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Filled and sanded. Now she's ready to be primed and painted.
Piece of Shit Guitar Challenge: Can I Take This Crappy First Act Guitar and Make It Gig Worthy?
- Thread starter Guitar Dude
- Start date
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Originally I was planning on making a new pickguard, but decided to use the original and give it a textured gold leaf application.
Adhesive sprayed on. The texture of the adhesive is exactly what I wanted for the texture of the gold leaf.
Imitation gold leaf. Bad lighting - it looks silver in this pic.
Applied
Adhesive sprayed on. The texture of the adhesive is exactly what I wanted for the texture of the gold leaf.
Imitation gold leaf. Bad lighting - it looks silver in this pic.
Applied
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Cleaned up and a video of it on the body
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I plan on using all gold/brass hardware. I wanted to use this pickup surround, but ir doesn't fit, and I also realized there's a bit of a curve in the pickguard so I'll have to use the original surround. Time to do more gold leaf! Decided to do the cavity cover too.
This is the one I wanted to use.
This is the one I wanted to use.
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Here's the original, along with the cover.
I got carried away and sprayed on too much adhesive.
Gettin' there...
All done. I had to spray them with a clear coat temporarily just to keep them from oxidizing. Gotta pick up a new can of polyurethane so that they'll be less susceptible to normal wear and tear. I left the lid ajar on my last can of poly and ruined it. That sucked.
I got carried away and sprayed on too much adhesive.
Gettin' there...
All done. I had to spray them with a clear coat temporarily just to keep them from oxidizing. Gotta pick up a new can of polyurethane so that they'll be less susceptible to normal wear and tear. I left the lid ajar on my last can of poly and ruined it. That sucked.
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Made a quick mock up of the waterslide decal I'll probably be using. Which do you like better - between the tuners or at the top of the headstock?
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Here's my Amazon list of the hardware I'll be getting for her. Still not sure what I want to use for a nut yet.
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1F6JN375R0YLW?ref_=wl_share
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1F6JN375R0YLW?ref_=wl_share
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Been working, so haven't had a lot of time to post updates. At any rate, I forgot to put gold leaf on the neck plate:
Here's all the gold leaf stuff together:
Here's all the gold leaf stuff together:
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Ready to be primed
Primed
Primed
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Testing gold paint and gold leaf (with two different types of adhesive) on a broken (and missing) headstock fretboard I had lying around.
Paint test
Gold leaf tests
Paint/leaf
Paint test
Gold leaf tests
Paint/leaf
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I noticed a fair number of open cracks after I primed, so I made a thinned out wood filler .
Filled and drying, waiting to be resanded and getting two more coats of primer.
Filled and drying, waiting to be resanded and getting two more coats of primer.
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Sanded and two coats of prime. Much better this time. Not perfect, but I got tired of going back and forth with the filler/sanding.
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Started on the neck. Gonna paint first (three coats), then apply the gold leaf on all of the note frets. I'll finish with three coats of "warm semi gloss" polyurethane. I also decided to paint the rosewood side portion of the neck.
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Painter's tape removed from the frets that'll be gold leafed. I kinda like this look!
Painted frets masked off
It's a messy job!
Ready for the first coat of poly
Painted frets masked off
It's a messy job!
Ready for the first coat of poly
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Well, the gold leaf took a serious disliking to the poly for some reason. Maybe I just didn't use enough adhesive? I dunno. At any rate, I decided to go ahead and paint over the leafed frets and start the poly again..
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Here she is painted white. I forgot to cover the screws...
Headstock before and after
Headstock before and after
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Did some more work on Roxanne. The filled in spots raised up for some reason, so I had to do some re-sanding. Had to re-prime her after that. I'll be painting her gloss white, with a pearled coat over the white.
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So, which do you like better - between the tuners or at the top of the headstock? I'm leaning towards between the tuners.
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Had to reapply the gold leaf to everything. I forgot to clear coat them before. Also, I forgot about the truss rod cover last time.
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Decided to go between the tuners.
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Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I updated this thread! She's all done now. I'll go ahead and post the progress and final pics right now.
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The pearl paint was a total wash, so I decided to go with glitter white.
I started the first coat of poly, but as soon as I laid down the first brush stroke, I realized that it had a bit of color to it. Crap! There goes my white diamond finish. So I decided to go out and get some more paint and cover the poly. Well, the poly has a mind of it's own and bled right through the new coats of paint. So now I have a cram colored body instead of the white one that I wanted. Kinda looks like someone pissed on it.
I started the first coat of poly, but as soon as I laid down the first brush stroke, I realized that it had a bit of color to it. Crap! There goes my white diamond finish. So I decided to go out and get some more paint and cover the poly. Well, the poly has a mind of it's own and bled right through the new coats of paint. So now I have a cram colored body instead of the white one that I wanted. Kinda looks like someone pissed on it.
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Well, there's nothing I could do except strip her down and start all over again. Screw that. So she has a cream colored body now.
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Here's a before/after pic. Overall, I think she came out pretty okay!
