Joel Rainville

Just a quick update on #3 - the lefty on the right - which is about 75% done : It's the best sounding of the 3. That light swamp ash makes the unplugged sound much louder than the 2 previous alder bodies. Too bad I can hardly play it, although I managed to fake my way through a few chord changes and some Beatles riffs

Thanks. I was thinking black for the body, but now that you mention it, dark blue would contrast even more I think, and showcase the burst even more. I'll shoot a few scraps with different colors to see what works. It's "ivoroid" (plastic) binding. Only the inside of lower horn cutaway is done in the faux binding style. I don't have a good picture of it, but you can see what I mean here :

This is the exact same video that inspired me to try it with Shellac! I saw that little cotton ball he was using, and I remembered an article somewhere about french polishers using a similar pad, so I got the idea to try it with Shellac only, to get a more subtle burst. He actually top-coats his piece with super blonde shellac at the end. That green burst is amazing!...

[Edit : this really belongs in the finishing forum, sorry. Could one of the mods move it please?...] Always wanted to try that, and finally took the plunge tonight. Stained a scrap of flame maple using some tobacco brown I had on hand. Sanded it back, and went to work with orange shellac first. Let it set a little then used garnet shellac all over and then pushing it around the edges to try and make a light-mellow-honey-violin-burst. It's not perfect, but I don't exactly hate it. Any tips or advice for doing this better on my next try? There are some spots where I "pushed" too hard and where the base orange shellac got too light. This is not easy, not for me at least. I used the traditional "pad", a piece of cotton folded up and wrapped in another piece of cotton, lubricated with boiled linseed oil. The kind french polishers use I think. That finish might end up on this - think semi-hollow with f-hole :

I don't get it. You ran it through the planer *after* the pictures we see of it with the blue dye on? Why?

The contrast between the figured maple fretboard an the padouk neck is stunning, I love it.

You're listening to the clean channel of a tiny Roland Cube 15, at moderately high bedroom volume level. The distortion is from a Tech 21 Tri O.D. pedal. All this through the tiny integrated microphone of a 5 year old Canon P&S camera, hence the hifi clarity...

Made a couple of videos today of #1 and #2 in action. The image is crappy and dark, the sound is mediocre, but it still gives you an idea of how it'd sound through a wall of Marshall stacks... not really, but they're videos so watch 'em, ok? #1 : #2 :

Step away from that guitar! You want a blue guitar? Just build another one! Seriously, the red looks very good, I like it.

It's gonna work, but without a film finish, the fretboard is gonna get dirty reall quick from regular playing. Not totally undesirable IMHO, but just something to keep in mind. I would simply apply liberally over the entire neck, and rub out between coats with steel wool, or even better, these pads : http://www.swingpaints.com/1303.htm or something similar as they don't shred during the rubbing process. Simply rub all over the fretboard, it's gonna polish the frets at the same time. You could always remove any oil residue on the frets using a soft cloth, but regular playing is gonna take care of that anyway...

Very nice work, love it. I really should try to incorporate more inlay work like yours in my own guitars. Very cool dragon, good job!

#3, wearing its loaded pickguard (no real camera is available this week-end, so bear with me!) :

A few notes from a fellow guitar builder about those Microplane Rotary Shapers : I haven't had too much trouble with them at all, once I got used to them. The biggest issue is that the drill press isn't really designed to take horizontal force, so if you push hard into the press, your cuts might be a little less than perfect. I wrap a few layers of electrical tape around the roller, so I don't get too close to the finished cut line. The router bit does the final finishing cuts, but for the most part it is prety light work at that point. I don't have a roto sander, but that looks like it would definately finish the job. I only use these for the outline of the body, they won't help anywhere else. Really dense wood (Rock maple or Black Walnut) cuts much slower and I found that reducing the speed of the press helps (I initially thought that increasing it would work better). I do alot of work late at night, and these things don't make much noise at all. I think that this is probably their biggest advantage. They look a little flimsy, but I haven't gone through any blades yet (I've probably cut between 12 and 20 bodies with them so far), I haven't had any problems with them clogging up either.

This is also a good option : Microplane® Rotary Shapers & Follower Kit

Very nice write-up, thanks for sharing!