Just a quick question or three.... Solder is lead. Won't it tarnishes easily. Kkeeping it shiny will be a chore? Second lead is toxic. The fretboard needs regular oiling. will that not leach lead into the wood over time? If not would it not make it easier for the lead to enter the players fingers over time? Finally how will it wear next to the wood with bends and such? Will it wear faster and create low spots or wear slower and create high spots? EDIT: just got to the part you switched to lead free solder. Disregard all of the above.
Most solder is a tin-silver alloy these days. It's actually quite difficult to get leaded solder these days, at least in my experience. I'm probably jumping the gun at around 18:00 but I hope that he isn't using flux-cored solder.
@@NuclearRobotHamster It's very easy to get as for desoldering in repairs you require leaded solder to drop the melt temp for replacement and cleanup. Unleaded solder is a nightmare.
@@JoannaHammondunleaded solder being a “nightmare” is one of the most harmful myths going around. If you can’t solder with it, lack of lead is not the problem
@@NuclearRobotHamster Leaded solder is easy to get if you are looking specifically for it but you're right everything I find is flux core tin alloy as well.
When I first saw what Ben was going to do I was horrified, but of course I was absolutely wrong and the end result is spectacular. This is perhaps why it is me doing the watching and Ben doing the building. 👍😁
I have learned to trust in the genius of the madman, and his methods. I've learned to wait until it's done to make any judgements about how it will turn out.
Be aware in the future that the stuff you have on hand is probably flux core solder wire, meaning it has an inner core of rosin or resin encapsulated by the metal. You can get a special solder wire without flux, which might be a more sensible choice in this use.
I never doubted you. The things you've created are successful works of art. If you have an idea, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, I know it'll turn out great. You've built that reputation for yourself.
Love that "fight me in the comments", followed sometimes by hiw it's not going to change your decision because you're talking to us in the future. Fun, mind bending stuff.
I love it. It looks fantastic. And like so many others here, I never doubted you for a minute. I guess time will tell about its long term viability but I salute your commitment to creativity and curiosity....😎
When the title mentioned solder I thought you were going to melt the stuff into the slots 😂. I’d be very interested to see how this lasts after a year of playing?
I love the technique. I think you could put round dots on the end and actually use a Dremel to cut the slots with a tiny t slot cutter. That would give you the under cut and the dots would allow for the Dremel bit insertion!! Just a thought. Great video!! ✌️🤍
Beautiful result! It will definitely work harden if you could burnish it in with a stone instead of final finish. This seems to work well with silver in mild steel or even carbon steel, not sure about tin into wood. Or you could also try fire polish like they do on acrylic.
Many years ago, I was chatting with Larry Robinson about the silver wire inlays he did on the fretboards of a few Alembic guitars while he was there. He, of course, bent out the wire design and then inlaid that into the board. I asked if it would be easier to route the inlay and then form the wire into the troughs. He said that he didn't like how that came out when he tried it. Well, I had already done the routing while awaiting his response. whoops. I ended up using silver solder and it seems fine and not prone to wear if it is thin lines. I used a tiny dovetail type bit in a dremel router since I was also concerned about the inlay just popping out. These guitars are in the first few pages of his book on inlay if anyone wants to see them.
I did a similar thing for a piece of jewlery once and it worked rather well. I really like the look of tin its not so shiny and has a kind of grounded feeling to it also it's cheap and the softness gives it a organic vibe. Works well with wood in my Opinion. You have to be sure to get led-free stuff though
Alec Steel went through a wire inlay phase a while back and did a lot of this type of thing into metal projects. If I remember correctly, he ended up with a set of engraver's tools to cut those dovetail grooves. He was able to do some pretty intricate work with them. Do you think that sealing the fret board with super glue and polishing it, like you did with the Kauri build, would help to keep those inlays in there over time?
Love your work Ben! Isn't solder pretty toxic stuff? Wouldn't want that on my fingers when playing. I would really like to see your other building projects come to an end before watching new series.
I bought a Crimson T=Type kit a few years ago, with a REALLY chunky neck. I converted it to a sort of asymmetric flattened C shape using just scrapers in order to solve the massive neck dive problem.
As soon as you mentioned Tie Fighter inlays, I was sold. Could watch this all day. Looking forward to the next instalment. This build is just like Frankenstein’s laboratory, in a good way. All thunder and lightning, and crazy generators. Maybe I need to get out more or ease off on the coffee.
I drop filled solder on a fret that was gouged to holy hell. Obviously not a permanent fix but it worked for about 6 until I finally had that fret replaced
I knew I'd seen you do something similar before but couldn't remember where and it was driving me nuts! After some digging I found it in the Taking a Great Kit Guitar and making it Awesome build, only then it was twisted aluminium foil, which needed a lot of sanding afterwards and wouldn't have been suitable for the more subtle look you're going for now. I really like it.
NGL I totally doubted you when you first hammered in the solder. It’s a great effect, a cool technique, and the type of fine craftsmanship we learned to expect from Mr. Crowe. And yeah I thought you were saying you were going to melt the solder in at first. That would have been interesting to watch you pull off. I can’t help think how expensive you made that neck now though lol. I guess that’s what happens when Ben Crowe touches guitars though. Can’t wait to see the finished product.
I like that WAAAY better than I thought I would. You got that vision Ben. I had to fast forward through the screechy chalkboard sound tho. Made my teeth itch 🤢
I'd love to see this inlay technique applied to script or kanji or something. The slight inconsistency in line thickness lends itself to a brush stroke kind of style.
I'm curious why you didn't use a solder iron after setting the wire in? I would think that would ensure the metal filled the dovetail cavity? Looks fabulous, though.
Also an even easier way to do this would have been to glue in some metal powder in to the slot with epoxy or super glue. At least we got to see the hand build only or travel guitar hanging up on the wall behind Ben. It would be nice to finally see the thing finished.
Liked the idea but solder has a tendency to oxidise and the current shine will deteriorate in use due to oils, sweat etc from finger tips. Keep up wotj tje out of the box stuff and hopefully this will be a guitar to marvel at.
Gold might be an easier wire to inlay. Then again, most metal inlay is in other metals, not wood. Alec Steele has done some fine gold metal inlay. Maybe a collaboration???
A few simple questions: Is this lead free solder?, is this non rosin core solder? Also how are you going to protect it? Solder can be scratched and dented by just a finger nail. EDIT: I never doubted you get could get it to fit in, it's super soft. I have those other questions. EDIT2: OK, after listening back, you said lead free. But Rosin free?
If you want to create a Guitar looking like a medieval weapon. You might want to look at the work of _Tod's Workshop_ here on RU-vid. I really dig your Idea with the solder Inlay in the Fretboard. But yeah you're making your own life rather difficult with these design decisions 😅
I used your metal inlay powder to make fret markers in my bass project. Seems like a good solution but solder works as well. Did you think of melting it into the slot?
