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StratsRdivine

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  1. StratsRdivine
    Gotta go boating, but real quick - the new CF figures panels are full epoxy, same expansion / contraction as wood, so they will be able to be direct glued to wood tops just as if it were 1/8" wood. Shouldnt hurt tone much.
  2. StratsRdivine
    Yeah, I can't stop looking at it too, and I have the real thing. Its actually much more 3D than actual quilted maple / mahogany. When I do the flame / curly fiddleback, you will really be tricked. The new ground you mentioned means that I can combine flame with quilt on future molds. Maybe weave tight curls in and around the quilt billows - will look natural, but completely impossible to see 5A flame with 5A quilt in the wild. My current flame mold has a few elongated quilty billows. The sky is the limit. Need to try out my green candy, but red is clearly a winner. Yellow would be cool too. Mixing yellow with a bit of red might give a nice mahogany look, more than the red alone above. Can't wait to get aramid fiber.
  3. StratsRdivine
    I honestly didn't think this stuff could get any better. Then it hit me, "I just received my latest package from paintwithpearl dot com, with my new candy red tint". Sprayed it out on a cuttoff and realized that I'm glad I tried this before the guitar was done - the CF quilt is currently glued up to the basswood base, and I am only a week away from spraying. You know its going to have the coolest burst you ever saw.
  4. StratsRdivine
    Thanks, Man! It was actually a subconscious "seat of the pants" design. I forgot that the extra middle thickness needed for the elliptical cross section (needed thick so that the 5way switch had enough depth) would also create too thick of a heel, and knew I had to deal with it by full across scallop / milling, but then decided to radius the scallop, then carve so the peaks of the scallop ridge bisected the horns. Just happened to work out well, as if I designed it that way. But if anyone asks at the guitar shows, I will say I designed it that way all along. However, the below was designed like this a long time ago in my head, and finally came to pass. This is for the silver / gold boro "quilt" body. Will have gold frets and tuners too. Can't wait to see all the gold against the Gold Burl inlays.
  5. StratsRdivine
    Here is the latest panel in the faux quilted ebony. The method use to make this panel resulted in a much crisper texture, and the resins used minimize CTE movement so much that I can actually glue it directly to a wood body, sand, then topcoat with any clear, therefore getting way from the CTE issues from the other guitars in acrylic, requiring expansion joints.
  6. StratsRdivine
    Fortunately, the pivot posts on trem systems allow height adjustment of about 1/4" or more. The posts on floyd rose trems are screws that insert into housings, and you unscrew out to heighten the bridge, etc. I would get the trem you want, mill out its cavities, drill and insert the posts, and set it in place, then mill your neck pocket depth once the trem is in. Oh, forgot to add - I read that for hole location, you measure out the scale length, then deduct .415" and that gives you the center hole locations for the studs. Worked perfectly on my FR install.
  7. StratsRdivine
    Thanks! Got a lot of experience, just not on guitars. Compared to all the other stuff I have sprayed, this is relatively easy as far as the actual spraying is concerned, but the level of perfection needs to be higher, Just sprayed the body for the gold/silver quilt top. This has iridised gold borosilicate over white. A little tip for pearl spraying: You can't over "solventate" your pearl coat. I cut the urethane 50% with thinner on the blue/magenta boro body above, and the platelets didn't quite lay as flat as I wanted. Still looks awesome, but specular leafing could be better, I cut the gold boro coat with 75% thinner below, and it layed out awesome.
  8. StratsRdivine
    Flame body sprayed today with Blue to Magenta Borosilicate and Orange / Red2Gold inside the scallops to match the hot rod flame cap. Now to store in front of the heater for a couple weeks.
  9. StratsRdivine
    I am so sick of this notion that dying figured wood directly is the only way. The light refractive qualities of figured grain are greatly diminished when apply dye directly to wood, because the end grain areas soak up way more than the flat grain areas of figure, which destroys the light refraction. If you want to preserve the true 3D shimmering luster of figured grain, you have to do all the steps above, but need to seal the wood entirely with crystal clear lacquer, epoxy, or your clear of choice. Then after sufficient filling and flatness, you then add dye to your clear top coat like spraying a candy finish. You then spray you transparent color coat, then top with clearcoat. This way you eliminate the dye from excessively darkening the end grain portions of the figure, because you are not pouring dye into those "straw ends".
  10. StratsRdivine
    out of all the forums, this one is the easiest to upload pics, but maybe since you just registered today, it doesnt allow you yet, so give it some time. This is a great forum for new guys with scratch builds - lots of support and great pro info, but not as active as others. Why pine as a base? Either go full walnut, or walnut on top of basswood, alder or maple. Even poplar would be better than pine, as it damages easily, and the grain telegraphs right through to the perfectly flat finish you are hoping for. Cost of wood is so negligible compared to all the other costs you will be putting into it, so get good wood right off the bat. Others might have better suggestions, but you will have a ton of fun either way. Welcome to the forum!!
  11. StratsRdivine
    Finish will only go on the body base only, as the acrylic has been shaped to fit the body, then polished final. Then I waxed the back-beveled underside edges of the acrylic, then mounted the acrylic to the raw wood body, then epoxy filled the gap so that the loose acrylic would fit the body like a glove (you can't permanently glue the acrylic due to expansion / contraction issues). Then I popped the acrylic off, and sanded the epoxy, then finished the body (sealer is currently hardening as of this post). As far as the finish? Well, this will get me banned off this forum for life, disqualify me for any GOTM competitions, and registered as a guitar offender with my address posted so luthier school children will know to walk on the other side of the street. Yes, polyester gelcoat sealer then 2K urethane metallics, and topcoats. There. I said it. I figured that since I am breaking all the rules by "destroying tone" with the acrylic face, I might as well go all the way. But seriously, these are stage guitars, not studio guitars. My buddy gigs with my current acrylic faced guitar, and he can't tell any difference. BTW, I don't plan to leave more than total 7 - 11 mils on these (15 mils sealer, sanded to 4, then 10 wet color+top, then cut and buffed to 4). Most tone killing arguments I have read about are based on 50 mil + builds, because factories have to hose on the PE so thick that unskilled sanders at a buck an hour don't sand through.
  12. StratsRdivine
    Insane amount of tools just for shaping. My favorite above all is my 1-1/8" belt sander. Can't imagine guitar building without one. When you remove the graphite backing plate, you can contour outside curves so perfectly - only hitting the high spots, and will conform to radii as tight as 9" DIA depending on pressure, and even that can be adjusted for tighter radii by loosening the belt tension. After planing the 38" radius backs, the plane left a series of flat areas, which were smoothed in 3 minutes with the unbacked sander.
  13. StratsRdivine
    Whatever gets it done, I always say. So many ways to clamp stuff. Clear strapping tape works well too for a ton of weird shape clamping. Shrink wrap multiple passes around your board would work too. Amazing force can be had with that stuff, and its kindof the same principle. Nice work so far, and I love the design - looking forward to the progress.
  14. StratsRdivine
    Here is a risky idea, but it came to me as I thought, "If my life depended on it, what would I do". I have successfully dipped small parts in 2K urethane and had them come out good, especially if cutting / buffing. SO maybe mix up a batch of your favorite coating, pour it on, maybe use a brush to help it, but get it on thick and move it constantly til it levels out. Considering most guitar body coating involves screwing a handle into the neck pocket for coatings, you have a handle on a relatively light weight pc of wood, so you can turn it constantly to counter the drips and runs. I have never done this to a guitar body, (did it to table legs poured / coated with 15 mils of 100% solids UV cure coatings) but with my 30 years of finishing experience, I presume that it would work. You will end up with a heavier film build than usual, but once its hardened, you can cut and buff.
  15. StratsRdivine
    Sooo so cool man (referring to you last sunny glossy pics) !!! So since we are on the subject of waiting for a finish to harden before buffing, I will be spraying my guitar bodies this week. My plan is to spray, then store my bodies and necks in front of my shop heater at night, and in my car interior during the day for sunlight / greenhouse effect heat to accelerate the hardening in mild heat, not over 100 F (38 for you across the pond). I have been doing this for many years, which is why I built a huge shelf under my shop heater, but never did guitars. Can you experienced builders see any potential problems with that? My first thoughts are that it might accelerate off gassing of trapped moisture in the wood, if there is any, and possible additional shrinkage / warping, but not really affecting the finish, except hardening it quicker.
  16. StratsRdivine
    The Carbon fiber is actually molded to the 3D quilt billows based on molds I made that were drawn based on actual quilted maple, and when I liked the pattern, I mirrored it in CAD so it would cut a bookmatch, with both sides being female, as opposed to all wood bookmatches which are male one side, female other side. The fibers follow the contour EXACTLY the way real quilt billows are, and cast in solid acrylic, regardless of thickness. So The 3D effect is 100% actual 3D topography, just seen below the glass-flat acrylic face, so it is not a surface finish. My next tests will be compound curve thermoforming. This would be the only way to make this into a "carved" archtop. I believe it will be possible. I am also currently drawing molds for tight fiddleback flame and bee's wing mottled. The curly figure will likely be just as cool. Now I need to look into pistol handles, etc.
  17. StratsRdivine
    Yeah, that's What I thought too with the black, and the vectored effect. Kindof reminded me of a disney cartoon villain subliminally looking at you through the "grain".
  18. StratsRdivine
    Yeah, filing another patent. dammit. Another $15 grand. Still recovering from the last patent I filed. Don't ask how this is made. Going with a black TransTrem on this one, once I perfect the lamination and cut it into a guitar face. Info on these builds can be found on my other threads. The guitar bodies in the pics are for scale (but they look cool too). The unidirectional fibers EXACTLY replicate the light refractive properties of quilted figure found in quilted maple and quilted mahogany (when they are molded in my patent pending process). Quilted gold coming next.
  19. StratsRdivine
    Nice work!! Its so bizarre to think that you bought an imported exotic, while we here (in your original country) can get it anywhere. About 25 years ago, a client of mine gave me their walnut tree, if I took it down. When we bandsaw milled it fresh, I was astonished by the coloration. There are actually purple, red and black streaks in fresh cut green walnut, but they soon go brown with oxidation. Kindof reminded me of Cocobolo. What a revealing experience. The smell is amazing too. Way different than the aromatic smell of dried walnut.
  20. StratsRdivine
    Awesome that you have car and guitar restoration background, so you should be able to handle anything now, especially finishing, buffing, etc. So welcome! I am new here too, and everyone is very nice, encouraging, and ultra knowledgeable. One of my current builds is a hot rod themed guitar, and will have chrome sidepipes coming out of the bridge so maybe you can think of ways to tie your love of Fiats into your future builds. A Les Paul with its carved top is really swinging for the fence for a first build, although the carving should be easy for you, so good luck! Don't forget to wear thick gloves when using a carving blade on an angle grinder - if any catches anything and your fingers are in the way, the glove buys you a little protection. Great tool though - love it.
  21. StratsRdivine
    This is a candidate for extreme Strat Makeover. What beauty this will be compared to your first page photos.
  22. StratsRdivine
    Nice builds!! I guess you got the building bug bad. Can you rub out and buff a CA finish? Seems awfully hard. I used to be a UV chemist formulating 100% solids UV cure coatings, which are acrylates like cyanoacrylate. The high crosslink acrylate monomers would often migrate to the surface prior and during cure, therefore they left a hard film across the surface that made them impossible to wet sand and buff without witness lines - kindof like buffing epoxy. So my buffable UV formulas had to use low crosslink monomers and high percentages of aliphatic urethanes, which is why I would be leary of using CA as a finish. But I have never even seen a CA finish, so I could be blowin smoke up your . . . Pretty impressive technical polymer science smoke, but smoke nonetheless.
  23. StratsRdivine
    Many here have sanded down to bare wood multiple times to get it right. Maybe sand some scrap wood and do all finishing tests on that - all the way through to final buff before making all the mistakes on the real thing. Also - gaps on dark woods against light woods fill great with epoxy - you would never know there was a gap in the fingerboard.
  24. StratsRdivine
    Did a mockup of a fingerboard in Red Burl acrylic. Yes, I said acrylic fingerboard. Will be free floating to expand and contract by being locked at the nut, and "T" blocks glued underside of the Dichrolam to slide inside T-slots either side of the truss rod. Highly likely it will fail on a ton of fronts, but need to try it, as it would look so cool. The two other necks will be standard inlays of Dichrolam, one in Richlite so the inlays can be nearly all the way to the fret slots. Then I milled my heel relief prior to radiusing the back to a 25" Radius. Kindof a cool jig, so I thought I'd share it. Simple dado chipper for side milling. Worked like a dream. Just need to plane the bolt face flat.
  25. StratsRdivine
    Done scalloping and flush trimming these two. The latest Fire Burl panel is curing right now (cracked the one above with the jigsaw - really ticked me off, but the one thats curing now is twice the depth). That one will blow these away.
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