I've had this partscaster strat since i was 15 (now 19), and it was built by me and my dad. Spec was: ash body, fralin vintage hots, maple neck.
I thought i would share the process with you guys. I'm quite sad and like reading these detailed threads, so i thought i would give something back now i have the chance to! Updates will come as they happen, which should be over the coming few weeks.
Heres how it started out life:
Then i decided to un-relic the body, and resprayed it blue again. This was over the top of a polyester sunburst, because i had heard that in the 50s custom colours would just be sprayed over the top of a sunburst finish, but the fact that the body i got was poly finished meant that the effect didn't really turn out too well.
^This photo was after i started disassembling it, hence why everything looks a bit odd... But in this incarnation i had replaced the 'reliced' saddles with modern style steel ones, resprayed (cheap halfords paint job) and added a bit of wear to the headstock.
Now onto what i intend to do. This started out as just stripping the body back to bare wood to respray it with nitrocellulose. I was going to depart from the past and go for a vintage white shade, and swap out for a tortoishell guard. So i started stripping the body:
nitromors applied
I dont have any photos of this, but after a while of scraping and reapplying, i realised the stripper wouldnt bite into the poly undercoat. So i resorted to the heat gun:
progress pic
Here it is completely stripped and flat sanded!
However, having put all of that work into it, I decided it was actually time for a body upgrade. This one had served it's purpose for a good few years, but now i wanted a higher quality one which i could start afresh with. Anyway, i shelled out on a 2 piece unsanded ash body from booboos guitars on the bay, which was £32 plus £16 postage which i was pretty happy with. I'll post pics when i have the chance to take a photo of it.
Comments
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
For me, though (just my taste), leave the body natural and put a tortoiseshell pick guard on that and I reckon it'll be fab.
But if you've bought a different body, that's up to you.
Keith's also a lovely chap who stepped into the breach when I had a singer on the missing list
I've never had any trouble with Axesrus I have to say, and on the odd occasion I've had a query, they've always been friendly and answered promptly. I've bought various parts, pickup covers, pickups, machine-heads etc. from them and it's all been as described, and good.
Well worth working with.