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So....I painted the BFG....again, haha.


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Thanks guys....Originally, the flames were in the area at the front of the guitar, but the masking tape I used started to pull the base coat off, so basically, wherever the finish started pulling, I made more "flamey" areas....namely the semicircle where the arm would rest on the edge, and the one on the horn. If you see the guitar up close, those 2 areas look like they're not as even as the rest, but I figure the BFG is one of my player guitars so it's gonna get roughed up anyway, so I didn't aim to be too perfect on this one.

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I think it looks hot! The only thing I *might* add is to put a white outline around the flames - it might look cool, or it might be a bit too much. I don't know what you do for a living, but if it isn't something artistic I think you missed your calling.

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Haha...I am an architectural designer by trade. I don't know if that constitutes "creative" in the artistic sense, but it has its creative moments I guess. It's actually easier than you think to do. I may eventually redo it once it gets beat on a bit, but we'll see...Sometimes my architectural wantonness for symmetry gets the better of me, hahaha.

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I took some 1000 grit sandapaper to it just to bring out the raised patterning on it so far. I'm going to let the paint fully cure and shrink before making anymore adjustments. I don't want to sand too much as it will end up flattening the raised patterning. If I do intend to do it over, I'll probably end up using paint stripper to remove the paint to preserve the peaks and valleys of the top.

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I had a signal problem to diagnose, so I pulled everything apart again. I took the opportunity to repair some of the lifted finish areas, add some faux binding in the way of overlapping black and silver pinstriping tape, and clearcoat over everything. Here is the result:

 

IMG_0877.jpg

 

I polished up the finish too, which seemed to bring out some of the underlying pattern....I may leave it this way now instead of giving it that "weathered" look.

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I think there was a cold solder joint somewhere as the neck pickup was intermittent. I pulled all of the electronics and decided to rewire the whole harness and stuff. The constant soldering and desoldering of the components while disassembling and reassembling the guitar ate up the wire shielding to a degree anyway. Are you having a problem with yours?

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So have you added a clear coat to the finish? Looks nice' date=' I like.......[/quote']

 

I had a clear coat finish on the first go-around too. I ended up sanding it with 1000 grit paper to give it a worn look and to emphasize the pattern. This time I polished the clear coat to see how it looked. I still have to give the paint time to fully cure, as it will shrink and harden a bit, but my impatience got the better of me and I had to see what it would look like, haha.

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I think there was a cold solder joint somewhere as the neck pickup was intermittent. I pulled all of the electronics and decided to rewire the whole harness and stuff. The constant soldering and desoldering of the components while disassembling and reassembling the guitar ate up the wire shielding to a degree anyway. Are you having a problem with yours?

 

No problems anymore. I had a terrible ground buzz at first, even before I started to play around with the wiring. I used shielded wiring for the long connection between the kill switch and the rest of the electronics and shielded the cavities with aluminum tape and it's pretty quiet now.

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Cool....I had that problem where the pitting on the bridge was defeating the string to the body ground. If you still get a little bit of noise, take a wire and touch it from one of the strings to the back of a pot. If the noise goes away once the strings are grounded, then you have the same issue. I sanded out the plating where the stop tailpiece and the studs meet and it did the trick.

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Great guns!

 

Keep on it, it's improving all the time. Well; Becoming more Individual!

 

IMHO don't listen to anyone who starts out saying "...and if you spray the centre area Amber and fade in a nice Cherry from the side..."

 

Keep up the good work!

 

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thats pretty cool :)

 

i love working on my les paul, i have been doing it since september. it was origionaly a tobacco burst but i sanded it down to i faded finish replace the epiphone HB with a seymour dincan pearly gate and one made by a luthier who lives in my area (it sounds awesome) im planning on putting a bigsby on it along with locking tuners and a jimmy page wiring system im putting together. building and working on guitars is so fun!!!! :D/

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