StarWars themed Guitar
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In order to encourage my son playing guitar I decided to build a Star Wars Themed guitar.
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With the confideance of my first build in the bag, I went again to https://www.pitbullguitars.com/ and ordered a kit that looked a bit like a space ship, sort of...
Then we chose pictures for the body and I went on to build it...
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Inspired by a gift I got from my former colleagues (a Riley balsa surfboard https://balsawoodsurfboardsriley.com/) where they had printed messages and customer logos on rice paper before glassing the board, I thought I'd use the same technique: print the artwork on rice paper, fit it on the wood and glass over with epoxy. Just like laminating a surfboard but with the rice paper instead of the fiber glass. Following my experience on the 70's guitar, I was hoping I could achieve a smooth glass finish this way.
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Let's be clear, it did not work as well as intended (see details at the bottom of the page) but in the end my son (and I) was pretty happy with the result.
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Below a video of the guitar and test!
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If you want to get my opinion on pitbull guitars kits, you can check that this page here but let's talk about the build:
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First I had to print the deisgns and for that size I went to a dedicated shop (on line). It is not very cheap but at least it is well made. Now, the print quality is only as good as the original picture. I had made some samples, presumably at the real size to check pixelisation but something went worng obviousely, if you look at the back, the image quality is bad. Since it was the back, I settled for it and did not have it reprinted. Good lesson for next time... check, check and check again. By the way, the shop told me it might be this way but I was ure I had done enough checks and said "yeah yeah, no worries"... The dangers of being too sure of yourself.
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With all the prints cut to size and fitted dry, it was time for lamination. Working with epoxy is definitely not my forte but learning from my mistakes, I only had a few fish eyes and with applying thin coats it worked OK. Except on the sides where somehow, probably due to the self levelling properties of the epoxy, the little round pictures of the star wars charaters (some of them at least) were "raised" of the wood (only a mm or 2) and set like that without me noticing. The consequence is that when I went to sand to get an even and smooth surface, parts of the prints were sanded away...
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Laminating the front, I had to go over all the holes and cavities trying to avoid epoxy to spill inside and once set, carefully cut around the edges with a hobby knife. Surprisingly, it went well.
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Same as the 70's guitar I made my own truss rod cover (from a star wars pick) and electronic compartment door (I laid it flush before laminating so that the door is blended into the design)
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Soldering went well this time, I had learnt from my previous mistakes. All pots do work as intended !
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Laminating the head stock proved a bit more tricky and I had to sand a bit too much as you can see on the starWars logo that is sort faded in the middle.
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Polishing did not really work... I tried by hand, with foam pads, etc etc... and with the recommended cutting and polishing compounds but I never got to high gloss finish... I gave up eventually.
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Do I recommend the epoxy finish ? not unless you are comfortable working with it. In the end, whatever art work you go for, I think that a hard wearing polyurethane could work and be much easier to manipulate. Once cured for long enough, sanding up to 2000 or 3000 grit should be enough to get it to a shiny/glossy finish... I ll have to try that next time, maybe do not take my word for it ;-)