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Posted (edited)

Hi, as you maybe able to tell I am new to the forums so, Hi All=)

OK, ive never done a custom re build in my life before.

But i know a fair bit about guitars.

Ive got a chance to get a Squier for 20£-30£ thats like $38.

Ok, so I just want it to mess around on, and see how it turns out.

I know the grain on them is not that great. =(

But i was thinking of sanding it down.

Use (RED) wood dye/oil or something (so that i still can see the grain) then gloss it over the top.

Change the pups and neck ect

Not sure=( to dye or paint

+ i'm looking around the tut on the main page^-^

anyway post suggestions here

and sry mods if i posted in the woung section just move it if it is thx.

Edited by Ibaneznubcake!
Posted (edited)

This would be the correct section. :D Welcome to the forum.

If you want to refinish it I'd suggest sanding it down and seeing if you like the way the wood looks. I've seen some low end guitars made out of horrible looking plywood, and some that we're pretty decent. If you don't like the way it looks you could always paint it a solid color.

Since the guitar is so cheap your not really risking anything. Just have at it. mod it like crazy, you've got nothing to lose and it's a great learning experience. :D

Edited by Godin SD
Posted

Another possibility if you don't like the way the wood underneath looks is to purchase a flamed maple or other wood veneer. That will give you a much nicer top to stain/dye. You can get flamed maple veneer from www.universaljems.com. That's what i'm doing to my mexican built fender telecaster. Also my first project, before I start on my first build. :D

Posted

It's pretty unlikely you'll want to sand this down to bare wood--getting through the sealer they use is not easy. And besides, it's good to leave the sealer on there (it should be transparent) since it provides a nice flat surface for the refinish. If the grain looks good, then you can use a transparent lacquer or paint. If it doesn't, you can paint it. You can't dye a guitar once it has been finished, the stain won't penetrate to the wood (as far as I know).

Have a look through the finishing section (there's a tutorial section) for how all this is done.

Of course, once you start modding one guitar, there's no turning back --before the paint's even dry, you'll start dreaming about the next build. So that 'cheap' guitar is going to end up costing you a whole lot more in new tools, new wood, new hardware, etc. etc.

My first project was similar--I took a cheap guitar body, chopped it up and reglued it into a new shape and then refinished it. So you might consider tweaking this guitar's shape too. My current project is also a mod--I planed off the top of the guitar, capped it with maple, changed the bridge and pickup configuration, etc.

Posted

Sorry mate, don't know what it's made from. I can suggest though that when sanding off the finish use emmery cloth and a big flat bit of wood. Sandpaper isn't ideal for stripping finish. Also make sure you wear the correct duct mask. That stuff is nasty, my spare bedroom is half covered in it at the minute.

Posted
Sorry mate, don't know what it's made from. I can suggest though that when sanding off the finish use emmery cloth and a big flat bit of wood. Sandpaper isn't ideal for stripping finish. Also make sure you wear the correct duct mask. That stuff is nasty, my spare bedroom is half covered in it at the minute.

Yeah, nasty stuff. Definitely wear a mask--a respirator is even better. And do it outside.

As for the wood...you should be able to get an idea of what you're dealing with by sanding off the finish in one of the cavities first --if it turns out to be plywood, or if it's some bland wood type like basswood, then there's no point in stripping the guitar down all the way, you can paint over the existing finish. Lots of options for that...have a look at the main project guitar site at the material finish tutorial.

Posted

Given that it is plywood/laminate of some sort, you will probably want to stay away from anything transparent, although, if the plywood is of a nice grain, I have seen sunbursts finishes work on plywood guitars, that is what my very first beginner guitar was, a plywood with a sunburst, but I didnt know that until I had the thing for years. One note about that, it does get tricky when you get to any contoured part of the body, as the laminates will show through unless the finish is opaque at that point. If it's a strat, then that beveled corner of the body for your picking arm will be an issue. If it's a tele, you can pull off a normal looking sunburst with no problems.

I did a total refinish/rebuild out of what was left of a Peavey Predator (strat copy) and some strat style parts I picked up for $50 a while back. It sounds like what I did is pretty similar to your project and I figured I'd share the lessons I learned.

I ended up stripping the paint off the body with a chemical stripper, and found to my dismay that the wood grain was quite bland. My intention was to do a transparent royal blue finish (using a stain made from artist oil paint). Now, like Mickguard said, the sealer will play a role in what you can actually do. In my case, the sealer kept much of the stain from being absorbed. In fact, the stain would not absorb into the wood and would actually dry on top just a touch of absorbtion. Once it was dry, the stain would wipe off the surface and leave the wood a pale turqouise green at most. Acetone, Lacquer thinner, stripper, sanding etc etc wouldnt remove it. Even still though, the grain was still not quite interesting enough for what I had in mind, since the grain lines were few and far apart and rather subtle, and I was hoping for something with a "tighter" pattern. What I ended up doing was rubbing on a layer of the artist oil paint directly from the tube, and running it in lines and patterns with a balled up rag to create a fake grain. Overall, because it is really a thin coat of the artist oil paint, it was semi transparent. You could still see some of the grain from the wood, but most of what you see is close linear streaks due to the application of the paint. I had to let that dry for about a week though, artist oil paint is very slow to dry, even in thin applications. Just figured I'd throw that out there, its something I learned the hard way.

Posted

I have stripped a couple of squiers in my time and they have been made out of proper wood. the body blanks were about 5-6 peices of wood glued together side-by-side, not about 20 layers glued on top of each other. If you want to find out if yours is plywood them you need to take it apart - dont just go by what the guitar shop say, they usually know very little (the good ones are rare and worth supporting). You dont usually have to strip the finish to find out, you can usually make out laminations right through the finish in the cavities.

Personally i would be tempted to respray over the top of the old finish anyway, it saves a whole lotta hassle and still gives you a load of cool options for a finish. If you want a cool wood grain finish its easier to start with a new body.

Posted

not all squiers are made of plywood? ive refinished two squiers lately and neither were plywood. it wasnt good wood, but not ply. i think the korean/chinese models are plywood. i did an american made and a mexican made. the american had better wood. the american had an ok grain, cuz it looks pretty good w/a dye sunburst.

Posted

According to Musician's Friend: "The Bullet features a slightly slimmer laminated body..."

If a Bullet is a glue-up, I'd be surprised if they use plywood for any of their guitars. That said, it's probably a lot of laminations and may be pretty ugly. However, I stripped down my old Japanese Fender back in the day and slapped on some stain. It was at least 5 pieces of wood, but I like how it looks.

Posted

bump! :D

GOOD NEWS!

-update

Just buyed a body of evilbay for £30 its hardwood Alder. So its a bit better than ply/chip/ or bass =)

downside is that I could only get the guy the guy to gimmy a trem system with it.

It was that or some pickups and a scrathplate... And the pickups up could have been crap...so ye anyway!

So post ya ideas here for it.

I'm gona try to keep it to a small buget

since its my first.

maybe not the best pickups but not the worst

maple neck- mighty mite w/e its called

then need to find out how to do the wireing ect: 0.0!!!!! ooo god =( lol

much thankies!

-Ibaneznub

Posted

What model Squier is it? That would definitely help. The cheaper ones are made of plywood, from what I've seen around, but once you get into the Standard series, you get real wood. My Standard is made of Alder, and I love the tone out of it, and it is a brown burst finish, from the factory. But I think it definitely matters as to what series it is.

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