New Project Strat Day!

[Clint 55]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

I've been shimming bolt-on necks for 40 years now with no complaints. Or perhaps, all my clients are tone-deaf and stupid. Maybe - you are wrong? Which do you think would be more probable?

I'm really sensitive about my tone. It probably came from playing upright bass where you have to listen intently to your sound and intonation otherwise it will sound bad. I prefer not to shim because if you adjust the truss rod correctly and put fallaway in your fret job there won't be a problem. From experience I don't think shimming with bad materials sounds good. I've also tried shimming the nut with paper, had the bridge on the pickguard, and blocked the trem with plastic, and I didn't like the sound. I haven't tried the stew mac wooden shims but those seem like they'd work well.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

I prefer not to shim because if you adjust the truss rod correctly and put fallaway in your fret job there won't be a problem.

Not if have a really tall bridge and no angle in the neck pocket. At a certain point when you adjust the neck to have proper bow for proper action on the higher frets, you'll have issues with the lower frets, and if you set the bow for the lower frets, you'd need so much fallaway on the higher frets they'd practically be recessed into the neck.

 

[PS412]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

I'm calling false start on the nodding contest.
Gosh farm fat thumbs it shud say modding.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

I'm calling false start on the nodding contest.

Drat, you got me. But for all interested parties, this is the thread being referenced and the contest will start as soon as we get a suitable prize.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!



Confirmed, it most certainly is plywood.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

Awesome find!

Actually, I have some experience with all three of the GFS items you’re asking about.

1) I have been swapping my guitars slowly to the GFS Sperzel-style locking tuners over the last couple of years. I find them to be rock solid and no problems whatsoever… Every bit worth what you spend on them.

2) I have a GFS Lil Killer in the center position of the guitar you see in my avatar. It’s a good-sounding p’up… Nothing fancy but it sounds nice and beefy. I also have a set of their Lil Puncher pickups (the Telecaster version of the Lil Killer) in my home made Tele. Plenty of power and maybe just a tiny smidge on the dark side tone wise.

3) I put one of those Badass intonatable bridges on my Epi LP Special and it works like a champ. The bridge that came on it was one of those pre-intonated cheap-ass deals and I couldn’t get the guitar to intonate correctly. The Badass bridge fixed it right up. The only issue I had was that the upper edge of the saddle on the low E string was cutting into my palm whenever I rested it on the bridge. I ended up taking a file to that corner and rounded it off a little and now it’s perfect.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

Golly darn this finish is tough! I spent 2 hours and wore a 10"×10" piece of sandpaper down to nothing and this is what I got for it:



I've been using 220, but I think I might have to go down to 150 until I get to wood and then use 220 to smooth it out.

I also decided on the pickups. I ordered a set of GFS Jimi's that are supposed to be replicas of what Hendrix used, I'm not quite sure I believe that, but I here good reviews about them. They also come with a reverse stagger, but I'll probably do away with that.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

Why are you stripping it? That's a hell of a job that is rarely worth it. On a cheap-O it's folly. Going for a translucent finish? With extremely minimal prep work, a factory poly finish makes a fine base for pretty much any finish material you care to throw on top. Most of the work is already done for you. Just give it some tooth and prime it, and you're ready to go.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

I originally wanted to just take it bit off and then paint, but then I decided since this is such a cheapo, I might try to see if I can't go for a thin finish in which I can feel the grain. A Bullet Squier that doesn't feel like a hunk of plastic is an appealing goal to me. Also given this is a beater, if it does wear through in some spots, I don't want it to have blue spots.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

It's your project; you do as you want in the end. I just hate to sit here and see someone putting so many man hours into a plywood guitar for no good reason, when I've already been through all that myself. (If there were solid reasons, then sure, but I don't believe there are in this case.) If you will please just humor me by allowing one more post worth of suggestions, then I'll leave you be:

I would say that you just jump ship at this point. The things you are worrying about are not going to be real-world concerns in the end: 1) You definitely don't want to "feel the grain" on plywood. It will suck, and you'll wish you couldn't feel it. It'll be a bear to seal if you take it all the way down. Be glad that Squier already did this awful work for you. Treat their finish as the sealer coat, or you're going to end up with a guitar that cost 20 bucks to buy, but cost you $1,000 worth of your time. 2) Whatever finish you put over it probably isn't going to wear or ship through that badly...and even if it did eventually, it wouldn't necessarily look bad on a beater to have some chips showing wood and other showing blue. It'll just look like some chips went deeper than others on a guitar that has been refinished. 3) It won't feel like a hunk of plastic if you finish it nicely. Hell, most '60's Fender custom colors guitars were coated in a thick plasticky sealer before being primed, colored, and cleared with lacquer...and people rave about their "natural, organic finishes that can really breath."

I would say that if you insist on taking it down to the wood, you should switch over to chemically stripping the thing (yes, I have chemically stripped poly, and it CAN be done). However, I am worried that the epoxy stripper (or heat gun) required for that might screw up the glue holding all the plies of wood together. And again, you'd have to put on a finish just as thick as Squier did in order to seal the end grains up again.

So, there are no good options at this point...but you can certainly switch over to taking the least bad option from here forward. I say just go over the thing one more time with 400 sandpaper, to prep a nice surface for primer. Get it even and give it some tooth. Give it a coat of matte primer, sand it back, and do this again and again until the body is dead smooth. Then start with your colors - multiple thin coats with sanding between each one. Then clear if you want, applied the same way.

Anyhow, have fun.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

I guess that sounds about right, but I'll at least go down to the semi-clear coat under the paint, that way the finish won't go on crazy thick.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

I guess that sounds about right, but I'll at least go down to the semi-clear coat under the paint, that way the finish won't go on crazy thick.

That is still a lot of work, but it's a far more reasonable approach than taking it down to the bare wood. Have fun!

 

[Clint 55]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

LOL 220. Dude Chris, start with rough sandpaper then go through the grits to take out the scratches. I would do 60, 120, 180.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

LOL 220. Dude Chris, start with rough sandpaper then go through the grits to take out the scratches. I would do 60, 120, 180.

220 was all I had on me and True Value was closed. I did just buy a graduated set at Walmart this evening, 80, 150, 400, 600. That should do the job.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

Get em.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

Yeah, I can see why so many people have issues with Squier finishes. A simple 220 is what I've used for furniture and I would have no problem. This stuff is almost as if they melted plastic onto it.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

That stuff is hardcore!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

So the sanding is done, the 80 grit definitely helped expedite the process and then the working up to 600 smoothed it out. Tommorow I'll start painting.

The question for this one is what to do with the headstock. I'm deciding if I should paint it to match and put a Fender waterslide on it, just remove the Squier logo, or maybe even put a Gibson waterslide on it.

How y'all think this would look on it:

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

Make your own logo

What I did was try out some fonts in Word
I think I settled on size 36 point
Print several on a sheet

Put some wide packing tape over the print
Rub it in good so the toner transfers to the tape

Trim it out

Check your placement

Soak in warm water. This is important it must be warm
Cold water don't work

Slide on the
Chris-toe-pa
logo

 

[Chistopher]

Re: New Project Strat Day!

^^Interesting, I assume you have to get the tape on as soon as you print the paper? How easy is it to see the tape or do you remove it and the ink transfers?