"camille" small build

[GreaseBox]

Damn dude! So beautiful it makes my eyes water!



Love this thread!

[Jared Evans]

Originally Posted by monsterwalley

My Goodness! My Guinness!

No wonder you're doing such great work!

[monsterwalley]

Man I was making progress spraying finish then went to put the "camille" stencil on and.............

uuuugggghhhhh!!!!

Blew it. The stencil worked great, but I didn't do what I had practiced earlier and learned my lesson. I sprayed too much gold metallic on. When I went to remove the stencil it took some paint with it (the gold). I did correctly by misting it on in light coats, it just looked like it wasn't covering good enough. I tried it on a scrap that I practiced my burst on and it worked flawless. I should have tried it on black. Ok no big deal right..... wrong. I used a razor blade with scotchtape on each end to remove the majority of the gold. then took the tape off to sneak a little more off. What I found out was the gold basically ate all the way to the holly "Of course" I said to myself, Just my luck. So I had to re-do the headstock.

Up until that everything was smooth sailing. I'll get some photo's and updates posted when I get a chance.............

[pinefd]

^^^ Sorry to hear that Walley! I should have warned you to go lightly. I practiced a lot on a black surface before shooting my first stencil script, and realized that when the stencil is still on the headstock, the gold doesn't look like it's going on heavy enough. But when you remove the stencil, you realize it's fine...or in your case, too heavy.


Frank

[GooCart]

That wasn't so fun to hear, that's just the kind of thing I just know will happen to me, I also have had a comfortable ride so far.
I received my logo stencils just the other day. I made a bunch off them so I can practice and I noticed the same think. When the stencil is on it's really hard to see how much gold there are. Now I've test shot a couple stencils and I think I know how much, or should I say how little gold I need to spray.

Anyway, your guitar is looking really great and it's great fun watching the process. Good luck fixing the headstock

[monsterwalley]

Thanks guys,

I knew better on the paint thickness Frank, I just chose not to listen to what my instincts were telling me.

Got the headstock fixed no problem (just time) GooCart. Thanks for the interest. I can't wait to see more of your build


99% of my problems on this build have been me trying to make a deadline.
ALL of my mistakes on this build are because of this one reason. If I had been building for awhile it may have been different. If I had to do it over I would have taken my time and she would have gotten the guitar when I got done with it.

Saying that the end result is lookin great! I need to get time to upload more photo's. The only thing I am not liking at this point is I used too much amber to warm (age) the guitar up. I should have left the binding color alone on this one. Again it was 3:am and I was rushing.

What kind of can o' worms am I looking at on scraping the binding back?
The amber is under six coats of clear (shot full strength). I was going to level sand and shoot with a over thinned flow coat to melt everything together. After sanding, the clear will be much thinner and I could carefully scrape the binding. Then shoot with pure nitro around the binding areas. Then sand the ridge down and shoot the wole thing with a flow coat.
Any opinions on this one?

[monsterwalley]

I have some free time to update my build photo's. It is hard (for me anyway) to get an accurate picture of what she looks like in real person. So sometimes
I use the flash and sometimes not. It's pretty obvious though, the darker guitar is no flash and the saturated guitar is flash anyway...........

pre grain fill, top masked, and "filled"









ready for first coat of clear nitro, then as Ex-nihilo puts it " introduced to the top for the first time" Thanks for the quote Scott.......





Ok, can someone point out the goof in the above picture?



Now I mixed up some cherry red toner to pop the mahogany a bit. Flash / No Flash......





Wiped the top with 320 to nock the tits off then another shot of clear nitro.



Then a good dousing of yellow.

[pinefd]

Originally Posted by monsterwalley

Ok, can someone point out the goof in the above picture?

Wow, looking great Walley! I'm loving how this is turning out! And is it my imagination, or did you date the guitar 10/08?


Frank

[monsterwalley]

I sprayed more clear to lock the yellow down then sprayed the burst with cherry red toner with a touch of vintage amber mixed in.







Then another coat of clear



Then I wanted to warm it up a bit and get a little more orange into it since it's her favorite color, so I sprayed some vintage amber toner. Here is were I think I overdid it. At the time it looked good to me. I wasn't trying to get the aged binding thing going just to take the "starkness" off of it. if that makes sense.



I have one picture of me starting the gold process on the headstock before it went south. I ended up stripping and redoing the black after this. Sorry no pictures since I was mad



at this point I put on 6 more heavy coats of nitro to give me some sanding room. I'll give it a few days and hit it with some 600 and spray a flow coat.

[monsterwalley]

Originally Posted by pinefd

Wow, looking great Walley! I'm loving how this is turning out! And is it my imagination, or did you date the guitar 10/08?


Frank

Frank you nailed it

I figured it out after I was spraying the last coats of clear. I knew I better point it out now than have it come back later

I don't know what to say, it was and accident, but "what a dork I am" I guess it will make for conversation down the road when somebody is working on it and the math don't add up.

[Fretboard]

Wow...that is awesome bro! She is going to love it!

[NateM]

That's an awesome burst! I love it!

[monsterwalley]

These are just some motivational photo's. It's pretty hard to capture what it really looks like. I think the top turned out perfect and I love color of the mahogany. My daughter totaly freaked when she saw it. She thinks I'm building it for somebody. Luckily I had the duck taped off.

You guys tell me what you think of the binding. It's not supposed to be a LP replica, but I don't know if it's too much?

[Guitarsquirrel7]

Dang! That last shot is killer!

It's coming along great Monsterwalley!!

[monsterwalley]

Remember the first problem I had with router slip on the cover route? I'm glad I repaired it instead of routing bigger. It's hardly noticeable.





and last but not least, A father daughter shot.

[decoy205]

This came out really frikkin cool man! Congrats on a great job!!

[djwilbanks]

I dig it! I didn't like the binding when you had it hanging up, but with all the parts on it really works!

[monsterwalley]

Just got an update on her custom strap, he's done and it's in the mail

[monsterwalley]

"Fretboard, NateM, Guitarsquirrel, Decoy205"

Thanks for looking guys!!!

[djwilbanks]

That strap is pretty boss!

[monsterwalley]

Originally Posted by djwilbanks

I dig it! I didn't like the binding when you had it hanging up, but with all the parts on it really works!

You didn't like it hanging up when it was still cream, or after the amber?

I didn't like it after I unmasked the fretboard myself. That's when I thought "piss" Then when I put the babybuckers in I thought "double piss" It would have been nice to match the binding. Once I put on the accessories it kinda looked better to me. Or maybe I'm talking myself into leaving it

Thanks for dropping by!

[pinefd]

Originally Posted by monsterwalley

Just got an update on her custom strap, he's done and it's in the mail

Again, wow, it's really coming along great! Where did you end up getting the strap? That's really cool!


Frank

[monsterwalley]

Originally Posted by djwilbanks

That strap is pretty boss!

Thanks! It might be overkill, so if there comes a point when she's embarrassed by it she can at least leave it in the case.


Uh oh......

I need to figure out how to build a small case now.

FRAAAAAAAAAANK you out there!!!!

[djwilbanks]

Originally Posted by monsterwalley

You didn't like it hanging up when it was still cream, or after the amber?

I didn't like it after I unmasked the fretboard myself. That's when I thought "piss" Then when I put the babybuckers in I thought "double piss" It would have been nice to match the binding. Once I put on the accessories it kinda looked better to me. Or maybe I'm talking myself into leaving it

Thanks for dropping by!

I mean I didn't like it orange when it was hanging up, but now that it's all together it seems to work!

[monsterwalley]

Originally Posted by pinefd

Again, wow, it's really coming along great! Where did you end up getting the strap? That's really cool!


Frank

Oh there you are.......... spoke of you in the post above.

I ended up getting it from James Shelton guitat straps. Really great guy
quick turn around service also.

I need to pick your brain on building a custom case next

Down the road though.

[monsterwalley]

Originally Posted by djwilbanks

I mean I didn't like it orange when it was hanging up, but now that it's all together it seems to work!

I guess ultimately it's up to the client. I'm afraid if I try and change it, I'll end up gouging the top or something stupid.

Thanks again!!

[SiriusAbbott]

that is truly "a work of art"

[slash78]

beautiful guitar!!! I will make one for my son too....when I'll be father...someday..

[Kølabrennern]

As far as I'm concerned your daughter is the luckiest girl on the whole planet. If I was given the opportunity to get any one guitar I ever wanted, this would be it (well I wouldn't steal it from your girl, but you get the point). It's really fantastic!

The binding colour matches that of my Edwards, I don't think it's bad at all. And if she'll play it for years and years to come some of that ambered lacquer will eventually wear off anyway.

[GooCart]

I don't dare to show this thread for my girls, the younger one talked about me building her a banjo, She said she's already 9 years old and don't have a custom made banjo!! What kind of father am I?
Anyway, congrats. You really did a great job.