ST-1 (Rhay)

First 2 coat of colour.

Missed a couple of stages between the last pic and this one;

- completed priming and sanding, filling obvious pits and riples.
- applied spray filler, 3 x dual coats, wet sanding between coats - finishing with 1200 Wet/Dry (used wet)
- apply first coat of colour (Heritage/Ivory White), light wet sanding using 800 and finishing with 1200 (also wet).

All sanding has been done by hand using a combination of soft and hard blocks for the flat areas and palm or rubber block on angles.

This pic is of a drying coat and you can see "orange-peel" in the flash mark, however the wet sanding will knock that out in a flash. The primer is bleeding through, but it will all but disappear on the next coat.

I expect that this body will take 8 or so coats more before I hit it with the polisher. I have not yet decided if this one will get a coat of clear - the model I am copying did not.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...first-coat.JPG

Checked in on last nights painting this morning to discover the dodgy lamination problem has re-surfaced.

Sadly it seems as if the separation was longer than I thought and it has taken some moisture - causing a split line.

Should have gone with what I've been taught rather than trying a hot fix, or accepted Adams offer of a swap. Hindsight huh?!

If nothing else this experience supports what I was taught about this sort of problem; I should have cut and re-laminated, made an epoxy splint or binned it.

Adam has offered to replace/refund, which is very generous. However, after getting so close to the final coat, I have pretty much decided to give it the relic treatment and hang it on the wall. To my thinking this is really my fault anyway.

Interestingly up until now I would have thought that the combination of primer and spray putty used on this body would have reduced the likelihood of separation. As has been mentioned in the solid-finish v. wudtone threads, this sort of finish should create a torsion layer which binds and bonds the surface. I'm pretty surprised that more than dozen coats of primer, filler and enamel seems to have made little difference.

Come on SGD-612!!!
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...-new-split.JPG

Ray,
Sorry to hear that you've got so close and are thinking of moving it to the Pool room wall... Will the crack be covered by a pickguard? I understand that you are concerned with delamination - not knowing where on the guitar it is, is there an option for a dowel or similar to hold the two sides together where it is delaminating? (my woodwork skills are pretty weak, so it may be a really dumb question)...

Bummer!....
I would hazard a guess and say the solvents in the paint have caused the timber to shrink, re opening that b%$#tard lamination again..
Even so, no need to relegate the axe to the pool room, if you relic it you can always make up a back story as to the hard life she has had on the road :)

[quote]/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Brendan on July 7, 2013, 20:42

Will the crack be covered by a pickguard? ..... is there an option for a dowel or similar to hold the two sides together where it is delaminating?

Crack's on the back, towards the center of the body, but a cover-up is not really the go. I have already glued and screwed this join shut at the butt end, thinking it was the only place the block had let go - but it turns out that the entire join is suspect. Unfortunately there is not much I can reliably do with the new problem where it is.

If this was a customers guitar (and suitably valuable or important enough to be repaired) I would have separated and relaminated, since it is the only way to be sure that all of the seam is tight. As it stands now any knocks will very probably make the problem worse, possibly causing the timber to split through to the neck - hence the plan to hang it.

Cheers.

DB,

If it is the solvents I am surprised that it has taken so long to open and (although the pic is a bit rough) it is more of a crack that a swollen join. I have been wet sanding the final coats, so I suspect that it could just be water that has done the damage - either way it sure is a bummer.

Appreciate the War Story suggestion but it will be going on the wall, any actual hard-life-on-the-road incidents will very likely cause the crack to worsen.

Cheers.

Ray,

What 'filler' did you use to fill the crack? Many fillers tend to 'shrink back' and with the minimal tolerances in getting a mirror finish, this can be a common issue. Fillers such as Timbermate do not shrink back. Hence, I'm wondering what was used?

Gav

Bugger. Sorry to hear that - looks like it will be a nice wall hanger though and you can save a few bucks on hardware if you're going to do that... Must admit I liked MaxAxe's hanging idea on his first guitar - putting a small piece of angle with a hole in it that could hang off something on the wall.

Dumb idea - racing (skunk?) stripe like in some acoustics along the centre of the back - could do it in something black (?binding maybe?) that could hide any repairs from the back and save having to respray the whole thing???
Grasping at straws, but I can imagine how heartbreaking it would be to get this far and have a wall hanger on your hands...

Gav, no filler - that's the problem. This is a new split, further along from the original repair.

Brendan, maybe or possibly a full-on Frankenstein

Bummer indeed. There is a lot to be said for the GT stripe option.

http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...29co-image.jpg

Or - https://coreldraw.com/resized-image.....05/Herbie.jpg

Off centre stripes if it's slightly off centre... ;)

If going the herbie option, maybe the vinyl sunroof could cover any further damage too! ;)

Btw, Ray, I believe you spoke to my headstock designer this afternoon, aka Jane. It is a small world and I did mention your cafe is on the approved coffee list. That's why.

I "appreciate" all the suggestions guys......really....

Meanwhile I am going with the relic treatment and have begun scuffing the paint. I am pretty sure I will go for light wear, rather than the dragged-backwards-through-hell look. I polished the last coat of enamel and then hit a few spots with a scrubber pad, mainly the classic sleeve-rub on the face, around the horns, in the cutaway beneath the neck and some belt scratches. I'm not going to do any bruising, hard scrathces or acid-etch any of the bright work.

Still haven't decided if I will clear the body or not - but probably won't, as it will provide the most authentic vintage finish.

I have also put on the headstock decals.

P.S. Glenno, yeah it was a bit of a CIA experience initially; "..are you the Ray that makes PitBull guitars?" ;) . Sorry I missed you the other day, hopefully we can catch up soon.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...relic-body.JPG
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...2uh-decals.JPG

Looking very nice now.
The headstock decals are great.
I am not a fan of "ageing" (being a Senior doesn't help)
However, your approach is producing pretty convincing results.
Interested to see the final outcome . . .

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from maxaxe on July 15, 2013, 10:27

I am not a fan of "ageing" (being a Senior doesn't help)
However, your approach is producing pretty convincing results.
Interested to see the final outcome . . .

---

I hear you Max, I'm not yet a senior but it's coming.

Luckily with this instrument I was intending on making an authentic 60's finish and hardware, so it should accept the relic treatment fairly easily.

Although bodies of this era generally had black primer not grey, which I would have used if I'd known where we'd end up.

HI! Thought I may have started to start to assemble my kit, but, just as I was finishing the back I noticed a run. Trying to do the finish in pour light (without my glasses certainly didn't work out. Hope fully I may be able to put the pickups' in as it is only the back I need to redo. Brendon mentioned that inside the "f" hole would need sanding, although I had looked in, thought "gosh thats rough" I didn't worry too much about it,,,,BUT with the 1.5mm deep ridges it sure looks crook if any one looked in, sanding will need to be done. Would like to put a pic or two up but, not knowing about computers too much I don't seem to be able. I any one would like to have a look there is some in my first post in "welcome" under my kit.

Ricmo

Looks as if I cant even do a correct post, sorry guys, might figure it out one day.

Cheers

Quote:

---

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Ricmo on July 15, 2013, 19:40
Looks as if I cant even do a correct post, sorry guys, might figure it out one day.

Cheers

---

Don't sweat is RicMo - I found the Forum a bit challenging initially, and (if i remember it right) put my first post in the wrong spot too.

A few shots of setting the bridge and a side shot of the shielding.

Decided to run a long earthing wire from the springhook to the socket, rather than fiddle about with the shortish lead on the harness that was for this job.

The fourth pic is making the routing template for the neck - I never test fitted the neck on delivery and it turns out the fit was not great. Too narrow top and bottom and the end shaping was pretty far from matched.

Routing a finished body is a bit scary, but I'm not too worried - my top-bearing bit is still new and I've done this a few times before when fitting new necks to old bodies.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...ing-bridge.JPG

Build complete, just need to do some final set-up. But after a very quick intonation adjustment I have plugged her in and pretty happy with the result so-far.

No in-between pics....I kind of just got into a groove and neglected the camera, sorry.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...9jh38-done.jpg

A great looking strat Ray. Nice subtle relic, and that hotrail in the bridge position is an excellent choice.

Nice job.

And that's going straight to the pool room? Surely not. Good save.

Yep, poolroom.....can't take this puppy on the road, one good knock and it's splitsville. Followed by angry little tears and loud naughty words from the guy who spent a month painting it.

I've got another ST-1 on order and plenty of Ivory enamel left, so fear not!

You get my vote for using both Pit Bull Guitars logos on the headstock.

I really like this guitar Ray, it reminds me of my very first Strat copy, which was branded "Axiom" and was the guitar I played in my very first band. I loved that white Strat copy.

Cheers Adam.

The "PitBull" sits in the nose of the headstock quite well, and I really like that logo.

Here's a sample recording of this machine.

Each pass starts at the neck p-up and steps back through all five positions, finishing at the bridge. It round it off with a quick bit of blah on the hotrail at the bridge.

The 9(plus)dB of gain you can hear on the bridge p-up shows why they are called a hotrail.

As you will probably notice the intonation is still not bang-on, but close enough for the moment. Low priority at this stage.

https://soundcloud.com/rhay-3/62-strat-first-audio


Capture:

Direct into laptop via a QuadraVerb GT, plus a Danelectro RED distortion pedal. No processing bar reverb.