hooglebug

yes a lot of custom colour fenders have a sunburst underneath. its easier and cheaper than respraying the sunburst i suppose.

as for the hendrix/zappa guitar, i cant remember where, but i did read about it being a fake, and it was frank zappa saying it. but maybe he was lying and making his point that way? hmmmm

well that would be true, if that guitar wasnt a fake. jimi never burnt a guitar at the miami festival. zappa did it just to show how the media would believe anything a celebrity said, even though it would have been incredibly easy to check the facts.

but anyway!

iv just gone over it lightly with some wire wool to dull the finish again and its out in the sun

looking good so far. body shape looks a little like matt bellamy's mansons - though theres nothing wrong with that!

Bah! Hendrix wouldn't have had that kind of wear in the cutaway. That wear only comes from right-handed users!

maybe im going on the assumtion that a right handed person picked up all the pieces and painfully restored it and then played it for 30 odd years hehe

thanks for the comments guys. i'll see what i do today

i put a few more chips and dings in it today. i think im going to put a few thin coats of acrylic over it when iv done everything (obviously cutting it out of the chips and dings and sanding it out of the wear) so that it can be yellowed in the sun.

will acrylic crack like nitro?

*EDIT* i gave it a coat of acrylic then ran out. o well. it'll do. i'll leave it over night to harden off and cut it out of the chips etc, sand the wear and dull the finish. then leave it a few days to cure and put it out in the sun and see what happens.

and i made the neck wear a bit darker too.

click

a few more pics of the new chips and stuff

cutaway

near jack

arm contour. havent stained the bare wood here yet. i'll do that later

it is only a work in progress bare in mind, so the scratches from the sandpaper and so on will be removed later on, and i will darken the bare wood once its all finished.

but thanks for the advice, i'll heed it all

Whats with the side position markers on the neck? they seem to be half in the rosewood and half in the maple.

thats just how strats are done. i dont know about older ones, or newer ones, but certainly all that iv seen with rosewood boards are done this way

it did have laquer on it, but only a very thin layer it seems, as lightly rubbing with fine wire wool has taken almost all of it off. i only realised when only a small section turned yellow after two days in the sun

inbetween watching a terrible england performance and after a terrific trinidad & tobago performance, i did a little more work, adding a few more bits of playing wear and some dings. here's the body shots so far.

front

front 2

front 3

front 4

front 5

front 6

back

back 2

back 3

and after seeing the wear on the body i decided to make the neck wear more extensive

neck

neck 2

neck 3 (it doesnt look this orange i promise)

well thats it for today. argentina match now. again let me know what you think and any suggestions on how i can improve it are welcome. in fact are wanted!

and thanks for the nice comments about the paint job earlier too

oh, ps: the white on the body looks dirty because i rubbed a wet tea bag over it to see if it would do anything. obviously it made it look dirty. and it wipes of with any amount of water. o well

i painted this strat and just sprayed over it with a few coats of acrylic

i'll give it a go. now work done today or tomorrow but i'll be on it between world cup games over the weekend

yeah, i guess i'll have to see how they look when its all done.

i guess that would be the way to go for a true jimi monterey strat huh?

im only going for mild wear, so a few small dents and some wearing of the paint.

this is what iv done so far.

back

front

does it look too deliberate? any ideas about how to go about making it less so?

im not going to make them any bigger than that i dont think. like i said im only going for mild wear.

anyway, im done for today, its too hot. more tomorrow

okie doke. i'll change them to links

some more pics of yesterdays work.

here are the stained parts. they look better than this in the flesh i assure you.

this is what i did on the neck yesterday. like i said, i might do more. i'll wait and see how it goes with the body and then decide.

side view

other side

back view

today i'll make a start on the body

this guitar started life as a second hand £80 squier strat in white. a few years ago i painted it to look like the hendrix monterey strat. i bought some pressed steel sadles for the bridge and some 'aged' plastic parts.

full length shot

body close up

back

then a few months ago i bought this neck plate and put on a fender decal (i know its naughty but its only for me and im never going to sell it) its not the right one for that guitar i know but i prefer the spaghetti logo to the transition one. i also bought some split post kluson alike tuners for £14! and they're very good too.

a few days ago i decided id do my first relic job with this guitar. i was a bit nervous but i thought i might as well try.

i soaked the pu covers, knobs, switch and trem tips in tea and they came out very well. today i took the plunge and worked on the neck. i only took a bit of the finish off, on each side near the first few frets. i went down to the bare wood, rubbed some of the tea in it, then some dirt, then put a tiny bit of danish oil on some wire wool and rubbed it in. im really pleased with how it looks. i was a bit nervous about doing it but im glad i did.

tomorrow im going to start work on the body. i may do more to the neck, but im going to wait and see how it goes with the body when thats done.

i'll post pics of the neck and the plastic bits tomorrow (if i remember)

maybe it would be worth just checking the colour codes just to be sure. its worth a try

are your pickups seymour duncans? cos if not that might be the problem. different pickup manufacturers use different colour coding.

if they are not seymour duncans then there a few places around on the net that have colour charts for most of the big names

i did a bit today. i took a little off on the edges around the first few frets, rubbed in a bit of very very strong tea (i've been ageing the plastic parts overnight) and then some dirt. then i dipped a tiny bit of danish oil on some very fine wirewool and rubbed it over where the wood was bare, wiped off the excess and put it out in the sun for a bit. it looks pretty damn good. so i think i'll 'age' it a bit more!

then its on to the body - i painted it a few years ago like the jimi monterey strat - but i dont think i'll be burning it.

im about to start my first relic job on a strat and i was wondering if i would need to do anything to protect the bare wood afterwards, particularly on the neck. im only going for mild relic, not a rory galagher type finish, so there wont be too much bare wood, but i just wanted to make sure about this before i started.

thanks for any help or advice

you could maybe skim a mm or so off the wings so that when painted they will be inline with the neck. or maybe just stain them? maybe someone who knows more about finishing will be able to give you a better suggestion

i'd change all but one of those pics to links if i were you or you'll get told off.

not my cup of tea but you've done a good job of it

i just did a quick google search and pretty much everything i can find says they are pretty hot. and for $25 why not just buy them and see. its always good to have a spare pickup or two around anyway

wd music products used to do strat covers in gold. dont know if they still do but you could give them a try

just use a wiring diagram that includes a volume and tone with coil split such as this one http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/schem...ay-w-split.html

and wire the dual function pot instead of individual ones

hehe. well, i suppose yours is more suited to Little Wing, as its little and has wings. whereas mine is big and has wings. but i guess its like when you call a big huge fat guy tiny.

I just thought of a good name for it.

Little Wing.

oo you swine! thats what i called my V