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February 2007
From GuitarAttack: -- Very cool silkscreen!
Killer! I purchased one of the LP style
Saga’s at Christmas to put together. The overall quality of the guitar was
good. I did a little work on the neck socket to balance out the neck, but
other than that everything fit fine.
Though the pickups and accessories were of okay quality, I decided to
upgrade the entire lot. I installed all cream and gold accoutrements and
upgraded the electronics by swapping out the harness with better shielded
wire, put in a pair of Mighty Mite Motherbuckers and tied it all together
with Gibson pots that I acquired years ago. I also shielded the electronics
and pick-up area with copper foil and added ivory tuners.
I really got a kick out of finishing the guitar. I used custom tinted
Ultra7000 acrylic automotive lacquer for the base and final coats, which I
applied with a spray-gun. All-in-all, I put on 20+ coats of Royal Gold,
Burgundy and then followed it up with 10 coats of clear.
For the playing card design, I scanned a Royal Flush from a deck of cards at
600 DPI. I then printed out a number of layouts on overhead transparency
film to verify positioning. Once I had a layout I liked I took my scanned
artwork and did a color separation in Adobe Photoshop. I then took the
separations to a local Tee-shirt shop and had them make me a series of
silk-screens, which I later mounted into frames.
To apply the silk-screened image of the playing cards perfectly aligned on
the guitar I had to build a little rig on hinges. This aloud me to align the
silk-screen registry marks up and “print” the full color image of the cards
on the guitar body. I used water based acrylic paints for my “ink”. Once
dry, I applied an additional 10 coats of clear.
The guitar was buffed out with a low abrasive rubbing compound and then
polished
with a wax base furniture polish.
I am pleased with the outcome. I have had several offers for the guitar
since completing it. It feels solid. The action is great and the sound is
amazing.
In hind-sight, it would have been cheaper for me to purchase a mid-range
Epiphone LP and simply stripped it down, add the Motherbuckers and painted
it. The Saga was a heck of a lot of fun though to put together.
-Sean Bumstead
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