Thinking ahead to the impending winter school holidays for my 9 year old son, I proposed to him that we tear him away from the xbox with a guitar finishing project of his very own. After perusing the pitbull guitars website for a few minutes, he immediately zeroed in on the Avenge style kit. Ok, so it isn't my cup of tea, but is there any better guitar to spark the interest of a 9 year old boy?
In no time the kit was here, nicely boxed and having survived the journey from Perth to Holgate NSW without dents or marks in the solid basswood body. Looks great and it's shaping up to be a great project.
First discussions over possible colours and other finishing options revealed a desire to paint the already out-there guitar with hot rod flames. Thinking outside the box - I like it!
Here is his original concept art - looks pretty cool if you as me!
A bit of searching the internet revealed this article from Moniker Custom Guitars with a reasonably straightforward approach to providing flames using two paint colours and a little masking. Sold! Perfect for our low-tech, no-skills approach. So with that decision out of the way, I dove straight into creating a flame mask for the Avenge guitar shape. Very excited to see how it turns out.
First step though, sanding - lots and lots of sanding. We plan on starting with 260 grit and then moving up through 360, 400 and 600. At 400 we'll grain-fill for maximum smoothness using a slurry of Timbermate. To combat the limited attention span of my young assistant's age group, I'm proposing we use the orbital sander on the top and back of the body to minimising the sanding time. He's pretty psyched, and I'd like to keep it that way!
We've got a whole 2 weeks to get done what we can, so better get going while interest is at its peak!
In no time the kit was here, nicely boxed and having survived the journey from Perth to Holgate NSW without dents or marks in the solid basswood body. Looks great and it's shaping up to be a great project.
First discussions over possible colours and other finishing options revealed a desire to paint the already out-there guitar with hot rod flames. Thinking outside the box - I like it!
Here is his original concept art - looks pretty cool if you as me!
A bit of searching the internet revealed this article from Moniker Custom Guitars with a reasonably straightforward approach to providing flames using two paint colours and a little masking. Sold! Perfect for our low-tech, no-skills approach. So with that decision out of the way, I dove straight into creating a flame mask for the Avenge guitar shape. Very excited to see how it turns out.
First step though, sanding - lots and lots of sanding. We plan on starting with 260 grit and then moving up through 360, 400 and 600. At 400 we'll grain-fill for maximum smoothness using a slurry of Timbermate. To combat the limited attention span of my young assistant's age group, I'm proposing we use the orbital sander on the top and back of the body to minimising the sanding time. He's pretty psyched, and I'd like to keep it that way!
We've got a whole 2 weeks to get done what we can, so better get going while interest is at its peak!
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