All cleared for action. Click to enlarge.
So I put about 15 coats of clearcoat today on the pickguard. This particular poly has a hardener which gives it (potentially) a hard mirror finish. While the finish is indeed hard I decided that I wanted a somewhat pitted look to go along with the tarnished silver. I started sanding before it was completly set to get the effect. Now it looks and quite amazingly feels like an old metal sign that one might find perhaps on the side of the road on Route 66 somewhere. The gloss finish is the only part that isn’t authentic in the relic’ing but I wanted to protect the pickguard. Now, if you get too many scratches you can just buff them out or leave them for a nice effect.
The only thing that I wasn’t too pleased with is that the poly reduced the vibrance of the colors. The nice blues, purples and oranges in the silver tarnish are much more muted now. Overall though, I’ll call it a successful experiment. What do you think?
Here’s a close-up…
Nice and crappy looking! Click to enlarge.
Finished POW made me say wow. Actually I said “oh cool” but I can’t make that rhyme with POW.
Very cool and unique. How do you come up with these ideas and processes?
Kevin.
nicely done, sir….
Very cool pickguard, then i look at this marvel thing, I feel that there is a pretty big soul in it )
Still love this pickguard. I find myself digging the distressed look more and more (as I continue to age less-than-gracefully).
I wonder if I can convince MHead to distress a new guitar for me. It could be part of a custombuilt “to Hell and back” line. I know Bare Knuckles can be ordered distressed. Can Grovers?
Wow. If I could buy an Ivory Bender distressed like a Fano, I would seriously lose my sh!t.