You’re right. I should do a decent studio render first.
Not totally sold on the idea of using that scene, but I made that table a while back, and still haven’t found a scene I’m happy with for it. It’s probably not a good idea though to try to cram too much into one scene, like you say.
Here’s that studio render. Let me know what you guys think.
looks great, but the material on the bridge hardware looks a bit like aluminum. great bass, one of my favorites. a little outside of my budget though.
Except for the weird red outline in the middle this looks awesome. Well done!
Thanks guys.
@Modron - Yeah, I was actually mimicking the materials on the actual model. I do think though that the reflections need to be sharpened up a little bit. My favorite bass too. I keep trying to tell my buddy to give me his, but he doesn’t want to… 
@Ben_Lind - I’m not convinced that the red line works either. If you look at the profile of the real pick guard, there is a thin line of contrasting color around, almost as if they sandwiched 3 layers together, the middle layer being the alternate color. I liked the red line better when the body was white. I may need to make that line white instead.
Here’s that reference image again:
Oh yeah I see what you mean. It was just so bright I suspected it to be a rendering artifact or something similar. I got this weird outline somewhere in cycles if I remember correctly so that was probably why I thought of it.
Maybe you could make the outline darker than the bodymaterial instead of lighter?
I’ll fiddle with it and see what happens. Darker might be a good idea. Also, not crazy about the red body either. I’m thinking black may be a better option, in which case, a white line may work better. Also, I’m toying with the idea of making a pearlescent pick guard like the one in the reference. Not quite sure how I would accomplish that though. That would be a heck of a node setup.
EDIT: didn’t realize this thread was a months old, sorry…
Great model! There’s only one thing that bothers me: the strings look a bit dull, like when you play every day but haven’t changed your strings in about 6 months… I play guitar (and bass when there’s one laying around) and strings shine a bit more, new, maybe that would help the wire wound texture stand out more also (could just be the size of the screenshot, or the fact that I’m not using an hd screen - can’t see much of it on the ref picture you posted either…)
The rest looks spot on!
Thanks for the reply Strungout. I actually revisited this today, and after looking at the strings, I think you may be right. I think I need to scale my texture a bit. I have the roughness set pretty low, and because of that, I think it’s the texture at fault - the wound string effect just isn’t big enough.
At any rate, I reworked the body and pick guard materials today. Let me know what you think!
Also, what kind of guitar do you play? I also play bass, though I don’t play a Sterling. I’d love to own one, but 1200 bucks is a bit much right now. I’ve got a 5 string Ibanez with dual hum buckers. It has a nice sound, but it’s no Music Man.
Lookin’ good! The change in color made the beveled edge of the pickguard stand out more. hand’t noticed it before, but the wine color maked it seem like it bleed halfway up the thickness of the pickguard 
I also play an Ibanez, an RG321, low end guitar but Ibanez seemed the best quality for the price! But I’m not that difficult. Hmm, I’ma go look for 8-string baritones… 
Sweet. Thanks. It’s off to the Finished Project forum with this fella.
Very nice job so far!
I have a MM Stingray 1 guitar from '77 in awesome condition, was me grandfathers and he left it to me.
You know, I’m a guitar teacher and I’ve never blended up myself a guitar. Too occupied trying to make hot chicks I think… hehe 
