Mickguard

I would probably use wood filler and go over the head stock with a veneer myself. How are you planning on doing the headstock? If you just stick a chunk of maple in it, it could stick out like a sore thumb, unless you're going to paint the headstock.

It depends on what I find for filling it...if I can find the right size piece of maple (or at least a similar wood), then I shape it to fit the hole, glue it in, sand it down smooth. The worst that will be there will be a line...I can live with that.

If I can find a piece of maple, then I'll use a piece of the alder that I chopped off the body of my other telecaster (see my 'Bocaster' project thread). That wood is pretty light colored with little grain, but very easy to shape-- so it'll be visible, but liveable.

I'll probably use sawdust and glue to fill in much of the hole, then glue in the piece and shave/sand/shape level with the rest of the head.

I'm not against veneer--just don't know where to find any around here! (I've asked a carpenter friend to help out, we'll see what he comes up with)

What I would do, Is make yourself a Badge for that size with your name or guitar model name, and glue that in there.

Yeah, but I've already got my logo idea and it's more of a decal....

How about this: Anyone out there got a spare chip of maple they don't mind mailing me?

.

.

What about the cat? The cat come with? I hear they make pretty good strings...

Definitely a great resurrection...almost makes that homely lil' guitar uh, well, not quite pretty but, worth a first date...

I was kind of skeptical about the wooden pickguard, but you definitely pulled it off, nice contrast.

-

My next project arrived in the mail today...this one will be the Bocaster Thinline...

Turned out to be a Stagg--which means there was this ugly metal plate inlay in the headstock. I pried that out, now I need to fill the hole...

http://tinypic.com/uror7

I'll be reshaping the headstock --you can see my markings...I can possible slice off slivers of the wood to use as veneer...there will be plenty of sawdust too...I can probably sand down around the hole, but I don't want to weaken the wood and I don't want to make it too thin around the tuners either.

Any ideas?

Oh, and the guitar is this hideous puke green color (it was supposed to a yellowish blonde)....it'll give me practice learning how to relic!

Make sure the paper won't melt in a laser printer. I've heard of people having this happen before. If it says it's for inkjet, I wouldn't risk messing up an expensive laser printer.

Melt?

I was thinking there'd be problems (like the powder would bleed all over the place) but I didn't think it would melt! Okay, NIX on that idea! Thanks for the heads up...

Anyway, I want to try out Jehle's Jellycaster logo method --looks great. I'm going to pick up a silver ink pen today and print on transparency.

Is there a special adhesive to use, or can I simply sandwich the transparency between finish coats?

Well the paper says it's for ink jet printers.

I don't see why it won't work --especially if I cover it with the water color finish first --unless the real finish will eat that away?

http://tinypic.com/un0np

here's one of the most beautiful telecasters I've ever seen....

and then there's http://www.girlbrand.com (look for the intersteller girl and the radio girl, those are my two faves...)

-

When I bought the book, it was only $15. I was willing to pay the $15 for the template alone. Then I started to read his book and was surprised how much info it contained (also there are pics to go along with the read).

So you're saying the book has info in it that's not available elsewhere on the net? I've been reading up on this, been to a lot of sites...I'm getting ready to paint my first project and I'd like to get a good result.

Seems to me a lot of the 'secrets' you find in these ebooks are just repackaged info ...

My problem right now is that I'm in France, so I need to figure out what the equivalent products are here --everything I read is about paints, finishes, compounds that are available in the States...

it has a small chip in the paint

It's the chip that bothers you, or you really want a new look for the body?

Since's it's 'only' a Mexican strat, I'd say go for it... but you can also pick up a different body and play with that (like get one of those Chinese imports for $100, sell off the parts you don't need).

Probably would but it's always best to print a second one to use for a test piece first.........

Yep, I figure I'll print out a couple of sheets, on the tattoo paper, and a few on transparency paper too (that way I can do the reverse method as well. Then I can do a few practice runs, see which one works best.

If the tattoo idea works, that can make for some really interesting body artwork too--especially on a curvy guitar like a strat or one of those shredder guitars....think of the possibilities!

$20 for an e-book?

Here's the logo I'm going for (although I'll probably fill in the hollow letters):

http://tinypic.com/u3g3t

If I do it on a transparency, I'll be able to color in the hollow letters with a marker...on the tattoo paper, if I want color, I'll have to do ink jet....

Hmm...I have some varnish here made for water color paints-- if I protected the ink jet logo with that, before applying the poly finish...will that work?

-

-

If you are going to glue on a maple veneer, why use a pickguard at all? You are covering up prime real estate.

Because without the guard, a Tele looks naked....okay, that's just my opinion, but then, I think ALL guitars look naked without a pickguard. It's like wearing a tux without a cumberbund.

I have a pack of tattoo printer paper...it lets you make ruboff designs. I was wondering if I can use a laser printer to print out a decal? The support is very thin, so it would be easy to make the edges disappear...is there a reason why this wouldn't work?

You did the white finish? Looks pretty good...

I like the trans black idea, but not the pearloid guard so much...how about an ivory-colored guard, with matching binding?

and what do you think of the design?

This is a Fender Telecaster or a knockoff?

I'm not so sure I see the point in modifying a real Fender, unless you're going for a different body shape altogether (see my Bocaster project...I'm looking to keep the Tele sound, but put it in a different body shape).

What about keeping the neck and making a new body with the maple cap?

Clear coat for the neck or the body? On the body, it's just two coats of polyurethane from a spray can. I wet sanded the first coat with 600 grit sanding film. Then I applied the second coat and just buffed that by hand.

Yeah, I meant the body...I'm getting ready to paint and finish mine in a few days and I'm trying to figure out what I'll need to do...

And yeah, I've been all through your site, really impressive stuff...

Hi,

You can see the clamp in one of the photos I linked to in my Bocaster thread (in the project section)....

wait, I'll hunt up the link...

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1121506

photo number 2 shows the clamp....my 'helpers' didn't trust the glue clamp (they'd never seen it before, so they went with the heavy duty clamp for the larger pieces...the glue clamp is holding down a smaller piece (that's when they said, hey, this works pretty well...)

Lying the guitar on its back (on a piece of scrap board) made more sense in the end, helps line up the pieces

that were still barely perceptible. It's amazing how putting paint on something brings out the slighest imperection! The clear coat is polyurethane from a spray can.

Hi,

Excellent work!

I have a couple of questions:

For the decal, are you applying that over the finish? Will you be applying finish on top of the decal?

And for the clear coat-- how many coats did you put on? What kind of sanding/buffing process did you do?

I'd like to see some close ups of this one, if you have them?