Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 8, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 Cutting out the body would require certain tools for sure. The finish on the other hand, is only a couple of rattle cans of paint and a few sheets of sandpaper. I made my Part o Caster with the body from a Fender Classic 50 in Shoreline Gold, the neck from a Fender Deluxe V neck, all bridge parts, saddles, etc are from Callaham and topped it off with a set of Fender CS 69s.I learned how to do the entire setup myself and couldn't be happier. I think that if I redo it, I could even get better results this time. I finished it in Daphne blue and have had it like that for over a year. Lately though, I've been thinking of refinishing it in that classic black that everyone feels is so boring. I'll clear coat it this time too. With the warm weather and using acrylic lacquer, I could probably have it painted on one weekend and polish it out by the next. rattle cans? like spray paint? lol I would have thought guitar paint was different than just normal spray paint. Are there any kinds i should avoid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Orange Jackson Posted June 8, 2010 Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 ^ check these guys out for spay and finish, nice Fender colors.http://reranch.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoneNut Posted June 8, 2010 Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 rattle cans? like spray paint? lol I would have thought guitar paint was different than just normal spray paint. Are there any kinds i should avoid?I like to use either acrylic lacquer or acrylic enamel. Depends on what I find at the store! Painting is all about surface preparation. If you make sure to have a nice smooth surface to paint on, you can't go wrong. Any quality paint will be fine, unless you believe in the magical properties of nitro and the Loch Ness monster. The trick is to end up with a nice thin finish. I even tried to paint a body with latex house paint, that I later planned to cover with a clear coat. That didn't work though! When you start sanding the latex paint to even the surface before the clear coat, it sands away like chalk!Paint... let dry completly... sand... sand finer... sand finer still... and polish it out. It's really that easy. Most people think it's very complicated and to be honest, some of the guys that can paint love to make it seem a lot more complicated that it really is.A lot of worry about dust, impurities, etc but they aren't a big problem. The best part about painting is that most mistakes can be sanded away. The true enemy in impatience!I'll be off this Friday so it'll be a long weekend. Even though the World Cup is starting , I'll bet I can get the black coats and transparent over coat as well. I would have to wait for a week afterward though for the paint to gas out and to start the sanding and polishing process. Black is one of the more difficult colors to apply, as any little mistake or scratch will show. Sparkles, metallics and fantasy colors are easy to spray since they'll hide just about any flaw and even more so with a clear coat on top.Maybe I'll make a small thread about it to show how easy it really is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pine Apple Slim Posted June 8, 2010 Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 I say just buy one, will be the cost effective option. Probably the easiest guitar to find a decent one at most any price point. But also pretty simple to assemble if you wanna try your hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 8, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 I like to use either acrylic lacquer or acrylic enamel. Depends on what I find at the store! Painting is all about surface preparation. If you make sure to have a nice smooth surface to paint on, you can't go wrong. Any quality paint will be fine, unless you believe in the magical properties of nitro and the Loch Ness monster. The trick is to end up with a nice thin finish. I even tried to paint a body with latex house paint, that I later planned to cover with a clear coat. That didn't work though! When you start sanding the latex paint to even the surface before the clear coat, it sands away like chalk! Paint... let dry completly... sand... sand finer... sand finer still... and polish it out. It's really that easy. Most people think it's very complicated and to be honest, some of the guys that can paint love to make it seem a lot more complicated that it really is. A lot of worry about dust, impurities, etc but they aren't a big problem. The best part about painting is that most mistakes can be sanded away. The true enemy in impatience! I'll be off this Friday so it'll be a long weekend. Even though the World Cup is starting , I'll bet I can get the black coats and transparent over coat as well. I would have to wait for a week afterward though for the paint to gas out and to start the sanding and polishing process. Black is one of the more difficult colors to apply, as any little mistake or scratch will show. Sparkles, metallics and fantasy colors are easy to spray since they'll hide just about any flaw and even more so with a clear coat on top. Maybe I'll make a small thread about it to show how easy it really is. wow i didn't realize it was that doable. that's pretty cool. I might go that route then. And that would be cool if you made a thread about it. I would be interested in seeing that. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted June 8, 2010 Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 I have right at $793 in this Seafoam Green Warmoth build. It's easily my best playing Strat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 8, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 I have right at $793 in this Seafoam Green Warmoth build. It's easily my best playing Strat. Very nice......What kind of neck did you get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted June 8, 2010 Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 Very nice......What kind of neck did you get?Thanks. Warmoth Vintage Modern w/compound radius and 1 11/16ths inch nut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mutant_guitar Posted June 8, 2010 Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 thanks i'll keep that in mind. This might be a stupid question but do the pickups need to be done differently with a compund radius neck. I've heard people say things about setting up the pickups differently because of a compound radius neck. Also, definitely a stupid question but i'm learning.....what do you mean by fret work? You would recommend tru oil of the warmoth finish on the neck? I've never heard about doing anything different about the pickups with a compound radius neck. I'm guessing you are referring to setting the pick up heights, though. I just set them up like normal.Fret work refers to leveling, crowning, and polishing the frets. I would recommend Tru-Oil for just about anything, it's that good ( I recently refinished a maple fife with it ). The stuff is actually marketed as a gun stock finish due to it's protective qualities. A bottle of the stuff costs about $7 at your local gun store, and one bottle will last for quite a number of projects. If the wood has any figure in it at all, the TO will really make the figure pop out. The stuff also has a bit of it's own amber color, and turns a nice brown color as it ages.not my pic, but shows how the color ages.It's also much cheaper to buy an unfinished neck from Warmoth and finish it yourself with TO, plus you get the experience of finishing the neck. A TO finish is also covered under Warmoth's warranty, so you don't have to worry about that.Since someone decided to post their build, I may as well post mine I have about $350 wrapped up in mine. I finished the neck and body myself. The neck is Tru-Oil over Stew-Mac vintage amber dye and the body is Reranch Daphne Blue with Minwax Clear Lacquer (I'm not sure they sell the stuff anymore, but it comes in a black can and is Nitro). I learned everything I know about finishing from reranch, and I highly recommend going there learn to do it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bdegrande Posted June 8, 2010 Members Share Posted June 8, 2010 I vote neither. Have Steve Benford (www.benfordguitars.com) build one. You can get exactly what you want and have someone who actually knows what he's doing build it, and it will likely not be more expensive tha n the other options. Do a search for Benford here, people are very happy with his guitars. You can get lots of options, mine has an ebony fretboard, a varitone tone control and locking tuners, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoneNut Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Here's the rattle can refinish of my Part o Caster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 I think i'm leaning toward staining the guitar. Is this doable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 I think i'm leaning toward staining the guitar. Is this doable?Sure you can stain it most any color you like. This is stain with a clear coat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whyflipoverthefrog Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Yes, you can stain a guitar. You can also paint and stain, ala a goldtop or blacktop. Reranch.com is an excellent resource for this, as are some of the build-out threads we've got around here. Oh, and for the OP: i've done both. The one I built is still together, exactly how I want it. The one I bought is in pieces for maybe the 3rd or 4th time, pending work/motivation/vision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 I tend to agree with all here. If you can find what you want already together, OK. If not, build. I like the conversion necks, so I'm pretty much a build guy. BTW I have 2 bodies and one neck I swap back & forth. A conversion neck aint cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 awesome! i'm starting to get pretty excited about this. This is kind of the stain i think i want to do http://ourlifeanew.com/guitars. Is this stain doable with an alder body? from looking around it seems like all these style bodies are ash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BoneNut Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 awesome! i'm starting to get pretty excited about this. This is kind of the stain i think i want to do http://ourlifeanew.com/guitars.Is this stain doable with an alder body? from looking around it seems like all these style bodies are ash. If you get a nice figured wood body, a stain will really bring it out. That's why ash id used so much. If on the other hand the wood isn't that good looking, it might be best to go with a solid color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Egg dye can be used as a stain as can just about anything you can think of. Do a bit of Googling. I've also heard that the Minwax one step stain & poly works well. I just haven't tried it. I prefer Duplicolor clear acrylic lacquer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Thanks.....i've found some good stains. I just also read a few places that alder doesn't stain well so i'm kind of worried about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 also what's the consensus on Van Zandt pickups here? I ran across those while looking for pickups and the clips on your tube sound good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Orange Jackson Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Tung oil will put a sweet stain on alder.Not hard to work with, but it can have some tricks to it. Just read up before you do it. I've been told by guys that I trust not to use tung oil on the neck however. Guys do it and swear by it, but I've just been told that it does not make a hard enough seal and so can lead to neck warp.So for the neck, go with tru oil to be on the safe side imo.My last guitar body was 1 coat of tung oil with 2 coats of tru oil on top of that.Hopefully you get a better gain pattern then I did, but I was committed to using tung oil, so I went with it. The finish feels really nice.Little bit of the tru oil on the neck, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wolfbane20 Posted June 9, 2010 Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 My suggestion is buy a MIA strat and change the parts of it that you would like to change. Its a great easy way to get into a strat that you will really love without having to risk buying the wrong parts or assembling it incorrectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Tung oil will put a sweet stain on alder. Not hard to work with, but it can have some tricks to it. Just read up before you do it. I've been told by guys that I trust not to use tung oil on the neck however. Guys do it and swear by it, but I've just been told that it does not make a hard enough seal and so can lead to neck warp. So for the neck, go with tru oil to be on the safe side imo. My last guitar body was 1 coat of tung oil with 2 coats of tru oil on top of that. Hopefully you get a better gain pattern then I did, but I was committed to using tung oil, so I went with it. The finish feels really nice. Little bit of the tru oil on the neck, Thanks, and very nice strat btw. I like the way it looks i might go for something similar to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Ok i think i just have two more issues to get a little clearer on before i dive head first into this 1) What's involved in wiring a strat? Is there a standard way to do it or are there better and worse ways. 2) If i get a warmoth neck, will i have to do work on the frets? Will i need special tools for that? I think if i can get a clearer understanding of these last two things i will be ready to get started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Stoneball Jack Posted June 9, 2010 Author Members Share Posted June 9, 2010 Oh, also, is a warmoth alder body actually $90 worth better than a KNE alder body or will i get the same quality from the KNE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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