Time For Something New

[NoisyDante]

At long last I got to reassemble the hardware and electronics. Started with the headstock and put on new metal signature decal. Like a dumass I accidentally ordered the wrong ebony buttons, got the correct ones on order now for Phase II tuners. The pickups are the Seymour Duncan Alpha/Omega set I had gotten for the ‘nebula’ version of this guitar. Everything else went in easily and it sounds great. I have to do some tweaking with the setup and there are a couple little things to address with the clear coat, but I’m declaring this rebuild done!

 

[veinbuster]

It looks bloody awesome.
Excellent job.

 

[Aahzz]

Absolutely freaking gorgeous.

 

[Broseph]

Absolutely amazing. I would frame a collage of the previous versions of the guitar so anybody walking in that home will realize all the previous iterations of it. Makes you appreciate that work of art for what it is. Congrats.

 

[Moondog Wily]

Looks like Noisy Dante is set to make some beautiful noise with the new beautiful toy! Excellent work! Couldn't have done it (better myself)!

 

[Fram]

Very classy, looks amazing

 

[NoisyDante]

Absolutely amazing. I would frame a collage of the previous versions of the guitar so anybody walking in that home will realize all the previous iterations of it. Makes you appreciate that work of art for what it is. Congrats.

It’s fun to see the different versions side by side. I’ll take it as an analogy that 2021 will be better than 2020.

 

[Aahzz]

It’s fun to see the different versions side by side. I’ll take it as an analogy that 2021 will be better than 2020.

I'd say the current look is the best it's had - it's perfection.

 

[docteurseb]

Amazing looking makeover.
That is a beautiful shade of purple/violet you achieved here !
The metallic purple was fantastic too, but this takes it up to another level.

One word of caution: Fiebing's blue leather dyes fade quite quickly if exposed to daylight.
I made an Eriza verde-style one last summer (Fiebing's turquoise undiluted, following by Fiebing's yellow undiluted) on a test piece, and when I looked at it recently it clearly was a lot more yellow than it used to.
It wasn't even in direct sunlight. I'd anticipate their purple to be similarly sensitive to light. The blue Keda base might hold up a little better though.

 

[NoisyDante]

Amazing looking makeover.
That is a beautiful shade of purple/violet you achieved here !
The metallic purple was fantastic too, but this takes it up to another level.

One word of caution: Fiebing's blue leather dyes fade quite quickly if exposed to daylight.
I made an Eriza verde-style one last summer (Fiebing's turquoise undiluted, following by Fiebing's yellow undiluted) on a test piece, and when I looked at it recently it clearly was a lot more yellow than it used to.
It wasn't even in direct sunlight. I'd anticipate their purple to be similarly sensitive to light. The blue Keda base might hold up a little better though.

Good to know, I do keep my guitars out on wall hangers but they’re positioned so they don’t get any direct sunlight, and any indirect light through UV tinted windows and shades is for about 15 minutes at sundown.

Another fun aspect of this build: this signed backplate was given to me by Paul when I first met him at an event in 1997, but I didn’t have a CU22 to put it in until this year. I might order some mahogany backplates but having this one on it is pretty cool.

 

[Josh W.]

That turned out awesome. Well done, sir!

 

[bodia]

Seriously fun project to watch.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Seriously fun project to watch.

I agree! So what’s next?

 

[NoisyDante]

I agree! So what’s next?

Wondering that myself.

 

[docteurseb]

Good to know, I do keep my guitars out on wall hangers but they’re positioned so they don’t get any direct sunlight, and any indirect light through UV tinted windows and shades is for about 15 minutes at sundown.

Another fun aspect of this build: this signed backplate was given to me by Paul when I first met him at an event in 1997, but I didn’t have a CU22 to put it in until this year. I might order some mahogany backplates but having this one on it is pretty cool.

That should hopefully be fine then.

For reference here's what happened to a test piece I taped to my window on April 21st, i.e. just 9 days ago:

That window has daylight all day and a good chunk of direct sunlight as well.
Mind you the original color was likely even more vivid since the left side was protected with just 1 layer of tape which is quite translucent.
That color was using Fiebing's light blue and Fiebing's red.

 

[NoisyDante]

That should hopefully be fine then.

For reference here's what happened to a test piece I taped to my window on April 21st, i.e. just 9 days ago:

That window has daylight all day and a good chunk of direct sunlight as well.
Mind you the original color was likely even more vivid since the left side was protected with just 1 layer of tape which is quite translucent.
That color was using Fiebing's light blue and Fiebing's red.

That’s a nice Northern Lights clone. I did notice from my test pieces that the water based pink stain faded pretty quickly on the pieces that didn’t have any sanding sealer or clear coat on it, but the ones that were sealed were more resilient.

Well, fingers crossed it doesn’t fade cause this was a lot of work!

 

[docteurseb]

Those test pieces only have a coat of superglue, hardly a protective layer (it's more to get a better idea of the color when clear coated).
I still wasn't expecting that amount of fading.

The Fiebing's Red piece did a lot better, but the loss of vividness is already showing up:

I did that window test after one of the PRS members told me about a Youtube video testing the light fastness of Keda, TransTint, Fiebing and another leather dye.
Fiebing's turquoise (or the light blue, I forgot) was completely gone after 30 days.
The other brand of blue leather dye didn't fare too much better and would have been gone in a few more weeks.
Keda/TransTint resisted much better.

That got me concerned slightly as I'm going to stain a quilt top in that red color scheme
I'll probably put a UV film on my windows, but since the room gets daylight all day I'm also going to case the guitar to be safe.

 

[Alan Jurgens]

So much talent in this thread! Very impressed with what you both can do!

 

[NoisyDante]

Those test pieces only have a coat of superglue, hardly a protective layer (it's more to get a better idea of the color when clear coated).
I still wasn't expecting that amount of fading.

The Fiebing's Red piece did a lot better, but the loss of vividness is already showing up:

I did that window test after one of the PRS members told me about a Youtube video testing the light fastness of Keda, TransTint, Fiebing and another leather dye.
Fiebing's turquoise (or the light blue, I forgot) was completely gone after 30 days.
The other brand of blue leather dye didn't fare too much better and would have been gone in a few more weeks.
Keda/TransTint resisted much better.

That got me concerned slightly as I'm going to stain a quilt top in that red color scheme
I'll probably put a UV film on my windows, but since the room gets daylight all day I'm also going to case the guitar to be safe.

That’s another really nice effect you achieved there, thinking of a raspberry fade sorta thing?

I’m interested to know how much the sanding sealer helps maintain the color, if you do another fade test on the window perhaps seal a portion along with the raw stained area and the taped area. This study wouldn’t made for a WAY more interesting Masters thesis than the one I did. Characterizations of Low-Cut Filters in Handheld Digital Recorders Using Long-Term Average Sorted Spectrum Analysis. snooooooore

 

[docteurseb]

That’s another really nice effect you achieved there, thinking of a raspberry fade sorta thing?

I’m interested to know how much the sanding sealer helps maintain the color, if you do another fade test on the window perhaps seal a portion along with the raw stained area and the taped area. This study wouldn’t made for a WAY more interesting Masters thesis than the one I did. Characterizations of Low-Cut Filters in Handheld Digital Recorders Using Long-Term Average Sorted Spectrum Analysis. snooooooore

Thanks. That red/pink one is to match the PRS Private Stock "Graveyard Glow/Fade" color scheme.
The red on the picture certainly has a slight color cast that makes it look raspberry-like but it's a really vivid red in person.

Thing is I don't seem to have any sealer/finish that would provide a particularly good UV resistance. The epoxied test piece I did in Eriza Verde still faded noticeably after 6 month sitting on a shelf in indirect daylight.