Put the electronics in the pickguard this evening, Decided to do a mock-up pic.



Think I'm gonna like it.

Damn man! That setup looks great. Very well done sir.

natural/satin!

Freaking weather here is holding me up. Can't spray poly when it's 30 degrees outside.

I mowed on Tuesday and on Wednesday we had a (brief) white-out blizzard. Temps haven't been out of the 30's since.

That's my favorite flavor of pickguard!
Looks great!

I really like it. I think it's going to work out fine.

Interesting turn of events. The original pickup covers were panther pink.

So, I had a couple extra sets, an antique yellow set, and a cream white set.

And neither of them fit the pole piece spacing on the pickups. GRRR!

So, I figured I'd swap out the pickups. Cut the wires, resoldered the new pickups in place, put them in the pickguard.

These had been in another guitar, and they sounded pretty good when I used them last.

But, then I got to looking at the pickups I took out.

The more I got to reading, the more I thought I just removed a set of Alnico V's and replaced them with ceramics.

Nothing wrong with that, but I think I would like the Alnicos better.

Also, the pickups had staggered pole pieces. I believe these are Squier Alnicos and they're a good set of pickups for a cheap guitar.

So, I figured that if I could get the paint off of the pickup covers, I'd put the old ones back in.

Started reading about how to remove paint from plastic. Found the answer on, of all things, a model railroad forum.

Soak the painted parts in 90-100% alcohol, either isopropyl or ethyl, until the paint flakes off.

Worked like a charm. Hit it with steel wool in a couple of places to clean it up but they look great.

And, back in go the Alnico pickups. The bridge position pickup is different from the middle and neck. Wire is a different color and the pole pieces sit higher as well.



Hope it was worth it!

I'm ready to shoot polyurethane on the body, but I need a full day of temps 68 or better. It' only in the mid to high 40's today. Guess it'll have to wait until next weekend.

#&$^#$$@!

It's looking very nice!  

nice combo of colors.

This has been an amazing save on that guitar. Going from the boogered up mess of pink to that classy looking instrument is an incredible transformation. Even more so with out having to make significant part changes and just using methods to strip the pink nightmare off is awesome. Very well done.

Base coat is done on my bass project. Clear coat to follow either Friday or Saturday. Brought it into the house (from the garage, where I have a makeshift "booth") in the meantime since we're supposed to have storms tonight and tomorrow, and figure it better to be sitting in a climate-controlled environment.

Attached File

Sweet! Can't wait to see the gloss coat.

Speaking of gloss, I FINALLY got a good day for painting and finished the headstock.

Got me one of them fancy personalized headstock logos and buried it under 10 or so coats of poly.

Since it reveals personal info, had to blur it. But still gives you a good idea of how it turned out. I'm happy with it.





Quite the transformation from this:



Also, shot the first coats on the body. Not much to see, really, because the wood really soaked up the first coat, but at least I got it started.



It darkened it a little bit. I'm perfectly OK with that.



Going to get as many coats on as I can, but then I have to wait 72 hours before re-coating, so it will be Tuesday or Wednesday before I can really finish it up. And, depending on how many coats I want to do, might go into next weekend (the wife's going to be gone, so I'd have plenty of time to just sit around, drink beer, and shoot poly all day...and that actually sounds pretty fun!). Just going to put as many rough coats as I can today and build layers, then wet sand eventually and put a final finish coat on. If I can get that to look good, I might not have to polish much or at all.

One thing I learned a long time ago about finishing...you can't get in a hurry. From the first application to finishing the headstock took me two weeks. I figure I'm probably that far from playing this thing for the first time...lol.

Well, the finish on my body is ruined now. Will likely have to completely strip and start over. Doubt I can spot-fix it.

(A small hair got into the clear on the second coat, and of course in a spot that would be very visible. Guess I need to get one of those full-body suits for painting. Stupid fucking hypothyroidism.)

Lightly wet sand it with 800, then 1000 (have to do it evenly with a block all over the surface of the plane you're working in) and just re-coat it with your next coat like normal. Should be good to go.

If you saw the dust nibs and even bugs that got in mine, you'd be in a panic. Same with the last one I did. I just pick out the big stuff and keep going. It'll all come out in the wash.

It's already fubar, since I tried to remove it immediately. I didn't want to keep spraying and end up with it buried under clear. As it turned out to already half-buried, removing it didn't go well, especially since I cheaped out on the base coat.

Once things are fully cured tomorrow, we'll see if it can be salvaged with a spot fix, but I highly doubt it - probably won't blend in enough for me to be satisfied with it.

i dont have the patience for fine finishes. Grampa owned a body shop so i guess that gene drowned in the pool... those both look fantastic.

Today, I don't either...lol.

I have a nice semi-glossy finish on it right now. It's not like my other guitar was, but it's shiny. You can see images reflecting in it. There's one little part on the front that has a bit of orange peel, but it's mostly hidden by the pickguard.





Now, I can call it good and start putting it back together.

Or, I can spend another week and several more hours coating, wet sanding, and polishing to end up with a super glossy finish like I did on my other guitar.  I estimate that it's probably about 90% to that point, so all that work would be to get the final 10%.

I may say, "Good enough" and just go with it. After all, it is a pieces parts guitar, and the semi-satin finish looks awesome, to be honest.

And, if I absolutely can't live with it, it WILL disassemble and I can buff it, add more poly, and get it to really shine.

What does the hive think?  I've had this thing almost a month and I want to get it together and start playing it...lol.

Maybe I'm talking myself into it?

Yeah, no. In decent light, this thing looks pretty bad. I'm gonna have to work on it some more. Didn't come this far to leave it looking like amateur hour.

Now, I have to wait until Saturday to shoot the next coats (you have to wait 72 hours, if you can't re-coat within 2 hours).

Oh well.

Was able to mostly recover things with spot fixes, but still not entirely happy with how the finish turned out. Will probably eventually strip and redo it, but it's good enough for now, as I really wanted to get it done and play it. Of course, also already making notes about minor changes/tweaks I'm going to do for the next one.

Attached File


Ended up on the heavy side, at 10lb 2oz. Body is poplar, neck was taken from an older Squier - I'm not set up to make necks just yet (or rather, I'm not set up to make fretboards just yet).

So long as it's smooth where your forearm hits and where your hand rubs in the lower cutaway, I'd go with it.  It really looks good.

That looks really nice! Tortoiseshell with a light background is a classic look.

Yeah, I had it sitting inside and the light hit it a particular way and it really didn't look good at all.

Weather has NOT been cooperative. Barely out of the 50's here lately.

Gonna try to put another couple coats on it tonight. If you can't re-coat within 2 hours, you have to wait 72 hours. So, I'm going to load it up today and again on Sunday.

Last time I used a whole can on the body. I'll have slightly more than that this time, since i sanded through before.

OK, she's done.

And she's great!




Not just the way she looks. She plays great and sounds awesome.

These pickups have an amazing sound. I have aftermarket pickups on my other Strat and I thought they were good. These are just as good if not better.

I think it needs a little neck shimming. Looks like it's leaning to the right a bit in that pic. That won't be a problem at all.  I didn't worry about a super gloss finish on it. If I decide I want to later, I'll do it. But, just a nice satin on it now, and it looks great like that.

Total invested:

2 cans of polyurethane: $20.
2 jugs of stripper: $24
Pickguard: $15
Headstock decal: $10

Everything else I used, I already had on hand. So, I'm into it for just shy of $70. Can't beat that!

Damn that is a good looking guitar. You should post a side by side showing the original pink nightmare and the new classy look. Well done.

Stunning!

I think you achieved your goal.
Really looks great. I'm impressed.

Just started the process for the next project.

Actually, already started, but made the next step.

A while back, I bought a Tele neck off eBay. I got a set of vintage look tuners and a fancy bridge plate/loaded switch cover, like this:



I decided to enlist the help of my dad, who's a master woodworker, to make me a Tele body. I told him I didn't want to know what he did, just do it and let me know when he was finished.

Well, he asked me to go to the local sawmill and get a slab of cherry and a slab of maple (I like where this is going). I just got back with them a while ago. It about killed me putting them in the loft of my building, but I did it. Dad wanted 2 inch, which they had in cherry, but in maple all they had was 3 inch. That was NOT fun.  Lifting a 3" x 8" x 8' slab of hard maple overhead is no small task.

Didn't notice when I picked it up, but the maple has worm holes in it. Bonus.

He's already got the blueprints and a tracing of a Tele body. I told him to knock himself out. Whatever he felt like doing. Go crazy. Just don't show me until you're done.

Eventually, this will be a gift for my grandson, if he takes an interest in guitars. His initials are CAT, so this is going to be the CAT Caster.

He's one, and he already likes playing his toy harmonica and flute.

But, he also likes pounding on things rhythmically. And that worries me, because his dad, my son, played the drums when he was in high school.

No, grandson. Don't become a drummer. Please. Don't go over to the dark side.

Looking forward to seeing what your dad designs for the tele body with that wood combo.

So I missed the look of the original toaster pickups so I picked up some covers off Reverb.  Not without problems for installing them. both the slugs and coils were wide enough to touch the sides of the slots and my bridge PU is a trem spaced pickup.  I did some careful stacking of layers of masking tape inside the covers to just allow a hair of separation from the poles and covers. They were so tight I didn't need any wax or silicone.  These pickups are fairly hot, sounding more like a P90 in humbuckers mode and something pretty stratty when split and overdriven.  Clean split gives you something more Gretsch-y.  Adding the covers that were that close to the poles didn't add anything unpleasant and may have tamed them slightly. All things considered it came out pretty nice.

Attached File


Attached File

It's alive!





I finally finished this up, and it sounds pretty damn sweet.

That looks great. The pickup and bridge combo are tough. Very nice work.