"Bladecatcher" DC Esquire

Sorry to that see that Bargy but I shouldnt say it no I need to say it grrrrr im going to say it. Preparation is the key, start as you mean to go on. Short cuts will always turn into disaster. And they J mans tip for the day!!!!!!! A tack cloth is your friend for taking out bits in your clear coat whilst its curing each coat. Another tip if your really having dust issues is spray under the body, hence face your surface at the floor and spray up.
Tell you what though man I am loving the concept of this build, pure genius

I think my biggest problem is not having done enough of these to have any real depth of knowledge coz (foolishly) I actually thought I was going okay:P
Do you reckon Jarrod it would be best practice to just grain fill every build before starting or does it more depend on the type of timber?
I didn't really know about those tack cloths until just recently, they sound brilliant and I'll definitely grab one! Also I'm hoping to pick up a compressor this weekend, are they any help in solving the magnetic dust problem?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions man, there's just so much to learn.

No problem Bargy we all have our little specialties on this forum and helping one another out is what we do. The more perfect builds out there the better. Any way to answer your questions, yes especially if your doing a colour. With nitro as apposed to acrylic I would also be hitting it with a vinyl sealer before paint aswell. Im going to take a guess and say your paint is sinking into the grain as it cures ? Vinyl sealer will prevent that. Build up of nitro will take months to cure properly and it whilst its hard on the outside the inside is still soft and curing (hence very thin coats with flash off time. Dont put coats and coats of colour on if your clear coating. Just enough to cover it. I find one mist and one cover coat is all thats needed. Leave that to cure at least a week before you lightly ruff it to put clear on top. With nitro clear at least 3 weeks of curing before you even look at cutting it flat and polishing.Glass finish on wood is not as easy as people think and does take a few goes to perfect. Satin finsh is good if you want it quicker but still needs that cure time. Thin coats equalls faster and harder cure times. With nitro your mist then your first thin coat on clear should be left over night then start your finish coats after a light scuff. Sadly a compressor and gun will not stop dust , you need a spray booth for that. It will however give you control of your mix and pressure and how much paint comes out. Check out Aust guitarist web site for vinyl sealer and watch a couple of you tube videos on how to apply it. Hope this helps brother

Awesome bro, I'll definitely be looking into some vinyl sealer, like you say the lacquer was just sinking into the pores of grain and leaving dimples everywhere.
I only went two colour coats this time round after the "Blacktop" debacle and it's proving to be the way to go and saving a lot of headaches.
One thing I've noticed shooting nitro is because it dries so fast and hard it's really difficult to do a light coat and keep it flat (if that makes any sense), it's like the droplets dry almost instantly and form quite a bumpy surface whereas if you lay it on a bit thicker you get a more glass like finish (but obviously like you mention a lot longer curing times)
Sorry man I should have made myself a bit clearer in regards to that compressor, I was more meaning just using a gun to blow the dust and shit off before laying more clear.
Hey thanks heaps for the tips J-man I'm gonna copy paste this as a reference, I really do want to get this build right if I can.

No worries man. I can tell this is going to be a pretty special build so do me proud bro.

Yeah roger that, thanks again man:-)

Just jumped on here after being away for a few days and saw Pabs had done a sweet fret job on his Riccy bass which gave me the motivation to attack my neck since there's not a lot else to be done at this point.
So after a fret level, re-crown and polish and having already taken the entire neck down to 2000 it's just a matter of playing the waiting game until it's cured enough to cut n polish(3 weeks as recommended by the Jedi master Jarrod).
Also fitted a black Tusq nut which seated really nicely, just looking at it the height looks pretty good but I guess we'll find out once the strings go on.

Back of the body is finished with as far as clear coats go and will probably sit another week before I start wet sanding, I fricken hate this waiting around bollocks, should talk to Max and see if he can slap together a time machine:P

http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...9/56u8t-31.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...9/11r6s-30.jpg

Drool.

looking sweet Barge well done. Whats happening with the front of the body ?

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from wokkaboy on September 30, 2014, 16:55
looking sweet Barge well done. Whats happening with the front of the body ?

---

It's sitting in a bare timber state at this point in time Wokks waiting to be covered in satin black.
As the back/sides needs to be masked off before I can shoot the top I have to make sure everything's properly cured so I don't pull lacquer off with the tape.
It's gonna be a real slooooowww process:-(

http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...8-P1040863.JPG

Dam i love that shape Bargy

fair enough no worries Barge thought that may be the case. We all know what happens when you rush a build !

Drilled a hole from the pup cavity to the bridge hole for the earth, shot some satin on top, banged in the top string ferrules, banged in the bridge studs.
Did a quick mock up to see how things look, I'm happy.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...0/0u165-32.jpg

Dude. Awesome stuff man.

8O ...Wha... I just... I just don't even know how you make everything look so damn good!

Your building prowess is phenomenal! Love it, and that's from a guy who doesn't usually like Teles (sorry Adam...). 8-)

Contains the simplicity and beauty of the Telecaster and Double Cut LP Jnr, love it! You've nailed the double cut and the pickguard is very eyecatching

another outstanding job

sensational Barge, good thing you live far enough away from the tele napper !
Very sexy looking axe well done bro

Absolute class. Love your aesthetic man.

Looking great Bargy!

I'm kind of thinking that it would look fantastic with a snakehead headstock (nothing wrong with your fantastic headstock, it just looks like a 3-a-side type of guitar.)

Bargey, that's amazing dude. This is the best looking axe I've seen in a long time. Gonna have to build myself one of these. Top work!,

Cheers,
Gav.

Hey thanks heaps for the feedback guys, it's really appreciated:-)

"I'm kind of thinking that it would look fantastic with a snakehead headstock (nothing wrong with your fantastic headstock, it just looks like a 3-a-side type of guitar."

You might be on to something here Fretty, I'll try it out in Photoshop and see how it looks. The plan is to (hopefully) use this one as a bit of a prototype and build some more further down the track (I need to somehow fund this guitar building addiction) so yeah...I'm always open new design ideas.

@Gav, jeez man I'll take that as a massive compliment:-) It'd definitely be great to see another one built some time.

You should sell him plans, Barge. Lol.

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from pablopepper on October 2, 2014, 12:13
You should sell him plans, Barge. Lol.

---

http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...-4155-5456.gif

oh wow, this looks super slick, nice job.

How do you go with that ribbed fingerboard :)

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from stan on October 3, 2014, 06:29
oh wow, this looks super slick, nice job.

How do you go with that ribbed fingerboard :)

---

"ribbed for my pleasure"
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...0/u5413-mp.jpg

Pretty slow going with the build lately in between waiting for things to dry and moving house but we'll get there, might be ready for Christmas if I'm lucky.
Finally settled on a name which I've slapped on the neck plate, string plates riveted on the back, body and neck's all taken back to 2000 ready for final c & p.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...0/8cn5s-34.jpg

This thing is all kinds of amazing. The thought and care put in to every little detail just boggles the mind. Unreal.

So nice man!

looking amazing

love the name Barge and the neckplate really sets off the back nicely, well done

Hey cheers for the comments guys.

one of the best I'e seen on the forum, nice

How did you do the neck plate?

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from stan on October 16, 2014, 10:36
one of the best I'e seen on the forum, nice

How did you do the neck plate?

---

Wow thanks Stan:-)
The neck plate was done using a vinyl decal used as a stencil.
Stuck it down, shot a light coat of primer, a couple of coats of satin then carefully peeled it off...voila.

really Barge what a cool technique, so it was a standard chrome neck plate ?
After the primer was the satin coats black and no clear ?
might have to give this a go.

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from wokkaboy on October 16, 2014, 11:18
really Barge what a cool technique, so it was a standard chrome neck plate ?
After the primer was the satin coats black and no clear ?
might have to give this a go.

---

Yeah Wokks you got it! No clear over top only because I didn't have any satin nitro clear but the black nitro is a lacquer anyway so it's pretty hard-wearing.
I would suggest a light scuff of the chrome with fine-ish sandpaper before priming just so it's got something to stick to.
Would make a great technique for headstock logo's too I reckon if you wanted to easily bury the design with clear.

sweet thanks Barge, I'll deffo give this a go. I got a sign writer mate that can knock up the vinyl lettering template. Might give it a go on a headstock too !

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from wokkaboy on October 16, 2014, 11:42
sweet thanks Barge, I'll deffo give this a go. I got a sign writer mate that can knock up the vinyl lettering template. Might give it a go on a headstock too !

---

Cool man. I'd be really interested to see how it turns out:-)

was it hard to peel off the lettering Barge ? suppose you have to make sure the paint is fully dry.
Doing the headstock would have the template the other way around, solid minus the lettering.
The hardest part is coming up with a name for your axe

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/Quote from wokkaboy on October 16, 2014, 11:57
was it hard to peel off the lettering Barge ? suppose you have to make sure the paint is fully dry.
Doing the headstock would have the template the other way around, solid minus the lettering.
The hardest part is coming up with a name for your axe

---

I used one of these puppies Wokks for getting the decal off (pic related), it was a couple of bucks down at the local cheap shop (not quite so important on steel but I'd be really careful about poking through into the wood if you're doing a headstock)
You only need to lightly stab the vinyl enough to get a corner up then you can gently peel it off.

I just waited until the paint went from glossy to dull so it probably wasn't fully cured but still workable, I just remember Jarrod saying something about taking masking tape off before the tack goes off so I tried to follow that rule, you might be more susceptible to chips or pulling bits off you don't want to if the paint is completely dry.
If I was doing a headstock I'd just lay my logo colour down first, put the sticker on, shoot my top colour, peel off sticker then clear over.
Funny you mention coming up with guitar names, I was absolutely racking my brains trying to think of something fitting for this build and after a trip to Melbourne on the weekend with Blood Mountain pretty much being thrashed the whole way there and back (poor missus) "Bladecatcher" seemed like the perfect choice.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jZEFoqgCwY [/embed]


http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...raft-knife.jpg