ChickenFingers
New member
Wanted some feedback on my guitar projects, this is my first time doing my own re-finishing and custom pickguard....Both guitars are Yamaha EG303's, one of the cheapest strat guitars Yamaha makes. I didn't want to use expensive guitars for my foirst two projects, while they are cheap, the necks are thin and they don't have a band tone actually. The pickguard took 8 hours labor total, crazy I know, but next time I will have to right tools...main thing I need is a metal bandsaw or scroll saw to cut curves in metal. Making a strat pickguard is not for the feint of heart, it's FOCKING HARD! After all 21 holes are drilled, 19 of them have to be chamfered to fit the screw heads, and endless trimming and grinding, plus a 40 deg grind along the edge to give it that finished look. OK the pics.
The guy I got this guitar from had painted it a color changing camelon look, from purple th blue to green..UGLY, I stripped it all off and sanded the body down to bare wood, 150 grit, working down to 220 (400 for the final finish sand)... unfortunalty the body was made of at least 4 pieces with grains going in different directions.... I guess yamaha uses the ****ty woods pieces for their painted guitars as I was hoping the wood looked like their unfinished guitars...the wood is alder I think (anyone know?)
Sanding done I applied minwax wood conditioner to get it ready to accept stain.
Now time to add first coats of stain, I used minwax "Golden Pecan" it's a nice shade not too light or dark, juuuuuust right!!
I hung the body with a wire to make staining easier. I still have to apply another coat of stain and then the polyurethane to protect and seal it, pics to come once I put this guitar back together. For the guts, I'm using pickups and electronics from a 2000 american strat, hopefuly should sound better then the stock yamaha sc's which were weak sauce.
This pickguard I made from diamondplate, the end result made all the work worth it, it's stunning really...needs very minor sanding, but it's 99.5% done! I wasn't going to leave the diamondplate shiny like a mirror, it looked glam and also every fingerprint or scratch would show up like a bad rash. I got a dremel and a metal wire burnishing tool... it made the diamondplate look amazing, it has a 3D pearloid look to it, that you cannot see in the pictures, stunning!!!
Sorry for all the pictures, anyong still on dialup should shoot themself though, hahahaha. The pickguard is going on the black strat, which has a SD hotrails in the bridge and DZ fasttrack1 in the neck position, stock middle...Comments??
The guy I got this guitar from had painted it a color changing camelon look, from purple th blue to green..UGLY, I stripped it all off and sanded the body down to bare wood, 150 grit, working down to 220 (400 for the final finish sand)... unfortunalty the body was made of at least 4 pieces with grains going in different directions.... I guess yamaha uses the ****ty woods pieces for their painted guitars as I was hoping the wood looked like their unfinished guitars...the wood is alder I think (anyone know?)
Sanding done I applied minwax wood conditioner to get it ready to accept stain.
Now time to add first coats of stain, I used minwax "Golden Pecan" it's a nice shade not too light or dark, juuuuuust right!!
I hung the body with a wire to make staining easier. I still have to apply another coat of stain and then the polyurethane to protect and seal it, pics to come once I put this guitar back together. For the guts, I'm using pickups and electronics from a 2000 american strat, hopefuly should sound better then the stock yamaha sc's which were weak sauce.
This pickguard I made from diamondplate, the end result made all the work worth it, it's stunning really...needs very minor sanding, but it's 99.5% done! I wasn't going to leave the diamondplate shiny like a mirror, it looked glam and also every fingerprint or scratch would show up like a bad rash. I got a dremel and a metal wire burnishing tool... it made the diamondplate look amazing, it has a 3D pearloid look to it, that you cannot see in the pictures, stunning!!!
Sorry for all the pictures, anyong still on dialup should shoot themself though, hahahaha. The pickguard is going on the black strat, which has a SD hotrails in the bridge and DZ fasttrack1 in the neck position, stock middle...Comments??
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