Tried something new...Resin topped guitar.

[Chris Richards]

Here's one of the latest from my workshop. I actually thought that this would be an easy project, ummm I was pretty wrong on that count! Working with resin is horrible and not what I expected, the 45s are encased in the resin top which is about 10mm-12mm thick and the pickup surrounds and control plate are also made from 45s. I completely underestimated the work required in flattening and polishing the resin, also the plastic that records are made from is such a poor quality which again makes it difficult to work with and get a quality finish.

In all honesty this guitar was about five times the work I expected and I would have gladly smashed it to pieces or set it alight at many points in the build! Because of the difficulty working with the materials the finish is short of the quality that I wanted so it's not something I'd be happy selling so I had a change of heart and decided to finish it and give it to a young guitarist who plays in a local band, they play all original stuff and may be one day the guitar will end up being good advertising for me.


The "Bigsby" was a last minute change, it was going to be a wraparound but the above mentioned guitarist let it slip to me that he'd love something with a Bigsby, hence the recessed bridge. The pickups are GFS and coil tapped and the rest of the guitar is pretty standard stuff.

[Barry Daniels]

Great concept. Did you figure out a workable way to flatten the resin?

[Dan Smith]

Very cool!

[Chris Richards]

Hi Barry....Ugh flattening the resin, just the worst stuff I think I've ever worked with! I cut the body from poplar, bent some sides around it, all pretty simple to this point, set some 45s in it and poured resin over the top, it looked great until it set, by which time the whole thing bent to a curve and the surface of the resin looked like craters on the moon! So it ended up being a case of zero fun and a scraper ( plus countless hours of work)

[David King]

It sounds like the resin did some shrinking along the way as it hardened causing the wood below to curve up at the edges? Was it a polyester resin or a "bar top" epoxy? I love the concept and the look and can't think of a better use for some of those singles. With the right resin, should it exist, it should have been a piece of cake.

[Chris Richards]

Thanks for the comment David...Yes, like you say it should have been a piece of cake, I can't remember what type of resin I used, I know I chose a good quality product. The resin must have expanded as, one good thing, the guitar curved such that the top is convex so that's pretty cool (see picture)! Also the resin when it set was all "wobbly". Once it set I had to leave it for about a week in a warm place to completely harden then it was the bloody awful task of flattening it and polishing.


I should add that the 45s were any old ones with what I would consider "cool labels" copied from the internet and printed out.


Yes, if I ever do this again I'll do some research in to different resins and their properties.

[Brian Evans]

It struck me that maybe you could top-coat it with something that is easy to polish, like EM-6000, put 8 - 10 coats on and wet sand/polish as normal?

[Chris Richards]

Hi Brian,

Yes that is something I did seriously consider but so many things went wrong while doing this guitar I was just glad to get it done and dusted in the end!

[Clay Schaeffer]

Looks cool! I think the semi matte finish looks better than glossy would.