ScottR

3 hours ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

Gorgeous work! 

Thank you, kind of you to say so.

SR

While it's reflecting light pretty well, this finish is still basically satin. It's going to get really shiny next weekend.

SR

So last weekend saw only two grades completed during the leveling. After another week of drying, the lacquer is around 95% cured. And that last 5% will keep shrinking for months and months. Since this is grain filled with a film of epoxy resin, I don't expect any shrinking into pores 6 months from now, I got through three grades of sanding this weekend. What you see is up to micromesh 3600.

SR

Got started on leveling last weekend. I like to break the surface of lacquer after one week. It's around 85% cured at that point, and I believe this helps trapped solvents evaporate. Also the act of leveling removes a fair amount of lacquer that now you don't have to cure. This time I leveled using only micromesh. And I took care to follow advice that @Bizman62 has been preaching almost since the first day he joined us. Use no pressure on the sanding block, which is a pretty dense square of foam.The point I was most interested in is doing my best not to introduce any deep sanding scratches. 1500 micromesh as a starting point should do the trick. And it didn't really slow the leveling down as much as I would have thought.

SR

You've got some intriguing stuff going on in your garage.

SR

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

That said, better than a swan doing a midge dive into your beer.  Makes a right old mess... 

And it's much harder to get the swan out of the beer glass.

SR

1 hour ago, mistermikev said:

many things to take away from seeing your creations scott, and this is a stunning build... but also: black lacquer - just can't get over it ever time I see it.  nice work!!

Thanks muchly Mike!

Black lacquer is easy, and makes a classy burst.

SR

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Gosh.  Midges or not, it's a corker!

Cheers Andy!

Thanks for saying so.

SR

17 hours ago, Professor Woozle said:

Not the biting sort, I hope? The midges round here bite hell out of me, evil little bastards!

However, the guitar is shaping up into a real beauty - likely another GOTM winner...

Thanks.

And no, my midges are more party animals. They love taking swan dives into my beer glass, when I'm unwinding on the back patio.

SR

But Mayflies add a little touch of elegance. My bugs are basically midges. Small little heavy footed bastards.

SR

You've got some good parts there, now you just need to get some of the noisy ones too.

SR

On 3/1/2024 at 1:59 PM, henrim said:

That’s a new idiom to me. Love it, thanks! And I like to think it’s the best way to learn. Although I know people who would strongly disagree. And there are days when I wholeheartedly agree with them. 

In Finland we have a similar expression “mennä perse edellä puuhun”, to climb a tree butt first.

On 3/2/2024 at 12:31 AM, Bizman62 said:

New to me as well, thanks! In Finnish we have an idiom close to that, "perstuntumalla" - literally "by feel of the arse".

Those are fun!

The former is a very descriptive way of saying we're doing things the hard way, at least to this English speaker.

The latter creates more pleasant mental imagery, but (no pun intended) I can see how it could equate to "flying by the seat of the pants"  which is pretty much "making it up as we go".

Comparing expressions and idioms by language could make for an entertaining evening around a fire, if a couple of adult beverages were tossed into the mix.

SR

21 hours ago, Hamfist said:

Moderator ScottR you are truly a talented luthier .

Wow !  Thats a real work of art to say the least !!!

 

 

Very kind of you to say so, Sir Hamfist.

Thank you very much!

SR

20 hours ago, henrim said:

Looking great!

Is it flash in the pictures or do you guys really have sun shining like that this time of year

Thanks Henri!

That is sunlight, and yes down in south Texas we do have sunlight at this time of year! Those last shots were taken right about 4:00 in the afternoon, and sunset is currently 6:20pm in Houston. I have a difficult imagining the low light-no light long winters you have in your corner of the planet. It's a good thing we're adaptable creatures.

SR

8 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

That burst really is nice, it's so subtle that on the photos it's easily mistaken to be a shadow or other lighting related thing over the slanted back or the roundover on the top. A very nice 3D effect indeed.

5 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

So good!

Thanks, you guys.

The burst is subtle and transparent, and the figure is a bit in your face. I like the way it catches the light and glows.

SR

2 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

That's looking rather nice, love the burst. 

Thank you kind sir. I don't think I've ever had a bookmatched top where the two halves have had such distinctly different angled of reflection. Viewed at some angles the two halves look nearly like mirror images of each other. And from other angles, the look like negative images of each other,

SR

And after the first few coats of clear, we get this.

SR

Finally got a weekend that was both warm enough and dry enough to do some spraying.

First a green tint coat.

Then a black burst.

And a black burst on the back as well.

SR

4 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Absofreakinglutely gorgeous, then again that's what I was expecting.

One question though: The golden control plate is inlayed but the bridge plate isn't. Why the difference?

 

The bridge is sitting on a flat surface, and the control plate needs a flat surface, but the top is carved and quite contoured in that area. I had to create a flat surface for it before I carved the top, so I had to go deep enough to retain the flat surface after the carve. It nearly runs out at the bottom edge.

SR

16 hours ago, killemall8 said:

Absolutely crazy, Scottilicoius!

 

Cheers Luis!

SR

2 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Oh, my!

It's going to be another stunner

Why thank you Andy!

I certainly hope so.

SR

It's been a minute since I've had anything to show. I've mostly been waiting for warm enough weekend days to mix up table top resin to wipe on, semi level, wipe on semi level and so forth. And then I leveled it and matched it to the guitar's contours. I found bare wood again in a few small places, but the pores are still sealed, so I'm going to let them ride. They'll all be under the burst anyway.

Trying on some bling.....

SR

15 hours ago, killemall8 said:

that is some delicious tastiness

Thanks Luis!

I'm looking forward to some shooting weather, so I can get the tints and bursts done and finally see what it's going to look like.

SR

On 12/27/2023 at 4:17 AM, Bizman62 said:

Had to check out if that was going to be a headless guitar but by no means no.

SR