Strat assembly for fun - *completed pics*

Winny_Pooh

Boredom is a terrible thing. I dont need more guitars and DIY is long but... I found a lefty 90's MIJ Squier neck on ebay for a good deal and a few days after that more stuff arrived in the post.



A quite nice and quite knotty ash body @1.7kg from boohoo guitars which I'm pretty sure is guitarbuild b-stock.

The neck itself looks fine but has a vintage radius and teeny brand new condition frets, which is odd as the rest of the neck has regular mild wear 

This is what i'll look like later but obv w a reverse headstock and a more white blonde body.



The body had zero sanding so it took an afternoon to get it clean and ready for finishing.

Expensive new router bit later and we have a mini-S-H body thats also been grain filled and sanded back and sanded back



More to follow

paulnb57

Nice start, I like a fun build...look forward to seeong how it progresses.......did one recently from parts I had kicking around and a Rosewood neck I bought on a whim from here, its ridculous really but it was fun and it will at some point come apart again and be recycled into something else....

http://i.imgur.com/PoRAP8G.jpg

Sarge

Kenn Dodd would be proud  

stickyfiddle

Firebird pickups! Yes please  

Winny_Pooh

@paulnb57 that rosewood neck is awesome

stickyfiddle said: Firebird pickups! Yes please   Close but.... I found a set of minis, pics shortly.

Winny_Pooh

The grain fill made big flat spots of colour in the knots so a spent a fair bit of time colouring and painting the filler to look nicer. 

Here it is with rattlecan sanding sealer



Looking ok and smooth so far but had to really thicken up the finish over the knots. Even sanding back is leaving divots so have resorted to big drop fills on the cracks.

So, I have started on the white blonde but amateur technique and impatience means I have been sanding back drips, runs etc and had to pause for a week after I finished and had to stock up on a second can of white blonde.
I'm 90% there (pics later) but it's hung up to harden for this weekend and sand back a hair flub and one other small sand through. This is the frustrating part. Blending in fixes on a transparent finish is long! With luck and slow going I may be able to clearcoat on Sat. I have one can of clearcoat so may not be able to sand back to full smoothness but dont mind some finish sinking.

MLten80

looking good gents...

must be the season lol... here's my recent frankenstrat (called frank)
 https://imgur.com/a/A8lqXnU

look forward to updates

Winny_Pooh

I like firebird pups but want a bit more punch.

Found a set of used Creamery alnico II minis (great for taming strat thin-ness) and only realised upon arrival that the facebook seller had photographed them indoors and the covers are really gold.
Oh well, firebird covers ordered. Whacked the solder joints with a chisel and resoldered with some wax.

Sarge

Sarge said:

Kenn Dodd would be proud  

Kenn Dodd.... Knotty Ash... No?.... 

My jocular talents are clearly wasted on you lot

Winny_Pooh

Sarge said:

Sarge said:

Kenn Dodd would be proud  

Kenn Dodd.... Knotty Ash... No?.... 

My jocular talents are clearly wasted on you lot

Had to google that... mind you, according to TFB age demographics, at 37 I'm probably a teenager

Winny_Pooh

The 2nd can of see through white has run out so that'll have to be that!

Currently:





You'll notice that the left of the front face is less white. I reckon this is mainly due to having two pieces of different coloured and grained ash mated together. In a perfect world with more paint I'd just add more white.

There are some minor niggles in consistency from previous sandbacks, and sinking in one crack but hard to see and nothing major. Will start clearcoating in a few mins. 

Adam_MD

Looks quite nice

MLten80

looking tidy already love the clear white. Mary kaye as fook

paulnb57

Looks great, uneven front will prob look ok once a scratchlate is on.....

Sarge

Looks smashing! 

Winny_Pooh

The one can of clear coat is on, now just waiting 2-3 weeks to buff. A bit paranoid about sanding through so considering starting at p800?

Found some suitable knobs and need to order a gotoh trem if none pop up in the classifieds. Anyone here ordered from CD guitars? They have the trem plus a split 250k/500k pot that I might go for.



A dubious but probably functional mini hum routing template for the pickgaurd being made.

Winny_Pooh

3 weeks on and the finish has cured enough to polish.

Test fit to check where the pickups should go on the gaurd:



The initial pickgaurd routing went shit, in fact terribly. Template was too deep and misshapen and it slid while I was busy...

Thankfully I had a 2nd gaurd that was the 2nd best choice. 
I went back and used a drill and files.

From here:

To this "ok" gaurd:


I really need a workshop !

Winny_Pooh

The correct switch arrived so wiring is done. 
500k pots with a Kinman treble bleed.
Alinico II mini hums are around 6.6k & 7.3k and wired:
Neck
Neck/bridge in series (quacky, good and measures 7k ish so not full series?)
Neck/bridge parallel
Neck bridge series, out of phase (surprisingly thin but cool)
Bridge




And thereafter fixing the nut slots and setting the whole thing up.

Winny_Pooh

Here it is 

Winny_Pooh

Thoughts
Pickups are great, clear where you want and fat where you want too. I especially kept the bridge pickup farther from the saddles for this reason. Trem plays ok, will keep tweaking and greasing the nut slots.
Neck is growing on me, a nice full medium D but will see long term if the radius and small frets work out.
I will recut the gaurd to make it more tidy and better align the bridge pickup.
I have a set of 9.5 to 44 on there, the Low E does feel a bit stiffer and less twangy with this headstock. The high E & B somewhat softer but offset by a higher action.

munckee

I really like the finish it all looks great.