Cult Classic Posted August 27, 2008 Report Share Posted August 27, 2008 (edited) Hey all, I have been slowly retoring an encore strat, that for a while i have been wanting to repaint. I took it party apart quite a while ago, then put it in my dads shed and forgot about it. i have been using my other guitar for lessons, which i never knew the origins of so i duly researched it and it turns out its a budget japanese guitar called a "Surf Special", made by a company called Audition (which i will also be restoring at some point). Anyway, over the time it was in my dads shed the bridge, tremelo arm and the claw and springs that go behind it went missing so i duly ordered that lot from ebay. This is it before i started (left) i then flatted it down with wet and dry pic2 pic3 then i primed it pic4 pic5 and stuck paint on it pic6 then today i started flatting down the drips but then ran out of paint so tomorrow im going to whizz out and get another can! thats all from me! comment away... Edited August 31, 2008 by jmrentis Switched pictures to links. Just one picture per post please, thanks. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 Firstly...welcome to PG...secondly...one pic per post...the rest need to be links... I noticed no one had commented so I thought I should perhaps offer encouragement...this is a great and cheap way to get into making and modifying guitars and you can get a great guitar in the process. There are some "tricks" to setting up a strat that might be worth pursuing. For instance...this strat has become infamous around here and was used for a long time to try out all manner of ideas. Eventually it was a guinea pig for the sustainer but well before that it had all kinds of ideas and things to make it play better... Some of the things are obvious...refinishing, new bridge, hollowing out the body...but other things less so... For instance, I got some copper washers that plumbers use that fit the machine heads (also replaced with cheap sealed ones) and put 2 under each under the D and G tuners and 3 under each of the B and E tuners to effectively stagger them. I then put a single string tree with a small nut as a spacer and fitted loosely...that way it rocks with trem use but has enough pressure to restrain behind the nut resonances...result with proper balancing at the bridge...full floating trem that stays in tune remarkably well despite the original plastic nut! It would be a good opportunity to rewire if you have a mind and of course there are lots of options there...one reason to would be to use shielded cable and so significantly improve noise and hum in such a guitar. Other simple things can help...if the neck has a thick shiny finish on it for instance, rubbing the back of it over with steel wool on the back can make it feel a lot better and give a bit of a low sheen to it. .... The "surf guitar" looks like a cool project too... Anyway...with all the custom guitars around these mod jobs often get overlooked...keep up the enthusiasim and hope the project is going well... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cult Classic Posted September 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2008 Firstly...welcome to PG...secondly...one pic per post...the rest need to be links... I noticed no one had commented so I thought I should perhaps offer encouragement...this is a great and cheap way to get into making and modifying guitars and you can get a great guitar in the process. There are some "tricks" to setting up a strat that might be worth pursuing. For instance...this strat has become infamous around here and was used for a long time to try out all manner of ideas. Eventually it was a guinea pig for the sustainer but well before that it had all kinds of ideas and things to make it play better... Some of the things are obvious...refinishing, new bridge, hollowing out the body...but other things less so... For instance, I got some copper washers that plumbers use that fit the machine heads (also replaced with cheap sealed ones) and put 2 under each under the D and G tuners and 3 under each of the B and E tuners to effectively stagger them. I then put a single string tree with a small nut as a spacer and fitted loosely...that way it rocks with trem use but has enough pressure to restrain behind the nut resonances...result with proper balancing at the bridge...full floating trem that stays in tune remarkably well despite the original plastic nut! It would be a good opportunity to rewire if you have a mind and of course there are lots of options there...one reason to would be to use shielded cable and so significantly improve noise and hum in such a guitar. Other simple things can help...if the neck has a thick shiny finish on it for instance, rubbing the back of it over with steel wool on the back can make it feel a lot better and give a bit of a low sheen to it. .... The "surf guitar" looks like a cool project too... Anyway...with all the custom guitars around these mod jobs often get overlooked...keep up the enthusiasim and hope the project is going well... pete thankyou mister! i didnt know about the link thing so cheers for the info, youll have to give me more detail on making it sound better, i dont really understand but thanks for the heads up cheers Jono Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted September 3, 2008 Report Share Posted September 3, 2008 Well...the main thing is that it plays well and tackling the paint is a lot harder than it sounds, so good for you. There is a bunch of things you could do electronically...but there is no point getting bogged down in that yet. When you get around to putting the guitar back together is a good time to go over all the things like intonation and string action that have a major effect on the feel and performance of the guitar and how well it plays in tune. If the tremolo is a part of your style, there are things that can be done there to help it keep in tune with use a little better. If the finish on the back of the guitar neck is very shiny and thick (often the case) you can get a softer "faster" feel by rubbing the back with a stainless steel pad to take of the shine where you play and give it a more stain feel as an option. keep up the good work... pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cult Classic Posted September 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2008 Well...the main thing is that it plays well and tackling the paint is a lot harder than it sounds, so good for you. There is a bunch of things you could do electronically...but there is no point getting bogged down in that yet. When you get around to putting the guitar back together is a good time to go over all the things like intonation and string action that have a major effect on the feel and performance of the guitar and how well it plays in tune. If the tremolo is a part of your style, there are things that can be done there to help it keep in tune with use a little better. If the finish on the back of the guitar neck is very shiny and thick (often the case) you can get a softer "faster" feel by rubbing the back with a stainless steel pad to take of the shine where you play and give it a more stain feel as an option. keep up the good work... pete well my neck is just waxed wood so im not needing to do that. thankyou for the info and praise Jonathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cult Classic Posted September 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 stupid paint is impossible to get. you can get it on ebay but only in tiny cans... an halfords never seem to have it anymore, just my luck really. god damn had to choose pegot antelope beige really didnt i. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cult Classic Posted February 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2009 right. i screwed it up. at it looks awesome im going to laquer it (its wet in this picture) after sticking some stickers on it. some think its probably terrible but im loving the "used" look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cult Classic Posted February 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2009 i have the finish of the body pretty much sorted now. i have use of a spraygun, i just need to buy thinners and laquer. when i get back from picking up a land rover tomorrow, ill get a picture of the body dry. this is where i need to think about what im doing mods wise. like things mentioned above, like the copper washer thing.. and rewiring. anyone got any inside info that they can explain in retard terms for me? (im not very clever when it comes to all this, i dont even know what a sustainer is!) thanks. Jono. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cult Classic Posted February 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 (edited) first lacquer. http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh36/86...r/Guitar005.jpg http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh36/86...r/Guitar002.jpg Edited February 14, 2009 by Cult Classic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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