"Dichrocaster" - a laser cut Guitar

[John Blazy]

Laser for much, but traditional tools for most. The body is back-textured and backpainted 1/4" acrylic, laser cut for all pickup, Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridge, switches, knobs and neck opening, then flush trimmed around a squire body in which I milled off 1/4" off its face so finished face is original level.

The neck was lasered for inlays, and the inlays were lasered with same cut file. Next time I will enlarge the inlays a tad more, as the laser burned a wider "kerf" that I expected. The knobs were laser cut from black acrylic then overlayed with a dichroic lens in which the lettering was lasered, then paint filled.

The headstock was also lasered with logo and signature, then paint filled. Pretty white knuckle, as I knew I only had one shot at it, and the test panel turned out perfect. As it turned out, the white lacquer wrinkled the cut edge of the two day cured 2K urethane, and looked like crap. SO then was a REALLY white knuckle re-lasering over top, which did not index perfectly, but this time I used waterbased white paint. Should have done that from the beginning.

The guitar was kindof built around the Floyd Rose, which had the rainbow dichroic PVD plating as a special finish. Thus, all the dichroic pigments and dichroic materials used in the build complement it perfectly. A bit much, one would say, but not when you are addicted to color.

Next one will be all gold and silver pearls on a texture that simulates quilted maple, and the hardware will be all gold. Looking at thermofoming the acrylic for an archtop too.
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[Lee DeRaud]

How did you attach the (painted side? of the) acrylic to the milled wood body?

[John Blazy]

How did you attach the (painted side? of the) acrylic to the milled wood body?

Good question Lee, which reminded me that I need to post my construction pics. I decided to "key" the acrylic into the body so no fasteners are seen, and small key hole bits didn't undercut enough, so I custom ground a T slot bit from an old 3/4" straight bit, milled the slots, and glued the keys onto the back of the acrylic. When the face snaps into position, I put one screw under the output jack plate for a 3 point hold.
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[Lee DeRaud]

Ah, thanks. I was thinking maybe the bridge screws plus maybe a slot in the end of the neck, but it didn't sound secure enough. And I couldn't come up with an adhesive-based solution that didn't cause more problems than it solved.

[David Somers]

Very cool work John!!!! Wow!! Thanks for sharing!!!!

[Julie Moriarty]

Awesome! That is one really cool guitar, John! While all the laser lingo went right over my head, your workmanship was eye candy.

[george wilson]

I am blinded by all the glitz!!!

Interesting peghead shape. Haven't decided if I like it, but the curves are well drawn.

You could loan it to the Star Wars movie makers for use in their next intergalactic bar scene,with a band playing!!

[John Blazy]

Thanks George and all! Headstock design is partly based on my love of a crescent shaped type of wind blown sand dune called Barchan dunes found in the Sahara and photos from Mars, which is the dunescapes that the "dune" acrylic molds were based on.

Complex story but I recently invented this method of 3D shape casting onto acrylic sheets, then backcoating them with metallics. My recent mold is based on actual quilted maple figure called "Quilt". This will make an unreal guitar face. The next one is even wilder - tiger striped effect in Lamborghini orange metallic against tropical blue metallic to look like a tropical reef fish.

Here is todays casting of "quilt" in which I sprayed a burst effect. Will be thermoforming the acrylic, then laser cutting the pickup openings, neck pocket, etc then scribing it to the body, then flush trimming, shaping, polishing, etc.

Notice the "bookmatch" in the quilt pattern.

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[Frederick Skelly]

That's some beautiful work John!
Fred

[John Blazy]

Thanks all! Here is the latest acrylic casting for a guitar face. Used the laser to cut the masking perfectly, coated the blue/magenta boro with sky blue burst, then pulled masking and sprayed the Lamborghini bright orange and red candy. Will be forming this to a basswood body soon, then the neck will be inlayed with Fire Burl.
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[John Blazy]

A little update on the new builds in progress.

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[John Blazy]

The first of the new builds came out awesome. My buddy Steve Raz is the lead guitarist for E5C4P3, the best Journey tribute band, and gigs with it regularly now. Bummer, is that I was planning on introducing this acrylic version of the "quilted" figure at NAMM, but then figured out how to use my quilt molds to texture Carbon Fiber, and ended up getting a patent on it, as it can be directly glued to wood - same directional expansion / contraction as wood. It actually has higher luster and is an "exaggerated" version of real quilt figure due to its higher light refraction off the fibers.

Then made another mold in a "fiddleback" figure, and using it as the fingerboard on the quilted CF guitar. Now this one is going to NAMM.
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[Frederick Skelly]

Looks good John!
Fred