Spitfire tort pics...

[Spitfire7]

JIO, do you know if Fender Custom Shop's tort pickguards are dot patterns, too? I think that they do have depth, but I may well be wrong.

I will let Geo chime in here too, but since I just just posted and just saw this, I wanted to see if I could answer that question for you. Modern Fender tort does have some depth and is not copied pixelated stuff like copied Japanese guards, but the main issue that makes Fender guards no longer like its original vintage counterpart is that they now use different materials, such as new dyes, etc which make it have very sharp lines, harsh edges, vibrant dark color, with a very stringy flowing appearance. In the 60's the guards were soft, smokey, puffy, swirly, with mixing colors that tend to blend oppose to divide and counteract from each other. Many time vintage guards will also have almost a blurry like appearance to them as well. So in modern terms I could say vintage guards were film grain speckled and soft like celluloid film images, and modern guards are in High Definition, sharp and crystal clear with deeper richer contrast.

Here are some picture of vintage guards up close so you can see what I mean. I mixed in a few of my own guards too. Granted there are some vintage guards that were a little more sharp, but in the wide majority this is more how they used to be.

 

[Midak]

Thanks Spitfire7, I understand what you say. Nice photo-examples, too. Can you tell us more about the procedure for the tort-texture pattern?

 

[Midak]

Oh, I asked for the general procedure, nothing fancy or giving secrets away.

 

[JIO]

JIO, do you know if Fender Custom Shop's tort pickguards are dot patterns, too? I think that they do have depth, but I may well be wrong.
I would love to order a New, Vintage Burgundy, Speckled '60s one for my NOS CS '64 Jazz, but unfortunately the total cost including shipping (I live in Greece) is prohibited at the moment.

Looks like Mark covered it Midak - and speaking as a custom maker myself, I could do a step-by-step of how I gild an instrument (and I have here on tb and on my fb page) but that's only the physical part and doesn't express the depth of critical study, deftness of application (hand/touch) or the creative guidance/composition of my 'eye'. Maybe needless to say, this is what makes each product truly one-of-a-kind. In Marks case, there is an added physical technical aspect dealing with the plastic material and formulas of dye etc that I'm guessing is proprietary and in this regard yes, with need of justified nondisclosure. Hope this helps -

 

[wraub]

Seems like the Legends Guitar guy on Ebay uses actual celluloid, unsure about Spitfire.

Guess you'd have to expect some future shrinkage. Anyone confirm this on the Spitfire stuff?

 

[Midak]

Looks like Mark covered it Midak - and speaking as a custom maker myself, I could do a step-by-step of how I gild an instrument (and I have here on tb and on my fb page) but that's only the physical part and doesn't express the depth of critical study, deftness of application (hand/touch) or the creative guidance/composition of my 'eye'. Maybe needless to say, this is what makes each product truly one-of-a-kind. In Marks case, there is an added physical technical aspect dealing with the plastic material and formulas of dye etc that I'm guessing is proprietary and in this regard yes, with need of justified nondisclosure. Hope this helps -

I asked out of pure curiosity - a very basic, simple answer would work for me.

 

[Nobody]

Guess you'd have to expect some future shrinkage.

I don't know about that. People really seem to like tort.

 

[Nobody]

drool

 

[JIO]

Seems like the Legends Guitar guy on Ebay uses actual celluloid, unsure about Spitfire.

Guess you'd have to expect some future shrinkage. Anyone confirm this on the Spitfire stuff?

Celluloid shrinkage seems mostly a non-issue, or at least dependent on individual conditions and over a long period of time. As much as I have seen number of 60's Fender pg's (50 yrs old) with shrinkage problems, my '66 P-bass for example is not suffering noticeable shrinkage. Heat is most definitely a determining factor so depending on where these instruments live most of those years will be more critical to shrinkage.

 

[Spitfire7]

I can't tell you much of the process other than I make my material in very similar stages to how it was made in the 60s. The Fender suppliers have slightly changed their process and chemicals today which loses some of its authentic vintage qualities. That's why my material looks so close to almost identical to the vintage original stuff because I try to keep within the same process. Fender is now looking for long lasting products, safe for the environment, and a more efficient process and they do a great job at all of that.

 

[Snaxster]

Summery indeed. This pickguard was done as faded orange, subtle 60s, and light relic.

Mark pointed out to me that my processing of his photos made the pickguard look too sharp and contrasty; that in his photos, he worked to try to preserve the soft appearance of the visual texture. So I just swapped into my first post here a version of the photo much more like his original. I couldn't resist changing the white balance a bit, but I think the photo is otherwise now truer to Mark's intent.

When I have this pickguard installed, I will post photos and be careful to preserve its real appearance as much as possible.

Today I picked up my new $200 Spitfire pickguard from the post office. Though I didn't have daylight for it, this is the most accurate photo I could make on short notice. What do you think?

 

[JIO]

I don't see a pic of the pg - am I missing something?

 

[Snaxster]

I don't see a pic of the pg - am I missing something?

I did not post a photo of the pickguard. And you may be missing something.

Probably you're missing the same thing that Mark omits from his lengthy disclaimer/terms of service clause:

Without the customer's prior consent, Mark will include his religious evangelism with each order. If the customer complains about it and requests a refund because of it, Mark will deny the request on the grounds that the pickguard was not defective.

 

[nerkoids]

I'm as atheistic as anyone out there, so forgive my transgressive question, but why do the most ridiculous thing one could do and destroy it?

Sure, I'd be peeved at the inclusion of some paraphrased scripture, but dude, you got your pickguard, and he still got your money. Not sure what kind of message you were hoping to send.

 

[Arizona Jones]

The same thing is posted on his website.

Why, oh, why, if you have this strong a stance on the subject did you not do a little research, or ask the man up front?

Free country, the man can do what he wants.

 

[nerkoids]

And if anything, you've given him another opportunity for him to spread his irelevant and uncalled for sermon.

If you're really secure in your atheism, nothing he includes in correspondence should have any more than a rolleyes and a head shake. It's just silly text that either means something to you, or it doesn't.

It would be one thing if he refused to sell the pickguard to you, but you got the goods, and it doesn't contain Jesus in the Tort.

Your choice. I would have returned it because it doesn't look nice, or even look like tort.

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

OK guys, I had to do some editing here.

It is a valid complaint when you order an item and religious material that you were not aware of it shipped with it. I'm sure no one would want to place an order with Conan Pickups and then receive a diatribe on how Crom is the one true God and all must fall before him.

However, such complaints must be expressed respectfully and without insults. An appropriate response would be something like "the item I ordered contained religious material. I do not approve of this being included in my order and don't wish to support it financially, so I'm returning/selling/throwing it away."

On the other side of that, religious discussion is not permitted here, nor is proselytizing. If you feel the need to express why Allah or Jesus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster is your savior, you're going to have to take it out of this forum because it's not going to fly here, no matter how important you think it is to say it. If you want to say "there is no god(s) and people who believe in them are devious/delusional/detrimental to our world," you're going to have to take that elsewhere as well.

 

[Midak]

I did not post a photo of the pickguard. And you may be missing something.

Probably you're missing the same thing that Mark omits from his lengthy disclaimer/terms of service clause:

Without the customer's prior consent, Mark will include his religious evangelism with each order. If the customer complains about it and requests a refund because of it, Mark will deny the request on the grounds that the pickguard was not defective.


View attachment 671152

So, what did you achieve by destroying it?

 

[denton57]

OK guys, I had to do some editing here.

It is a valid complaint when you order an item and religious material that you were not aware of it shipped with it. I'm sure no one would want to place an order with Conan Pickups and then receive a diatribe on how Crom is the one true God and all must fall before him.

However, such complaints must be expressed respectfully and without insults. An appropriate response would be something like "the item I ordered contained religious material. I do not approve of this being included in my order and don't wish to support it financially, so I'm returning/selling/throwing it away."

On the other side of that, religious discussion is not permitted here, nor is proselytizing. If you feel the need to express why Allah or Jesus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster is your savior, you're going to have to take it out of this forum because it's not going to fly here, no matter how important you think it is to say it. If you want to say "there is no god(s) and people who believe in them are devious/delusional/detrimental to our world," you're going to have to take that elsewhere as well.

You edited?? You left the above posts and took out the others? I started this thread based on the beautiful work that Mark does. He gets attacked for his beliefs (that only after Snaxter brings it up and proceeds to smear him with it - and posts a picture of a smashed guard), and you delete Mark's response to that and leave these other posts by Snaxter and Nerkoids up?

This is today's America. As long as it's Christianity, it's fair to attack it.

I'm done with TalkBass. 10 years, and I'm done. You will not receive another dollar from me.

 

[Hillsidebass]

The dude makes a really nice pickgard!
Really sad stuff here.