Second Build

OK a little late to the party, but here's the first progress shots of an ST-1JR 3/4 I'm putting together for my son. This is my second build, the first being a 335 kit from somewhere else. The requested theme was "Ice Wing", which is apparently some sort of dragon made out of ice from a book he's reading. The head I carved out on a bandsaw to resemble a dragon tail, and then tried to put a paint job on it resembling ice crystals. The last piece will be to put an engraving of a dragon into the pick guard.

For the paint, I started out with a metallic blue acrylic paint as the base coat. I applied it with a foam brush which worked OK, but I didn't want to clog up my sprayer with whatever flakes were in the paint. Topped with polycrylic and sanded to 320. Then I made some urea + dish soap solution following instructions on the internet, and sprayed that on with a spray bottle. After it dried, it looked horrible so I wiped it all off and tried again. Then I did that 3 more times before I was happy with it. Then I topped that with some gloss black enamel. Let it all dry, and then scrubbed back some of the black with scotch-brite and water. Then lots of polycrylic over top of that using spray gun. Polished with micro mesh by hand, then followed up with plastic polish and a buffing wheel on my drill.

The overall effect wasn't quite as "crystal" as I was shooting for, but the customer is happy so I'm not going to start over hoping for better. I maybe could have gotten a better effect if I had purchased the $200 off the shelf crystal paint solution instead of $8 of urea fertilizer from amazon. Or maybe it was my prep work. Probably my prep work. Couple things I learned - the urea solution is not a supersaturated solution as I tried first. When I did that, the urea crystalized immediately on contact and didn't leave a crystal pattern but instead built up in a sludgy layer. I watered it down until it took a few minutes to crystalize as the water evaporated. I couldn't get it to take longer than a few minutes - probably due to the extremely low humidity here. I tried several things to get it to leave a thick layer and so leave bigger crystals, and in the end a couple squirts of dish soap worked the best, but still not great. The black paint also didn't scrub off as neatly as I was hoping - possibly/probably I should have used a rougher grit sanding of the clear coat before spraying down the urea so as to get better adhesion between the clear coat and the black. It might also have to do with the mixing of chemistries - I used acrylic for the base, acrylic for the clear coat, but my black coat was oil based - I probably should have gone back out to the store and picked up some black acrylic instead.

I decided I wanted something darker than the rosewood or "blackwood 2" or whatever it is for the fretboard, so I hit it with some general finishes espresso gel stain which got it to a nice dark tint that matches the paint better. Time will tell how well that wears. I still need to polish some of the stain off the frets, but it came off with just my fingernail where I made an attempt, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Attached the neck to the body. I notice that there's still a gap just big enough to put a piece of paper in between the neck and the body that wasn't there when I dry fit just before. Maybe I can close it up with more torque. Or I might just scratch it all to hell in the process. Given how much he scratches his acoustic guitar through inattention, not sure it matters. LOL.

Next steps:
1) Just noticed that the output jack hole was not pre-drilled. So I'll need to drill that, hopefully without messing up the paint. Test fit your hardware, friends. Somehow I never tried to put that piece on the body before I started. Oh well.
2) Paint the cavities with something conductive.
3) Make a new pick guard. The white one doesn't really match. I have some clear cast acrylic on order. I ordered from a local company so it gets here faster, and after they take my money I get a note "that's in our Houston warehouse so we'll put it on the next transfer shipment and it will get here in a week". Grrrrr... The plan is to run it through the CNC to shape, then v-carve an "Ice Wing" dragon into the underside of it. I'll paint it to match, with the paint on the underside so it doesn't all get scratched off by an over-eager 10 year old shredding some AC/DC.
4) Replace the covers on the pickups and switches and knobs with something black. I wish they offered a black hardware option on this unit.
5) Install all the hardware.
6) Plug my ears ;)

Looks great!

Weird about the output jack hole though, what a bugger

Thank you John!

Today, while I was supposed to be working:
1) Hit the neck screws with my impact driver - another 1/2 turn or so and the neck is fully seated, and no new scratches!
2) Painted the cavities with conductive paint. After 3 coats per the instructions on the can, I read about 20-30 ohms per inch. Not as low as what some folks were reporting, but I think it will do. That stuff settles fast - I found I had to stop and stir it back up in the middle of a coat as a thick layer of the graphite and carbon black would settle out. I plan on putting copper on the backside of the pick guard to finish off the cage.

Some very cool details have surfaced there. And I love the headstock shape.

I'm also about to start an ST project for an offspring that wants something book-themed, so this is a cool reference (though I won't be submitting myself to the same pain :) )

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

@dozymuppet - it wasn't too bad once I got the rhythm down for spraying the clear coat. The rest of the paint was all a one-ish time application and so wasn't too bad. I ended up with a lot more orange peel than I wanted, but without a dedicated spraying booth I got lazy. I either had to move the cars outside and spray in the garage with a full kit on and hope that not too much spray ended up on my wife's shoes about 20 ft away, or try and spray outside. In Colorado a day without wind is rare, so that meant waiting days between coats. In the end I got on just enough to get by and then called it a day. I did end up burning through the clear coat in a couple of places (mostly on the neck where the corners are sharper and I sanded a bit more), but with the "aged" look of the whole paint job even I have to look for them, and I know where they are. I'd never sell it like that, but it's not for sale :)

Today I drilled out the hole for the output jack. I used a 7/8" forstner bit to drill it out. I was able to drill it out hand held without destroying the paint. 7/8" is about the biggest hole I could get and still have the cover plate hide it. It's not quite big enough for the posts on the backside of the jack though.

By the bend in the jack plate, it looks like it was supposed to be drilled out more towards the right side of the curve since that's where it matched the curve of the body. I didn't like how that looked though so I brought it back out to right about at the corner and by hand put a bit more bend in the plate to match the new location.

After drilling in until it just broke through to the cavity at the corner (coming in at an angle like that it doesn't line up any more), I followed up with a hand chisel and opened it up until 1) the posts cleared the inside of the hole, and 2) the opening between the cavity and the new hole was big enough to easily run the wires. I managed to stick the chisel through my left index finger in the process - just a recommendation, but apparently it's not a good idea put your finger in the hole you're actively running a chisel through. It's just a flesh wound though, so I should be back to playing in a few days. I'll go back through this afternoon and touch up the inside a little to smooth it out and then apply more conductive paint to the new hole.

I've been waffling over drilling the mounting holes for the bridge for two days now. Where does everyone place their bridge? I've seen lots of conflicting information. The most believable source I've found so far says to move the saddles all the way forward towards the neck, and then mount such that they're at the scale length so that they have their full travel back to the tail for adjustment. The assumption there is that the adjustment will always be back, but will it be enough? How much delta between scale length and final saddle position is to be expected?

That's basically what I'd do, but saddles almost all the way forwards with maybe 1-2mm of spare thread showing if you can get the scale length set like that.

Top E will go back by around 1mm, bottom E maybe up to 2-3mm. Wound strings are a bit less consistent in the positioning than plain strings. Heavier strings will need the saddles moved back a bit more than lighter strings. The higher the action, the further back the saddles will need to go. With a higher action, you add more string tension pushing the string down at the 12th fret to fret it which makes the string sound sharper, so you then need more string length to lower the pitch again. So it's hard to give definitive distances.

There will also be very small variations in string thickness/mass along its length, which will affect the intonation position for that string. Similarly as the string wears, corrodes and gets a gunk build up over time, then the mass/unit length of the string over its length changes, and the intonation will start to drift out.

Thank you Simon - I got it drilled out, and at first glance it appears I didn't screw it up!

For reference for others, the scale length on this guitar is 576mm, not the 571 advertised. I've seen others post the same observation, so it doesn't appear that I got a wonky neck.

To get the holes nicely drilled out I 3D printed a drill guide which worked very well in keeping the holes aligned nicely.

While I'm waiting for someone to draw the dragon for the scratch guard for me, I figured I'd test my process by making the back plate. Good thing I bought extra acrylic - it's upside down! I like the process though. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's got a cool 3D look to it.

The process is to V-Carve the image into the back of the acrylic with a CNC, and then paint it from the back. When the plastic is peeled off, you get this. To give it a little more texture, I dry brushed black into the carving first, and then painted the metallic blue matching the guitar over top. I haven't decided yet to go with blacking out the acrylic after painting the back (so it's a gloss black with the blue art on top), leave it clear like the photo, or go with a tint somewhere in between. I've got some automotive vinyl tint on order to try that out. If I do go with transparent or tinted, I'm going to have to completely redo all the wiring - the harness that came with it is definitely not visible grade.

I took a couple weeks off to take care of some new puppies. I'm working on the scratch plate finally this week. I finalized the drawings and made some test cuts out of MDF to make sure the new plate fits and the pickups are all in the right place. The mechanical components I drew by literally tracing the plate that came with the kit, then tweaking it until I liked it. I payed a guy on fiverr to draw a dragon that will be engraved into it. I ended up making a dozen test prints out of paper and another half dozen out of MDF before I was satisfied, but I think I'm zeroing in on it.
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I started on the final plate today, and I'm running into a few issues that need working out with the engravings I'm doing. Since these are on the reverse side I need to make sure they're crystal clear, and the 30 degree bit I used is not giving me that. It looks like too much heat is trapped inside the cut, resulting in some of the shavings melting back in. In my test cuts with a 90 degree bit I didn't have that problem, but I need the extra detail that the 90 degree bit can't provide. My plan right now is to leave the pin striping as is, convert the dragon to a 60 degree bit, and hope for the best. With the way I'm doing this I can't QC anything until everything is done, so... we'll see what we get. I have lots more acrylic, so all it will cost me is time if I need/want to re-do it.

That said, the plan is still:
1) cut a clear acrylic blank to size, peel off the back layer and paint it gloss black.
2) mount it front side down on the CNC, engrave the pin striping and eye. Paint the pin striping metallic blue, fill the eye with red synthetic opal and CA.
3) engrave the dragon, remove from the CNC and spray paint it metallic silver.
4) re-mount on the CNC front side up. Cut the mechanical holes.
5) cut the outside edge bevel, then finally cut the piece free.

Glamor shot of the blank bolted into place. I made a job specific waste board to hold it with symmetrical threaded inserts so that I can take it on and off the machine without losing my zero. They're symmetrical so that I can flip it from front to back and still keep things aligned. If I do lose zero (stuff happens...), I machined crosshairs at the bottom left and top right of the scratch plate to let me re-establish it referenced to those inserts.
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Shot of the blank after cutting and painting the pinstripe and eye. The painting is messy, because who cares? It will all be covered up by another coat of silver spray paint and then copper tape later. I didn't take a photo of the not-glossy inside of the cuts. The eye is barely visible at the top left inside the pin striping. Hopefully it will pop from the front side...
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Engraved the dragon this AM. The 60 deg bit did a better job, but still not the glass smooth finish that the 90 deg left. I'm wondering if it's because the 30 and 60 deg bits are my go-to bits for engraving, and so the 90 deg bit is sharper. I may try using a fresh bit next time.

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I went ahead and hit it with the silver paint after cleaning it up by hand. That's when disaster struck. The silver paint had toluene in it, and it dissolved the black paint underneath it. Doh!

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So definitely going to need to start over from scratch on this. The only question is, what's going to be the plan next time? I may end up getting some black acrylic instead of the clear and simply engraving the dragon into the front, then painting silver, then simply sanding and buffing it back smooth again. That's a tried and true procedure for wood, and I have the equipment to get the acrylic back glass smooth again. It would be a lot less complicated too, though the final product will leave the engraving portions on the top side where they'll fill up with dust and goop and other detritus during use...

I love how this guitar's turning out. Bummer about the pick guard - I agree it would be nicer to have the engraved side on the back. Is there anything you could seal the black paint with before spraying the silver? If not, could you use a silver foil rather than paint? If you're not stuck on the colour, you could use copper foil. I think you can also get adhesive aluminium foil. Either would obviously solve your shielding at the same time.

Hmmm foil could work. I wonder how it looks from the backside though? i.e. will the adhesive show through? Also maybe if I sprayed down a coat of polyurethane or polycrylic over the black enamel paint it would keep the silver from reacting with the lower layers? I'll have to experiment on some blanks first. I notice that it didn't peel up everywhere - mostly where the solvents could get under the top coat. I assume that I don't get great adhesion between the glossy acrylic and literally anything I'm spraying down on it. I wonder if I could put a fine scuff on the acrylic to get better adhesion without impacting the final look - I'll also have to experiment with that. It's been 30 years since I did a paint job of this style - not since I built my Tamiya Hornet RC car.

This has me thinking though - in the remake I plan on polishing the paint off the front back to a gloss finish again... why not do that now with what I have on the backside? I'll try and sand off the surface paint (black and silver) and then polish the backside back to a gloss again, and then just apply the black over the silver. With the silver already embedded in the engraving it won't come off with the sanding, and so this might work... I've got nothing to lose at this point anyway.

Well this could work. Sanded the backside down to the plastic with 220, then polished it back up to ~4000. It's not a perfect finish, but I don't think I need to put in the time to get a perfect finish - I think the paint will fill in the gaps and smooth it out. If not, I guess I try again...

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I am so in awe of that pickguard, even in the failing of the first coating. Great work

Thank you, I appreciate it! I can't take much of the credit for how awesome the dragon looks though. I hired someone on Fiverr to draw it for me... this is what I sent him:

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And what he sent back eventually turned into this:

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That's quite an artist! This is the guy if anyone needs a dragon drawn: https://www.fiverr.com/allentotingski

That said, I'm still not happy with the final product just yet. Couple of lessons learned:
1) The rough edges of the engraving did turn out to be an issue. It's hard to see in the photo, but it doesn't really pop - the silver paint is very much dulled by the rough edges of the engraving.
2) The eye looks pretty horrible. I won't be using the synthetic opal for that again. Next attempt I'll use red metallic paint instead.
3) I don't see any difference from not fully polishing the backside before painting the black. The gloss is coming from the factory pristine front side, and the back side just needs to be black.

Overall it's not popping enough and disappears into the guitar once installed. I think I'll try making it again. For the next one I'll use the 90 degree bit everywhere and try to cut it a little deeper. I'll lose some detail, but should gain some contrast. I'll use red paint for the eye instead of the synthetic opal. I may try experimenting with flame polishing the engraving too - the more polished I can get the engraving the more it will reflect light and the more it will pop (I'll have to try that on scrap though). As far as process goes, I'll start with the engraving on bare plastic, then paint the silver, sand it back, then top coat with the black.

Here it is set in place on the guitar. IMHO it looks good, but not great. I can do better...

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OK - my kid wants to play it, and I need to get back to work, so I'm calling it good enough for now and am doing final install and setup. I still plan on cutting a new scratch plate at some point and installing it, but that can wait a while. I replaced the knobs with chromed ones, replaced the white plastic with black, and put black covers on the pickups. For the single coil I was able to easily replace the white cover with a black one, using the CNC to machine holes to match. For the humbucker I wasn't able to get the white covers off, so the black cover you see is over the whole thing - time will tell how much of an impact that makes.

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Redid the back cover. I ended up staying with clear. The tint didn't hold up well around the edges of the engraving, and I like being able to see some of the shiny mechanism in the back. I think if I went with the blackout look, I'd need to go with a sexier shape than a rectangle, but the clear in rectangle works.

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A closeup shot of the paint. In the end I like how it turned out and was super cheap compared to the commercial offerings. My only gripe is the clear coat isn't professional quality smooth - After a dozen or so coats I got lazy and called it good enough. It probably could have used another dozen or so coats to build up enough to fill in the divots from the crystals.

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Next time it snows I'll try and get some glamor shots of the final product.

One last shot of the whole thing. Now it needs a name.

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Your "client" should really like that! Definitely a one of a kind. None of his jam buddies will have one like it!

BTW, I loved your "concept dragon" photo. I think you should have gone with that!

I nearly snorted coffee through my nose when I saw it! I'd say you & I must have been in the same drawing class at school...

Good work.

That looks great - I'm sure your son is very happy with it!

That is a great looking guitar. Well Done.

The guitar looks amazing. Very impressive finish.

The dragon reminds me of a piece of Viking art/graffiti that was carved into the walls of a prehistoric monument in the 12th Century. Not far from where I grew up.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/mae...aeshdragon.htm

That's awesome. I might make use of that on a future project... I wonder if that Viking copyrighted it...

I gave the scratch guard another go, engraving into the front of black acrylic this time. What I found is that yes, it did make the dragon much much bolder and more visible. I like the original better though. The bolder lines came at the expense of sloppier lines, with the rougher edges inside the cuts even more visible. It lost the depth that the backside cut had where the whole cut could be seen through the clear acrylic.

What did work with this attempt is plastic polish - to do the painting on it, I simply carved the dragon, spray painted the whole thing silver, and then used plastic polish and some elbow grease to get the paint back off the uncarved surface. It took about 15 minutes all told to polish it back off.

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I got out in the snow yesterday morning and got a few glamour shots of it...

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Quote:

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I got out in the snow yesterday morning and got a few glamour shots of it...

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Soooooo, you're not in Australia then...

That pickguard still works, even with the bolder lines. Good work!