New Larkin project

[Pikka Bird]

I will never own a trem'd guitar without a Sure Claw again. I've been loving them since I put one in my LTD several years ago. And on my 1570 (with a middle pickup) I installed it pretty much like he did, except I used washers and nuts in the cavity side rather than threading the unit itself.

 

[MisterE]

And here we are with some more news.
Chris put on the 3mm masking tape for the "faux binding" as he calls it:

Chris:

Four coats of blue gave the sunburst which I'm happy with. I only took the pictures a couple of minutes ago so the light was not great (fluorescent) and the colour is more vivid in real life. I sunbursted the headstock too.

 

[KarlMagnusRobin]

Damn, it looks super tidy! Can't wait to see it finished!!!!

 

[MisterE]

Chris:

I took off the masking yesterday morning and had to do a bit of micro scraping to tidy up some of the curves but basically it is looking good.Last night I sprayed three more coats and tonight I will give it a slight rub with some fine abrasive to 'de-nib' it and then apply the final finishing coats.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Fracking beautiful...

 

[KarlMagnusRobin]

hell..

 

[MisterE]

Not a lot of news.
Just two pics of the geetar curing for a week at 22°C after having received the final layers of lacquer.

 

[LanguageOfStrings]

beautiful.. and that finish is sick. best i ever seen =)

 

[MisterE]

Just received a few pics of Chris polishing my geetar.
But I found this in one of his old newsletters: an explanation about how he gets that deep gloss finish!!
Chris:

Somebody was looking at a gloss finish in the workshop and asked that question so here is how I do it. After many coats of lacquer (up to 20 which are sanded back every third coat over about a week) I have built up a fairly flat layer of clear, gloss lacquer onto the wood. This is left to cure (harden) for at least a week at about 25 degree C.

If you look at the pic below you can see that although it is quite shiny the surface is pimpled from the action of the spraygun.

So the next thing is to level this by sanding first with 600 grit and then with 1200 grit wet and dry abrasive paper. I do this by hand using a lubricant of water with wash-up liquid in it. The lubricant helps prevent the abrasive from removing too much of the lacquer surface and washes away the slurry that is removed.

You can see the way it looks after each process below. First after 600 grit

Then after 1200 grit.

Now I have a flattened and semi matt surface I go through a 3 stage polishing process. I use a purpose built double ended buffing machine with 10 " (250mm) cotton buffs. There are two buffs together on each end that gives me a good polishing area for flat surfaces.

For getting into tight curves and smaller areas I remove one buff. I have three grades of polishing compound - left to right, coarse, medium and fine. The compound has abrasive particles of different sizes embedded in waxy blocks

With the buffing machine running holding the compound bar against the wheel will transfer the abrasive to the wheel surface and then the guitar can be held against the wheel and the polishing starts.

It is important to move the guitar all the time as polishing in one place will cause a build up of heat that will cause the lacquer to bubble and break up. Also you must always buff from the centre towards an edge. There is 3/4 hp motor driving the wheels so if you work the other way the wheel will catch the guitar and tear it from your grip throwing it on the floor - and yes, it has happened to me. I frequently add more compound to the wheel and press less against the wheel as I progress. I use a specific set of wheels for each grit so that I don't accidently mix the compounds and I use the reflection of overhead fluorescent lamp as a guide to the quality of finish. Here are shots taken after each round of buffing and I hope you can see the difference!

 

[MisterE]

So this is what Chris wrote today:

I finished polishing and removing the lacquer from the frets on your guitar last night at 2200hrs so this morning should start putting the bits on it (hopefully in the correct places) and it might talk to me if I'm nice to it. A secret. I'm always really scared of the wet and dry sanding and the polishing so I try not to do it. But in the end I have to. It is just so easy to either rub through the lacquer and the colour layers with the abrasive or do the same thing with the polishing wheels and then there is no quick solution - you have to sand back to wood and re-spray if there is even the smallest fault. Don't ask me how I know this!

Some pics. More tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to it.

 

[BlackMastodon]

That finish looks immaculate.

 

[MisterE]

We've almost reached the end of this journey

Chris:

Some pics. It's a lovely thing and only need the intonation setting and it will be finished. Tomorrow is another day.

Levelling the frets:

Crowning the frets

Shielding:

Control cavity:

Back:

Front:

The master testing his creation:

 

[HighPotency]

That is beautiful.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Normally I don't care much for a "basic" strat-style custom but my word, everything about this guitar is incredible. Really love Chris's work.

 

[MisterE]

Here are the final pics:

 

[wookie606]

 

[schwiz]

Oh. My. God. Everything about this guitar turned out beautifully. I was a little curious how it would look with the 5 piece neck from the back, but wow, everything turned out amazing. The burst paint job with the faux binding just completely brought everything together here. Absolutely amazing. Great job!!!!!

 

[KarlMagnusRobin]

Oh my god.. jelly, I am!

 

[fortisursus]

Wow that was quite the journey. This is awesome!

 

[MisterE]

Some noodling (1 take) over a backing track with this fine instrument
https://soundcloud.com/mistere-2/larkin-strat-demo