New Decadent Guitar Project

[Brian Johnston]

Onto the fretboard layout and orientation for the vine of life inlay (via www.luthiersupply.com). Will also have stainless steel frets.

 

[Brian Johnston]

Update on the fretboard inlay:

"After 2 hours, I have 1/2 of the inlay positioned. (over 100 individual pieces). Next is to place the last pieces and adjust the position of everything one at a time to get the centering and spacing correct. Then tack with a drop of glue, score the outline into the fingerboard. Then on to the routing. I’ll check in with a photo in the next day or two."

 

[Brian Johnston]

Stephen Casper in the midst of laying out the fretboard on ebony. Next steps
include scoring the wood, routing, then gluing.

 

[Brian Johnston]

With this being a Vai concept guitar (taken to the extremes in ornamentation), here is the knob concept (for volume and tone), with Vai's symbol engraved.

This is being done by www.Argentariis.com (silversmiths and guitar players!).

 

[Brian Johnston]

Another update: The knobs will not have a flat top, but more of a leaf
formation (to match the peg heads), and the inside edge will have a vine scroll
to compliment the fretboard inlay.

 

[Brian Johnston]

Finalized...

 

[Jipes]

It will surely be a real piece of Art and Heart, looks gorgeous I hope you'll send a picture to Steve Vai to see his reaction :thumbsup

 

[Brian Johnston]

Fretboard inlay done... stainless steel frets to follow:

Not sure how to get ahold of Vai, since emails to his website go unanswered.

 

[Brian Johnston]

Pictures of Stephen Casper working on the inlay... and clamping the
inlay:

 

[Katastrophe]

Wow! That is gonna be one beautiful guitar when it's done. I dig the level of craftsmanship, but would probably pass out over what this costs to build.

 

[Brian Johnston]

Routing and setting in of the truss rod:

 

[Brian Johnston]

The pickups (via SublimePickups.com) arrived from Hungary in only 3 days (to
Florida). They were attached to the pick guard and a photo sent to me. The
pick guard is a mirror... colorless... but it reflected something 'tan' in his
workshop.

 

[Brian Johnston]

The luthier had to custom make the truss rod cover from a sheet of steel, to
be chromed and polished before shipping to the engraver. A few more photos and
details are here:

http://caspersguitarshop.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/sometimes-ya-just-gota-improvise/

 

[Brian Johnston]

A shot of the body... metallic paint... dark copper (appears lighter in the
picture):

 

[Brian Johnston]

And a shot of the body with the pick guard and neck.

 

[Jipes]

It's gonna be gorgeous :thumbsup

 

[Brian Johnston]

Thanks! There's still the headstock, the leaf tuner pegs, the leaf knobs, the truss rod cover (that's where I'm putting the Vai logo), and the trem plate cover (all hand engraved). The luthier told me that the picture is not picking up the true quality of this paint job... a metallic glow under the clear finish. Speaking of which, the middle pickup has the word Sublime on it (SublimePickups.com), and the word glows in the dark. As well, after 25 years of building guitars, my luthier was amazed at the weight and quality of construction of the pickups... and these hand made pickups cost the same as stock pickups from any other company. The luthier plans on contacting Sublime for future projects.

 

[Brian Johnston]

A shot of the leaf peg attached to the gears... along with a short video of
the product:



http://www.deepcutmetalart.com/clients/Leaf_peg.MOV

 

[Brian Johnston]

Below is the style of trem arm I want on this guitar. Such an arm does not
exist for the Schaller bridge being installed... and so the luthier is building
one from stratch.

 

[Brian Johnston]

The fretboard with stainless steel frets (undressed) in.

 

[Brian Johnston]

My luthier did a short blog update:

http://caspersguitarshop.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/new-custom-jem-tribute-project-progress/

 

[Brian Johnston]

Below is the neck a little more dressed and peg holes drilled. The truss rod
cover is shown with the Vai logo and a single pass of the engraving chisle (yet
to be fine-edged and chromed). Details on what has taken place found on the
luthier's blog:



http://wp.me/p2IaxD-1l

 

[Brian Johnston]

A picture of one of the guitar knobs lying on its side; hand engraved
(diamond to be set where you see the hole); character line work and shading,
followed by black oxidizing in the lines to follow. Argentariis does some
pretty incredible work!

 

[Brian Johnston]

Hoping to have my baby in the next 2-3 weeks... here is the finished knob
(there are two of them); hand engraved and detailed!

 

[Algonquin]

Really impressed with the level of detail Brian, and thoroughly enjoyed reading your entire thread as your project has come together!

Great job!
Cheers,
David

 

[Ch0jin]

This is incredible! Are you planning on playing this one? I'd be tempted to keep it in a secure display case

 

[Spudman]

Wow! That's quite a beautiful project.

 

[Brian Johnston]

Will be played until the stainless steel frets wear off, lol. I don't do live gigs or anything... a small home studio is where my guitars stay.

 

[syo]

Quite stunning, really.
That is a very special guitar. You should be proud!

 

[Robert]

You need to go on a Fret Tour with that guitar, and visit us all and let us play it!

Looks simply stunning.