Guitars , Nitro and Relic
I absolutely love the classic look of the old Fifties Les Pauls. For me, this is the most interesting subject for research. In my art objects, I try to recreate not just the look of an old guitar, but also accurately recreate the very character of sound and feel. For the production of the "canvas" for the projects, we carefully preparing wood using our stabilization technology. This gives the wood structure the same properties as 90 years old wood. This is not a common "wood baking" in United States. Our process is a little more complicated and takes longer. Then the finished parts are carefully matched to each other at resonance intervals so that the entire future system resonates as seamlessly as possible. When the "canvas" is ready, I fine-tune the resonances. And then art begins.
I do not build guitars for order. I make Art. I adhere to strict principles that enable me to immerse myself as deeply as possible in each project. My information base is replenished every day thanks to our friends and fans of LPs around the world. Careful selection of premium wood for each art project.
The selection of each piece of the neck and body is carried out according to the principle of tonal intervals, therefore, each part of the guitar resonates with the other in the most balanced way. For each project, I independently choose the future design and the degree of aging. I spend as much time on each project as it takes and I am not dependent on deadlines.
My finished projects will be presented here. Uou can support my art on
Nitro
I started my study of the sound of guitars many years ago with guitar refinishing. I noticed that the lacquer coating of an electric guitar has a tremendous effect on its sound. Since for me, working with varnishes is very close to my profession, I began to refinish guitars and explore the effect of different varnishes on sound. I experimented with shellac and violin varnishes, cooked according to old technologies and recipes. Some of them work amazingly on acoustic musical instruments. For electric guitars, nitro varnish proved to be the most convenient and traditional coating. Its main advantage for guitar manufacturers has always been its low price compared to shellac and other varnishes. But nitro varnish is not very convenient in finishing. It gives a high shrinkage, with time it turns yellow and becomes brittle. It cracks. For manufacturers, this was a huge disadvantage and as soon as the opportunity appeared they all switched to polyurethane, acrylic or two-component varnishes, which are easier to work with. They do not crack and you can quickly make a perfectly smooth and durable coating. Just like in the furniture industry - easier, cheaper, faster. But why then doconnoisseurs of vintage guitars value nitro so much now? The coating has too many "minuses". Nitro dries all its life, gradually losing plasticizers (some evaporate, some harden), the nitrocellulose
oxidation process goes on continuously. There are microcracks. This makes it possible for the coating to vibrate with the wood, without constraining resonance and micro-vibrations. I am a skeptic by nature and I check any information on my own experience. I did tests of all brands of nitrocellulose lacquer that I came across. Most of them are only called “nitro”, but in essence they are polyurethane varnishes. Polyurethane resins and other additives are used as plasticizers. The only thing that unites them is their basis - nitrocellulose (colloxylin). Since I, in my artistic experience, have repeatedly encountered the preparation of varnishes, I began to make it myself. This gives me the opportunity to clearly control the quality, structure, aging process and the effect of varnish on the sound of the guitar. My nitro mix does not have plasticizers and after my aging process it gets the microstructure of old vintage nitro lacquer.
Relic
My idea of aging is to create maximum realism. This also applies to plastic and metal parts. I use many traditional methods of oxidation of metals from my research and reinvented by me. For each material I have a dozen ways to do it. I constantly experiment and invent new ways to recreate one or another effect. The aging of varnish in my concept is an important point in the formation of not only a realistic vintage look, but also in the formation of the sound of the entire guitar. My technology consists of many stages and takes about 1.5-2 months from applying a finishing coat of lacquer to the final result. All the guitars I work on have my decal label in the pickup cavity. You can see some technological moments in my videos. But this is far from complete technology and not all possible options. I prefer to keep some of my operations secret. But on my Patreon on Maker level I share many of my secrets and technologies with a detailed description of the process.