Custom guitar design "GB Cygnus X-1"

[cynical1]

Is that a "Log" clone on the top shelf?

HTC1

[gerinski]

Dec 22, 2023 11:54:16 GMT -5 cynical1 said:

Is that a "Log" clone on the top shelf?

HTC1

To be honest I have no idea what that is, next time I go I will ask the luthier

[gerinski]

A couple more pics

[gerinski]

A couple more pics, the neck shape and body contours are basically finished. Next step will be leveling the fretboard. The bridge and tuners have been mounted so that strings will be installed first to give the proper tension to the neck, then the guitar will be fixed, strings removed and the fretboard will be leveled and sanded with the proper neck angle as if the strings were present.

[gerinski]

Some more pics of the progress. Fretboard has been levelled and side dot markers installed. Now frets are being installed and next step will be fret levelling.

[gerinski]

And still some more

[gerinski]

Sorry maybe I should have resized the pics to make them smaller so they could be seen at once without scrolling...

[cynical1]

Nah, no one has dial-up anymore, you're good...

It's looking good. It's gotta be tough waiting by now...

HTC1

[gerinski]

Ready for paint. Now I have a dilemma, initially I had thought about painting it in opaque light grey (all the hardware is black), but I now realise that it's nice to see the construction of the instrument, the neck-through, the laminated 3-piece neck, the wood has a nice enough grain... if I paint it opaque this will be lost which is a pity, the guitar will look as if it could as well be made of plastic...

But if I want to paint it translucid, light grey is not an option because of the orange-brown tone of the mahogany. I am limited to warm colours such as red, orange, brown... or either leave it with a natural wood finish.

I need to think about it and make my mind up quickly...

[newey]

It'll be a beauty however you finish it, gerinski!

Your luthier is clearly invested in this project, so if you have question marks about the finish, maybe he would glue up a couple of scrap pieces of the same wood used for the body so you could test-spray a couple of different finishes, see what you liked. I myself might not be so quick to rule out your first idea of a translucent grey, I've not seen that done and it sounds pretty cool, I get your concern about the color of the underlying wood but I'm not sure that's going to be so bad. I've seen trans green finishes over woods similar to your that looked fantastic. Occasionally you'll see a tranlucent black finish, those can look nice as well. So grey doesn't seem so "out there" to me, maybe.

[cynical1]

You are correct in that the mahogany has "favorite" colors. I've seen green dye used to take some of the red out of the mahogany...but I agree that grey may be a bit of a buzz kill once completed.

How good is your luthier with wood dye? I find it to be the best way to go transparent...or achieve a subtle burst finish if that sort of thing floats your boat...like a red into an amber. The mahogany isn't going to "pop" a lot of grain detail anyway, so a hint of color might be your best path...like an aged amber or brownish red mix. You preserve all the detail of the build with out the 1970's asking for their guitar back...

Welcome to the other 50% of building a guitar...

HTC1

[gerinski]

Feb 26, 2024 21:50:45 GMT -5 newey said:

It'll be a beauty however you finish it, gerinski!

Your luthier is clearly invested in this project, so if you have question marks about the finish, maybe he would glue up a couple of scrap pieces of the same wood used for the body so you could test-spray a couple of different finishes, see what you liked. I myself might not be so quick to rule out your first idea of a translucent grey, I've not seen that done and it sounds pretty cool, I get your concern about the color of the underlying wood but I'm not sure that's going to be so bad. I've seen trans green finishes over woods similar to your that looked fantastic. Occasionally you'll see a tranlucent black finish, those can look nice as well. So grey doesn't seem so "out there" to me, maybe.

Thanks newey. Yes we have some scrap pieces so we can make some tests. The paintor, who btw is not the same guy as the luthier, told us that for translucent light grey we should have considered it from the very beginning and build the guitar using some clear wood. With this mahogany he said that if we apply translucent light grey it will become just a darker orange-brown. Of course the darker the grey the more we can mask the orange-brown tone of the wood, but if we want to really avoid an orange kind of look, the grey will have to be so dark that it will end up being almost translucent black (which is also an option, but I'm not too fond of it, even less with all the black hardware I have got already).

[gerinski]

Feb 27, 2024 4:03:25 GMT -5 cynical1 said:

You are correct in that the mahogany has "favorite" colors. I've seen green dye used to take some of the red out of the mahogany...but I agree that grey may be a bit of a buzz kill once completed.

How good is your luthier with wood dye? I find it to be the best way to go transparent...or achieve a subtle burst finish if that sort of thing floats your boat...like a red into an amber. The mahogany isn't going to "pop" a lot of grain detail anyway, so a hint of color might be your best path...like an aged amber or brownish red mix. You preserve all the detail of the build with out the 1970's asking for their guitar back...

Welcome to the other 50% of building a guitar...

HTC1

Thanks cynical1. The paintor is not the same guy as the luthier, they collaborate with each other but they work independently in separate workshops. He told me that he is not too much in favour of using dye for this project precisely because we (actually I) are not 100% sure and convinced about the precise finishing, even when we can indeed make some tests with some scrap wood. Once he uses dye, there's no way back. While if he first applies transparent sealer, he can make as many corrections as we want until we get what we want. Honestly I am not expert enough, but this is his opinion.

Because the design itself is a one-off, I also wanted something a bit personal and different for the finish. Sure, everything has already been done, but I do not want something too typical like the classic Fender sunburst. The original idea of light grey with all-black hardware is certainly nothing unique but it's not too common. But now the desire to use translucent to preserve the looks of the construction has messed things up quite a bit... I should have thought about it from the very beginning and we could have used some clear wood for the body wings, but what is done is done...

On the other hand I have already a translucent red one, an Aria Pro-II CS-135, even if I nearly don't play it anymore. And a translucent blue Carvin, also neck-through but the body wings are poplar, much clearer than the mahogany so it's no problem. I don't like green nor violet, and I'm not crazy about orange - amber - brown tones...  I don't know...

[stevewf]

Some mahogany has lots of chatoyancy, which is something I find pretty special in wood, and a clear or translucent finish can show it off.

I just finished a mahogany body using Tru-Oil, and even though the wood in that body isn't very special, that cat's-eye look comes through nicely. After a few weeks of curing, it hardens up nicely. Reportedly, it wears off with heavy use... and also reportedly, it can simply be put back on.

People have mixed colorants with Tru-Oil to vary the look. I didn't - I used it unaltered. I also used it on the maple neck. Maybe you can tell that I'm happy with the result (photos soon).

[gerinski]

Feb 27, 2024 10:03:49 GMT -5 stevewf said:

Some mahogany has lots of chatoyancy, which is something I find pretty special in wood, and a clear or translucent finish can show it off.

I just finished a mahogany body using Tru-Oil, and even though the wood in that body isn't very special, that cat's-eye look comes through nicely. After a few weeks of curing, it hardens up nicely. Reportedly, it wears off with heavy use... and also reportedly, it can simply be put back on.

People have mixed colorants with Tru-Oil to vary the look. I didn't - I used it unaltered. I also used it on the maple neck. Maybe you can tell that I'm happy with the result (photos soon).

Thanks! I had never heard the word "chatoyancy" (English is not my native language), I believe you mean that effect that the grain and shine changes depending on the angle you look at it, right? I have not noticed that in my mahogany, but perhaps it's because it's still raw?
Yes if you could post some pic it would be much appreciated!

[stevewf]

Feb 27, 2024 12:27:42 GMT -5 gerinski said:

Thanks! I had never heard the word "chatoyancy" (English is not my native language), I believe you mean that effect that the grain and shine changes depending on the angle you look at it, right? I have not noticed that in my mahogany, but perhaps it's because it's still raw?
Yes if you could post some pic it would be much appreciated!

Your written English is excellent. The word "chatoyancy" to me sounds French in origin, which would mean more or less "cat's eye-ness". I'm slow at gathering photos, so please don't count on me for speed there.

I would say that for me the most surprising aspect of the Tru-Oil is how well it has hardened over the weeks. The guitar feels like it has a tough top coat on it.

In my case, the wood really isn't very spectacular. The reason I mention it in this thread is that when the wood was raw, it was difficult to see any cat's eye. Wetting the raw body with some naphtha gave me a glimpse of the effect that a clear topcoat might give, and it was enough to convince me to try.

If you can see some cat's eye effect even in the dry wood, then I'd venture a guess that it might be worth considering a clear/transparent top coat, which I think usually allows chatoyancy to show even more. Surely your painter would know how to wet the body for you to see, using a solvent like naphtha or 100% alcohol rather than water in order to avoid raising the grain.

[Yogi B]

Feb 26, 2024 16:14:44 GMT -5 gerinski said:

Now I have a dilemma, initially I had thought about painting it in opaque light grey ... if I paint it opaque this will be lost which is a pity, the guitar will look as if it could as well be made of plastic...

But if I want to paint it translucid, light grey is not an option because of the orange-brown tone of the mahogany. I am limited to warm colours such as red, orange, brown... or either leave it with a natural wood finish.

What about the approach Fender took on their Acoustasonic range? An opaque colour covering the flat face of the guitar, leaving the contours, sides & back as their natural (mahogany) colour. An example showing a definitely not warm "ocean turquoise":

They also did a Tele with a (slightly translucent) grey finish too:

[gerinski]

Feb 29, 2024 0:03:32 GMT -5 stevewf said:

Feb 27, 2024 12:27:42 GMT -5 gerinski said:

Your written English is excellent. The word "chatoyancy" to me sounds French in origin, which would mean more or less "cat's eye-ness". I'm slow at gathering photos, so please don't count on me for speed there.

I would say that for me the most surprising aspect of the Tru-Oil is how well it has hardened over the weeks. The guitar feels like it has a tough top coat on it.

In my case, the wood really isn't very spectacular. The reason I mention it in this thread is that when the wood was raw, it was difficult to see any cat's eye. Wetting the raw body with some naphtha gave me a glimpse of the effect that a clear topcoat might give, and it was enough to convince me to try.

If you can see some cat's eye effect even in the dry wood, then I'd venture a guess that it might be worth considering a clear/transparent top coat, which I think usually allows chatoyancy to show even more. Surely your painter would know how to wet the body for you to see, using a solvent like naphtha or 100% alcohol rather than water in order to avoid raising the grain.

Thanks a lot!

[gerinski]

Feb 29, 2024 1:23:32 GMT -5 Yogi B said:

Feb 26, 2024 16:14:44 GMT -5 gerinski said:

Now I have a dilemma, initially I had thought about painting it in opaque light grey ... if I paint it opaque this will be lost which is a pity, the guitar will look as if it could as well be made of plastic...

But if I want to paint it translucid, light grey is not an option because of the orange-brown tone of the mahogany. I am limited to warm colours such as red, orange, brown... or either leave it with a natural wood finish.

What about the approach Fender took on their Acoustasonic range? An opaque colour covering the flat face of the guitar, leaving the contours, sides & back as their natural (mahogany) colour. An example showing a definitely not warm "ocean turquoise":

They also did a Tele with a (slightly translucent) grey finish too:

Thanks Yogi B!  Yes that's certainly an option I had not thought about. At first sight I'm not crazy about it but it may be because it's something we are not used to. But indeed it ticks all the boxes, it allows using any colour I want for the body face, it preserves the view of the construction and it's quite original, different from the norm. I will certainly think about it!

[gerinski]

Well the guitar spent quite much longer than I expected at the paintshop due to some problems with the varnish supplier, finally I decided to leave it in a natural wooden finish, just varnished.

Now installing all the hardware and electronics, it's getting close to finished!

[gerinski]

Well this is going to be the last progress update before the final product. The only missing things are the covers of the electronics cavities, the cover of the trussrod in the headstock, and installing the strings and final testing and adjustment.























Designing the trussrod cover with the guitar name







And testing the engraving of the name

[cynical1]

That is one very nice looking guitar. The pictures are great.

Did we mention sound samples once everything is done?

HTC1

[unreg]

That looks like a real Floyd. And NICE guitar! 😀 Yes, please be a cynical1 and post sound.

Edit: p.s. the Key will “work” with your Floyd, but the PickPocket is much better.

[gerinski]

Thank You!

Yes it's a genuine Floyd Rose. I have already the finished guitar, I will post some pics asap.

Regarding sound samples, I see that if I click on the icon "insert audio" it asks me to point to some URL, so I should upload the audio to some website, do you know some where I can do it for free? I use Imgur for pics but don't think it allows uploading audio.

Honestly I'm a bit ashamed of posting audio / video because I'm such a bad player...   

[newey]

The Cloudinary upload allows for audio files. It's free but you do have to set up an account. Other options exist but that one has the easy-to-use button on our site.

[gerinski]

May 27, 2024 8:38:23 GMT -5 newey said:

The Cloudinary upload allows for audio files. It's free but you do have to set up an account. Other options exist but that one has the easy-to-use button on our site.

Thanks newey!

[gerinski]

The guitar is finally finished!! I have to say that I'm very pleased with the work by the luthier, we have been working together in this project for a few months and he has always been very receptive to my ideas while giving me wise advice when my ideas were not so good. He is quite a perfectionist and the finished guitar looks and feels great.



And it sounds great too! Quite oriented to hard / heavy playing but with a modern sound, and it sounds also great when played clean. I also appreciate that it makes no background noise at all.



Now I just need to re-learn to play, since it's been quite many years without playing.



I'm posting here a lot of pics! 
















































































































































The guitar came out a bit heavier than I would have liked, the mahogany used for the body wings is very dense, 4.032 kg (8.89 lbs).









And here it is finally in my "guitars wall", now it's time to play!!