RayL wrote:
'Problematic polyester', eh? That sounds like the finish that I had.
Will,
Yes, I've made several plates in the past - perspex, trafolite, even aluminium. They all took ages to do and of course I didn't have all the tools that would be used by someone doing it full-time. In the same way I used to change the engine oil in my car because it saved a few bob. Now that I can afford some modest pleasures even in these thin and piping times, it's worth having the plate made, in the same way that it's worth having the garage change the engine oil.
Ray
I'll remember this conversation next time I'm into my 8th hour of sweating over a piece of 3mm acrylic with my whittling spoon!
RE: The finish, honestly not trying to have an argument, but the original finish on your guitar was nitrocellulose. All early Burns, Burns-Weill, Fenton Weill, not to mention Gibsons, Fenders, the lot were finished with the stuff, and your description of the fine cracks is textbook 'what happens to nitrocellulose paint as it cures'. Polyester will craze, but in a totally different way, even theoretical 'problematic polyester', and generally after a lot longer. Sure, polyester was mentioned in the advert, but so were 22 frets and an unfathomable switching system that no one has ever even seen.