Personalizing My New Montezuma Brown 381V69

oreca · Post by **oreca** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:45 am

You do show a lot of talent for making stuff like this.

I like it, can't wait to see the guitar finished with the Accent Vibrato and the "special TRC"

Can you give a us a clue what you're planning to do for it?

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:15 am

Gosh...a clue...

Let me think about that one.

What would YOU do to make a TRC special?

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:49 am

One hell of a guitar Paul....well done. All the changes you have made are very much in keeping & sympathy with the instrument itself, for which you are to be commended. You have added the kind of attention to detail that a custom shop would offer & I wish you lived closer.....a couple of mine could be 'shopped'!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:01 am

Tony, I travel to UK twice a year on average, and have friends who go even more often on biz. Had a friend who lived in Newton Abbot--is that near you?

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:07 am

Newton Abbot is about 6 miles from me. When you are coming over next, I insist that you stop over for a night or two as my guest. I'll show you the dizzy delights of Teignmouth!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:17 am

Was there June last; stayed in Brighton and travelled all over the south coast on the trains and buses. Primary destination was Beaulieu; National Motor Museum was great and Lord Montague was a most gracious host.

He gifted me a Rolls-Royce...

NOT!

But I had tremendous weather. Then I left and it ****** rain for weeks. Lucky, I guess. You are on my itinerary next trip. Thanks, Tony!

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:52 am

Absolutely flawless! I expect we will see the same with the TRC and glad you are adding the Accent.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:15 pm

Update: Prototype "special" TRC

The first trial piece was finished this afternoon on the laser cutter, which also engraves.

Here's a photo of the trial piece installed:

It's not embossed metal like an old Rick or Electro nameplate, but rather a piece of acrylic, engraved and backpainted to match the pickguards, for a contemporary take on the old style metal TRCs.

I've just fine-tuned the artwork to remove some digital artifacts which occurred in the translation from Photoshop CS (original art) to Illustrator CS (to adjust the outline with Beziér curves and set line widths) to Ashlar Graphite, which the laser cutter reads.

The laser cutter not only cuts the material digitally from the Graphite file, but will also engrave to any depth and pattern that you tell it to.

So this TRC is engraved like an old refrigerator badge (or Kay guitar headstock!), from the back, in reverse, so that from the front you can read the engraving properly. It's then back-painted just like the pickguards. The logo stands out in relief from the flat background, but is buried beneath the acrylic sheet crystal.

The next piece will be a final version, although I'll be trying some other variations on the logo colors. The laser cutter is right now cutting several for this guitar as well as my 660-12 so I can experiment.

Here are the links to the six process photos on Photobucket:

[IMG]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/13.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/14.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/15.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/16.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/17.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/18.jpg[IMG]

Still to go: Small details and the last big change--Accent vibrato.

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:49 pm

Brilliant!

Having all the right equipment surely makes for a professional-looking result.

Looks fantastic!

I bow and scrape before you!!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:30 pm

I saved your original message.

This one is less embarrassing.

The part about the crust put me in stitches!

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:46 pm

Extremely Nice in every photo. Of course you had the finest guitar to start with.

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:55 pm

I believe that it is in fact an old Arab expression of self-inferiority but I can't recall the word/words that were used instead of crust.

I decided to ease it off a bit!

Cheers

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:03 am

MMmmm, laser...

bill_yantz · Post by **bill_yantz** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:20 am

Hey Paul, ah.., can I come stay with you for a few days? (Ha, ha).

What a great tool you have in that laser cutter. Your work is impeccable.

BTW, Gretsch engraves their pickguards like this since the 60s (I don't know what tool they use, just the end result). I have an original 60s, unpainted, and the "Gretsch" logo is engraved in the back. My other two new ones are the same, its very nice and clean looking.

Side-note:
I like doing things like this too. Recently I decide that I would give it a go and construct a new nut with wider string spacing on my CW. I made one with some very rough tools just to see if it would work. It did. So, I acquired a set of nut files and proceeded to make two more, each with slight variations. What difference did this make? Well, I can tell you that a little is a lot in this case. Its nice to exchange similar stories with Ric friends.

paul_yan · Post by **paul_yan** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 6:03 am

Bravo, Paul!!!
That's the best looking gold RIC TRC on earth!
You've made your 381 V69 MB an absolute enticing beauty.