5 string buckeye burl/mahogany neck through

[lbridenstine]

Personally, I have an inkjet and no access to a laser printer other than stores that do prints, but I'm sure they wouldn't shut down their printers, wait for them to cool down, then print it on decal paper. I also haven't been able to get any good dark black in 8.5 x 11" prints from copy places. My "engineering blue print" of a full scale guitar was rich black, but the 8.5" x 11"s weren't at all.

My inkjet is a photo printer though and it makes really nice prints.

 

[lbridenstine]

Also, I know Canon makes some photo printers specifically for printing really rich, contrasty black and white photos (I think they print color too, but have extra greyscale cartridges) and I bet those would be amazing for this stuff. Not that I want to spend the money on one right now, haha.

BassHappy, let me think about the design. I want to see if I can do something with the outline one and make it bigger or something. That might be cool, right? I want to do some mockups and see what things look like. I like some of the colors too. I still really like the copper, pearl, black pearl, and black. The silver and gold look really good on the light wood too. The next few builds I'm doing are going to have light colored headstocks, so I'll have options with what you have already printed me for those.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

That looks lovely, the shimmer on the mahogany back looks fantastic.

 

[Gabbs]

You need a specialized printer and special ink to make high-quality metallic waterslide decals. You can find refurbished ones on eBay for not a lot of money.
Your decals will look like the ones from Fender or Gibson or whoever because they'll be the same thing.

 

[BassHappy]

Also, I know Canon makes some photo printers specifically for printing really rich, contrasty black and white photos (I think they print color too, but have extra greyscale cartridges) and I bet those would be amazing for this stuff. Not that I want to spend the money on one right now, haha.

BassHappy, let me think about the design. I want to see if I can do something with the outline one and make it bigger or something. That might be cool, right? I want to do some mockups and see what things look like. I like some of the colors too. I still really like the copper, pearl, black pearl, and black. The silver and gold look really good on the light wood too. The next few builds I'm doing are going to have light colored headstocks, so I'll have options with what you have already printed me for those.

Hey Lisa

Sounds great to me - yeah, take your time and do some playing around - this is all one big grand experiment! Let me know what you would like. Nothing is hard - the main work is done and it's just a matter of a few small details - resizing, reflecting, swapping a few out - and hitting print again. I would be happy to send another sheet or two.

I liked the idea of the laser, because when I took the inkjet paper to my color group, I had to take a can of clear lacquer too! It was awkward asking them to spray a couple of light coats after they came out of the printer!
Since the decal sheets were too heavy for their printer, I didn't have to worry about it in the end.

 

[BassHappy]

You need a specialized printer and special ink to make high-quality metallic waterslide decals. You can find refurbished ones on eBay for not a lot of money.
Your decals will look like the ones from Fender or Gibson or whoever because they'll be the same thing.

Hey Gabbs

Thanks for the tip - that is a pretty reasonable price!

Might have to look into one of those....

OMG - according to their website it's all a bit archaic.

Really? Windoze drivers only??????

 

[BassHappy]

You need a specialized printer and special ink to make high-quality metallic waterslide decals. You can find refurbished ones on eBay for not a lot of money.
Your decals will look like the ones from Fender or Gibson or whoever because they'll be the same thing.

Hey Gabbs

Just want you to know - in reading a lot of recent threads and doing a lot of research - I am seeing a pretty universal thumbs down for the Alps, even on the hobbyist level. Yesterday's technology. Lots of complaints about third party OS-X drivers and incompatibilities and lots of chatter about how the inkjets force the use of the clear spray lacquer. The trend is moving towards lasers because they say the colors are "brighter" and the process a bit easier and more consistent and stable. What they are also saying is that the laser can look a little bright next to the metallic ink when A-B'd. They also say that after a couple of coats of clear, the laser looks very natural and stays brighter while the metallic dulls a pinch. I dunno, it's what they are saying. Of course, a lot of solutions mentioned are EXPENSIVE laser printers - I paid under $500 for my HP.

What is interesting to me, and I want to try it - several folks mentioned that raising the DPI to 600 and using special paper settings on an affordable decent quality laser printer will give you outstanding results - especially on the silvers and golds. Virtually indistinguishable from the Alps type metallic inkjet printers they say. Apparently though, solid white is still a problem on the inexpensive lasers. I must say, I have been VERY happy with the silver and gold foils and leaf off my printer even at 300dpi.

Just passing along what I am learning. I don't know if my printer prints above 300 dpi, but I will try it if it does, and mess around with the paper settings. They say the "color photo paper" option - if the printer has one - can make a huge difference at 600dpi using the decal paper.

I also want to check in with my buddies at the Color Group on their uber expensive lasers. If the paper can feed alright, I may have them run off a sheet at 1200dpi just for giggles and to see how it would look.

 

[BassHappy]

Hey, looks like I am in luck....

My printer DOES print 600 X 600dpi and funny enough - one of the "drawbacks" of purchase in a review I read is that the colors at times were "unnaturally bright - not recommended for company brochures". Sounds pretty perfect to me actually - the brighter the better especially on golds and silvers. I might really be on to something at 600dpi with the color photo paper option! My only fear is that the 600dpi will take a few minutes to print, and if the printer gets too warm, it will smear the decals. Sorry, Lisa for hijacking the thread - but for your next batch I will try the 600dpi and the color photo paper option and see what kind of difference it makes!

I just remembered, there are also lots of color settings within Illustrator that I can try. I know my printer Jakprints always asks me to use the SWOP setting when I am exporting the files for them on business cards and stuff. As I recall, there are lots of settings in there. Fool around long enough and you might get lucky with a setting that isn't even intended to brighten or enhance the metallic effect of the decal - but does so just the same.

Some interesting stuff here:

Decal Paper FAQ - THE CRAFTY PRINTER

White decal paper is the way to go to brighten them up on a dark wood or background, but you would have to cut them literally right on the edge of the decal, which is tricky business.

 

[MrArose13]

Lookn good Lisa!

I'm no help for decals, but I'm loving seeing the community at work.

 

[Smilodon]

Printing on transparent materials is never easy. What you really need is a "CMYW printer", but they tend to be on the expensive side. :/ You could get a black toner cartridge, drill a hole in it and fill it with white toner, if you could find it. You will have to be crafty with the software as black colors would show up as white in the print.

The best bet is probably to do as you already have done, print in color an fill in with a pen/paint where you need bright colors. If you want o get fancy there are model paints that you can paint and polish to a metal-like finish (The paint looks matte when you apply it, but it dries with a waxy finish that can be polished with some cotton). If you mask of the area you need to fill on the bass, paint and then put the decal over you could get a metallic sheen through the decal. You will need to be pretty precise, though.

As for the toner smearing; Normally this shouldn't happen as the fuser (heating element) in the printer is temperature controlled. The printer won't start until it's warm enough. However, if your decal paper is thick enough the printer may slow down the paper feed to compensate for the increased mass it needs to heat. You may be able to override this in software by selecting "plain paper".

 

[BassHappy]

Printing on transparent materials is never easy. What you really need is a "CMYW printer", but they tend to be on the expensive side. :/ You could get a black toner cartridge, drill a hole in it and fill it with white toner, if you could find it. You will have to be crafty with the software as black colors would show up as white in the print.

The best bet is probably to do as you already have done, print in color an fill in with a pen/paint where you need bright colors. If you want o get fancy there are model paints that you can paint and polish to a metal-like finish (The paint looks matte when you apply it, but it dries with a waxy finish that can be polished with some cotton). If you mask of the area you need to fill on the bass, paint and then put the decal over you could get a metallic sheen through the decal. You will need to be pretty precise, though.

As for the toner smearing; Normally this shouldn't happen as the fuser (heating element) in the printer is temperature controlled. The printer won't start until it's warm enough. However, if your decal paper is thick enough the printer may slow down the paper feed to compensate for the increased mass it needs to heat. You may be able to override this in software by selecting "plain paper".

Hey Smilodon

Thanks for all the info!

The decal paper I use I love - and it has been praised in several states by some well-known folks in the field. As you can see by the instructions that come with the paper - you have to print before the printer gets really hot or the decals smear, or in extreme cases can melt onto the fuser.

Additionally, my decals have never had any problems being "bright"enough, nor the the colors need to be "brightened" when used on a normal Fender type - light colored maple or equivalent headstock. The decals I made for Lisa were the first time there was a problem and she applied it over really dark wood. That is the only part we are looking for a solution to.

Thanks, though....

 

[lbridenstine]

Guess what I did yesterday? WET SAND.

Well, technically I dry sanded with 800, wet sanded with 1200 (flexible polishing paper), then decided to just use a Scotch Brite to take out the rest of the shinies, which worked really good. I went back over it very quickly/lightly with the 1200 just to basically see if the Scotch Brite left any scratch marks, but I don't see any.

This seems to look a bit better now that it's sanded. You can still definitely see the decal paper, but oh well. My fault for not putting it on gloss.

I'm planning on doing a very light polish by hand today and hopefully squeeze in assembly and wiring too.

 

[lbridenstine]

Well, I didn't get all of the assembly or any of the wiring done, but I did some things at least.

Two things I've run into:
-The nut slot is too shallow and I have binding on the edges, so I don't see any way to deepen it nicely. I think I may have to just file down the bottom of the nut a bunch.
-The control cover won't pop off when I press the one side anymore. There must be too much finish around the edges or something, so I need to get that fixed before I put the electronics in there. Right now I'm able to reach through the jack hole to push the cover up to get it to come off, but I obviously can't do that once the jack is in.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Well, I didn't get all of the assembly or any of the wiring done, but I did some things at least.

Two things I've run into:
-The nut slot is too shallow and I have binding on the edges, so I don't see any way to deepen it nicely. I think I may have to just file down the bottom of the nut a bunch.
-The control cover won't pop off when I press the one side anymore. There must be too much finish around the edges or something, so I need to get that fixed before I put the electronics in there. Right now I'm able to reach through the jack hole to push the cover up to get it to come off, but I obviously can't do that once the jack is in.

Absolutely stunning, Lisa.

 

[lbridenstine]

Absolutely stunning, Lisa.

Thank you!

 

[lbridenstine]

Okay, bare with me because it's 6 a.m. and I may not be thinking straight yet.

I'm planning on doing the wiring after work today (assembly got done last night). I did re-solder the wires that came loose already.

There are 2 wiring diagrams - one came with the pickups and one came with the pre-amp harness/electronics. I'm assuming that I disregard the one that came with the pickups in this case. I don't see a bridge ground wire anywhere on the other one though (let me know if you spot it), so on this one it shows it going to tone.

So, I'm assuming it goes with the other wires that are soldered to the washer on the blend?

Then, I just want to clarify, the pickup ground wires are the ones without the tubing, right?

In this diagram, it looks like the grounds are just floating. Does that seem right? If so should I tape the ends?

You'd think I'd have no questions considering everything else is pre-wired, but yup... over thinking things.

Thanks in advance for any responses from people who know more about wire-ups than I do.


EDIT: Looking at it again, the second diagram doesn't show any of the grounds as being connected, but they all are. So maybe I should follow where it goes on the first diagram.

 

[Emanuel Apascaritei]

Hi Lisa, first of all: Nice bass!

The grounds are not floating, this is the way to draw the ground symbol in the electronics world. All the grounds must be connected between them. Hope it helped.

 

[Jisch]

...and the braided wires are the ground wires.

 

[Lonnybass]

...and the braided wires are the ground wires.

...and what I've found works best on those Bart setups is to use a length of jumper wire to connect the braided strands to the grounding lug on the output jack along with the rest of the ground wires.

Lonnybass

 

[lbridenstine]

Thank you for all the help guys! I got it wired up yesterday.

The bass is basically done, there are 2-3 issues.
1. The treble pot pops on the amp when turned far left or right
2. I got acetone on the superglue/ebony dust mix behind the nut that turned the superglue white/foggy
3. The bass is too long for the long scale strings to go string thru!

So I just top loaded the strings and hopefully he can find some longer strings to put on there. I'll work on the other 2 issues today/tomorrow. I have someone coming over tomorrow who knows more about electronics than I do and has worked with Bartolini pre-amps before, so he's going to take a look at it if I don't get it fixed up before then and help fine-tune the gain control and stuff.

I'll do the photoshoot tomorrow too and hopefully hand over the bass! :mrgreen:

By the way, one of his (the new bass owner) friends made this picture yesterday and I thought it was pretty funny.

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