Monday, December 6, 2010

ELECTRIC GUITAR PROJECT part 20

I can't believe I'm up to 20 steps on this guitar and it still isn't finished. Last time I put some veneer around the edge of the headstock. Now the plan is to veneer the top face of the headstock. I haven't got it all figured out just yet but I'm getting there.

Here are some scraps of variously colored veneers. (It's an early picture before the headstock was veneered around the edge.)

I traced the headstock shape onto a piece of paper and cut it out to make a mask for viewing veneer arrangements.

The idea of a triangular wedge pattern is what I'm hoping to successfully pull off. Bear in mind I've never veneered anything before and it could result in horrible disaster. The worst that could happen is I have to sand it all back off and try again. That's assuming I don't have some kind of conniption fit and fling the whole guitar into the nearest brick wall.

Here I've arranged some pieces together and laid the paper mask over the top to get an idea of how it might look.

When I got a pattern I was happy with I cut some over-sized maple and mahogany pieces to fit together like a puzzle. I cut them on an office paper cutter. It sliced though the veneer very nicely and made a good clean cut.

If all goes well it'll look kind of like this.

As an alternative I could flip the triangle upside down and do it like this.

Both ways have their good and bad points but I think I like the 1st version best. The 1st version lends itself well to having a decorative symbol or logo in the middle of the white triangle. I guess there could also be one in the second version too but the strings would sort of obscure it.

I think I also need to be careful the tuning peg holes won't disrupt the pattern. It's a dilemma, dang-gonnit! This is what happens when I don't plan things out from the start.

4 comments:

  1. I like the first version but personally I'd go for a lighter colour...more like the body.
    It's so Brian May it's awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Uberbelly,
    Thanks for the Brian May reference! Woohoo! I don't know what's up with that color difference. In real life they match up like 2 pieces of mahogany. Maybe it's a shadow from the tilted angle of the veneer, or something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This project gets better and better all the time!

    Cannot wait to hear it!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Willy
    thanks for the visit

    ReplyDelete

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