Veener Application
This is a REAL bitch. No ifs ands or butts about it. If you think you can just slap this on and carve it out, it's not quite that simple. I highly suggest practicing on a cheap guitar or bass, or some type of wood. I have a nasty Peavey bass that I bought for $50 and did the veneer on the bass first before putting it on the Ibanez. I learned a lot by doing that, and it made this go much more smoothly. It is still a HUGE pain in the ass, though. |
| I bought my veneer from www.flamingoveneer.com and I suggest you check them out for your veneer needs. The cost of my veneer shipped to my door was $27.50. I paid for 2.5 square feet of big leaf quilted maple priced at $6.99 per sq.ft and $10 shipping. The dude actually sent me about 20 square feet for free. This kicked ass because I was able to pick from 7 different "patterns" after bookmatching all of the different areas of the veneer. This is a shot of the pattern I chose, because it was quite unique. I liked the two little "dimples" on each side of the bridge. I cut about 1" in excess all around the body, and about 2" extra near the bottom arm contour. | |
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| Find the EXACT center point on the guitar body and draw a straight line with pencil... this is your guide point. | |
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| Apply a piece of tape on the LEFT side of the line you drew, in otherwords the upper portion/players side of the guitar. Make sure it is straight. I actually used 4 pieces of tape to give the veneer a nice solid physical line to butt up against. |
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| Getting this right was more important than taking pics, so I did not photograph the actual GLUING process on either side. Basically, coat the veneer with Titebond II using a brush, and coat the lower half of the body with the glue. Press the veneer onto the body and rub it in, rubbing out any warps or bubbles. Make sure it is STRAIGHT, and make sure that glue is making contact everywhere. When it is set right, place bag of Kiddie sand; (Home Depot, 50lb bag $3.79) on top of the bastard and let it dry for THREE HOURS. Don't fiddle with it, or peak at it. Go practice some Vinnie Moore licks and check back in 3 hours. This shot shows the body with the bottom half of veneer glued on, and me holding the top half next to it as I plan on exactly where I'm going to place it. |
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| For the upper part, you need to switch from one big ass heavy bag to 4 or 5 smaller bags to evenly disperse the weight. I raided by local Bashas supermarket and stole a HUGE stack of bags. I got chased by the manager, and he ended up slipping on a banana peel in the parking lot. I then chased him down and we got into a fist fight. I told him it was my right as a regular customer to take as many plastic bags as I needed, at any time, whether or not I was actually buying groceries. After I gave him the beat down of his life, I headed back to my garage to glue on the other half of the veneer. Here is the 50 pound bag-o-sand, and the stolen plastic baggies, (there were actually 76 baggies, it was a good score.) |
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The second half ...
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| Of the 76 baggies, I only use 16. This is 4 bags, quad bagged, ie, 4 bags ganged together to create one super bag. I did not want the thing busting open and douching my guitar body with a bunch of nasty sand. So... do this. Make 4 bags of sand. You can see the Titebond II, and off to the far far left is a bag of Cheetos that I also stole from Bashas. I am listening to Jason Beckers Perpetual Burn as I do this phase of the project, and you should too. |
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| And yet again, I did not photograph the actual gluing process, because I didn't want to pull out the camera and risk the glue getting too tacky and fking this up just to document it on the web. Take my word for it though, underneath all of that stuff is the body with the top half of veneer glued to it. Make sure the weight is nicely distributed and there is PLENTY of weight on the lower arm rest, (the curve). The bag of Cheetos has now moved to the right side of your screen. |
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| And... fast forward many many hours later, and many many more hours later to carve this bastard out. Again, this is NOT easy. You have to be SUPER careful and go slooooooooooowwww... You are just taking out bit by bit by it of wood. It's not like you can just nicely carve away huge chunks. Takes time. I temporarily threw in the pickups and laid the bridge on top for effect. This was a major pain in the balls, and I would not want to do this every day! |
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(yah yah yah.. the aspect ratio on this thumbnail is messed up... bite me.) Click on this image to see a super high res photo of the almost done, almost carved quilted veneer top. I still have some precision cutting to do all around the sides and a lil' more in the pickup cavities. This is not fun, and be prepared to spend a LOT of time when it comes to this. One slip, tweak, or geek and you are TOAST. This will be stained blue, (darker on the edges, lighter on the inside) then sanding sealer will be applied, then 5,000 coats of clear nitro lacquer. Not done yet. Check back. Bye. |
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