Holoflake Goodness

davismanLV

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Makes your ceiling light look like a universe. Actually the whole surface is a universe..... between light and it's direction it's never the same.
 

GAD

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Its a lovely thing.
The photo of the neck appears - to my eyes - to be a bit darker than the photos of the front.
Is it like that or just a trick of the light ?

It's one of the examples about how the guitar changes in different light. That's a black background with only dim ambient light. The guitar's finish is called "Black Holo-Flake" which means that the base color is actually black! From any distance with any real light, the black is completely washed out by the sparkles. Get close up in dimmer light and you can see the black. The neck is the exact same finish as the front. I'm hoping to take some better pics tonight or tomorrow.
 

GAD

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5D3_2103 1_1600.jpg


Probably the best pic so far getting close to how it looks in real life. It's crazy difficult to photograph, and after some reading I think it's due to the large aperture lenses I favor. If you're interested, I think this has to do with the fact that our pupils are small and therefore only see one of the colors being refracted, but the large lens sees them all and then refocuses them down to white pinpoints. If you notice in the pic above, the top is slightly out of focus (OOF) due to shooting at f/4 and that's where you can see the rainbow colors. If I throw the entire thing OOF then you see the colors I see with my eyes that I'm trying to capture:
5D3_2058_1600.jpg


Those colors are what I see, but the camera does not record them when in focus. Thinking more about the big lens theory, I whipped out my iPhone, but that was a failure, too though I don't have enough real manual control with that. I do have a Fuji camera with a smallish lens that I may try. I also need to try some polarizing filter experiments.
 

kakerlak

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Some of the difference on the neck appearance is probably a byproduct of how the flakes lie against the curved surface -- definitely going to be a difference in the refractory angles the light catches against that vs. the flatter rest of the guitar. I always had a pretty good hunch how these would look and, despite being so over the top, I knew it'd be one of those acid trip-satisfying things to stare at in person. @GAD @hansmoust did we ever verify how many of these there are? I feel like there's been a holoflake bluesbird with a dot neck like the one here for sale for over a decade, not continuously and not at the same store, but there's at least one that's bounced around a TON over the years with wildly fluctuating prices. It made me wonder whether this is a NAMM one-off or a run of a handful of them for a retailer somewhere, etc.

Anyway, cool you've got it.
 

awagner

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The holoflake is stunning, but to my eye it would be much more aesthetically pleasing if the fingerboard was ebony. The rosewood just doesn’t match.
 

kakerlak

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The holoflake is stunning, but to my eye it would be much more aesthetically pleasing if the fingerboard was ebony. The rosewood just doesn’t match.
Unbound ebony with abalone dots would've been cool.
 

GAD

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Dark bound rosewood with block inlays like every other freaking Bluesbird. I'm baffled why they went with the plain Blue-90 style neck especially when the original that these were based on has it:



By the way check out how it's blurred to show off the colors. :)
 

GAD

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Test vid. It's not quite what I want yet, but I think it starts to show what I mean about the pics not doing it justice. Tip - click the YouTube link on the bottom of the vid and make it as large as you can. It looks better big.

Also, I think I've come to the conclusion that my eyes don't focus as well as the camera which also adds to the effect in person. Stupid eyes...
 

AcornHouse

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Test vid. It's not quite what I want yet, but I think it starts to show what I mean about the pics not doing it justice. Tip - click the YouTube link on the bottom of the vid and make it as large as you can. It looks better big.

Also, I think I've come to the conclusion that my eyes don't focus as well as the camera which also adds to the effect in person. Stupid eyes...

2952B2FC-2675-4CE0-BF9B-4ED1F354B44E.gif
 
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DThomasC

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It really does seem to have a holographic depth. Now I want to know how to apply the finish to other objects, like my Barbie Jeep for example. Maybe with a pink base coat.
 

GAD

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It's almost what I want. The problem is that being so small (and a gif) all the sparkly detail is kind of lost. Also I hate the way it sort of floats around. Getting there, though.

Guild-Bluesblake-Holoflake-Rainbow-Animated-500.gif
 

Zelja

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I like! Well done capturing that, GAD.

I tend to agree that an ebony (or at least a darker rosewood) would have matched up better. Maybe even black pickup rings & knobs. Still, pretty spectacular!
 
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