Twomblecaster - Time to Start Oiling!

 

Oh yeah. The tung oil really honeys-up the look of the wood; really makes the grain pop. Strange that the two halves are showing very different color. Love the way the small letters on the back look real sharp.

Twomblecaster - Laser-cutter 1, Guitar 0

So the process is not complicated, but it is a bit fussy. Place your graphic file into Illustrator and trace the image at high resolution. It is necessary to size the image in Illustrator before sending it to the laser-cutter interface.

Once properly sized, just match the registration of the image in the software to the piece to be cut in the cutter bed. I just used a centerline, using the part-seam of the guitar body, to align the image. Interesting that one side of the body cut very differnet from the other, but the image was clean.

 

I tried to use corrugated to protect the pocket surfaces -- but it caught fire! So, I seriously scorched the inside of the guitar. Luckily, that will be covered by the pickguard and the electronics.

 

Twomblecaster - BYO Guitar

Time for a new project: I'm going to make a guitar. During Mini-Course, our Physics teacher offered a two-week course in which the students built an electric guitar from a kit. I was so taken by it, I stopped by and took a lot of pictures. Jon noted my enthusiasm and suggested I help teach next year.

 

 

But before I could properly agree to doing that, I thought I better try it out. So I ordered a kit from BYO Guitar. Now, I was originally told that kits were less than $200 -- and many are. But, I've always wanted a Telecaster Thinline, and the kit for that comes from BYO's Custom Shop -- so the kit was over $400 (you can buy a new Tele Thinline for about $450). But I want what I want, and I think it should be worth it.

Parts fit fairly well; the pockets for the pickups are a bit shallow, so I'll have to make room with a dremel or something..

So My thought is to use the laser-cutter in the Design Lab to add some artwork to the guitar body. In this case, I want to add a painting by Cy Twombly (Untitled II / Bacchus, 2005), along with a museum label on the back, and some text on the headstock. I mocked up the artwork and am really looking forward to trying out the laser-cutter.