Dinky French project

[CMH (OH)]

Hey Guys,

I figured I would check in and give an update. I bought a KnE body back in October that I planned on doing a WarrenD frenchy tribute on, but lost traction with the project due to being extremely busy over the winter months. (I guess a new baby will do that to you)

Anyway, last fall/winter I collected quite a few parts for this, which include an OFR, Duncan JB, Charvel ProMod neck (thanks MakeAJazzNoiseHere!) input jack/plate, volume POT/knob, pickup ring, etc... (even on a guitar this simple, there seems to be a ton of crap you need to buy... just unreal)

I gathered the supplies I would need for painting the guitar and they have been sitting until some free time opened up. Well, I had a 3-day weekend over the Easter holiday, (and we had great weather) so I figured I would get moving on the project again. Sorry for the lack of pics... I took quite a few more, but my camera was apparently acting up because this is the only one that came out clear. (totally pissed about that)



I still have lots to do. I am going to finish it off with a 2x urethane clearcoat before wet-sanding and buffing it out. Hopefully assembly will go smoothly. I have put everything together once already prior to paint, so hopefully that will make it easier.

Sorry for the long post. This is my very first guitar finish/build project and I just wanted to share some of the excitement.

More pics and updates to follow once I begin the clearcoats...

Wish me luck!
Chris

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Hey, I wondered what happened to this... Glad you're moving forward with it!

So, did you paint all that stuff on there yourself, or what? If so... Wow.

[J.C. Harrist]

Wow. Nice job! I'm curious about how you did it also.

[sully]

Is that a decal? I've seen those advertised somewhere. Looks fantastic, man!

Sully

[CMH (OH)]

Yes,

It is a decal. (well, a set of them to be exact)

I would in no way be good enough to pull that off freehand on my best day!

extremely high quality. I can't wait to get this thing done!

Cheers,
Chris

[fullmetalguitar]

Very cool. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Riffmeister]

That is sweet! I have always loved that and his crossed swords guitar. What does this translate into by the way?

[daisp]

Nice! can't wait to see her done!

[CMH (OH)]

That is sweet! I have always loved that and his crossed swords guitar. What does this translate into by the way?

translates to:

"Too fast to live, Too young to die"

Still pluggin away on this thing trying to get it buried in clear...

Figured I would toss a couple of pics up to show my progress this weekend. In theory, a quick wetsand with 800 grit to knock the raised sections down and a few more passes with a decent wetcoat should get me there.... wish me luck.

Kinda getting nervous. I actually might need to order some more to get this thing how I want it.

Hard to see in the pics, but I have quite a bit of clear on already. One drawback to the decal approach for the graphic is that it takes a bit more clear to cover it properly than if it was just painted on.

So far it is coming together well, but staying patient is the hard part for me. I am so anxious to put the rest of the parts together that it is killing me.










Cheers,
Chris

[CMH (OH)]

Bah,

Went a bit too heavy on the last wetcoat and got some runs and sags in the finish..

Sucks majorly. It was going so well, and now I really have my work cut out for me...

More to come. very pissed off at myself right now.

Cheers,
Chris

[CMH (OH)]

Okay,

FInally got a chance to get this thing wetsanded and polished (for the most part)

Was getting anxious to see it somewhat put together, so I did a rough assembly to see where I was.

Definately looks okay. Not perfect by a long shot and plenty of mistakes were made along the way. This was my very first attempt at finishing a guitar so I was not expecting perfection (although I was shooting for it)

I actually had a very small, but plainly visible sandthrough right above the trem that I had to mask off and spray black so it would blend in with the trem and not be so obvious. busch-league mistake. Maybe someday I'll strip this body back down and try again, but for now I am going to continue on the path of getting it playable. Still have a bit of polishing to do around the bottom of the guitar and around the horns, so the strap buttons and output jack are not installed yet. Obviously nothing is wired yet, but that should be pretty straightforward.

All in all, a very fun experience so far and I have learned a ton about the ins and outs of finishing a guitar, so I would rate it an overall good experience. (plus I have a pretty badass looking guitar to show for it, so that does not suck either)

Here's some crappy pics.

















I'll continue to update as I get further along. I just wanted to post up and share the progress so far.

Cheers,
Chris

[Riffmeister]

Dude, that looks Awesome!! If I had half the skills to clear coat like that , I would be starting a business ,LOL I aribrush and I don't have the tools or the know how to even begin to start to clear coat something like that

[BenoA]

Awesome job! Congratz!

[ethanos]

hi there,
Nice job indeed !
However, er..., I hesitated before telling you, I'm sorry but what you wrote doesn't mean anything in French....( believe me I'm French ! )
First there's no real equivalent for this English proverb, or something like 'vivre vite / mourir jeune'....but it would be hard to find the exact equivalent..
Anyway, I don't know if you can still change something, if you can, you might want to erase the 'e' at the end of the verb 'mourir' ( no 'e' in French)
Ok, hope you won't take this the wrong way, I just thought it might help, don't worry I'm not a wanna be teacher...
Don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you need any kind of help with your inscription in French.
Take care.

[BenoA]

hi there,
Nice job indeed !
However, er..., I hesitated before telling you, I'm sorry but what you wrote doesn't mean anything in French....( believe me I'm French ! )
First there's no real equivalent for this English proverb, or something like 'vivre vite / mourir jeune'....but it would be hard to find the exact equivalent..
Anyway, I don't know if you can still change something, if you can, you might want to erase the 'e' at the end of the verb 'mourir' ( no 'e' in French)

Just for your info Ethanos, Warren's original guitar has the same french mistakes on it. So our buddy Chris' replica is a very good replica!

See this thread, I've already discussed about the french errors here: http://www.jcfonline.com/threads/105...-French-guitar