Hand Engraved Martin Guitar Set

Tira · Feb 5, 2013

I've been busy working on a set of Martin Guitars for the factory that debuted at the NAMM show in January. Here are some pictures of the guitar parts and a short video of me engraving the parts through my microscope.

Click for Video of Tira Engraving Martin Guitars

Mike Fennell · Feb 5, 2013

Very nice, Tira. Congratulations.

Willem Parel · Feb 5, 2013

Fantastic work and a nice video, looking at the speed of the graver you used the Enset, is that right?
Thank you for showing.

Beathard · Feb 5, 2013

Loved the video. Thank you for taking the time to make it.

Peter E · Feb 5, 2013

AWESOME Tira! Love that scroll in the top picture.

Thanks for showing your work.

Sam · Feb 5, 2013

Beautiful engraving and a cool video! :thumbsup:

What an elite brand of guitar to be engraving!

GTJC460 · Feb 5, 2013

Lovely engraving. Really liked the video. It's always a treat to see someone else engraving and their methods.

mrthe · Feb 5, 2013

Great job Tira ! Congratulations!

rod · Feb 5, 2013

Tira,

Delighted to see your engravings in photo stills and video, a hearty congratulations in extending the canvas choice to include the famous Martin Guitar Company! Guitar ornamentation is jumping to the front burner with your work, and also Sam Welch's start-to-finish "Model A truck inspired Guitar" at Reno.

Tira, while I have you in my sights, a very big thank you for your support at the lobby FEGA registration desk. Probably a good choice of location to draw in more public interest, yet also leaving you and your fellow FEGA organizers a bit remote from the action in the exhibition area packed with friends and colleagues. So for this we thank you and the team!

Best wishes!

Rod

dimovengraving · Feb 5, 2013

Beautiful engraving and video, and music
Thanks for sharing Tira

Andrew Biggs · Feb 5, 2013

Beautiful work Tira......and a very cool and canvas

Cheers
Andrew

Cloudy · Feb 5, 2013

Fantastic job! Talk about PR potential!!

monk · Feb 5, 2013

it would seem tira never slept during any of her classes. a wonderful engraving job and a great video. thanks so much for showing this work.

Tira · Feb 6, 2013

Thanks for watching the video and the nice comments!

Willem, yes I'm engraving with the EnSet Plus that is currently on my bench. Usually my engraving is a bit more fluid, but trying to keep the guitar parts centered under the scope was tricky. The back straps were 21.5 inches long (54.6 cm) and the rosettes were 6 or 7 inches across (15-17 cm). All the parts were very thin except the pick guard which was a bit thicker. I had to take great care with the parts so that they would not bend or deform before, during and after the engraving. It was good to finally hand them off and not have to worry about bending them in the wrong way. The EnSet Plus worked great especially for the punch dot background. It was very easy to control with the one hit at a time setting.

I called Martin yesterday and the guitars are back from the NAMM show and are due to be photographed today so I hope to have some pictures of the finished guitars soon. The only pictures I have now were just snapped at the factory as they were finishing the guitars so I could at least see them before the show.

SamW · Feb 6, 2013

Great project well done Tira. I look forward as we all do to seeing the finished product.

thughes · Feb 6, 2013

Tira,
Very beautiful. How did you hold the small parts?
Todd

Steveareno · Feb 6, 2013

Thanks Tira,
Really cool and thanks for taking the time to do a video! Have you tried the Enset for stone setting? Looks like it would work real nice.
Steve

Tira · Feb 6, 2013

thughes - Most of the parts I held onto a thick brass base with double sided tape. The long back straps I held onto long flat pieces of steel with the double sided tape. Then I held the brass or steel in the vise jaws. It worked fairly well. Once I had to de-stick the part(s) and put new, clean, sticky tape down. I usually super glue knife parts onto the brass bases, but I didn't want to chance bending the thin aluminum trying to get it off of the super glue so I went with the double sided tape.

Steveareno - I have been using the EnSet Plus for everything. I switched over to it when I was beta testing it (18 months or so ago) and have used one since the Basel show last year. It does work well for stone setting and gives you a lot of control.

thughes · Feb 6, 2013

Thanks Tira, guess I could have seen that on the video, I just haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

Mike Cirelli · Feb 6, 2013

Nice Tira. Hope you get some nice pictures of the finished guitar. Is this for a special occasion like the other you did. Beautiful work.

Hand Engraved Martin Guitar Set

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