TVvoodoo's Straplab

Well. I now have been Well-Hung for the 3rd and 4th time today, I received my straps today , Brad did exactly what i asked from him to do. And man he just came through with flying colours again. I am so happy with my straps and these pictures don't do them justice, but here they are! Thankyou Brad for making such high quality goods, I am impressed and i know my friends are going to like them when they see them. Since you made my other two straps , i have been standing as well playing, the straps are so comfortable! And you got my size down just perfect, haven't even had to adjust them, they are spot on. DSC00687.JPGDSC00687.JPGDSC00685.JPGDSC00692.JPGDSC00693.JPG
 
You know those dudes who can carve cool things out of a grain of rice? That's not me LOL!
But, I do ok... here's the bull, nearly done. Still trying to get blue eyes on it somehow. The blue dye just went black on me.
probably have to paint them on and clearcoat.

But I like how it actually really kinda came to life.

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EMERGENCY WARNING!!!
@Session 5 and @RVA I may have mixed up the personalized pre-loaded riffs in your recent Well-Hung strap purchases so if you find yourselves playing certain passages and you have no idea why?
That's probably why.

This week I have dedicated myself to restocking a few regulars that seem to be popular by selling out. I normally don't like repeating stuff over and over and am driven to be creative, but good sellers are good sellers, and I have to think this way now. Still, the popular ones are usually fun to make because the ones selling repeatedly speak of the good taste of Well-Hung customers generally, with an eye for the hot, cool, different and interesting.

New to the reverb store as of yesterday, replenishment of a few of the instant classic "ZAP!" Blackface Edition with the fender grill

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Today on the bench I begin work on several new "Devil's Leash Deluxe Saugerties" patterned ribbon also on a gorgeous black leather base.
This is NOT in ANY way the $25 shoulder pounder you see in your local guitar shop, it is a highly evolved / elevated version, that retains the vintage feel,
but adds width and padding with the black leather base

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A couple of others due up for replenishment, if you happen to be waiting. One called "Basket Case", as well as "1969 Series: Time of the Season"
Can I get them all done this week? Sure would be nice. Kind of running out of a particular heavy leather I use a lot of though. I've been waiting to make a trip to the city
to visit my pa in hospital, when my mother is ready to go.

By the way, my father has had some kind of procedure to work to "drain" his liver which was building up with a real bad sort of putrid festering knarlyness, due to bile
duct blockages. Now they are saying he actually might not have cancer... so that could be real good news. He's still in good spirits, but now that they put a tap
into his liver which continues to drain large amounts of stinky nasty yuck into a bag outside his body, he says it's really gross, and uncomfortable.

Better out than in, right? Shrek, the wisdom is real. There is some kind of "mass" in his liver, but they have not actually went in to stir it up, or get a biopsy yet.
They are waiting to cure his blood infection first. But it might not be what they first thought it was.

Thank you Ray and Norm, for your recent Well-Hung acquisitions... I have worked through the queue of custom work on the table now, though three jobs are
in plans, waiting for materials to come in. Until then, Operation Replenishment continues.
 
Today I am working on making a strap for a gothy vampire stage stalker. He wanted something "cool" on the front, and we will be using red or black crushed velvet for a base.
I gave him these choices from my collection of possible things to use...

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He totally dug the jewel, but we both agreed it was way too "cherry" red for his black cherry sort of finished Schecter bass and the gold didn't really work for him either.
So I carefully tore it apart... the gem is actually very hard plastic, but hollow from the back, so I filled it with bondo. This allowed me to be better able to attach it to the strap
with some short screws.

Then, I painted the filigree setting an aged silver... looks great! And... took some black leather dye to the jewel to take it from goofy red to dark scary blood

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Neither of us could decide if Gothula should have black crushed velvet base strap, or the red. Personally, I was torn... they both looked great!
Here's where the fellow chose to go with it... But the funniest thing is, you know how he decided?

Cunning devil polled all his ladyfriends on Fbook with a photoshopped picture of the choices and his guitar, and the results came back overwhelminly black! What a damn playah!
You can NEVER go wrong with black. Creepy cool strap headed to TX

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Today we are working on a full coverage tooling job... on a long, wide strap. Taking a break because my hand is starting to cramp up pretty good!

here we have the general pattern transferred and carved into the leather with a razor sharp swivel knife

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Now we have gone through about 4 hours of beveling the items to separate them and add some 3d texture

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Background texture added to further separate things.. seeds punched in, texture added to petal leaves etc...

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Been a while since I carved leaves and flowers... takes a bit to get back into the mindset. looks a bit messy but i still have a lot of
work to go, and once it's all dyed, I think it's going to be pretty cool.
I wish I had remembered how long this takes before I threw out a price LOL
 
Here's where it sat after about an hour of detail stamping, and decorative cuts in the leather.


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Now, a fell could just stain and antique that thing above, and it would look pretty darn great. But where's all the fun and danger in that?
Lets keep doing stuff until we fudge it up real good! LOL!

First thing this morning i mixed up a REALLY light yellow dye. Just barely at all yella

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Then, we commenced to do some painting with dye on the stalky bits and get real seedy

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Again for the green, highly diluted dye, so it's a very soft, light green. And then some mahogany brown for the flower interiors. There's a sciencey name for those things, escapes me today.

Last thing I did was resist coat one on the stalks leaves and whatnots, and the petals. Then I went and did yet another resist coat the petals making sure to really get the tips real good.

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True to my plan the resist coat on the light yellow made the yellow quite a lot more intense, pretty much what I was hoping/going for. Gonna let the resist coats dry real good.

Next step.... dye the whole thing a very light saddle tan colour where all the sides of the strap and the background will take it up, change the whole look pretty decent. This dye will affect the stuff I resist coated, but less so - FINGERS CROSSED LOL! - The more resist coats, the less effect from the dye - that's the plan anyhoo.

Then, I have some other stuff I will be subjecting this strap too, but first the most important job I have is getting this damn song out of my frickin' head!

 
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Sometime before lunch today I said to myself, "Self, how difficult could it be to make a tooled leather pick guard for a telecaster?"
A few hours later I was able to answer, "Not CRAZY difficult, still hard enough." Just a silly thing I cranked out in between loads of laundry.

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The goal here was something that would kick up a blackguard BSB with some Well-Hung sex/danger. Kind of a silly quick carve, but I was real pleased with how
close I got to actual BSB, just by eyeballing the dye process.

Also was a test to see how long it would take to make one. This one probably end to end about 2.5 hours total, but there's dye drying time etc, and this was a quick carve.
thinking of offering these in the future, wanted to see how viable it was. I need to offer more things in my store, other services I think to be a more viable thing.
 
TVvoodoo said:
Sometime before lunch today I said to myself, "Self, how difficult could it be to make a tooled leather pick guard for a telecaster?"
A few hours later I was able to answer, "Not CRAZY difficult, still hard enough." Just a silly thing I cranked out in between loads of laundry.

LVAW4UDt_o.jpg


The goal here was something that would kick up a blackguard BSB with some Well-Hung sex/danger. Kind of a silly quick carve, but I was real pleased with how
close I got to actual BSB, just by eyeballing the dye process.

Also was a test to see how long it would take to make one. This one probably end to end about 2.5 hours total, but there's dye drying time etc, and this was a quick carve.
thinking of offering these in the future, wanted to see how viable it was. I need to offer more things in my store, other services I think to be a more viable thing.
Click to expand...
I was thinking of consulting you on just such a venture. I’ve been contemplating a Tele build lately...thanks to Ray ;) .
Big thumbs up here!
:cheers:
 
Sundays are pretty good days for Sunflowerin'

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As planned, an application of saddle tan dye helped blend everything, then the antiquing process grabbed ahold of all the nooks and crannies.
I do see several places where I should have been more accurate with the resist coat, and a few other things I'd like to "have back."
Going to have to be more careful in that regard. It's hard when there's so much going on, just need to take my time more.

But, I am pleased and it has a crazy out behind the barn country vibe

gonna let this dry for today, then tonight before bed oil it, which will darken thing just a little bit. Tomorrow I be able to lock all the dye down, with a couple of
coats of "locker-downer," then continue with the padding, lining sewing etc. on tuesday.
 
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Members of the Well-Hung Shock & Awe Militia should welcome Lt. Miguel "El Torito" E. He supplied most emblems for a comfy 3" wide guitar strap to celebrate a victorious military career and his many service adventures.
S&A #78 is now blood-stained, battle-hardened, mission-ready & mobilized for active duty soon in Texas. HOOOAH!

Thank you for your service!

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Today another shot of my disgusting bench, where a not-so-disgusting Shakey custom strap for a very patient customer is undergoing all sorts of exciting bondage!
This one in medium blue denim and black leather at 3" wide.

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I had a little shortage here of the custom order patches I use to make these, and finally got some more in yesterday
so, work can resume.
 
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