i-j-c Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Hi...whilst at my local music store the other month (I was buying a new Marshall and old LP Standard) the owner brings me out this 'Strat' in bits... The body is a mighty Mite, two piece alder - it was split down the join at the back, someone had been attacking it with a router at some point to install humbuckers (and a nasty job they made too) - it was finished in black but was in an awful state. Along with it was a Fender neck, rosewood, 22 fret that had more than it's fair share on dings, but it had new tuners. Along with it came a brand new pickguard (still in the film) which was from a squire strat - in that were brand new pups still in film...the trem had been used on the body, but was not original but in good condition. So, the store owner 'aquired' this, but did not have the time or interest in putting it together...so offered me it for £100...I snapped his hand off.. So got it home stripped it down, removed all nasty laquer, glued body back, filled dings and got it looking nice - can't do much about the nasty router job, but not to worry. Stripped the neck down, removed the frets, radiused and refretted. Whilst sanding the neck down the original logo came off..When I refretted, I spent ages making my own filler to hide the ends of the fret slots to match the rosewood.. So I decided the colour I wanted, which was a kind of Foam green. I could not find anything close so I mixed my own paints using japlac colours and added pearl powder. The Body I primed, then gave it a few coats of a sky blue, then began painting it my colour with my airbush...the stage it's at now it has 4 coats of nitro. Of course it had several rub downs in between paints and nitro coats with 600 wet paper.. Here it is so far: Here is another look: Body 2 The neck. I remember reading some time ago Jehle's post on making logo's on clear film. I tested this on my Inkjet on HP transparrent paper - looked OK, but perhaps the type of film was too thick. SO I then printed the Fender logo to the transparent film in reverse (so the shiny side is up)...I then used this as a form of letraset to rub over the logo - this transferred the black ink, pin sharp to the headstock. I then coloured the inside of the logo with acrylic pencil (a kind of solid guoache) - this left the logo pin sharp.. Here's a few test prints. On a plus side, doing it this way left no water mark or film layer to build up over, so the finish can be thinner. Logo Print Logo 2 test Prints Here is a few photo's of the (nearly finished) neck..it has nitro finish on it.. Neck1 Neck2 Neck3 Neck4 Close up of logo.. Neck5 Neck6 One last shot of the rear neck...I made the custome shop logo in the same manner and filled in with acrylic pencil.. Neck6 To end, I'm going to make a new pickgaurd for it perhaps witha checkerboard pattern, or I may leave the original. Either way, like my other strat I built, it will have chrome pup covers and chrome knobs.. I'm hoping by the weekend to have the reminder of the nitro on the body then give a few days to settle before buffing. I'll keep you posted... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muggatu Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Sweet man! That logo turned out really good. The body looks very nice as well. It's always feels great to get a deal that good and then not have to worry so much about seriously messing up a really expensive guitar ya know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maiden69 Posted October 5, 2005 Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Great! I use my airbrush to shoot the pearls too, but I use water based paint from createx that laready have the pearl powder on it. What kind of pearl did you used? I have found a few hobby places that sell powder but it is really small, and I don't think it will look good on a guitar. I haven't tried the auto pearls, since the only local place that sell them close to my house didn't sell small qty and it was a bit expensive to just try it. I like the color, pretty nice! I think it looks way better than foam green, it is a bit more on the blue side, and it looks very unique! Nice work on the stickers too! I haven't seen a close up look on a custom Fender, are the gold on the letter kinda see thru like the one you did? Or are they a solid gold? I'm getting jelous here with out my tools and all this nince guitars floating around and I got nothing to show! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i-j-c Posted October 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2005 Hey..thanks for the comments...appreciated The pearls I used were made by plasti-kote, come in small tubs and you can get various shades..I used white pearl. I think they cost me about £4 from a hardware store called Homebase over here... That shade of green/blue is exactly the colour I wanted. I had it in my mind, but after days of shopping, could not find anything even close...so I used various japlac colours to achieve it. thinned it down to almost water and added pearls. Prior to this I added a sky blue colour (which you can see in the routed areas) - I then shot one coat of my colour without the pearl from my spraygun. I then shot the very thin pearl - about 8 coats to get the shade I wanted. I added two coats of nitro to seal it, gave it a light sand and two further coats....today I added two further coats. I'll give it maybe 8 or so more until I get the level I want....then make it like glass...using NXT. Logo. The original and or custom is solid gold. You can see from the pics what I printed was solid gold...when you rub this over...only the black transfers...and the line is pin sharp. As you can see from the paper I tested painting the inside with gold..but this messed up the line...so I just used my imagination and used the acrylic pencil...which gave an even better see through colour than I expected....plus, it's dead flat and there is no edge mark if I simply cut out the decal. You can also see I changed the Original Contour Body to something of my own... the colour looks even better in natural daylight...I'll keep it posted on progress shots.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted October 6, 2005 Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 Did you try out a metallic pen? I had really good luck with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i-j-c Posted October 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2005 Hi..yes, you can see some examples of the metallic pen in one of the pics...it ruined the line, no matter how careful I was...you can see I went back over the line on the 'F' of fender with black...but it jsut looked messy... The way I ended up doing it didn't interfere with the line at all, so I still had the crisp outer edge.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i-j-c Posted October 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2005 OK, well I finished this up last night...well I mean early hours of this morning. I had to finish this again...I had it outside drying...and it suffered bird fallout...and as you know with that...it can etch through anything! Anyway...primer, sky blue, then my own mix of green. A shot of pearl and 20 coats of nitro. This guitar was in a bad way...but it looks (to me anyway) rather nice...and for getting the whole thing for £100...reckon I got me a bargain. Some more pics: Pic Pic Pic Pic Pic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammy Posted October 15, 2005 Report Share Posted October 15, 2005 Good stuff! Gotta love blue strats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanKirk Posted October 15, 2005 Report Share Posted October 15, 2005 I like the color, pretty nice! I think it looks way better than foam green, it is a bit more on the blue side, and it looks very unique! ← Ditto! I usually only like Sea Foam Green on a Chevy Belair but like Maiden says, with a bit more blue and pearl...SWEEET! Very impressive and really nails the PG spirit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.