Mickguard

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Right, this is going to be my second to last post on this thread. Here's a closeup of what one of the logos I finished looks like WITHOUT CLEAR COAT (I'll start that tomorrow if it doesn't rain): Here are more photos of the project: Bocaster album Here's the method I ended up with: 1. Print out logo on transparent paper 2. Cut out logo --cut as close to the lines/image as you can 3. Use an exacto knife with a ROUNDED edge --(this seems to be easier to control than straight edges) 4. Take it down as far as you can without tearing the plastic --this might take some practice. Tiny pushing strokes work best for me 5. Use your silver or gold pen to fill in your letters. Use dots instead of strokes. Let the ink dry a bit. * 6. Using a very small, short-fiber paintbrush (an artist's brush, not one of those fluffy watercolor brushes) 'paint" a thin coat of NEOPRENE glue over the backside of the logo. You only need very very little glue for this. Neoprene glue does not seem to 'melt' the lettering. I used the gel version, since that was available. The liquid version might be even better. 7. Stick the logo in place. Let dry. (You can easily peel this off if you don't like it) 8. Spray with clear coat--the first coat or two should be VERY light. The neoprene glue seems to help keep the lettering from getting infiltrated by the clear coat, and the first light coat of that seals the lettering in. *The silver and gold pens I used are Pilot G-1 pens...they have a fine 0.7 nib...the thicker nib pens just SMEAR with the neoprene glue, even after drying all night. Now I have to do a full finish on the logos to see if it really works. By cutting it very close to the letters themselves, the edges become less of a problem. In fact, you can even use this to an advantage ---create your own EMBOSSED letters (in which case, leave out the scraping with the exacto knife)> I'll post the final results when I have them. UPDATE: After shooting the first couple of clear coats, I discovered that there wasn't enough glue under a bit of one letter on the thinline bocaster (it has the cutaway on the headstock) --the clear coat got under there and wiped out part of the black line of the edge of a letter....bummer...but I found a way to fix it. I have some old rub off letters here, I took a line from that, rubbed it over the missing line. Tomorrow I'll dust that with clear coat, let it dry, then finish the clear coats...I'm going to try laying it on thick tomorrow, see what happens!

Sorry, man, this isn't about that. This is about getting a convincing self-designed logo!

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Well you can drill a grill pattern into the plexiglass, that 'll let the sound through while still protecting it. Or you can buy predrilled plexiglass, I'm sure that exists, that way you'll get a nice machined look. And there's no reason for the plexiglass to be thicker than a normal pickguard. You could also try some colored plexiglass for that matter...

Is this an issue with the B5 style? Since it's mounted to the surface of the guitar? I'm planning on using mine with a Telecaster bridge (which happens to be a top mount version) --I'll use the existing string holes to feed the strings onto the existing saddles --so the angle of the strings from the saddle to the neck/nut won't be changed at all. Actually, I plan to drill out the bridge holes and insert some teflon-based tubing in to them (right now I'm thinking of adapting Graph Tech string trees for the purpose. That way the strings will rub against that material, and not the metal of the bridge itself. Hmm, maybe graph tech has some rejects that can give me? ....

Have a look here: varitone And here's a version with distortion: Varitone w/Distortion Neither of these requires batteries...the idea is that they let you switch through various sized capacitors, so you get different sound settings. Personally, I don't trust the Black Ice thing...I prefer playing through my tube amp and dialing up the grain with that.

whoa i just saw this thread. If its pretty flat you dont need to sand it but i always do. im very compulsive about that. I guess this is late info seeing as how you probaly cleared it already

Sure, and Fernandes did it even better But the idea here is turning into something even more radical...

Can anyone tell me what a scalloped neck does for you? Help you play faster?

My windmills? Oh yeah, did your dano box come with a pair of headphones? What's the problem with the cord being attached to the left headphone? I'm so confused, lol.

That'll get in the way of his windmills, won't it? One of the things I hate about the Dano box is that the wire attaching to the headphones connects to the LEFT earpiece....what were they thinking?

Hard to tell from the photos but it looks like that action is super high--maybe it was set up as a slide guitar? Do you have a photo of the nut?

Why mess with wires at all? Score a Bluetooth setup. Ok, ok...those can get a little pricey, and wiring it up would probably be zero fun. How about a retractable headphone set? Just a set of ear buds that 'unroll' out of an edge of the guitar. When you're done, just give them a little tug, and the spring-loaded winder pulls them back in. You could also have a safety catch on the edge/point of entry so when you're movin' your head around, you don't accidentally engage the winder. :-) Just some ideas. I can't wait to see the progress. BTW- those Fernandes ZX guitars are supposedly very cool. The built-in FX ones can get some decent tones from what I've heard from people. You probably won't record a Top10 single with one, but....for kickin' around by the couch... Oh yes, wireless too! Install a three-way switch --one goes to headphones, another goes to the built in speaker, a third sends the signal to your amp...how cool would that be?

Ah, thanks for clearing up the confusion! Saved me from making a big mistake Okay, how about this: another tool I noticed is the Dremel tolol --they're selling a couple attachments for that , one converts it into a router, the other gives it a router table... I'm not opposed to buying a router, but since I won't have that many projects, it makes sense to have tools that can handle multiple duties. (I have a friend with a router anyway, but then he'll want to do all the work...)

I picked up an old drill press , has a crank handle on springs for lowering the drill, should be adequate for the purpose. I'm planning on routing out the back of a guitar in order to convert it to a Thinline (semi-hollow). I know I can use the drill press to do the initial drilling. The drill press has a depth guage, that'll help! I'm wondering why I can't use the press as a router? In the hardware store, they have various type of router bits for drills...but I've seen some posts scolding people away from the idea.... But why? They sell the bits to do this after all... Your opinions?

And then the next morning... (luckily for me, I don't need much sleep)...I'm adding a new reply here rather than continuing the last one, that's getting too long) Okay, this was my last 'experiment' before I test the clear coats...This time I used an exacto knife with a oblique edge (not the full slanted one, a smaller one)...this works much better than the razor blade, the smaller surface makes it easier to control. On this one I got it shaved down pretty far... Although I have to say, the thinnest version I got was with sandpaper--but getting it that thin risks tearing. Instead, I glued the thinned out logo down to my test wood, then I continued working on the edges just a bit (or course, now you have to be careful not to nick the wood). So far so good. I then decided to apply some sealer around the edges. I'll do a couple layers of that. We'll see what that gives... Once again, I need to point out that I'm only doing this because I REALLY want that metallic silver in the logo...otherwise I'd buy waterslide paper (I might end up doing that anyway!) It takes a long time to scrape away the plastic... And if all I wanted to do was fake a Fender logo, I'd just buy one of the fakes off ebay... Here an alert: There are TWO types of silver pens! They're both made by Pilot One is called "Super Color" --it's got a thicker nib, flows really nicely. But you MUST seal it somehow before applying adhesive. Even after drying all night, it still runs as soon as the glue touches. The other is the "G-1" --this one is a much finer nib (0.7). It doesn't flow as nicely, and you have to go back over it a couple of times to make sure everything is filled in. But you can smear neoprene glue (is that rubber cement?) right over it and it doesn't budge. And the neoprene seals the edges so the clear coat can't get under it. I use an extremely thin coat of neoprene, applied with and wiped off with a credit card. Neoprene lets you reposition the logo if you screw that up the first time. Okay, that's enough...I'll come back in a few days after I've test out the clear coats...those who don't care about this project, sorry about the long and multiple posts...

I hear that! Seems like every day, I need a new tool, or a new part....hell, the paint alone costs almost as much as the rest of the guitar...

Yeah, I can't wait to see this one... Do you know Girl Brand Guitars? He does some interesting things with plexiglass ...For example: here's the link to the site: Girl Brand Guitars

Have you seen these? ebay B5 copy I bought one, "won" it for $39.... he has a new one up every week...if you're going to experiment, you might as well start with this. It mounts to the surface, which seems more appropriate for a bass --you could look into mounting it into ferrules to give it more strength. You can drill out the back rod for bass strings, why not? If necessary, you can fill the existing holes with a bit of welding. I'd say the spring will work just fine, it's pretty heavy duty, but you can always change that if it doesn't ... This kind of whammy isn't appropriate for dive-bombing though...well, you can, but you'll have to retune a lot... Unless of course, it has to say Bigsby on it?

Sure, if there's only one pickup (I'm assuming the bridge), then you can still put the speaker under the strings. But if that's going to give problems, you could shift the speaker over toward the bottom of the guitar ---depends on how big the speaker is... The speaker of my mini amp is all of 2.5 inches ....there's a size limit, since the larger the speaker, the deeper it'll be, right? i didn't think of plexiglass, but that could be cool --how about instead of a wooden box for the guts, you make that out of plexiglass too --that way everything is revealed. On the other hand, if you hide everything, you get this stealth guitar... Anyway, I only have bright ideas in the morning...it's getting late, time for some good French wine...

Okay, I'm making progress For one thing, I decided I don't like the sanding method. It works pretty well--you can get the paper pretty thin. But it's messy, difficult to control how much you're taking off, takes a long time, and leaves the transparency kind of white, which shows through the finish. But then I started thinking... I'm assuming transparency paper is made of two layers--the top transparent part, and the substrate on which one prints. It has to be possible to separate the two layers--leaving just a thin, printed image. Well, one idea I had: I took out the little mini plane from my exacto kit and started shaving. It works pretty well. It's much easier to control what's coming off, and it leaves the surface more transparent than sanding. But there must be a way to simply LIFT the transparency layer off the printed layer! I'm going to try heat this afternoon...though I'm not convinced that will work. Maybe chemicals? It would have to be something that evaporates completely so it doesn't smell and doesn't affect the adherence of the finish.... Any chemists here? (Later the same day...) Using a razor blade I was able to separate the print surface substrate from the plastic...it's a superthin 'skin'...very difficult to manipulate...seems to me it would have to be glued to the headstock first and then the plastic should be LIFTED away .... One possibility would be to adapt a tool that gets a razor blade in a just the right angle--you could conceivably take away most of the plastic that way.... Still later that same day... I ditched the hand plane --it works but there's still not as much control...and I just took a razor blade and started shaving with that...it takes a while but it definitely works...you have to be pretty careful, the blade easily sinks through and cuts holes... :D After the piece is glued down, you can work on the edges a bit more, since that's what's going to show the most... I'm going to try spraying clear coat over it in the next couple of days and then try it out my guitars....

Yep, that's the one...aw shucks... Here's what I'm thinking about your design below. First: I dig the tele design...why not get a tele copy that you can modify to suit your evil designs (since this is an electronics project)? The volume and distortion controls are on the sides of the Dano unit --your design won't give access. But since you seem to be comfortable with electronics, can't you open up the box and 'explode' the controls and fiddly bits? There must be a way to line everything up in a single line... And then...ta da! ...you could modify a Tele control panel for these new controls! Voila! Easy access... (For example--substitute on/off pull knobs for the existing knobs---pull on the volume to adjust the volume of the dano, pull on the tone to adjust the distortion level...when the knobs are 'off' they continue to change the volume/tone of the pickups... For speakers, how about something more radical....for one thing, I don't see why the speaker has to be below the strings...seems like it'll just interfere magnetically....I'd install a larger speaker on the upper side of lower bout...or you could use one or more smaller speakers ---put one in the upper horn....a couple more below...behind the bridge, for example... Even cooler....how bout lodging the speaker BEHIND THE PICKGUARD! You could replace that with a more or less transparent grill... All of this can be routed from the back of course.... Oh, about the Dano, I find the battery lasts a nice long time on it...that helps! I really hope you go through with this project!

Maybe that's why you've been suspended... Not sure what you mean by installing...first you take off the old tuners, then you put in the new tuners. Of course, it helps if : the diameters of the new tuners match the old the screw holes of the new tuners match the old If neither of these is true, you'll have to break out the tools...