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Topic: Sprucing up my vinyl wrapped Mullen G2 |
Dennis Montgomery
From:
Western Washington
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Posted 20 Sep 2020 9:18 pm |
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Hi all,
as many of you know, I vinyl wrapped my Mullen G2 a couple years ago. I just finished a project to improve some areas that were lacking and am super excited to share the results.
First off, the vinyl I use is snowboard vinyl found at https://www.extremeboardskins.com/ My contact out there is named Mark and they do an amazing job. Their designs are super high resolution and the vinyl is high gloss and heavy duty. I recently tried working with one of his vinyl competitors and it was not a pleasant experience. If you decide to try a do-it-yourself vinyl wrap, stick with Mark!
The biggest challenge I had in doing this vinyl wrap on an SD12 was how to handle the pair of 90 degree angles where the front platform steps up to the back. I originally made the mistake of stretching out and applying the vinyl from side-to-side instead of front-to-back. This required cutting the vinyl at the top 90 degree angle rather than keeping the vinyl in a single piece across both angles. This left a really rough edge and the lower vinyl piece began to pull away from the angle.
My first option was to completely redo the job with a new piece of vinyl. This requires removing the tuning rods then pulling the neck, changer, pickup and tuning tree. It's a serious amount of work, so instead I decided to try a repair. The idea was to cut a narrow piece at the same point that I originally made the cut and wrap over sealing the rough edge. Luckily I keep all my scrap vinyl pieces and somehow the patterns lined up the way I wanted.
The other major upgrade came care of Mike at Mullen who sold me both the large Mullen and G2 decal for the front panel. This was really the icing on the cake.
So today we had a break from the wildfire grey smoky air we've been living with for the past 10 days! That finally cleared out and we had a bit of actual autumn sunshine so I took some new pics. You can also see the new Lawrence L712 humbucker I'm running along with it's coil tap switch next to the standard Mullen tone controls. Anyway, after 2 years of work and some trial and error, here's the finished version of my vinyl wrapped G2 
If this is something you think you might want to try, send me a PM. I'll be happy to share all I've learned in this process so you hopefully can avoid the mistakes I had to make
_________________
Hear my latest album, "Celestial" featuring a combination of Mullen SD12 and Synthesizers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhh6b_xXTx4&list=PLfXm8aXRTFz0x-Sxso0NWw493qAouK
Hear my album, "Armistice" featuring Fender 400 on every song:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfXm8aXRTFz2Pz_GXhvmjne7lPEtsplyW
Hear my Pedal Steel Only playlist featuring Mullen G2 SD12 on covers like Candyman, Wild Horses, Across the Universe & more...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfXm8aXRTFz2f0JOyiXpZyzNrvnJObliA |
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Joe Cook
From:
Lake Osoyoos, WA
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Posted 20 Sep 2020 10:53 pm
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Nice job, Dennis! Very clean and and cool way to "refinish".  |
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Justin Emmert
From:
Greensboro, NC
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Posted 21 Sep 2020 2:39 am
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| I think it looks great! Nice job. |
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Bill Duncan
From:
Lenoir, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 21 Sep 2020 3:47 am
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| Outstanding and beautiful! |
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Larry Dering
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 21 Sep 2020 3:53 am
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| Wow, what a show piece. Definitely eye popping and beautiful. Great work on the wrap. |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 21 Sep 2020 9:29 am
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Nice! When pandemic subsides, we should try to get together, I'm in Littlerock, about 45 minutes from you. Mullen Pre-RP D12; Rittenberry SD-12; Zum S-12. I'm having a new studio built, maybe when it's done you, me and Dale Rottacker can have a little jam to break in the new space, he's in Tacoma.
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E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net |
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Dennis Montgomery
From:
Western Washington
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Ron Shalita
From:
California, USA
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Posted 23 Sep 2020 4:45 pm
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Wow that is one of the coolest finishesI have ever seen..
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Been playing all of my life, Lead Guitar, and Pedal Steel, sing Lead and Harmony.. play other Instruments also but I hate to admit to it.. |
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Ken Mizell
From:
Lakeland, Florida, 33809, USA
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Posted 25 Sep 2020 3:43 am
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Beautiful and unique. Wrapping is a great way to change the color. A friend of mine has a nice Zum SD-10 with a light purple front apron, and a black top and rear apron. He couldn’t stand the look of the purple (apparently order that way by the original owner). He took it to a local wrap shop and had the front apron covered in black, and replaced the decal too. You can’t tell it from an original black mica covering. Beautiful.
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Steeless. |
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Dennis Montgomery
From:
Western Washington
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Posted 25 Sep 2020 4:45 pm
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| Ron Sahlita wrote: |
| Wow that is one of the coolest finishesI have ever seen.. |
| Ken Mizell wrote: |
| Beautiful and unique. Wrapping is a great way to change the color. A friend of mine has a nice Zum SD-10 with a light purple front apron, and a black top and rear apron. He couldn’t stand the look of the purple (apparently order that way by the original owner). He took it to a local wrap shop and had the front apron covered in black, and replaced the decal too. You can’t tell it from an original black mica covering. Beautiful. |
Thanks Ron and Ken!
Wrapping the front panel is the easier part of the process because it doesn't require disassembly (or at least didn't on my Mullen or the BMI I wrapped a couple years ago). One tough part of wrapping the front panel is trimming the vinyl to size. Since the vinyl stretches, and that stretching is one way the adhesive is activated, you'll begin with a piece larger than the panel. Once you get it placed and pull the air bubbles out, you have to trim it to exact size and your 4 cuts have to be perfect and straight. This is especially crucial if your vinyl is darker (or lighter) than the original mica underneath. Miss those cuts and the original finish will show through around the edges and look terrible.
Of course, putting new decals on completely straight will really get your blood pumping! You have one shot to align them properly...mess them up and you'll be lucky to remove the decals in one re-usable piece. If you're removing decals from mica or lacquered wood, you won't damage the finish underneath...but removing them from vinyl will likely ruin the vinyl as well as the decal and you'll have to start over
_________________
Hear my latest album, "Celestial" featuring a combination of Mullen SD12 and Synthesizers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhh6b_xXTx4&list=PLfXm8aXRTFz0x-Sxso0NWw493qAouK
Hear my album, "Armistice" featuring Fender 400 on every song:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfXm8aXRTFz2Pz_GXhvmjne7lPEtsplyW
Hear my Pedal Steel Only playlist featuring Mullen G2 SD12 on covers like Candyman, Wild Horses, Across the Universe & more...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfXm8aXRTFz2f0JOyiXpZyzNrvnJObliA |
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Kevin Fix
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 25 Sep 2020 5:35 pm
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| I did the same thing with my Discovery which I used to own. I also had the end plates chrome plated. Looked sharp. |
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Patrick Timmins
From:
Seattle
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Posted 25 Sep 2020 8:26 pm
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Really cool Dennis!
I was pretty bummed the wrap you did didn't survive the rebuild process on the BMI I bought from you a while back.
Looks like a nice rig!
_________________
Microphones, Recording, and lots of pedal steel guitars! |
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Dennis Montgomery
From:
Western Washington
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Dennis Montgomery
From:
Western Washington
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Posted 26 Sep 2020 4:28 pm
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| Patrick Timmins wrote: |
Really cool Dennis!
I was pretty bummed the wrap you did didn't survive the rebuild process on the BMI I bought from you a while back.
Looks like a nice rig! |
Thanks Patrick! Nice to hear from you
I was also bummed the BMI wrap didn't survive the rebuild. I was really happy with that wrap...oh well! Once any of it is pulled up it's never going to lay back down the same because of the stretch factor. For anyone curious, here's some shots of the BMI we're talking about configured as a 12 string console steel (again using the same vinyl source I mentioned earlier in the thread)...
_________________
Hear my latest album, "Celestial" featuring a combination of Mullen SD12 and Synthesizers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhh6b_xXTx4&list=PLfXm8aXRTFz0x-Sxso0NWw493qAouK
Hear my album, "Armistice" featuring Fender 400 on every song:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfXm8aXRTFz2Pz_GXhvmjne7lPEtsplyW
Hear my Pedal Steel Only playlist featuring Mullen G2 SD12 on covers like Candyman, Wild Horses, Across the Universe & more...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfXm8aXRTFz2f0JOyiXpZyzNrvnJObliA |
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