Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

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chillman
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Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by chillman » Mon Nov 22, 2021 6:53 am

Hi everyone I'm pretty new here, though I've gone by the same handle on TDPRI forever. But since this is an offset build I thought y'all would like to see it. This is an original design of mine. Hope you enjoy. I documented most steps of the build but I wasn't specifically planning a thread as I went, so it's not that thorough. I'm gonna try to do a full documentation of every single step of my next build. Here we go...

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Here's the completed body. No special material since it'll have an opaque finish. Just basswood. Very light and snappy and best of all, no grain filling required.

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Little detail of the tummy cut. A $25 shinto rasp makes very short work of this job, especially on basswood. I also use it to carve the forearm cut and the neck.

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The control cavity and three routing templates required. Designing and fabricating it all gave me a few headaches but it ended up working out perfectly and the plate fits like a glove, as you'll see next.

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Here's a sneak peak of how wild this is gonna end up being. I learned the hard way that this orange/gold pearloid sheet is surprisingly hard to come by, but I found some.

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And the matching pickguard. I obviously need to fill the edges of my template in a couple places on this one before I make another one, but shh. I won't tell if you don't.

Coming up next is the trials and tribulations of dialing in the color on this one...

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by chillman » Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:04 am

The color for this one is a variation on rose gold. After some research and experimentation I decided that's some combination of copper and pink. I had a hard time locating a copper dry pigment, but bronze looked very close. As you can see, I did a bit of testing before I committed:

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Looks kinda like an eyeshadow palette, no? I liked the 50/50 best.

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Checking it against a pickguard scrap. Told you this one would be kinda wild. But wait, there's more...

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Here are the effects of a gold interference pearl (aka "ghost pearl") top coat. This is popular in custom car finishes. If you're unfamiliar, it is a metallic pigment comprised of translucent, rather than opaque, metalflakes. The effect is almost invisible in indirect light, but pops out in direct light. This flat test panel really exaggerates the effect, because on the final product, the ghost pearl can really only be seen in the contoured edges of the guitar, and only in the highlights of direct light. I think it added greatly to the gold part of the rose gold color, and I've been looking for an excuse to try interference pearl for a while. So with the color choices made, time to spray the body.

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by chillman » Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:13 am

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I think it came out real purdy. It reads as pink...kinda. But it really varies depending on the light. Pink/copper/gold/orange are all accurate, but I don't think it's too ostentatious like one of those "chameleon" finishes you see on some custom cars. It's still a pretty homogeneous metallic guitar color.

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This pic shows a bit of the gold ghost pearl effect in the upper left. Painting is my favorite part of a build. Maybe some day I can delegate the trickier tasks...

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Here it is with the crazy pickguard.

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And a little test fit of the spectacular Novak pickups. See how orange/gold it gets under indoor light?

Alright, time to let that body cure and work on the neck in the meantime.

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by Deed_Poll » Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:27 am

LOVE the colour! Rose gold is one I've wondered about a lot, great to see your process of deduction. And the design is handsome too!
Owner Operator of GuitarForm - Custom Offset Guitar Bodies
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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by chillman » Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:29 am

So, full disclosure, this is only the second neck I've ever made from scratch. And in fact I built it more or less concurrently with another neck I was doing for another guitar. Let me say, I learned some lessons. And building a neck isn't so bad, but fretwork is :wtf:

On top of that, this neck was getting custom fingerboard inlays to the tune of stars, a martini glass at the 7th fret, and a shooting star at the 12th. Something I've never done before. Something I...pulled off. But barely. I need to dedicate a lot more practice to that particular art, but I have to say I got away with a decent final product.

But all that to say, I didn't document the neck build all that much. I was too busy banging my head against the wall. Here's what I got:

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My headstock design on an insane piece of maple.

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The beginning of my inlay pieces. This was the best I could do after many many attempts. You can see they're uneven, but they pass the three foot rule and that's good enough for me for a first timer. Stewmac sells laser cut stars, but only in two sizes and only in white pearl and abalone. These are graduated sizes in gold pearl, so it was a jeweler's saw, a 5x optic, and a lot of muttered swear words for me.

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Test fit before any inlays went in. This is a richlite fretboard. I really like it. It machines well, is completely black, and is sustainable (at least compared to exotic hardwoods).

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Several undocumented steps later, this is looking less amateurish than I thought it would. Is it perfect? Faaar from it. Is it presentable? Sure, why not. I radiused the board before I did the inlay, but there were still a couple hours of fine sanding to get everything flush and undetectable under the fingertips.

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Here's my new wordmark I'm using for the first time. Printed on a waterslide decal and buried under lacquer. You can see the edges of the decal if you look hard enough but I'm not too picky about that. If it's good enough for FMIC... But in the future I plan to try both a screenprint and inlay. I will probably need some liquid encouragement before I bust out the pearl saw again though.

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Frets installed and all the other parts coming together. Just a matter of assembly, wiring, and setup at this point. Also, the word "just" is doing a lot of work in that last sentence because wiring and setup are the parts I'm notably worst at. I think I'd rather cut a hundred tiny pearl stars than one nut. But I'm getting better every time I do it.

Next post...the finale.

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by chillman » Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:32 am

Deed_Poll wrote:
Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:27 am
LOVE the colour! Rose gold is one I've wondered about a lot, great to see your process of deduction. And the design is handsome too!
Thank you. Despite the testing, I think it still reads more pink than rose gold. But I am very satisfied with it, as is my friend who gets to keep the thing. His reference photo was the Fender color "copper," but photographed in the shade, so it looked pretty pink too. I would love to try 100% copper/bronze with a pink ghost pearl some day. I think that would be cool.

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by chillman » Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:34 am

Had to bust out the real photo equipment for the hero pics. Here is the completed Partymaster.

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Thanks for looking!

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by HNB » Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:51 am

Nice!
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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by snarf » Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:58 am

love the pallet and how you tested the colors. Lighting is a deceptive beast! I use these little plastic things called "speed shapes" that I order from didspade that work pretty well, but they aren't flat.

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by chillman » Mon Nov 22, 2021 10:14 am

snarf wrote:
Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:58 am
love the pallet and how you tested the colors. Lighting is a deceptive beast! I use these little plastic things called "speed shapes" that I order from didspade that work pretty well, but they aren't flat.
I've been meaning to get some of those. They don't melt under nitro, right?

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Mon Nov 22, 2021 11:22 am

That is awesome!! I love the color, pickup choices, body shape, guard shape, and the headstock shape too!!! This is very sweet 8)
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by snarf » Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:30 pm

chillman wrote:
Mon Nov 22, 2021 10:14 am
snarf wrote:
Mon Nov 22, 2021 8:58 am
love the pallet and how you tested the colors. Lighting is a deceptive beast! I use these little plastic things called "speed shapes" that I order from didspade that work pretty well, but they aren't flat.
I've been meaning to get some of those. They don't melt under nitro, right?
Nope! no melting.

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by powerdroid » Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:37 am

Great work! Love the color, and overall design. Thanks for sharing

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by antisymmetric » Tue Nov 23, 2021 11:31 am

Thanks for sharing, lots of good things going on with this one. 8)
Watching the corners turn corners

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Re: Custom offset build thread: the Partymaster [pic heavy]

Post by leslie846 » Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:11 am

That looks sooo good! I agree, the painting/experimenting with paint can be the most fun in a build!

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