Phil's Harley

I finally finished Phil's guitar. This project was a bit more involved then my first guitar. We went with a kit ordered from Guitarfetish rather than a Saga kit. Along with being made of lighter wood, we also upgraded the hardware. The kit was more basic then the saga and had to have all the holes drilled and the wires needed to be soldered.

For the headstock I went with a shape that reflected a lot of side by side head stocks and had a bit of class. I decided early on that I was naming the guitar Harley based on the imagery that was going on the back.

I was originally going to paint the guitar black, but I really fell in love with the metallic blue I used as an undercoat on my first guitar. As with the first guitar, I ran into several problems with the top clear coat. After repainting it several times I decided to leave the flat finish alone. On the back I painted a design that Phil and I discussed years ago for a tattoo design in tribute to his Dad. It incorporated a David Mann design with Harley-Davidson's engines in place of Rushmore.  I kept the idea but updated the girl and changed the wings to reflect old school tattoo wings. I finished it off with a scene of a rider passing the Harley's Rushmore.

Everything said and done the guitar sounds and plays great. I hated having to give it back to Phil but I made it personally for him. I kept the design a surprise and I hope he enjoys it as much as I have.

Country Livin

So here is my second table in less than a month. I built this table out of old barn wood that I found sitting outside the barn in the back yard. Michelle and I needed a table that we could comfortably work at besides sitting at the kitchen table or on the couch. The solution was to build a bar style table. The next step is to build the stool to sit on. The stool will be a combination of barn wood and natural wood. I'm trying to cross the two styles to match the other table I made. Along with the table, I made a small shelf that I mounted on the wall above the table. Having the table changed the look and feel of the room and it only took an afternoon to build.

My Coffee Table

I spent the past few days building this coffee table for Michelle. I found the top piece in the barn a few months back and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Now that the weather is beautiful, I decided to spend a few days outside gathering the legs and sanding the wood. I put a can of polyurethane on the top and sprayed the legs with a can of lacquer to give them a nice shine. It took me about three days to complete and now it sits beautifully in our living room.   

Phil's Guitar

After the success of the last guitar, Phil has asked to make him a guitar. This time we went with a different kit that has offered new and exciting challenges. I suggested we upgrade the bridge and neck pickups and switch out the saddles to brass ones. This gives the guitar a vintage sound similar to a Fender Telecaster. The body is made of pauwlonia which is a super light wood. The body was routed but needed all the holes drilled for the hardware and electronics. Once everything was drilled out and soldered the rest of the body went together without a hitch. The neck was a different story.

The tuners for the neck were a lot better then the ones from the saga kit. They bolted on rather then the grommets that the saga had. Only problem was that the holes still were not big enough. I had to drill the holes but I only had one bit big enough and it tore the wood up bad. Although the tuners cover most of the chips, there were a few that extended beyond the metal that I needed to fill with wood filler. The next step was to cut the headstock. I got to break in my new skill saw to cut the shape out. I used my dremel to sand down the troubled areas and hand sanded the finishing touches. Overall I am extremely happy with the end result and can't wait til tomorrow to paint the name on it and clear coat it.

I assembled the whole guitar and played it for the day. It sounded absolutely amazing and better then the first guitar.  Since then, I have disassembled the guitar, sanded, and primed the body. The body is raw wood and needed to be sealed extensively to hide the wood grain. I'm looking forward to applying the top coats tomorrow depending on the weather.  

Along with Phil's project, I am also working on a Fender Strat body, customizing the headstock to my Fender, and swapping out the saddles on the Drift guitar. I hope to have the Drift guitar on Ebay by the weekend!

Image area is being completely carved out and then painted. The image wraps completely around body to the back. I'm not sure about the color. This is the color it came in and it's too bright. Any suggestions for changing it? I was thinking about going to another textured pattern with the remaining metallic blue I have or maybe a darker green or even black. Let me know what you think.

Just One More Run

Well, here it is. The sort of finished guitar. I say "sort of" because after playing it for about a week now I noticed that the clear coat on the back of the guitar never hardened and is now imprinted with the textures of my clothing. However, I have sanded the troubled spots down and I am awaiting good weather in order to apply the new clear finish. I'm going with a different brand and I am confident it will work out well in the end. Just like printmaking, it needs just one more run. 

 Since this photo was taken I have fixed the pick-up.

I ran into a lot of problems during my original plan to stain the guitar. The stain seeped through the taped area and ruined any chance of using transparent watercolors. I ended up using acrylic paints.

It was difficult to photograph the texture on the guitar but It has a web-like pattern rather then the marbleized look I set out to get. It still looks awesome. The paint is gloss black with metallic blue which makes the whole guitar sparkle.

Souls of Nature Series

Grey Squirrel Skull (side profile) 4" x 6"

 Coyote Skull (underside) 5" x 11"

Grey Squirrel (front profile) 3" x 4 3/4"

A few months back I drew these images for a local show. I just got them back so I decided to post them. The series shows my studies of  animal skulls and the shadows they cast. They are drawn in graphite on maple wood slabs that have  been stained using watercolors.

Stain was HELL and paint isn't going better.

I spent several hours yesterday sanding, masking, and eventually staining. Problem was that the edges took the stain too dark and went blotchy. I don't think that the sealer was completely removed from the sides and ruined it. On top of that, some of the stain was pulled into my image area and I will  now have to make it work with the image. The new plan is to paint the guitar black with a marbleized finish in metallic blue.

Today I sanded the wood AGAIN and re-masking my image area. I then started to spray the guitar in black. I applied three coats but I made the same classic mistakes I read about when painting the guitar. I have drip areas and the start of the "orange peel" surface. I'm letting it dry over night and will sand down the troubled areas. I will also add a few more coats of black before applying the metallic blue.

To marbleize the blue, I will spray a coat down and then apply clear wrap over it while its still wet. The wet paint will stick to the wrap and when I pull it up it will leave a marbleized look. I may then add more coats based on the appearance.