@Boudoir Guitar thank you for showing interest in the "Paisley Royale..." I admit I posted that thing for a little bit of guitary "shock value" but nobody took the bait
It all started fall 2018 when I decided I needed to create a new kind of paisley tele. At the same time I was also gassing for a sparkle/flake guitar so I decided why not attempt to create the most outrageous pink paisley ever seen by human eyes?
I started with a regular Allparts alder body, sealed it and painted typical rattlecan silver.
Then I took almost a year trying to figure out how to make this stupid sparkle paisley, without watersides or a flake gun like I've seen done before. There were various test attempts at using sparkle glue which were horrible fails. Then I lit on the idea of using crystal gems. Once I got them in, figuring out how to make the pattern, how to secure them to the body, and even just plain handling these miniature gems were all serious problems that needed solving.
In the meantime, I got in a thinline style pearloid guard and modded it accordingly to the final unique hybrid look I was shooting for.
I also dremelled open a tele neck pup for that rarer and open slug hot rod look I love so much
Doing what I wanted to do required me to pretty much line up all the hardware and bridge before actually finishing so I could figure out exactly where I could place the crystal gems and where I could not.
I then printed out some paisleys and planned out the overall pattern. Changed a bit in the end but this was an extremely helpful step.
At first, I tried various ways to handle the gems. They'd stick to my fingers, even just breathing hard would move 'em around. They were all over the damn place
. It seemed impossible to get anywhere with my fat old fingers in the way.
Tried various different glues, but it took me about six months to finally figure out using clear UV activated resin was the way to do this proper.
I finally figured out using a splinter of a popsicle stick and a damp sponge allowed me very precise placement control gem-by-gem. Put some resin down, plop the gems on top, arrange, smack 'em with the ultraviolet light, repeat.
It affords a fellow plenty enough working time to position the gems, then you hit each small section for a couple minutes with the UV. It's very strong. I know this because I had to remove a couple small sections to redo them! Not that easy. Plus they all lock to each other in the end. Super secure.
I did have to smear a thin coat of silver sparkle glue all over my beautiful silver top to give the surface some "tooth" for the gems and the resin to be able to stick to.
To address the issue of getting the gems into a repeatable pattern, I cut a small plastic frame of the shapes, which I used to form the outlines of the paisley butas, then infilled in my decided-upon pattern and colour combo.
Decided to stay in the traditional pink paisley realm with hints of green, pink, magenta and small brassy gems, and all those white gems in the background.
The main trick is, get your outside border rows done... be extra careful with that. Then, outline all your hardware, and fill.
Next time I do this, I will dremel down the outside edge just a bit so the first two outside rows are down flush with wood. They are secure now, with extra UV glue to sort of smooth it, but the outside edge ridge is not quite as pretty as it could be. Live and learn.
in late 2019 Covid hit us all, and I got laid off my regular job. I suddenly had more time to work on this than I wanted. I made the decision to go hard at strapmaking at that time also. What was I gonna do? Watch Netflix?
I could actually only work on this top for a beer or two a time or so. My old eyes would go totally buggy as I was also using magnifying craft glasses to do it right. I could usually get about one paisley pair done a session I think less than that actually
Then filling the spaces. I figure 50 or 60 hours to place all these tiny frickers.
Underestimated how many white gems I needed so work stopped for a couple months so I could acquire more.
These are flat-backed crystal gems commonly used in the ladies fingernail decorating industry. They come in every colour you can imagine and a bunch of different sizes too.
But, I've refinished several guitars and I can tell you the cost of 30,000 of these gems is less expensive than 6 rattle cans LOL! But, obviously a bit more time consuming to properly apply.
Once the top and headstock were done... I gave into my sudden deep urge to carve in a tummy cut. Should have done it first off, but hindsight is 20/20. I now wish I would have done an arm bevel too, all you tele purists be damned!
So, one nice sunny day just I had at 'er
To be continued...
