guitarcrazy

The guitar you bought for the price of a soft drink has no intrinzic value on the street ! However , the knowledge & experience you will gain by stripping and refinishing this monstrosity is momumental . Do it over and over again . try stains , try dyes , try solid color finishes , hell try bicycle paint ! also take the time to de-construct the neck , play with the truss rod if there is one & re-construct the neck . Pull off the frets and see how they are designed . There is a wealth of potential learning at hand so enjoy the process then build your own guitar just the way you want when you feel ready . Then you could use this one as a paddle or something !

Borge , if your budget permits , swap out your single coils for stacked coil humbuckers . there is no refitting or changing the guitar in any way . But with 3 stacked humbuckers , you can take 3 dpdt mini switches with the on/off/on configuration and totally turn your guitar into a tone killer . you have the option of wiring the pickups as single coil / off / double coil , and that gives you 21 tonal combinations . Or you could wire each pickup as your guitar is presently and have a in phase /out of phase option a la Brian May . My personal favorite is 3 Tom Anderson humbuckers all coil tapped as single on / pickup off / humbucker on . 1 Volume & 1 tone pot . You can mix single & humbucking modes on any or all pickups at the same time . what you get is tone options not available on any strat or les paul ! Check it out !

In my experience with lacquer based finishes , the longer the better . Drying time really depends on 2 issues....first is the viscosity of the lacquer you're using . Is it a store bought aerosol ( usually thick ) or are you mixing your own consistency ? Thicker coats are good for building up finishes , but take longer to gas off and set . Second remember a new coat of lacquer will melt into the old one making drying and handling times progressively longer with each new coat . If you mix your own lacquer then you probably have the experience to thin out your final top coats . Bottom line is be very patient and let the guitar hang , when you think it's ready wait some more....your patience will be rewarded with a great finish the first time around . We are all chomping at the bit to play our new creations , but rushing the setting time can bring you more headaches by having to resand and refinish a flawed lacquer job . Fingerprints in a finish suck !!! On a personal experience note....be careful with casing your newly finished project.. I once and only once put a guitar that I just finished buffing into a gig bag with a nylon lining....what a disaster...the lining melted the finish and was ruined because lacquer and nylon apparently are volatile...who knew !!! For speedier finishing , after the wood is dyed , a couple of sealer coats with light sanding in between , then spray automotive clearcoat to finish . Drying time is about two weeks and if your sanding is good the final coats are flawless and durable . I apologize to all the purists who believe that laquer is the only finish for musical intruments .