Quoth The Raven

Kuro Uma

Senior Member
Messages
270
Hey guys, I've been away a while. Hand is doing fine and I'm back at it.

So the singer in one of my bands needs an electric that he can go acoustic on when needed. After all my other builds they all turned to me. He wanted a Tele of sorts but didn't want your traditional setup. He just say "Do whatever you want, I trust you." He also asked if we could throw a raven in the mix somewhere. And off we went.

So on Warmoth's screaming deals I see this alder Cabronita
warmoth2847c.jpg


Grab that and this neck from a company in Denver
img20130206173947.jpg

Mahogany with Bocote fretboard
img20130206173718.jpg

img20130206173743.jpg

img20130206173842.jpg

img20130206173825.jpg

img20130206173727.jpg

img20130206173919.jpg


They seem to do good work. I'll need to do a little fretwork and leveling but otherwise good stuff.
When the neck arrived it did have a slight ding on the tip of the headstock, It came out with some steam. The neck was packaged very well and the box was in excellent shape, so I can only assume it happened before it was packed.  Never have had that problem with Warmoth necks or bodies though.

Ok, So were going with a TV Jones obviously for the magnetic pickup. The piezo acoustics with be the same Graph tech Ghost system I used in my previous "Maria" guitar. So controls will be a volume for electric. Volume for acoustic which has a Mid/dark boost push pull in it. And a the mini switch toggle towards the back side of the cavity towards the jack. Goes from Electric-both-Acoustic. No tone knob as this guy always just leaves his tone on 10.
These are the saddles
img20130207173049.jpg

wires come out of the saddle between the height position screws
img20130207173028.jpg

The bridge I chose with it's saddles removed
img20130207172910.jpg


I felt the wires would look messy coming out in front of the bridge. Where would they go? Drill holes for them? Route them to magnetic pickup route? Naw.
I decided to drill holes through the bridge and dremel route a small channel under the bridge area. So the piezo wires could pass through the bridge and follow the ground channel to the control cavity and on to the Ghost preamp. That way they will be completely hidden and just look like an electric.
img20130207172813.jpg


Now for the bridge, the dilemma is that the connectors on the ends of the piezo saddles are too large to pass though the bridge holes. A hole large enough for them to pass through would make it possible for the saddle height screws to fall in.
img20130207173321.jpg

So what to do? After closely examining these I found if you use an exacto blade you can gently lift the plastic clip and release the wire lead from the housing. pass them through the hole in the bridge and they clip right back in the plastic housing of the connector. So just a heads up for anyone using this system or dealing with the same issue.
img20130207173457.jpg

The bridge with the ghost saddles in place
img20130209130440.jpg


I got the body without the battery route because graphtech's battery box has different dimensions. The battery lays flat theirs. I routed the appropriate size and tested the fit.
img20130207172657.jpg


Now with all the body work needed done It was time for some fun. So he said he wanted a raven. Gave me no specifics or general direction to go on. So i just started sketching and thinking of a way to fit a raven on here in some way. I plan on dying the back and sides black with dye. Tru oiling the neck. So I rough sketched out the raven on the top. ( also I had to fill the bridge mounting holes and drill new ones for the bridge I'm using )
img20130209121217.jpg


With my rough outline I broke out the wood dyes and started mixing colors. I also used some ink to define lines.
img20130209151610.jpg

Little more done
img20130209155914.jpg

And the whole raven done. (this pic has quite a glare in it, but you get the idea)
img20130209212505.jpg


So then with the dyes I wanted to add a background. but I want the background a bit faded for a few reasons. To allow the grain to still be seen (even though its plain alder) and to let the eye still focus on the raven. I plan on adding some tree branch silhouettes coming from either side and some other silhouetted ravens flying about. But so far I have the moon and some clouds moving along.
img20130211223710.jpg


The clouds aren't quite done. But I'll post more as I make progress. I'll shoot some lacquer over it and polish it out after the image is done and I dye the back and sides.
Just thought I'd show you guys what I've been up to since I got full use of my hand again.
 
Welcome back, Kuro Uma!  I am happy to know you have regained the use of your hand, and you are now making more guitar art!  I'm looking forward to seeing how this shakes out. It's already looking pretty dang amazing.


Peace


Bagman

 
Wow, Wow, Wow!! That is HOT! Great news about your hand! How do you prep the wood surface so the dyes don't bleed?
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I don't really do much too prevent the dyes from bleeding. I use alcohol and make little cups of each color. Then I use a tiny tipped hobby paint brush to paint it on. The mix is mostly dye vs. alcohol. I just apply very small amounts sometimes layering it to darken it up when needed. Hope that helps.
 
I'm just going to have to finish my next guitar in crayon. Yeesh, it's crazy around here.

But with that title, I thought for sure that this was going to be a Gibson knockoff.
 
swarfrat said:
I'm just going to have to finish my next guitar in crayon. Yeesh, it's crazy around here.

Hehe! Yeah, it's getting that way, isn't it? Paint? Phbbt. Anybody can paint. Now we gotta draw and burn and carve and color and have talent. It's enough to piss off a saint <grin>
 
Love the whole concept the Cab seems to be a great choice for the Ghost system, the
Raven looks great & the Bocote looks perfect for this build :icon_thumright:
 
Cool project indeed, too bad you already have a bridge. I'd like to know how the Scartozi bridge sounds with the ghost saddles...
Cageybridge.jpg
 
DangerousR6 said:
Cool project indeed, too bad you already have a bridge. I'd like to know how the Scartozi bridge sounds with the ghost saddles...
Cageybridge.jpg
I just did a /facepalm. A Scartozi would've been great for this. Now i'm going to have to build something else just to use one with ghost saddles.
 
Great to see you back  :headbang:

Very nice work indeed.  :eek:  .... love that neck !!
I have a thing for eagles, not sure what it is but I just do.


SustainerPlayer said:
I think Warmoth should make a "incredible gifted graphics artist showing off" sub forum.
Can I second that statement  :icon_thumright:
 
That my friend is going to be one killer guitar. I love the raven as Im a big Poe fan. If i had half the skill id attempt something like t his.  :kewlpics:
 
So I didn't know they made Tru oil in aerosol.
img20130214155255.jpg


I sealed the neck, did my normal finger coats to build up the layers. I then wet sanded with lemon oil and ran a tack cloth over it. Shot it with a few coats of the Tru Oil aerosol and I have to say this stuff makes it so much easier to get a nice glass like finish. Feels nice and silky too.

img20130214155022.jpg


After it's fully cured I'll give it a polish but I'm already very happy with it.
 
Hmmmm ... aerosol tru-oil is probably one of those products the State of California, in its wisdom, thinks is too dangerous for me to have.  I know the Birchwood Casey sealer is one such product for sure.


I'm tru-oiling the maple neck that will go with my koa-topped LP, and doing it in very thin applications with coffee filters as I've seen others on this forum recommend, and I am really happy with the smoothness of the surface Im getting - but it will take a long time to be done.  Mebbe if I can get my hands on aerosol tru-oil at some point, I'll try that as an alternative.


Thanks for sharing.


Bagman

 
Bagman67 said:
Hmmmm ... aerosol tru-oil is probably one of those products the State of California, in its wisdom, thinks is too dangerous for me to have.  I know the Birchwood Casey sealer is one such product for sure.

Turns out Woodcraft sells it, but they say: This item is not available for shipment into the State of California. However, it may be available for sale at your local Woodcraft Store. Please call for availability.

So, maybe give 'em a jingle.
 
Back
Top