So 6 months ago, I wondered would it be better to just buy a proper Fender or put my own together.
What I was after was this -
And, frankly, I should have just bought the bloody thing. It would have been a lot cheaper and I'd have had a Fender for 6 months.
Anywho, I went for the self build.
I started with this two-piece swamp ash body -
And after a bit wound up with this -
Which turned into this -
Thoroughly fed up with paint and its associated buggerings about, I turned to Wudtone. I got some azure blue and dark onyx, in the hope of mixing them to produce a lovely deep blue, to get a partscaster in this colour -
But to my utter befuddlement, it turned out like this -
They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, I madly bought another body (a 3-piece swamp ash version, this time) and tried again. Guess what?
Anywho, they're actually a lot darker in real life than the pics, and almost British Racing green. I happen to like the colour after all that, even though it's neither of the things I was planning, so it's not a complete disaster after all. It's certainly different, anyway.
Now I have to choose which one to get on with finishing. My preference is for the second body, to which I shall add a Might Mite neck and a set of Oil City Triple Blues (both bought earlier) for this sort of thing -
Although I'll probably change my mind about which body I'll ultimately use another four or five times before I finally screw everything down.
I'll get there in the end...I hope.
If you must have sex with a frog, wear a condom. If you want the frog to have fun, rib it.
Comments
The second one looks awesome though! Love the colour.
I only sand to 220 grit with wudtone so it's still rough. Takes colours great.
One reason why I think I'll stick with the second one.
Yup, it's actually been a surprisingly happy accident, that colour. At first I was gutted cos I'd gone wrong again, but it's really grown on me.
It's a great colour though, I really like that.
But either way it's fun...
Still, as the OH says, I've got something hardly anyone else has, so it works out, I guess.
Really great looking thing!
Which is why, @TTony, I'm pretty sure I got all the primer off the first body, because in real life that's actually darker than the second one. Just, but it is - the light seems to go through the stain and show the wood back on the first one. I know what you're saying about the potential for the primer to alter the colour, but it's the same colour as the second go, and that's onto bare wood. Other than that, dunno, tbh.
I do know that ultimately, it's actually quite a cool looking accident when all's said and done. So ta very much for the kind comments, but it's not like I earned them, I stumbled into them! :-D
I'll post some more pics in a couple of weeks when I've let the gloss coat cure a bit and put all the hardware on properly.
It was supposed to look like this, only a lot darker -
And that's supposedly swamp ash, too. :-S
As for sanding, I sanded to 320 grit on both. On the first I gave it a good seeing to with lower grade papers first, because I needed to lose the paint and primer, and then finished off with 320, but I only gave the second one a very gentle rub, rather than a proper sand, because I wanted to minimise the possibility of little scratches.
And from my experience, all you have to do to get a guitar that colour is get a swamp ash body and use Wudtone Azure Blue on it. :-)
Then again, you could always take the spare first body off my hands if you like. I'll even throw in the wudtone I've got left. 30 quid plus 14 postage?*
*A cheeky offer, that's all. Won't be at all offended if you don't bite, cos it'll be going up for sale in a couple of weeks anyway.