al heeley

Yes and yes. If you are not putting so much paint on (and you wouldn't need to) then the filler area needs sealing/priming first or it would show thru as being more porous than the old paint.

A squier Strat will most likely have a polyester paint coat on it. As long as you sand back to allow the new paint to key in, you should be able to use polyester, acrylic or PU over the top without a problem or need to reprime. Priming is really only good to seal the pores of the wood and build up a thicker surface to help cover small scratches/blemishes; neither of which should be required in your case.

Have you considered the Lace Sensor s/c's? They are supposed to be extremely quiet while retaining the character of the originals?

Oh gawd, that sounds like a physical impossibility, its only a thin decal. Cut your losses and apply a replacement decal after the refinishing has been done?

UV-blockers tend to be 2 types: sacrificial UV-absorbers or blocking, like titanium dioxide. The TiO2 is the most effective but gives a big reduction in transparency and a milky coating. The sacrificial route involves a special varnish with HALS (hindered amine light stabilisation) chemicals in or the Ciba Tinuvin type, which can make the varnish yellowish, and will eventually lose effectivity after a year or so.

I would advise that either present an unsuitable finish for a guitar.

The solution: Store your guitar in a case, do not leave it lying round in the sun for extended periods and play mostly at night. You can then use a decent normal varnish.

Question: Is the purple discoloration directly and only UV-that causes it or a mixture of UV and oxidation?(<-more likely, wood seldom hasd any chemicals that show a photochromic effect) in which case just the act of sealing from the oxygen with a standard varnish would greatly enhance the preservation of the colour.

finish the whole thing gloss, then create the satin finish from the gloss by wet-rubbing with a fine scotchbrite pad. that gently takes the gloss off without creating hundreds of tiny scratch lines like fine wire wool can do. It gives a really nice satin finish.

Sounds like the replacements strings are heavier gauge than the old ones. Before you go tweaking the truss rod, you need to adjust the trem spring tension by turning the screws holding the trem claw in the back cavity. Heavier gauge strings will be higher tension and pull the saddle closer to the line of the fretboard. The trem springs will need tightening a little to balance it out again.

no backplate on an epi dot to access the electrics. You have to carefully fish all the pots out of the lower f-hole in order to solder in the new circuitry. I fitted some new HB replacement pups and a micro switch to my epi dot recently. A bit of a fiddle to get the guts back in place but not a problem if you work slowly and plan ahead. Best trick I found was to thread some strong cotton through the pot holes and attach to the pot spindles one by one in order to help guide them back up into place again. Good luck!

Are you seeing a difference in porosity/absorption? The wood will soak up the lacquer whereas the CA glue will not, maybe giving rise to a small hump. The answer is to keep building up the lacquer till you can sand back level with the hump and still leave lacquer over both. Does that make sense?!

Hmm, also not really sure what your question is. If you want a load of example wirings and switch configs, look thru the schematics on guitarelectronics.com or seymourduncan.com/schematics.

The switch above will work by having 1,2,4,5 live in one position and 2,5,3,6 live in the other position.

A on-on-on type DPDT switch also commonly used for series/parallel pup switching will work by having 1,4,2,5 on in up position, 1,2,5,6 live in mid position and 2,5,3,6 live in the down position. Is that the info you are looking for?

The oil will sink into the wood the same as the tint, so the tint won't go anywhere. Sensible disclaimer: Try it first on an offcut, but what you propose sounds fine.

not great if they're going to be adjusted a lot but why would they?

OK, thx guys, crafty I think you mean a very narrow bore bit of tube to effectively act as a nut, underneath the pickup? Otherwise looks like I have to go buy some wider screws.

micro-mesh seems really hard to get hold of over on the right hand side of the atlantic. I tracked down one modelling (not the female scarcely-clad type) place that offered it, only they didn't have any.

No my pups did not come with the new mounting screws (otherwise there would be no point in my post or my question)

Yes these ar the budget clearance specials (but not at all bad for the ridiculously low price.)

I have no other use for the old screws other than trying to hold in place my new puppies.

I got a set of s/c strat pups from gfs for my partscaster, but the old fixing screws allow the pups to slip back off the threads as their holes are too big. Is there a quick and easy way to sort this without going off hunting for some wider fixing screws?

Hi Andy and welcome! Wish I'd started at 15. I reckon a Tele is the best start you can make, it's pretty straghtforward as a guitar and it is a design icon. You might want to consider purchasing a neck and building the rest of it as it's your first. I'm very new here myself but I have the building bug, started with a beautiful QWarmoth 5-string bass from a kit, then onto ebay bits and pieces to put to geter a strat. I'm sure lots more experienced guys will add to your post. Good luck!

Wow! And I thought Rory Gallagher's strat was in a bad way!

Well that worked out far better than I could have hoped. I found a couple of small sections of old wooden window blind slats, about 2mm thick, and together with a couple of thin strips of pepsi can it seems to have brought the neck beautifully into line. A quick saddle height adjust and the action is really, really nice, not bas at all for a £24 ebay Encore neck!

Nearly finished now:

I want to open this thread for ideas from finishing to woods to hardware to manufacturing methods and ergonomics in order to forfill the ultimate instrument

1. Isn't that the point of this whole forum? Too much stuff to put in one post.

2. no surprise that sustain is better when neck wood joins nicely together with body wood.

3. I don't think its much of a shock to peopole that a proper spray gun is better than a rattle can.

Good luck though.

I would suggest your best starting point is to spend the next three months playing as many different guitars as possible to find which ones suit you best, and work out why you like them more - something only you will be able to answer. Then you will have a great idea of exactly which neck you will want to build.

my money's on the trem claw popping out further on the screws, causing the strings to sag against the neck.

Have they not managed to get many sales on their new basses then? Are they a decent instrument? I had a try of the original 6-string variaz and I must say the guitar left me cold.

what you might consider is a piece of veneer to cover the entire pocket and then a seperate shim at the heel

I'm half way thru an ebay partscaster project, the neck was way high of the body so I got the pocket routed a little deeper. Now it's gone a bit too much the other way and the saddles are right down on the deck to try and get a reasonable action. I need a neck shim, probably 2mm at the bridge end to 1.5mm-1.0mm at the neck end to bring the height back up again and give a tiny bit of back-tilt.

Am I best off trying to shave a thin wedge of wood to fit into the entire neck pocket, or do something with some strips of metal sheeting? I'm worried if its not all snug and tight the tone will be dull and lifeless.