Hm Strat Refinish & HS mod

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So id said to myself no more new projects for this year but as im currently refinishing a Charvel Spectrum & waiting for the clear to vent i couldn't resist the HM strat body/neck that @Strangefan put up for sale a few days ago,finding out that he could deliver it next day was also a bonus (top bloke) meaning i could get started on it today.


So the body was covered in a thick'ish grey primmer and matt had had a bit of a go at removing some of it showing that the clear hasn't been removed and the org razzberry pink colour had faded to a soft orange,there were also some rather large globs of filler so i was expecting some pretty big dents once i stripped off all the crap



Now i know these 88 alder jap HM strats have an aircraft grade poly/clear coat that doesn't seem to bat an eyelind at thinners so and hour later and a lot of now grey rags she's all cleaned up



And to my pleasant surprise about 95% of the glopy/filler was filling nothing.....





As the fade is very patchy (back is still very pink) and the clear is quite dinged up in places ive decided i'll be refinishing it with canbrush's c53 Fluorescent Pink which looks like its pretty close to the org pink (or as close to the org as i can get locally)





It just so happens that i remembered @SnazzyGeezer had a unused spyder trem up for sale a few months back,which he kindly reduced the cost of for me after a cheeky pm (thanks again steve i look forward to it arriving)



I have a set of Gotoh tuner kicking around (if i can find there buttons) and i'll just have to track down a F marked curved backplate from somewhere

I also decided that i'll be filling in the middle SC as i never use that pup on any off my HSS guitars any way and i love the HS look,final rebuild should look something like this.



looking at the silly prices the org bits are going for i doubt this will have original knobs/pups but if anyone know of any going cheap fire me a pm

Hoping to get the middle pup route blocked and dings filled tomorrow and start spraying over the weekend,neck is a little grubby with a few dents that need steaming but i'll get to that while the colour & clear vents.

Cheers
Gizmo





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Comments

  • Ow. My. Bloody God! What a job buddy! Can I buy it back of you :D
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  • Honestly tho what a amazing job! 
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  • Have you seen the knobs they use on the cheaper Parker guitars ?
    i think they'll be pretty close to the originals,they have that rubbery feel to them.
    By the way,the trem will be in the post tomorrow.
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  • AlexCAlexC Frets: 2396
    That really is a great job. Some skill you've got there! Nice one.
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  • paulnb57paulnb57 Frets: 3044
    edited September 2017
    Nice project, looking forward to the next installment!...
    Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll

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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    Hey guys

    Thanks for the feedback :)

    Im quite enjoying the modding on this one sofar,All the dings are now filled and leveled,middle SC filled with a maple block and epoxied in place/leveled and today i decided that id also fill/reroute the HB pocket for a cover free direct mount look,i pref this look myself over pup rings plus i found that the bottom right pup ring screw had severed off in the body below the top which would have been a bitch to drill/dig out

    And again a big thanks to SnazzyGeezer for supplying the replacement Spyder trem,this thing is f'ing gorgeous! better pic's of it once i get it up the workshop

    Hopping to laydown a light pink base coat for the Fluorescent Pink trans coat on tuesday (been roped into doing decorating for the next few days yuck...)

    Crappy progress pic




     
    Later
    Gizmo
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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    edited October 2017
    Didn't get chance to spray today heater wasn't firing up and i felt ambi was a bit to cold to chance it,got a replacement getting dropped around tomorrow so if it stays dry i'll throw a base coat down..

    Decided to clean up the grub on the fretboard a little so i gave her a shave and 10 mins of a oxalic acid wipe/drench 


    came up pretty good i think.



    i'll give it a night to fully dry out and see if it needs a 2nd wipe down,if not i'll clean off the poly mess on the rear of the neck and osmo top oil the lot to seal it off.

    laters
    Gizmo







     
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  • StrangefanStrangefan Frets: 5845
    Bloody brillaint! 
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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    Hey Matt

    Thanks for the kind words glad you dig what im doing to your former parts (btw where did you get these? you never said or i didn't ask lol ) and sorry but your not getting it back hehe ;)

    So got around to stripping off the nasty (now yellowed) poly crap that the FujiGen plant caked these necks in (ive read it was left over japanese WWII aircraft poly! but i think that must be BS,although it is pretty freaking hard non of the dents made it to the neck wood!)

    Nice for the wood to see the light of day after 29 years !



    Didn't want to lose the org serial so i took the top off to remove the surface yellowing i'll blend the osmo top oil into the heel



    Manage to get the tack and first coat of the base pink on which im hopping to flat out/touch up tomorrow for the trans Fluorescent Pink final



     


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  • That guitar is gonna rip with an oiled neck! I got all the finish off my tele neck and it totally transformed the guitar.

    Have you used Osmo before on a neck? I've used it on my banister but never on a guitar!
    I'm just a Maserati in a world of Kias.
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  • This looks awesome..

    I have some crazy coloured dimarzio/ibanez knobs that I could sell you?? Blues.. Orange..  Purple.. Green.. Yellow.. iirc





    My trading feedback

    is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?

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  • CorvusCorvus Frets: 2924
    tFB Trader
    Nice one G!
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  • randellarandella Frets: 4088
    Man, I was starting to think I had the only one left.  I really ought to finish this thread, the guitar's back to life now...

    http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/70492/in-praise-of-rothko-frost-my-current-project-continued
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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    Hey guys

    Thanks for the feedback :)

    @vbloodandtears : Thanks for the knob offer (oh suits you sir) but i might have sourced some new/oldstock fender elite knobs from a mate in the US who says he has some in a draw somewhere....

    @
    bluechargeboy : yep ive used the Osmo top oil on a few necks and its feels great just like the charvels and jacksons of the 80's i use 2 coats a day apart then a light rub with 3200 to knock the slight gloss off

    @
    randella : Dam man get that Tom red HM strat finished (or sell it me so i can ;) )


    Got the first coat of Osmo TO on





    FB is masked atm as i only want one thin coat on it to stop the maple staining,id rather live with the slight tint/darking than have to keep shaving and bleaching it every 6 months !


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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    Had the lurgy for the past few days but i managed to slip out and get a few final pink coats on today,i stopped after the 2nd coat as i was getting retina burn!



    Lets just say its rather PINK.


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  • DrBobDrBob Frets: 2998
    A white single pickup one of these was the first 'real' Fender to appear in the hands of one of my circle of guitar buddies at school. Bit of an odd choice for the guy in question as he was definitely much more into Clapton, Knopfler etc, but it did feel like pure class in the hand when compared to the Korean Squiers, Marlins, & the Hohners that most of us had at the time.
    HS is my favourite pickup combo on a no pick guard Strat too so absolutely loving this.
    That said the inner Jeff Beck fanboy is also loving the orange respiratory you've done on Dave's old blue Spectrum too..
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  • pickergpickerg Frets: 30
    Loving this thread - amazing work, pleased you're bringing this back to life.  I think my biggest guitar regret was that I had one of these in the early 90s as my first good guitar and being a silly teenager I did my own dodgy refinish from the pink to white with a giant dragon decal thing on it. (I know! but at the time the pink didn't fit with the thrash and death metal!)  I then sold it and probably lost a load of money on it.  Would love one again for the nostalgia.
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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    Hey guys 

    Many thanks for the feedback and kind words :) Sorry for the slow replies,been down with the lurgy for a few more days,just couldn't shake it off all last week :(

    @DrBob Yep the 17" radius FB and flat wide D on these necks is a real pleasure under the hand,Even Hank Marvin himself was a fan of the HM strat here he is with one from the 1990 Knebworth event ! (either he was a fan or one of his road crew miss-ordered one when they saw the HM label in the catalog ;)  )



    The Charvel spectrum is well vented at this point and im going to start leveling the clearcoat on it later this week,hope to have her together by the weekend,i'll post pics once its all done.

    @pickerg Well your not the first to have trashed a cool 80's/90's guitar as a teen,a mate of mine had a hurricane guitar the same model/colour Jason becker used to record Perpetual Burn...he sticker bombed it then after a few months decided he wanted them off so took a plait knife to it and then used nail polish remover (acetone) to get the sticky stuff off it....totally trashed it after that when he ditched heavy metal and went grunge....last time i saw it it had nails in the floyd rose to make it a fixed bridge...

    Anyhows Back to this mod....Popped up the workshop midweek while sick to check on things and found that the Fluorescent Pink top finish had developed and blue ring around the filled middle sc hole 

    As this finish fluoresces somuch when photoed he's a quick level edited pic so you can see the issue 

     
    I can only think this was a reaction to the 2 part epoxy i used to glue in the maple block,what i find a little bizarre is that it had cured for 3 days before i put the light pink based coat on and that light pink base coated vented for 4 days without any reaction before i put the 
    Fluorescent Pink top coat on,also ive used that epoxy loads of time with other refinishes without any issue like this...very strange

    So no other option but to sand it back and respray,strange again (but good) when i got down to the light pink there was no dis-colorization.....

     
    Ive since resprayed the effected area and after having 3 days to vent and im happy to report that no other dis-colorization,so im hopping to do a bit of flattening on the top coat then and get some clear coat on it tomorrow

    Managed to score some New/Oldstock 80's gotoh style tuners that look spot on 



    My Us mate came through with the Elite knobs,but he found out how much their going for online,offered me first dibs but im not paying £80 for 3 knobs...

    So i have a set each of these coming from China to try ....£3 a set free del lol







    & Thanks again for the Comments 

    Cheers
    Gizmo
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16547
    You can always paint the inside of the clear knobs in the same shade as the guitar
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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1073
    WezV said:
    You can always paint the inside of the clear knobs in the same shade as the guitar
    Well i got x6 for £3 so i got a few to play with ;) + wisdom for the idea 
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