Official Luthiers Forum!

My Facebook friends know that I run a regular column a couple times a week were I post pics of and mention things about guitars that I work on that are interesting for one reason or another.

Of course my Facebook page is also filled with rants and raves, politics and then you learn that my language in real life makes Rahm Emanuel sound like Mother Teresa because I swear more than he did and does.

So.... just this once I'm using my gulag inspired thread title here (with attribution to Alex) on the OLF to mention two cool things that happened to me today. Some of you know that I work nights now going in around midnight at times because it's safer for me and my family and I kind of like it better too. I have zero contact with anyone beyond that poor dead guy that I found in the elevator a couple of months ago in the parking structure.....

I tend to do 4 - 6 guitars a night and then I go home, eat, watch the news, get pissed off and then go to sleep. Ain't life great.

So for the important things.

1). A huge thanks to the Brad here on the OLF for making me this logo for my Marshall clone. A huge thanks to JF too for the inspiration, idea and his advice too. Thanks guys I am thrilled. I received two of these today and it's perfect.

Was discussing with Dave Collins what glue to use or if I want to use little, white screws. He's thinking hot glue and I'm thinking that he could pull that off but I'm too messy with stuff that can get messy. So the jury is still out on how to attach the logo and if anyone here has any ideas please let me know. I am considering model airplane glue too, the real stuff not that wussy, fumeless imposter. I have some of the real stuff here.

2). I worked on 4 this morning and one of them is this Martin electric. I knew that Martin made some electrics back in the day but I had never seen one or worked on one before. It's pretty cool with coil taps and a nice design and shape. I specifically love the headstock shape too, pretty original as well but g*bson likely wanted to sue anyway since they think they invented the guitar....

Pardon my feet in the shots I work quickly and I am on a mission at work so no time to properly frame iPhone shots. I could have cropped out my foot but that would have been self defeatist.

So thanks again Brad this is fantastic and I will endeavor to do no harm attaching it to my Marshall clone.

Now I can do my windmills to my Leonard Cohen making me a half wit with a half stack.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hello Hesh, nice looking electric you've got there. I've always wondered how they fare, are they as bad/generic as their reputation makes them? What do you think?

About the logo : I had a few Torvisse examples 3D printed for me by a friend for the guitar cases and ended up not using them because the texture of the filament used showed up too much to look like what I had envisioned. See attached pic.

How does yours look like up close? I was told that it is inevitable that the filament should show.




Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

Ah, yes - Hesh has stumbled upon a rare EM-18. They weren't a big seller for Martin in the late 70's/early 80's and eventually they became available as a KIT in the late 80's. The neck and body were completed, with a nice hard finish. All you had to do was glue the neck in and install whatever hardware you liked.

I bought one of the kits from somewhere, glued the neck on and hung it up in the shop. Didn't take long for a client to bite, either. He wanted gold hardware and Duncan pickups as I remember. He still plays it. I tuned it up for him last year, and he claims it's one of his faves. This is a guy with a Brian Moore, a Suhr, a pair of George Benson's, a couple vintage ES-335's in his arsenal, plus some Strats I built him in the 80's.

Here 'tis - pix from last year.
https://i.imgur.com/xyTZMk8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UguYy5V.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1MwY4co.jpg

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I had one of the kits too--my son has that guitar now. It's really a nice guitar. Think I paid about $50 for the kit back in the eighties.

Dave

Pierre it kind of looks like Ivoroid which I think looks cool or is it the darker lines that you don't like?

The guitar player in my brothers band had an Electric martin. It was natural finish wood like that but I don't believe it was kit.

Hey Jim,

The color I like all right, but I don't dig those filament lines at all. It makes the logo look… weeeelll… plasticky. Which it is, of course. What I'm wondering is if it is at all possible to have a 3D printed item have a smooth flat surface.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

Pierre, for the name plates for John and Hesh I cut them on the CNC. John’s is out of HDPE and Hesh’s is out of PVC so the surface is flat. I see what you mean about the 3D printed one, if I zoom in on it.

I cut the HDPE plate with a 30 degree engraving bit which gave it a bit of a chamfer. The PVC one was cut with a 1/32” O flute bit. Hope that helps. Here’s a close up of the PVC. That’s about as close as I can get and still be somewhat in focus



Brad


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

Thanks Brad. Nice work, I'd say.

From what I understand 3D printing isn't the best way to get the kind of results I need. I’m going to try and find a CNC wizard locally who can this kind of work for me. Or maybe I might interest you in printing a dozen name plates for me? PM me!


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

To attach the logo, I suggest small finishing nails because gluing plastic is problematic. The finish nails wouldn't be very visible and you could even put a drop of white paint on the nailhead after installation.

The finishing nail idea is brilliant. That in combo with clue would probably be perfect.

If you want to avoid nails or screws you can use 100% silicone caulk. In situations where we needed to glue trim or Corian backsplashes to walls we would use silicone caulk in combination with hot melt glue. The hot melt provided the initial stick (which eventually will fail) and the silicone provided the permanent bond. About the only way to remove the siliconed item after it has set is to use a guitar string or other fine wire and "saw" through the silicone - it's pretty much solvent proof.

Thanks Barry I'm liking this idea the best. On another forum when searching on how to glue on a Marshall logo I learned that the Marshall logos have pins molded into the back that register and press fit into holes in the front of the amp. So finishing nails is a similar approach. I think I've seen white finishing nails too. Thanks, good idea.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Yeah maybe both sounds good to me too.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Could drill the logo for the nails for a snug fit and then use the nails through the logo to mark position. Drill the front for the nails and trial fit. If all goes right add glue and use nails for positioning and mechanical attachment too. Then touch up nail heads as Barry suggest. Cool.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I like this idea too and thanks Clay. What concerns me is squeeze out and how difficult it would be to clean up with a complex shaped logo like this one. I used to work for GE so I have silicone calk in my blood

Thanks Clay.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Pop rivets?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Just a thought - heavy-duty double sided tape?

—- waves from the peanut gallery.
Hey
What about a solid strip of something behind the mesh. Then use a few indexing pins of some sort in the logo to pop into the strip and glue just those points in?
… recedes back into the gallery


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The logo has to be attached where there is Tolex on the upper panel of the front.

So just like with Lutherie work I'm going to pull the back panel and expose the folded over Tolex where it does not show, inside of the back. Then I'll try various glues on both the Tolex and the logo. test gluing if you will.

On my list of glues to try is RTV (GE of course since I used to work there), Hot glue, thick CA, thick CA with accelerator (wipe the surface with accelerator first for immediate grab is how I install K&K transducers blind on bridge plates) and any other glues that we can think of between now and then such as contact cement which is used on fiberglass circuit boards so maybe.

Ordered the 4 X 12" Marshall 1960's TV cab from Musician's Friend yesterday so that's on the way from Kansas City!

Thanks everyone for the ideas this is still tricky and I'll report back what I learn if anything.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I'm anxiously waiting for your findings about the glues …


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

Late to the game, but won't Fish Glue stick to pretty much anything? Never tried it on plastic or Tolex, but would be easy to control squeeze out with a damp cloth or wet Q-Tip. I know it works on glass. Heat from the amp might be a problem though.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars