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Post subject: Custom engraved neck plate for STrat?
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:24 pm
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I'd like to add a custom neckplate to my main guitar, engraved with a simple piece of black & white art.

Do you guys know anybody who does this? The current neckplate is chromed, and I suppose if I ask them to do it at the Things Remembered in the mall, there would be flakes of chrome everywhere.

What's the hot set up? Buy a stainless plate and have ti cut? I've seen some on the web where they "engrave" stuff like photos, and I don't like the look... I think the metal is just dulled with some kind of chemical bath or a laser... i'd like real engraving, if possible.

Whattya think?


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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:52 pm
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Sounds like a cool idea! I've actually been considering near the same thing. I look forward to seeing what leads this thread generates.

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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:02 pm
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lazer engraving looks to be quite clean. These people do it.

http://www.fsrshop.com/?gclid=CKSRkY_5uZkCFQo1QwodRGAQ5A

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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:13 pm
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Try looking for a places that sells Trophy's. They would offer engraving too.

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Post subject: Re: Custom engraved neck plate for STrat?
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:13 pm
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Hi SlapChop: well, well. You touch here on something I work with in a completely different area of my life - though let's not go into that.

Whether you wanted it done by etching in acid or honest to goodness engraving, that chrome is going to fundamentally get in the way.

A couple of possibilities. If you could find a genuine steel engraver you could get a plain steel neckplate made up, engraved to your requirements, and then perhaps have that chromed afterwards. Tell the engraver that it is to be chromed because he'll need to cut his lines appropriately deep and wide to allow for the plating. Dunno where you'd go to get the chroming done, but that ain't so difficult.

Here's Durer's wood engraving of his own coat of arms. What a neckplate that would make!
Image

If you find a real artist/engraver - tell us about it. Be very interested... Much more likely, you could find someone who engraves stuff onto jewelry and such using the little handheld device. Not so good, but much easier. Ask at jewelry stores...

The other possibility is to have an etching done on a neckplate. This in turn opens up different options. Etching is done by applying a resist to the metal, usually wax-based. Then lines are made through the wax to reveal the metal, the whole thing is placed in a bath of acid and where it can touch the metal it bites lines into it. It can be as fine or bold as you like.

The problem is the metal to use. Steel is not usually used for etching because it is very hard - I don't even know what acid would be appropriate for that job. Metals such as zinc and copper are often used in conjunction with nitric or hydrochloric acid (and other variations on the theme: Google "Dutch mordent" if you really have time to kill!).

An etched zinc neckplate would be perfectly feasable, and zinc can be polished up very nice and shiny. The problem is that it will dull again much more than chrome or stainless steel - but perhaps you could spray a clear coat on it to keep it shiny.

Alternatively, you could have a copper neckplate made and etched. Then you can have the copper "steel faced": a process by which it is suspended in a bath of chemicals and electricity is passed through it for a time with the result that a thin steel layer is formed on the surface of the metal. This was done a lot in the 19th century to make etching plates bearing artwork last vastly longer in the commercial printing industry.

Again, the problem would then be that plain steel also tarnishes quickly - and can rust.

I'd go with the zinc option: start asking around for artists who still do traditional style etching printmaking and see if you can find someone equiped to help you out. Frustratingly, I could connect you up in seconds in my part of the world - but that ain't much use to you!

Here's an etched self portrait by Rembrandt. I'd be pretty entertained to have that on a neckplate, too!
Image

Alternatively, go with your first idea and get a normal "flakey" offset job done down the mall. Vastly quicker, easier and cheaper...

Cheers - C

PS Well, you did ask...


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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:17 pm
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Here ya go:

http://www.wholesalesigns.com/guitar/

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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:28 pm
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CAFeathers wrote:


There's a couple there I might have to get for myself!!!

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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:33 pm
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Look on ebay. I bought one on ebay and I think they will do what ever you want.


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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:26 pm
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Hello SlapChop,

Two more options although expensive,

Local CNC equipped machine shops can
do some neat stuff for you. Not cheap.

A second option is a competent gun engraver
some really classic things can be done. Darn expensive.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers.


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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:26 pm
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CAFeathers wrote:


I've seen some of their neck plates on other forums. Top notch!

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Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:44 pm
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That would be cool to have something custom on the neckplate

anyone seen PULP FICTION?

Jules' wallet - BAD MOTHERF****R

how cool would that be? LOL

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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:35 am
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Earlier I made a long post about different ways to make a custom neckplate. In the deafening silence which greeted it I fancied I detected a certain scepicism...

"Oh dear, Ceri's gone too far this time. He's talking through his hat on this one." :lol:

So, finding myself a little at a loose end projectwise, I thought I'd quickly do one, just to show how easy it is.

I had a piece of zinc plate handy, and to start it needs to be thoroughly degreased. I did that first by polishing with a mixture of French chalk (talc) and (diluted) acetic acid (available from a pharmacy - or just squeeze a lemon). Then wipe it thoroughly with mineral/methylated spirits:
Image

Next, warm the plate on a hotplate at 70C / 160F. You could improvise with a baking sheet on the cooker. Now, the zinc plate needs coating with wax. I have available a special darkened printmaker's wax, but any will do. In this photo I'm using a dabber to make the coat thin and even: again, you could improvise:
Image

Not essential, but it helps to then flame the wax with an old-fashioned style soot producing candle (people also use wax tapers). This bakes the wax and makes it harder and also blackens it, which will be useful shortly. You'll need to suspend the plate upside down to do this:
Image

Now, take a very sharp needle and draw a design through the wax into the metal plate below. (The blackening makes it easier to see what you're doing.) Any sharp object will work. Some people like dentist's tools, others improvise with needles held in bits of wood or cork or whatever. I'm using a hardened steel etching needle (left), made extemely sharp on a whetstone:
Image

Now the smart bit: put the metal plate in a bath of nitric acid. Here the acid is diluted seven to one with water, which gives an appropriate concentration. This acid has been turned a little blue by previous use with copper:
Image

SERIOUS WARNING: nitric acid is truly noxious stuff. It makes nitrocellulose seem cute and cuddly by comparison. Use rubber gloves, don't get it on yourself, and don't breath it - work outdoors. The acid fumes attack your soft tissues, especially the lungs. Take care - just look at what it is about to do to the metal...!

Within a minute or two the acid starts biting away the metal where it can get at it through the wax resist - where the drawing was made with the needle. Bubbles form where the chemical reaction is occuring. These bubbles disrupt the even biting of the metal, so it is necessary to tickle them away every two or three minutes. Feathers are resistant to acid, so are useful for this - the process is called "feathering":
Image

We might want some of the bitten lines produced by the acid to be deeper than others. So we can take the plate out half way through, rinse it in a bath of water to clean off the acid and stop the biting, and then use a "stop out" varnish to cover up some of the lines, those we feel are deep enough. Here I'm using Straw Hat Varnish, literally a varnish used to make straw hats waterproof. This one has conveniently been died black so's we can see what we're doing:
Image

The plate is then returned to the acid and the biting continues on the areas that are still exposed. I bit this plate for a total of 15 minutes and then rinsed it off in water to stop the process. Now, the wax can be removed with white spirit. Here's the result:
Image

Next, polish up the surface with metal polish:
Image

Potentially a little hard to see the image, so next we can smother the plate with something such as black oil paint, or in this case a sticky black printer's ink. Then wipe and polish it off the surface, leaving the ink to dry in the bitten grooves:
Image

Et voila: a custom made neckplate, merely waiting to have the edges trimmed down and chased smooth and the screw holes drilled and countersunk:
Image

All told, this neckplate took me about three hours and cost a dollar or two in materials.

Very do-able: I expect all Forum Users to be sporting personalised neckplates shortly...!

Cheers - C

EDITED for silly spelling mistakes...


Last edited by Ceri on Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:51 am
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heh... That's so excellent! Although the very "do-ableness" of it as so deftly demonstrated here makes me want to throw up my hands and give up drawing as well as fiddling with guitars. Still... as long as there are people doing this sort of thing for fun and posting it on the net for the hell of it, the world seems like a good place..!


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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:53 am
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Amazing Ceri! I've had to create a new folder in my favorites section named "Ceri's Guitar Tech Tips" just to save all of your useful information! Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us! 8) :wink:


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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:56 am
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mondo500 wrote:
heh... That's so excellent! Although the very "do-ableness" of it as so deftly demonstrated here makes me want to throw up my hands and give up drawing as well as fiddling with guitars. Still... as long as there are people doing this sort of thing for fun and posting it on the net for the hell of it, the world seems like a good place..!


Haha - thanks, man!

But honestly, do-ability is the word. Potentially, almost every bit of this could be improvised very easily. The only things someone would need to purchase are some zinc plate (inch for inch much cheaper than an aftermarket neckplate) and some nitric acid, which admittedly most Forum Users are unlikely to have around the house.

So pick up a bottle of nitric and get into the custom neckplate business!

Cheers - C


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