Igor gets the Blues, The FrankenLab Reso Project.

[FrankenWashie]

I personally prefer inlay over decals. Looks like MOP of some thickness? Will stand out nicely against a black background. Does this mean it will be black paint? I’m yet to figure out how to remove stain from on top of an inlay without making a mess of the headstock, and then clear coats taking up stain and going back over the inlay.

The actual line is 1/16” thick and the same wide.i went as thick as I could as there is likely to be some further scraping and sanding of that feature later on.
The whole thing is going to get a coat of sanding sealer first, then a base colour for the burst in paint/ a clear then the black edges then more clear.
Unless I completely arse it up. Then it will be black.


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[Simon Barden]

I personally prefer inlay over decals. Looks like MOP of some thickness? Will stand out nicely against a black background. Does this mean it will be black paint? I’m yet to figure out how to remove stain from on top of an inlay without making a mess of the headstock, and then clear coats taking up stain and going back over the inlay.

It's difficult to do with stain, and stain take-up will be dependent on the material used. It's a lot easier with paint, as long as the inlay is slightly proud of the top, as you just paint over it all, then sand it down flush, so that you sand off the paint over the inlay so it shows through again.

I've just re-stained the fretboard of a 70's Hondo II and that had celluloid block markers on it. I used a strong black, and that certainly stuck to the celluloid. In this instance, sanding wouldn't work well as I'd be taking off the surface layer of wood that's stained and I'd be back where I was. Rubbing with some Brasso helped a bit, but was hard work. So I used a Dremel with the buffing disk attached, using Brasso, with the Dremel on a slow setting, and that worked at wearing away the stain (plus some use of a scalpel blade for scraping in the dips). You need to be careful with celluloid as it's easy to soften it with heat from friction (and I did add some small ridges in it due to that), but proper MOP or Abalone etc. should be sturdier.

But it is a lot easier to use paint. rather than stain, if you are using inlay.

If you do use stain, then try and get as much free stain off the board first before using TruOil. Lemon oil will both nourish the wood and help get excess stain off. Then polish the inlay as much as possible (Micromesh and a buffing compound) so that it's nice and shiny and less liable to take up stain.

Then you could scrape the edges of the inlay with a sharp blade to remove any stained TruOil on the inlay if it did spread a bit. By the time you've got a couple of coats of TruOil on, then you shouldn't get any more smearing, and then you can just build up the layers and fill in the slight indentation around the edge of the inlay where you've scraped the TruOil off.

[DarkMark]

Very interesting, looking forward to seeing this develop.

[Andy40]

AI work....Artificial Intelligence?

[kuanjb]

Adobe Illustrator?

I'm poor so use Inkscape myself.

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[FrankenWashie]

Adobe Illustrator?

I'm poor so use Inkscape myself.

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Yeah, I tried Inkscape and it didn’t gel for me, Adobe is way over the top but I’m finding it easier to pick up for the things I want to do.


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[FrankenWashie]

This. Because the brain started wandering off into wild ideas of other inlay to carry that thin line theme through the rest of the build:
- a line down the back of the headstock
- a line down the bottom end of the body (which would be covered by the string cradle anyway)
- A continuous line down the back of the neck

Fanciful stuff really, so I elected to set the neck to prevent me from delving further into that silliness.
Now that it is one piece I am forced to get the electronics set up and operating properly as well as carve the faceplate for the preamp and the new TRC which will echo the singular line at the top of the headstock.


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[DarkMark]

Interesting Simon, thanks for that. I wonder...(and sorry FrankenWashie) if you could stain a headstock black, lay down several layers of Tru Oil or Poly, engrave your design, pour in liquid inlay material (eg glitter and super glue), sand back without reaching the bare stained wood?

[FrankenWashie]

Well, it works as a resonator....



I would say it sounds a bit thin, but then I have spent half of the afternoon playing my Dobro.
I’m not sure how much it will change with the Beard cone in it, I’m tempted to put the beard cone in my dobro and the dobro factory cone in this but that’s for future Igor to play with.

Action is high at the nut



And high at the board end which I knew would be the case as I made the nut higher to allow for shaping to the board radius.

Now I just have to get the electrickery bit sorted and making sound.




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[FrankenWashie]

I was actually trying to post an audio sample it it seems it won’t work from my phone