Nikita Dragon Tele Update

Nikita Dragon Tele

By James Mellozzo
This series is something new I'm creating. My Mom was a dress maker and all my life I grew up around amazing fabrics. They still turn me on so I decided to use them in my guitars. This the fist and only of this pattern, some of my collectors have already claimed the patters they wanted. Only one of each will be made.

Remember the person with the most guitars WINS!!!

Dragon tele Peg Head

Here is the peg head design I decided on for the Dragon Tele. This is the same pattern used in the fabric.

Fabric Tele with Candy apple clear coat

Okay, the next step was to apply 10 coats of red dye candy apple red to the back sides and neck of the guitar. Now comes the waiting, this will need to dry or shrink for a week to ten days. After about three days I will give it a light sanding to open the Nitro clear and let it breath again. This will give it a harder finish to work with in the end. This body will need another ten coats before it's done. Most of the time you sand off at least half of what you spray on. I will be posting the sanded body and the finish product in about two weeks.

Stay tuned for other projects I'm working on and feel free to ask any questions a long the way.

James

Fabric Tele Next step

This is the next step in creating the fabric tele, I applied a Birdseye maple veneer on the back and made a Birdseye maple neck to match. The neck will be attached with screws and ferrules to increase sustain. At this point the fabric has five coats of Nitro lacquer and has been sanded smooth on top.

The next step in the cherry red dye and the clear coats.

Stay tuned, James