Prostheta

Scraping of the binding was surprisingly easy once I put an idea I'd come across into practice. Instead of scraping flat across the face of the binding, I used a slightly bevel angle to progressively increase the perimeter until it was where I wanted it. That makes more sense from a control perspective, since you don't need to pinch the scraper at a precise depth. For a scraper I used a standard craft knife blade fresh from the pack. The only difficult area was the deep concave area, but even then that worked out nicely enough. I inspected the decals to see they have laid across the paint and masked areas. The main logo is slightly north of the ideal spot, so whilst the transparent areas all lay over the glow epoxy as intended, there is an ever so slight light leak at the bottom. I'm sure that this will be invisible to any that aren't looking for it, but it's still worth bearing in mind for future jobs that may resemble this one. The black border of the decal blends very well into the black background, so in principle this could have been larger however I wasn't planning on misalignment to begin with! I picked out a can of the 2K clearcoat that Maston sent me a few years back, and remembered the problem I was having with it at the time. Blockages in the tip and spitting. These were from the original tests batches though, so yeah. Time to go out and buy a can of the revised product!

Well, that paint seems to work well enough! This morning it was hard enough to support simple flatting back and the stage where the decals could be applied. The colour looks incorrect here, plus the paint is far from flat. I might regret having rushed this without fully flatting the black paint, however the presence of the masking makes this a difficult thing to do. Essentially, I would need to remove the mask after paint, flat the black back, apply a new mask to shoot a new layer, remove that mask and flat back again. All while the masked areas sit lower by the paint thickness. Best to bury it in clear I think. Time to do a mist coat to seal those decals.... Aside from a couple of slight cold spots in the glowing areas, this is exactly what I was aiming for.

Agreed on the slower shutter speed, slightly higher ISO and smaller aperture. It'll also reduce artifacts such as colour fringing. If the light doesn't change between shots you can always shoot RAW and take one photo with a grey card in shot. That allows you to produce a calibration profile in software which can subsequently be applied to the shot without the card in frame. The shots I take (took, since I don't find time to drag it out these days) improved so much with better glass as well. The classic Canon 50mm/f1,8 coupled with a 24mm/f2,8 allow for a great variety of options over the crappy stock glass.

Paint seems to be something that weirdos who just want to junk their lungs and nervous system do. Man, I hate it. If it weren't for these details like binding scraping and detail masking I would pay some other suicido-schlub to do it for me. Paint is nasty. edit: I just offered the decals up to the workpiece and I'm 99% confident that I have enough margin around the decals to cover the exposed Maple and glow epoxy. A problem for tomorrow I think.

Even though I wouldn't do it at this stage, it certainly looks like it will need it. That's a thick fingerboard, and it'll help visually as well.

Another byproduct of the finishing resin I used is that it seems a primer is not necessary. The main reason one would use a primer in the first place is to provide a medium between the substrate and the paint going on top. This is definitely a must-do for metal, whilst with wood it's the porous nature of the material that is the problem. Finishing resin is penetrative enough that one or two sessions - when sanded back - leave the final surface smooth and amenable to base coats of paint without a primer. Of course, if the finishing resin is sanded back heavily, exposing clean unstopped wood then this will not be the case. The Maple of the headstock was given a single layer of finishing resin that I flatted back with 180 grit paper and smoothed with 320. The paint seems to have gone on happily, with no solvents pushing up, back out of the substrate and causing bubbles. All in all it looks very acceptable, even if I do think it could have been done better. The bottom line is whether the end result is good. At this stage I'm seeing some minor snags which I will need to fix, and I think these could be eliminated given better circumstances or a more experienced approach. Making a micro scraper and cleaning the logos with magnifiers will be a chore.... I am just not a paint guy.

I really don't. I just do my homework, because I'm severely averse to things going wrong late in the game. All of the information that I can find online to back up, disprove and/or refine my own ideas about work ordering and methods have been scant for 2k, but plenty for nitro, so I have had to make this up a bit as I go along. I masked and painted the headstock this evening. The paint seems that it doesn't want to go near the edges of the painter's tape I've used. The logo masking was done in 3M #2090 Scotch blue and the general masking around the perimeter with the Mirka equivalent (because of better roll width). After letting the paint set up slightly for quarter of an hour, I picked up the masks with a pin and removed them. I also removed the tape around the perimeter. So the edges of the logos now have raised edges which will need knocking back with some 600-800 paper once cured, same with the edges. It doesn't seem ideal as the masking tape appears to have repelled the paint by maybe half a mm in addition to the normal masking. If I could have acquired some wider (24mm+) 3m #471+ for the masking, I am guessing that this would be less of a problem. The datasheet tells me that it's an "acrylic" adhesive, but that doesn't say much towards why the tape would repel paint like two like poles on a magnet. Weird. Eyeballing this new perimeter size against the waterslide decals doesn't look like it will be too problematic. Hopefully not at all. I'd like to get at least one coat of clear over the black and the glow epoxy before the decals are applied. I won't hold my breath.

Okay, so let's pick this one up with how I imagine I can reach the finish line. My original idea for finishing was to use PPG premix 2K aerosols, specifically DBU/DBC 9700 which is generally accepted as a super high quality jet black. The problem with this is timing, as I would need to buy the aerosols mixed at the outlet and the clock is ticking. This sort of clashes with process, since I have three discrete areas to paint; the headstock, the top of the body and the back. These could all be done using the same spray in one session, but it gets very timing-dependent and any issue endangers the whole lot. I need to practice this without those pressures, especially since the white pearl body will need that paint system. So my solution to this is to use the atmospheric pressure catalysing epoxy paint developed by Maston. Before they fully released this product into the wild (3yrs ago?) I tried out some early iterations of their clearcoat which had some curing time issues. I presume they've rattled this out since the product is now available in worldwide in various clears and colours branded as "Car Rep". I went out and bought an aerosol of RAL9005 Jet Black 2K which doesn't have the issue of being time limited. The paint is pre-catalysed but doesn't start that process until it's out into lower atmospheric pressure. Sweet. It might not be the best black, but really the "best" needs a lot of time and concentration which I just don't have at the moment. I can only do what I can do. The working order I've put together is to do the top of the body first with the back masked. I can scrape the binding once the 2K cures (I'll give it up to a week to be generous) and then mask the side of the binding using 3m 471+ vinyl tape (the good stuff). Once the back and front are done, the paint can be scuffed and clearcoated. In an ideal situation, the clear would be going on in the same schedule as the black, however masking and scraping complicate this and introduce that dreaded timing problem. The headstock can be done completely separately, which is important since I have yet to do the neck profile and all that. I did however cut three sets of tape masks for the logo on the CNC, so I might do the face of the headstock sooner rather than later what with it being a bit of a clincher sort of step. Again, that will be masking and scraping.

It's usually the case, yes. My small hand files that I use constantly are just (IIRC) a hair over 3,3mm or the saw kerf of a 300-350mm table saw blade. I should probably pick up a couple of files and make one of these whilst I still can. Thanks for reminding me!

I'd think that a diesel jenny in an apartment would be only slightly less annoying than it powering a full stack. I miss those days. <edit: full stack days, not diesel jenny days>

I used to have a rack power conditioner that worked nicely in the UK but had terrible noise issues here. I know what you mean though. I might just pick up a basic wireless system at some point, because recording is damn near impossible.

Great demo, and some lovely visceral dirt sounds with that guitar! I've been tempted to consider ("considering considering"!) P-90s in a future build, but given my woes with earthing noise, difficult to chance. That said, my '51 P-bass with the hybrid active circuit is pretty silent with a single coil, so why not? "Enduring me". hahahaha

I know, right? That exceptionally-severe radius over the front, the volute and the super cool switch chip are what catch my eye the most. Absolutely a design that has been made your own, Mike,

Slave and adherent to our respective fields.

Well, don't overcomplicate the glueup. It it feels like a bit of a handful, go with it as it is. There's nothing worse than a half-assed joint. Wet both the surfaces of the tenon and the mortise, don't rely on glue transferring from one to the other. You should be fine, just as @Bizman62 says.

Also, "desert pee" makes me imagine Javier Bardem knocking together some dodgy coffee.

Keep us updated!

Funny how we both know that we're complete polar opposites of the spectrum when it comes to approach, @ScottR. I'm thinking that @Dave Higham has a nice mixture of both.

Hahaha! Very cool. Field botany by a sweary misanthropic Chicago guy with hand tattoos isn't the education I wanted, but it's what I ended up with, right?

True enough. I wasn't certain how thick the paper is, just that it looked a little fluffier than most on the ragged edge.

I learnt this during my structured systems analysis and design methodology units at uni and used the acronym ADDIM to remind me of the stages in a systems life cycle. The same thing can be applied to many structured development areas. Analysis-Development-Design-Implementation-Maintenance. Without going in-depth, it should be apparent how this can become a cyclical process. Iteration implies an endpoint condition is satisfied whereupon the clockspring unwinds. A lifecycle approach is continuous unless the project is discontinued. The objective is assumed to never have a perfect state of existence, and is continually developing in line with demands or against identified shortcomings. This literally shaped and refined my approach to design. It's not the only way, but certainly useful as a structured approach to quantify problems.

I would say no. A joint shouldn't be so tight that you can hold the body with it. That's just a false idea that people throw around to show off how good their joinery is. In reality, it should fit a little tighter than you have it there, but that should be good enough. You can shim it if you want, but cutting a shim less than typical 0,5-0,7mm veneer thickness is difficult to do well. That and you should only glue it in whilst glueing the whole thing together. PVAc glue will seep through wood that thin and seal it up from sticking, so don't pad out the sides of the tenon! Wetting wood with water will swell up compressed grain, but in this case it will just swell and shrink back once the water leaves. I would just go with it as it is. It's a bit looser than I would like it, but not so loose that it's hugely problematic. Do you have a hand plane that you can use to produce a medium thickness shaving? That would work.

The whole tone thing is silly. Unless the frets are held in only by the glue, they are fine. Too many people like to feel as though things that don't confirm their personal ideas are just wrong. If the frets don't need it, don't use it. It makes repairs more difficult. That's the practical answer. I prefer to hammer in frets after glueing the fingerboard, however there are reasons people use either method. I find it easier to align and apply clamping pressure to a fingerboard that doesn't have frets in it. Also, a fingerboard tends to bow/bend when frets are inserted because of the pressure of the teeth pushing the fret slots apart slightly.

Talking of botany and bastards, this is one of my favourite channels on YouTube.

My own take on the process of design is to see it as exactly that; a process. I can't claim to have a hugely artistic mind, and I'm quite happy to wallow in the derivative. My satisfaction comes from analysing and understanding methods to designing process solutions that are efficient, repeatable and consistent. I even end up doing this during simple repetitive tasks with large quantities of the same component in basic manual sanding or routing operations. Mental optimisation. Neurodiversity has its uses when applied productively.