Re-doing a custom Strat

prowla

You could've styled it out and put a battery compartment or something there! :-)

lee

My original thoughts were to make it a cream white then I changed it to cherry red and now its going to be black because I have some black paint and I dont want to spend much money on this guitar.

Andyjr1515

Just caught up with this, @lee .  Great great save ref the breakthrough (and yes, we've all done something similar).  Some good skills on show here

boogieman

Almost seems a shame to paint it black, think I would've gone with Wez's idea of a see-through blonde.

Good job though, it's going to be pretty nice when it's finished by the look of it. 

lee

Thanks for al the comments.
 Today I have de-nibed it with 320 grit foam pad. Looks good but I have found some areas that need a bit more sanding so I will complete that then give it another coat of primer. It was too windy to spray today anyway. Yes I spray in my back garden.

lee

Got these at Aldi today. £5 per pack.

The body has 3 coats of primer on but the pores on the Korina are very deep. I will keep on spraying and sanding back to fill them.

jimification

Nice work and great that you managed to sort that blip - very handy (and encouraging) to see these kind of saves in action. Cheers.

lee

There is no break through. You have all been seeing things. Have a look there is nothing there
Three coats of primer. Its seems a lot but most of it gets sanded off to fill the grain. I think its time for the black paint.

The Sapele coats up nice and does not take long to fill the pores up. However this Korina is not good. I wont use this again.


This photo is from last years build but it shows the set up I use. Its nothing fancy. B & Q compressor, Morrells spray gun. Warm dry and no wind day and a bit cardboard to save the grass.

lee

Hot weather today so back in the garden giving it its first colour coat. This is what I use.

After the first coat. It will has grain but the pores will fill up with further coats.


I will have to decide soon if the top coat is going to be gloss or matt lacquer.

lee

I have not posted for a while as its just the same thing. Spray and sand, spray and sand. All the pores are now filled with lacquer. I have sprayed today and will sand tomorrow just to give it its final check for missed pores, fish eyes or anything else. I will then give it one last light coat and then its going to hang until after my holidays. You can buff it to shine after 1 week cure but I'm in no hurry so get the holidays out the way and then back on it.
By the way. I thought you all would be horrified by use of Dulux Satinwood for the colour coat!!!!

lee

The neck I am using is an old Mighty Mite and has already been drilled to suit the body it was originally on and would not mate up with the new body. It was not far off but still off. So..I drilled out the old holes to accept a 1/4" maple plug. Glued them in and flattened them off. Simples.

prowla

You can get those neck screw rescuer things, which I think are screw-in sockets and then you replace yourneck screws with bolts.

WezV

 Plugging and redrilling will always be the best fix when the screw holes are not quite in the right place.

lee

I think its the right repair. Cheap and quick. The only thing I should have done is use epoxy instead of Tightbond. No biggy I'm sure it will be fine. I have done it before.
Anyway busy day today. I have drilled 4 holes.

WezV

Titebond is fine for it as long as they are a push fit

lee

That's the only thing that concerns me. Wood glue works best when its clamped tight together but you cant do that with plugs hence using epoxy. Anyway I'm overthinking it. The jobs fine the way it is.

WezV

It's also water based so will swell and set the surrounding wood. 

lee

I started to sand the finish on the body today. Its a simple process. I start off with a 1000 grit foam pad to flatten and remove the orange peel then I finish with a 1500 grit foam pad. That's it, no more sanding. From this point on its foam pads in a hand drill and polishing creams.
However, as I normally do I have sanded through the finish. I will have to touch it up then start the buffing.

lee

I had put this project down for a few months due to school holidays and normal summer things. Anyway decided to polish the paintwork and fit the neck, bridge and strap pins. Another reason I put it down is I'm in two minds what to do in the way of electrics. My first thought was to put mini humbucker blades in the bridge and neck only. No middle pickup as I just don't use it but now I'm thinking of a more traditional single coil strat thing but with the middle pickup being a dummy hum cancelling coil as I hate hum. I just cant decide.

lee

All done now.