Lowe Shop Notes

[BTL]

The daylight photos aren't much better, but this one's heading out the door. Getting a consistent photo setup worked out in the new space is next on the to-do list.

This is the Jayluxe V32 5-string conversion neck prototype. The specs are as follows;

• CNC-milled and finished in the USA
• Roasted swamp ash body with glossy TV Yellow urethane finish
• Lindy Fralin Standard Jazz V pickups
• Roasted maple neck with roasted maple fretboard
• Pearloid blocks and binding
• Satin urethane neck finish
• Black Lowe Custom Guitars logo
• Scary Creative silver ink dry transfer serial number
• Shiny chrome bullet headstock truss rod adjustment
• Carbon fiber reinforcement rods
• Tusq nut
• Hipshot Ultralite shiny chrome machines
• Hipshot shiny chrome string retainer
• Carbon steel inserts for 8-32 machine screws

[godofthunder]

    That black ricky looking bass is ultra cool, I dig it!

[BTL]

    That black ricky looking bass is ultra cool, I dig it!

Thanks! I'm hoping that one sparks a 32" medium scale revolution.

[BTL]

Ryland sent me some better pics of the Jayluxe V-32 along with is Jayluxe IV-32, so I'm posting them here for posterity.

[BTL]

Back in the saddle...buttoning down the details. Ferrules, strap buttons, and tuning machines aren't glamorous, but they don't install themselves. The Fralin Big Singles come to me on a dogear baseplate, so I made a jig to solder on the brass nuts. It's tough to see, but all of the pickup ring mounting holes have beeswax in them to guarantee serviceability. I'm still using hand-wired plug-and-play wiring harnesses with mil-spec D subminiature connectors. 

The Paradise guitar is pretty much ready to ship. It has a pretty compelling backstory, so I'll probably start a separate thread on it at some point.

[BTL]

The free Corel Paintshop Pro app I got with my camera seems to have tanked on me, and rather than try to reinstall it, I downloaded GIMP. I did some basic color correction in the MS Photos app, then I followed the workflow detailed in the video below:



Here is my photo setup:



Here is the source image:



Here is the masked, straightened and cropped image (6000 x 3000):



Here is the final (draft) collage for social media:



I noticed some masking errors on the image, so I will probably rework the GIMP file and save a better version of the image before posting it on Instagram & Facebook, but I'm pretty happy with the result as a first effort.

[Rob]

That came out well!

[BTL]

Thanks, Rob...I'm having fun with it!

[BTL]

So, based on feedback, here is the same image with a better mask and a 25% gray background...I like it.

Thanks!

[gearHed289]

Darker background looks good.

[Rob]

Darker background looks good.

Yep!

[BTL]

I'm beginning to appreciate the benefit of a super-clean mask as well as using shades of gray vs. black or white. More to come on this front I'm certain.

[BTL]

Thank you, next.

[BTL]

Alright, alright, alright.

After much cajoling, I decided to take a crack at editing in Photoshop. I used the Quick Selection tool to create a vector mask and the Curvature Pen tool to refine the mask. The background color is a very light gray (e1e1e1), something I could not have done using my previous mask in GIMP.

I may go back and try this in GIMP to see how much more difficult it is, but it was awfully easy in Photoshop once I got the feel for it.

[BTL]

Round 2 was much easier.