butnut

Thanks Paul. I'm an old school hot rod nut and I made that trem cover out of a need to show off my polished trem lock and give it that old hot rod tinted glass look...of course I had to put MoonEyes behind the glass.The neck plate was a kool gift from my buddy Donzo at Lace. I had given him my old Guitar Player mag with Roy Buchanan on and he was stoked to get his fave player in that issue. He said he had some kool Rat Fink and Moon junk to send to me... of course I flipped out...talk about kharma.

I've had good success steaming out small dings using a hot clothes iron tip or flat tip soldering iron. Water and wet cloth. When my friend has some holes and wierd divots to fill in Koa, she would put a drop of surfboard resin (polyester) in it. It's clear and looks like the color of the wood. Easily sanded too...make sure it's not finishing resin which has wax. If you're staining it, may need to stain first and drop the resin in...for color similarity. May even look like a bird's eye. Good luck.

These guys sell clear guards (groupC) I was gonna get one for a flamed Tele I was painting, but decided to go guardless and fill the screwholes and a small part of the pup cavity. http://www.chandlerguitars.com/materialoptions.htm I made this trem cover from 1/8" clear yellow plexi to show off the TailFeather trem lock I polished (aluminum). Hand buffed the edges with MicroMesh. http://www.montypics.com/pic.php?url=/butn...04_0471_IMG.jpg

I read about wraping the strings like that on the TOM bridge/tailpiece in Dan Erlywines book too. I also heard it makes string bending easier...I gotta try that on my law-suit gold top next time I change strings. Here's a pic for ya Max...When I saw this decal, I only saw it before on old Gibson ukulele's...I thought it was the perfect tongue in cheek look for a copy,,,and 'The' fit perfect in the hump. It was real old and yellowed and did'nt blend in as good as the other script. I smile everytime I see it. http://www.montypics.com/pic.php?url=/butn...05_0526_IMG.jpg

A '76 Lester for 1K? (with the bartered work done)...you got a deal of a sweet axe. Congrats. Yeah, pics please. Finish cracks are kool in my book. I just got a Dillion gold top LP that bugged me everytime I looked at that MOP logo. With Tokai finsh details, Gibson tuners, switch, pots, knobs and a Tonepro bridge and killer Duncan Custom p90's, this thing looked/sounded unreal. I got some Gibson decals from Ebay and my friend, blacked out the headstock, decaled, and buried it under deep clear...the ultimate law-suit copy! Enjoy the LP, sounds like a killer collection in the works.

I'll bet the guy that came up with this idea wears tye-dyed Tshirts. I don't really care for the look...even less if they are textured!

I don't know why your clear cracked...might be useful for a 'relic' look. I read you used a Crystal Clear sealer ? I don't know if it's the same as a clear coat, most sealers I used are for bare wood, and the automotive type which spray on the primer to chemically bond the top coats..never heard of a sealer as a final coat...maybe that's your problem? Anywho, I'm not familiar enough with the Krylon paints and any reaction may be possible. You may just have to dive in unless someone else knows if you'll be OK or get screwed...good luck.

Thanks man. I get some killer tones with that one. I just finished painting and putting together this Tele...'Goldie' http://www.montypics.com/pic.php?url=/butn...05_0534_IMG.jpg

Very kool shop. When I had my custom furniture biz, we built our own shop and I had a huge spray booth. Unfortunately, my partner decided to become a crack head and it went downhill from there. I have my own mobile touch up biz with my wife now, and I just started thinking of making a small booth inside my garage since I've been painting lately. I do not miss the huge overhead of a shop and employees...good luck with your biz and new shop!

Thanks Brian. As you can see, I love moddin' stuff...nuthin' stock is my motto!

I was told never to use a soldering 'gun'...trigger type, looks like a gun. I have one and used it for years as my soldering tool. BUT, there is a transformer built into the gun that can 'degauss' the magnets in your pickups. So, use a soldering 'iron' around your guitar. I used my neighbors one for my guitars...finally broke down and spent my 10 bucks at Radio Shack. Good luck.

The best thing I've found is KIWI brown shoe polish. I used it on my Strat and Tele white bodies and it gave a nice aged look. I steel wooled the Tele because I wanted to ding it up to relic it...did'nt want shiney dings...it turned real dark. Both are poly finish. I had to use some varnish remover to take it off. Rub on and rub off quickly..you can always go darker. On some plastics, it darkens nice and quick...on some parts, it does'nt stick. A quick wipe with some lacquer thinner to remove the wax or mold release stuff should help adhesion. I did hear some 'brands' of parts just don't take any stain. I noticed some parts have worn back to white, but it's minor...I just redid them. Works on Maple necks too. I was amazed poly could be stained with this stuff.

In my painting experience, it's always best to stick with the same 'brand' of finish...from primers on up to the clear. Some brands don't intermix or, over time, you'll have some issues. Since you started with Krylon, it's best to finish with it. It won't react with itself and should stick since you steel wooled it and knocked the gloss off. Since you have art on there, shoot a very LIGHT first coat, just 'dusting' the clear on. It will dry quickly since it's light and this will 'seal' the art and prevent runs or bleeding of color. The following coats should be slightly heavier, but still light. Let it flash dry a few minutes between coats. When you have a good build, the final coat can be heavy and more 'wet'. Let it dry at least a day before handling it. I'm not sure what Krylon is...clear acrylic? I use acrylic lacquers, clears, solids and kandies and finish with a poly clearcoat. Maybe they sell a Krylon satin finish? If not, some super fine steel wool will degloss a shiney finish and if you have good build up of clear, you won't cut through. Good luck and yeah, I wanna see a pic. On the subject of HVLP, when the 'system' first came out, I thought it was crap...the wierd and expensive 'vacuum cleaner' compressor setup did'nt impress me. Later I got a Matson HVLP 'gun'...gravity feed, hooks up to a standard compressor, just use a fatter hose. I had doubts the first time thinking a lot of product is gonna squirt out, but you can adjust it from light to heavy. I was amazed how great this gun was at shooting kandies. When I shot the poly clear, I could lay it on heavy...fast! I'll never shoot conventional again...except my junkie guns for primer. I've been shooting metalflakes lately and I can't shoot the mambo huge flakes...chokes out. So I mix some in with the medium flakes and it works great. I always add pearl powders to the clear for extra shimmer in bright light. Metalflake flamed Tele I did for a friend

I've heard good things about them, unfortunately, they refuse to send any products to me in Hawaii... Something about haz-mat and air freight. I make do with automotive products...although they have some real kool colors...

I had a custom furniture biz and did antiques and refinishing. For small dings, I'd heat up a clothes iron (a flat blade low watt soldering iron would work) and put a drop of water into the ding. Put a small damp cloth (a little bigger than the ding) over the ding, and touch the hot itp to the cloth. It will steam up...keep checking and add another drop of water if it did'nt 'rise' enough. The steam swells the wood and pushes itself out of the dip. Too much and you will get a 'bump'. If done right, after it dries, rub some furiniture oil on and you can't tell. This is for 'wood' finishes, never tried it on a painted surface. For those, I'd use Bondo (if deep) or, if shallow, 2 part glazing putty. Standard auto body filler. I just finished a Tele body where I filled a gap on the neck humbucker route and all the pickguard screw holes with the new 'sun-cure' Bondo. No catalyst, just scoop from the can, and dry it in the sun. Worked good, different consistency than regular Bondo. Also, dished out the screwholes with a countersink to keep the Bondo from popping out...sands flatter too. I did cut a piece of wood to fill the HB gap first. Also, before painting, if I come across a small ding (these pop out of nowhere when random orbit sanding the paint) a real instant fix is a drop of super glue and one of those instant spray hardners sold in hobby shops. It turns the glue rock hard in seconds. I hit it with the sander and the ding is filled...good to go. Permanant and fast. Good luck...can't believe someone would bash up a PRS...hey Brian, some wild animal mauled that horn, that's no ding...it's an amputation! Pic of patch before Bondo...

Hey thanks for the welcome. I got a lot of reading to do here and so far I'm diggin' it. Here's my Webshot albums of stuff I did. Just finished up my metalflake custom Tele, I'll put up a pic later. The building of my Tele-Gib is there (2 parts) as well as my guitar paint jobs (Metalflake Strat)...the Mods has my Champ amp facelift and some car upholstery as well as my kustom bikes... http://community.webshots.com/user/butnuts

Looks like a very kool site here...I've been out of the guitar loop a while, but found myself back into it the last few years. Always been a kustomizer of everything I get my grubby hands on, guitars are my latest passion. I do all my own painting and hooking up...just made a few custom plates for my Tele. I also discovered relic'ing which I call reverse-resto. I did a Tele and my Strat. Looking foward to hanging here and getting inspired to do more krazy stuff to my guitars. Aloha, Brian