This time it is a resin 'River Guitar' based on the Les Paul shape.
The whole thing is an experiment as I have not worked with clear cast resin before although I have plenty of experience with epoxy resin working on too many yachts over the years.
It was watching a video of Ben at Crimson Guitars that forced my hand on this one.
I managed to find a nice plank of oak with a live (waney) edge - not the most interesting edge but it will do.
The resin I used was Glass Cast but I believe that most of the clear resins will give the same results.
First job was to cut the oak to rough LP shape and build a mould matching the shape as closely as possible (resin is expensive and you need to minimise wastage. The live edge of the oak was coated in resin and 24ct gold leaf applied.
The mould is lined with plastic tape to ensure there are not any leaks and also to make it easy to separate from the guitar body
I managed to pour it in one go but I failed to seal the oak properly first which meant I got some bubbles trapped in the river. Once cured, I drilled the bubbles out and patch filled them and they disappeared.
Shaping the top of the LP shape was hard work as the edge 5/8inch is flat and the body bulge then starts. Sanding resin is hard work even with 40 grit pads and a belt sander.
Pickups are Warman Drivetrain hb's coming in at 29.87kohm each. I have no idea what this will sound like but I am also fitting dpdt switches for series/parallel choice on both.
Bridge will be a home-made thing using a maple and walnut lamination. I will turn the studs on my lathe from brass.
So far I am undecided on trapeze or stop tailpiece.
The neck is being made from American Tulip wood (not Poplar!) with an Ebony fret board and Jescar Gold EVO frets.
Tulip wood may be an odd choice but as I said, it is an experiment in many ways.
Currently I have cut the neck blank roughly to shape and will fit the truss rod tomorrow.
Locking tuners and bone nut arriving monday.
The body is fully sanded and painted black using Aerocolour airbrush paint, ready for its next coat of resin. I will take photos tomorrow and post them.
Couple of shots of the body casting. Sorry for the quality.
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