70s Strat makeover project (now finished)

NPP

well all that beer discussion makes me think I should have enlarged the belly cut a bit ...

Anyway, some more progress - after two coats of oil with 24h drying time after each one, then wet-sanding with 1,000 grid paper and more oil, a bit of drying and a little polishing it looks like this (pics were taken in sunlight and the guitar looks quite a bit darker in reality):

getting there now I think, will need perhaps two more coats of oil and sanding and then let it hard off for a few days and probably wax it before putting it all back together. 

And then I need to decide whether I'll put the original pickups back in. I have the following options:

- current setup: SD vintage-style lefty-staggered SCs in the neck and middle, and an Oil City broadcaster in the bridge

- return to original with three 70s Fender pickups

- go back to three SD SCs

Going back to proper Strat pickups would probably turn the guitar into what it was supposed to be in the first place, and I could cheaply buy a black or tortoise pickguard. I would, however, lose some functionality by getting rid of the Tele pu in the bridge. Easy solution: pick up a cheap neck and a lefty Tele body, use my newly acquired oiling skills and build a reverse-headstock, natural finish Esquire partscaster ...

ICBM

It would be interesting and useful to at least try it with the original Strat pickups. That will show how much difference losing the Thick-Skin finish and the alloy bridge makes.

For permanent I'd probably go with the Broadcaster pickup and the Duncans though - or maybe the Broadcaster and two Fenders.

NPP

ICBM said:

It would be interesting and useful to at least try it with the original Strat pickups. That will show how much difference losing the Thick-Skin finish and the alloy bridge makes.

For permanent I'd probably go with the Broadcaster pickup and the Duncans though - or maybe the Broadcaster and two Fenders.

I think I'll bring over the Fender pickups from Germany this weekend but I'm not sure I have the motivation to experiment with different configurations - I need to stop fiddling and get playing the thing! The Duncans have been in there for over 20 years now and I won't be able to remember how the Fenders sounded back then with the thick finish. Any meaningful comparison will be with the Duncan / Broadcaster configuration which was in the guitar when I pulled it apart. 

Interesting to hear that you recommend keeping the Broadcaster - I really like it, both on its own and together with the neck pickup.  

Edited to add: I greatly appreciate your feedback and continuous interest in this project!

Absentia

Ditch the pickguard buy a blank sheet cut your own  use the old one as a template

NPP

Two more evenings and it is finished - or nearly so. 

Applying the wax really made a difference (I did two coats, applied with wire wool and polishing after each):

Then I had to rewire everything, making sure not to scuff the newly applied finish: 

Done and ready to test: 

Obviously, I'd got my wires into a tangle somewhere and had to redo the switch that changes between Strat and pseudo-Tele configuration (in the latter, the bridge pu is swapped for the middle, giving me neck - nice and bridge - bridge - bridge - bridge on the 5-way switch). 

Ready to turn it back into a guitar and put the neck back on:

Restrung and ready to play:

NPP

Unfortunately, I must have messed up when screwing the pickguard back on - everything worked when I tested it prior to that step, but there must be a short somewhere and the bridge pu doesn't work. Bollocks. 

Otherwise, I didn't really trust myself to get this job done but I more or less managed to see it through. Just have to take the strings and pickguard off again and sort out the electrical gremlin. 

On the neck and middle pickups, the guitar is definitely more lively without the finish, very bright and spanky. 

To recapitulate, this is where we started:

We went via this:

To this:

And this:

ThePrettyDamned

Very nice!

I'd imagine it's shorting against the shielded cavity somewhere? I'm not an expert but that caught me out before.

NPP

ThePrettyDamned said:

Very nice!

I'd imagine it's shorting against the shielded cavity somewhere? I'm not an expert but that caught me out before.

that sounds possible, I'll have to take it all apart again tonight. 

Last time I worked on the electrics I wired the jack the wrong way around, no wonder no signal came through despite the whole pickguard being wired correctly ...

Andyjr1515

That is really, really nice   

Andy

NPP

thanks Andy, yes, I'm quite pleased with it but also happy it's done now; these things always take much more time than anticipated and are surprisingly costly.

ThePrettyDamned

NPP;403130" said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Very nice!



I'd imagine it's shorting against the shielded cavity somewhere? I'm not an expert but that caught me out before.





that sounds possible, I'll have to take it all apart again tonight. 

Last time I worked on the electrics I wired the jack the wrong way around, no wonder no signal came through despite the whole pickguard being wired correctly ...

I've done that too! Spent ages troubleshooting and came to that bit last... One look and I realised.

Now that's the first spot I troubleshoot.

Actually, on my prs build, I had to remove some shielding paint from inside the jack cavity because it was shorting out on that - no output. Just removed a strip of it with a file and added some lacquer to the rest and it works great

NPP

Found the problem. When I first installed the Tele bridge PU I had to reverse its polarity to make it play with the lefty Strat pickups, so that live became earth, earth became live, and the latter thus had to be split from the base plate that needed earthing separately (thanks to @The GuitarWeazel who alerted me to this when I bought the pickup from him). When reinstalling, the tape isolating the new live (old earth) from the base plate had come loose, shorting the pickup. 

Unfortunately, I found this only after concluding that my switch was faulty and but that's another story. Now I've got a working guitar that still needs a setup but I think sounds better than it ever did. 

DrBob

I'd treat it to a pro setup & a new scratchplate it deserves it !

NPP

DrBob said:

I'd treat it to a pro setup & a new scratchplate it deserves it !

eventually, it will get these. For the moment, I managed a good enough setup today, wound the Micro-tilt back all the way, lowered the saddles a bit, checked intonation and pickup heights, was lucky not to have to adjust the trussrod, and it plays well. It probably helps that I don't want super-low action anyway but I am now well pleased, I'd never have thought that it would turn out so well. 

Someone above (I think @Frankus) asked whether I was brave or a nutter, the fact that I now admit to just winging it settles the question I think.

breakstuff

That looks great @NPP

Could I ask what you used to treat the body as I'm currently stripping a Vintage brand Les Paul and I'm looking at leaving it in natural wood.

NPP

I first stripped the body using a heat gun and scraper, then moved on to:

- sanding all over with coarse paper (twice). I used a sanding block for the front and back and rolled the sand paper around apiece of pipe insulation for the sides and cutaways

- sanding with 240, 400 and 600 paper. Looking back, 600 may have been unnecessary

- 1 coat of clear Danish oil - pour out, spread using a brush or cloth, wipe off any excess after a few minutes, leave for 24 hours. 

- 1 more coat, as above.

- can't remember if I did a third one or not. Probably not. 

- wet-sand the body using oil and 1000 grit sandpaper, wipe off excess, leave to dry for 24 hours. There is no need to apply pressure when sanding, just lightly guide the block across the surface.

- repeat 2 or 3 times. I buffed the body before each new coat as well, and also got impatient and left only 8 hours between applications. Didn't seem to do any harm. At this point, others have continued the wet sanding and letting dry cycles, going from 1000 grit up to 2000 in small steps but I decided that was too much effort. 

- give it a final buffing. 

- apply wax (I used beeswax) moderately thinly using 0000 wire wool. Again, just wipe it on, don't apply any pressure, wipe off excess, leave to dry for 12 h or so. 

- buff and repeat, working some of the wax into all the holes where screws will have to go back in, let dry for 12 hours or longer.

- give it a final buffing.

Practical tips:

-  make sure to wipe off excess oil because it can become quite hard and sticky if left on too thickly. Also, don't leave the oil to dry out on your work surface, especially if your work surface is also your kitchen worktop.

- make sure you stock up on sandpaper. I used two sheets for each of the grades used in dry sanding, and two sheets 1000 grit

- don't ruin the result of your work when buffing - nothing went wrong for me but that was purely by chance. I nearly scratched the surface with the zip on the fleece I was wearing. I'm sure there are many other things that can go wrong. 

- when sanding, wear gloves and / or take off your wedding ring if you have one or it will get scuffed.

- sanding produces a lot of dust. I can't recommend doing it indoors unless it's in a garage. 

- you will only need a tiny amount of the materials. I think a 500ml bottle of oil would be enough to do three guitars, and 250ml of wax will go just as far. 

I can't take credit for developing this method; see the beginning of this thread for a link to where I got it from. In my experience, it is possible even for a complete novice (= me) to achieve a good finish in this way if you work slowly and methodically. And it doesn't seem to matter very much whether you do one 3 or 5 coats of oil, use 1000 or 2000 grit sandpaper. 

There are videos on youtube of people achieving a nice honey burst finish by using darker oil around the outside of the body. That might look classy on an LP; I didn't try it on a Strat because I was going for a 70s Fender vibe. If you do this, you'll end up with a lot of excess oil. 

breakstuff

Thanks mate,great post and very informative.Have a wis.

I'm going to give that a go as soon as I've got the rest of the poly off

Andyjr1515

Yes - good thread @NPP   =D>