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I've decided not to go with the authentic headstock design this time. Inspired by watching Joe sketch some shapes on his bass headstock and then cutting with abandon, I got out a pencil, made a few arcs, made a few different ones, chose my favourite ones and got out the jigsaw. Result!
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...1-DSCN7398.JPG
nice pleasing shape
Yeah, I'm liking it a lot. Plenty of real estate for a name.
Killer shape mate!
cool headstock shape Glenn, pretty original shape too, should look great in blue, is that the plan ?
Thinking about it, wokka. Not sure if I'll be able to match the colour, given the black pre-treatment I've given the body. I could always do the same to the front of the headstock only, but I don't think it would take the same way to the rock maple as it does to the ash. Any advice?
That would be my concern too Glenn. Ash takes stain much differently.. It probably wouldn't match. I'd black it out personally or keep it natural.
yeah sure Glenn the maple takes the stain differently. I reckon its worth a crack to stain it black, sand it back and apply non reduced colortone, and if you can't match the colours I'd sand it off and go natural or black headstock as Nick suggested.
You won't really know till you see how the body colour goes with the colortone
Maybe do some tests on your headstock offcuts and see if you can get the effect that you want.
My inclination is to go for a natural headstock and neck finish, with a gloss topcoat.
In the meantime ... BLUE COLORTONE ARRIVED TODAY!! So I had to use it.
I did a test of neat colortone in the scratchguard zone, and it was just too darn dark, so I diluted it with some water, and straight away got the result I wanted. Luckily I mixed a goodly amount at first instant. I was using a fine, small brush to apply it, and am very happy with the result. I think I'll be doing a wipe-on poly gloss finish on this, but am stoked with the colour.
First, here's where I got to with sanding the black back in the grain.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...9-DSCN7407.JPG
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...h-DSCN7408.JPG
And here's the front with colour.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...h-DSCN7419.JPG
I'll do some better colour pictures when I have daylight and can rest the body on something instead of suspending it.
wow that looks great Glenn, so that had the colortone diluted it must have been intense when straight out of the bottle !
At least it will go further.
Look like you may only need the one coat of blue or possibly one more light one, its hard to tell with a night photo
Yeah Wokka, I'll need to have a close look under daylight to make sure there are no little raw pores lurking in the finish, and also just check the general shade. However, the dilution with water was somewhere around colortone:water = 7:3 or 6:4. It was pretty brutal, but it completely worked, definitely assisted by the black stain/sand-back pre-treatment. I took it up to 420 grit with the sanding - may have to take it back a notch for the finish. Gotta say, though when I got a good swatch of colour on that body I just knew it was going to work. Great moments in guitar-building.
good stuff Glenn, sounds like one more colortone coat can't hurt. I'll be ordering some colortone blue, love the colour ! Its certainly dark enough !
That first pass of stain/dye/colour is always the sweetest.
More adventures with blue colortone! So, the water-based method I've been using has, naturally, been raising the grain in the wood, so more sanding was required, meaning I'm having to anticipate regulating the shade through application of colour washes and sanding at this point. Last night I applied a second coat of roughly 50:50 colortone and water.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...1-DSCN7420.JPG
This arvo I sanded it back to acceptably smooth.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...4-DSCN7425.JPG
... and then I applied a water-heavy wash (30:70 or 40:60).
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...0-DSCN7428.JPG
Probably be sanding again tomorrow, and then I'll see where we're at for smoothness and shade. (photos of the reverse following, same stages)
Here's the reverse, same stages. Second coat of stain-heavy wash:
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...g-DSCN7421.JPG
... then sanded ...
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...v-DSCN7426.JPG
... then water-heavy wash.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...6-DSCN7429.JPG
looking good Glenn, you must have forearms the size of Popeye after all that sanding !
coming up a treat matey!
Hehe! The thighs of my khaki shorts are now fairly blue ... remind me to put a drop cloth on my lap next time I sand stained wood.
Looking great Glenn! Love that blue. I've got some colortone blue here that was a dismal failure when I used it, but you've given me heart to try again. Looks like multiple passes is definitely the way to go. Awesone work!
Cgeets,
Gav.
Have done another sand/stain stage on the body, and am very happy with the current shade, but I'll need to sand before I begin the gloss top coat, so the shade might not be what I want. Pics on the weekend ...
sounds good Glenn, you are getting a good dose of sanding ! Sure it will pay off mate
Look forward to pics
Did some sanding and gloss coating today. Yes, it's Estapol. This is two coats in. Pretty happy with how it's going.
Looks nice man.
Looking fantastic Glenn! The black grain is looking relly nice under the blue The colour is really starting to come alive under the clear. Great job!
cheers,
Gav.
Neck set up day! The usual routine - adjust truss rodd and check with steel rule to make sure it's flat, then level frets with radiused sanding block and 2000 grit wet and dry; re-crown, polish with steel wool, and we're done!
looking good Glenn
what colour are you going staining the headstock ?
The natural figure coupled with those colour choices equal one smoking hot axe, looks brilliant!
I'm going to leave the neck natural, including the headstock. There's enough going on with the body that anything else on the neck will start to look too messy.
I'll probably try to tie the headstock decal into the body by colour-matching the font, though. That'll be enough.
So I'm pretty much done with the body of this one. Very pleased with the contrast I was able to achieve in the grain, the colour depth, and the glossy sheen. Next I'll be finishing the neck and shielding the cavities, and then we're up to assembly time!
...and here's a few more shots. :-)
looking sweet as Glenn !
Yo Like that finish, will you put anything else on that or leave her as she is, love how you can still see grain, looking good.
D
That's it, Dodge. As intended. :-)
Love how she's looking GGP!
cheers,
Gav.
I'm sure it can't be just me that thinks shielding the cavities on a strat sucks the big one! So fiddly.
Shielding looks great Glenn, but I think someone snuck in and stole all your blue and put some more black on the body!
what happened to the blue Glenn ? I loved how it was looking !
Don't worry, the colour hasn't changed, it's just the way the camera resolved the body under odd lighting conditions last night.