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Allow me to share my new venture

Unless you have enough curly maple in stock to last you the rest of your life, you're going to have to order more at some point, right? Whoever sells you curly almost certainly has some of the less figured variety available. Especially since it's dramatically more common.
 
Cagey said:
Unless you have enough curly maple in stock to last you the rest of your life, you're going to have to order more at some point, right? Whoever sells you curly almost certainly has some of the less figured variety available. Especially since it's dramatically more common.
Click to expand...

that's true, but then again.... plain maple plus solid color is so out of my business plan and vision. it's like a porsche selling a city car. (or suzuki making a super-high end limousine or racing car).
 
That's fine. Limits your market quite a bit, but if you think the market you're going after is large enough, then it doesn't matter. You can afford a narrow focus.
 
All my best wishes to you Orpheo, on your new adventure  :icon_thumright:

I presume the signature model will have 3 X Hums  :icon_biggrin:

Will Australians be able to purchase from you ?
 
Pickup configuration is absolutely customizable. 2 hum 1 p90? Sure. Tele bridge strat middle minih neck?  Sure.

And yes, i will ship to Australia :)
 
Jumble Jumble said:
"Solid colour?"

"No way! It's outside my vision!"

"Pickups?"

"Oh, just whatever you want."

:occasion14:
Click to expand...

Let me explain.

Those 2 things are completely different. To make a solid color, I'd be needing different equipment since you can't finish a solid color with shellac. To route any pickup, that's easy. I have templates for them and in stead of grabbing a humbucker template, I'd be taking a p90 or whatever.

Also, I want my guitars to breath, to have as little finish as possible, to be as natural as possible as well as being tonal monsters. In my opinion, less lacquer means a nicer guitar. You may not hear it instantly but you feel it (like feeling the difference between an epi and a gibson) and that makes you play better. Also, these guitars should be extensions of the musician. He has a tone in his mind and that's what I'll (try to) deliver. Natural woods (except for dyes on the body), natural finish (shellac is 100% organic)combined with excellent playability and tone is what I'm aiming for.

If someone seriously wants a solid color, I'd have to ship it out to a third party. That's why I'm hesitant about it. that's all.
 
For some reason i feel that the guitar is more alive, vibrant,  breathing than with other laquers. It's all a feeling, dude ;)
 
Oh yeah I forgot to say - I have a guitar body at home that I did with shellac and it's a really lovely finish. I didn't polish mine up to a gloss, just a nice sheen with 0000 steel wool. But it has a lovely feel to it, and I'd definitely be really interested in seeing what it looks like when french polished properly by someone who knows what they're doing! That's gonna look and feel great.

I think it still feels like wood. That's the difference. Would you agree?

Here's the body in question:

60cbc5f7-fd15-4679-9290-e595511f50f9_zps3091dc92.jpg
 
that's a lovely piece of wood there! I totally agree with you. a shellac'd instrument feels like wood. Maybe I'm too hung up on old violins and cello's, but that's the sheen and feel I'm aiming at.
 
Can somebody dig up that Tru-oiled masterpiece Strat? I forgot who, and a search didn't work, but they had a MIRROR finish on it, just by doing things correctly  :icon_scratch: and all that.
 
Orpheo said:
that's a lovely piece of wood there! I totally agree with you. a shellac'd instrument feels like wood. Maybe I'm too hung up on old violins and cello's, but that's the sheen and feel I'm aiming at.
Click to expand...

I'll be truthful here, I LOVE the shellac finish on my La Patrie classical. That said, it's even more delicate than nitro, which is a bad thing for everyone but me. :laughing7:
 
Orpheo said:
that's a lovely piece of wood there! I totally agree with you. a shellac'd instrument feels like wood. Maybe I'm too hung up on old violins and cello's, but that's the sheen and feel I'm aiming at.
Click to expand...
I am liking this idea more and more the more I think about it. I'm a long way from ordering anything but I'm certainly going to keep this in mind!
 
shellac is an interesting substance. it is apparently the secretion of a "lac beetle" it hardens to a shell like substance. soluble in alcohol so don't spill your beer on it. it's non pourous and sticks to anything. jewlers use it to hold pollished work pieces(they melt it with heat rather using alcohol to form a solution). i've seen it used by machinists to hold work pieces when clamping isn't possible and magnets can distort the shape.
 
It definitely is a fragile finish. My original plan with that guitar above was to leave it unfinished, but it turns out that unfinished alder, even when sanded as nicely as Warmoth do it, is still a bit furry and not very smooth or dirtproof. I simply picked up the cheapest and simplest thing that I could seal the wood with.

There are actually a couple of coats of finishing wax over the shellac; not sure how much effect it has on the overall finish, but the wax certainly made a nice lubricant for giving the whole guitar a really good going-over with 0000.
 
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