coat was done by Shadoe Mckee at Beyond Custom Guitars. Here is an image gallery for more pics. I hope you like it!

They work great together. I'm still getting used to the guitar, I've only had it for a couple weeks. If you check out www.sustainiac.com, you can see some info about pairing a sustainer with an active pickup. They even offer special dual battery holders for that very purpose. Thanks! Btw, I didn't even think about 'guitar of the month'. How does one enter this?

Good eye. That is a mistake she made and learned from on my guitar. This was her very first guitar paint job. She had problems with the basswood soaking up the paint and it took a lot of coats and repainting. She also had problems with the wood catching the bristles on her brushes. This did cause a problem during the clear-coat, with the heat and liquid involved in the process causing some of the lighter paints (white) to fade a little further into the wood. The end result, however, looks like it was done on purpose. I'm not sure what the long term ramifications will be. I can say that it feels solid and the tone is major cool (although that is much less of a factor with an active pickup than a passive). I originally wanted to strip a JS and have this done, but I've really been getting into Steinbergers lately and I decided to go the extra yard and make something really unique. Thanks!!

Here is a pic: You can see more pics of the guitar during the building process here. It is a custom basswood body shaped like a Steinberger GM except the edges have been rounding like a JS model Ibanez. The neck is a headless composite neck from Moses Graphite and the bridge is a TransTrem Steinberger bridge. It only has one pickup, an EMG 89 in the bridge position. It has a Sustainiac in the neck slot -- but it isn't wired as a pickup. There is no tone pot. The volume post has a push/pull as a coil split. The blade switch controls the various Sustainiac modes. There is also a momentary kill switch. The body was custom created by Rick Canton. I'll point him to this post so he can answer any questions or receive any praise. I'm a long time lurker here. This is a great site for inspiration as much as it is for reference. The artwork is a representation of the Great World Snake (or Ouroboros), which represents the infinite life/death cycle. The other snakes represent different aspects of life and are depicted as offspring of the Ouroboros by the artist. This was loosely inspired by the Donnie Hunt 'Snakes' guitar, but has really taken a life of it's own. The artwork is hand-brushed acrylic paint by a very talented artist in Santa Fe name Therese Des Jardin. The clear-coat was done by Shadoe Mckee at Beyond Custom Guitars. This thing plays like a dream and screams like a demon. I absolutely love it and wanted to share it. Enjoy!