Custom HotRod Strat Build.

Update:


Okay, I'm going to go ahead and give the HotRod Strat body a spray with some primer in preparation for the Metallic Blue spray paint, will post a couple of pics after the primer has dried, but first some Sanding of the body, stay tuned.


Update:


Just given the body a coat of Rust-Oleum Grey Primer, there doesn't seem to be any discernible grain-pattern in the wood, I did however discover a glue-stain, but since I'm going for a solid-colour finish which will cover-up the glue-stain, I'm not going to worry about it, at least the wood is going to be protected from the rainy weather, it's a bit too dark to take any pics of the body, so I'm going to wait till tomorrow morning and let the body dry overnight.

The can of Rust-Oleum Grey Primer is starting to run a bit low so I'll have to buy another can if I end up having to spray a few more coats on the body, I might just do one more coat after the first one has dried though, before I start spraying the body with the Metallic Blue paint, all is going to plan so far.

good stuff Doc, hopefully what you have learnt from the gold strat you will keep improving your spraying technique on the hot rod

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

good stuff Doc, hopefully what you have learnt from the gold strat you will keep improving your spraying technique on the hot rod

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Cheers mate, if I have to be brutally honest about myself, it's my painting skills that probably needs the most improvement on, but at least I have acknowledged that, so I'm in a position to do something about it, I do feel I have gotten better at it since that first time with the Gold Strat, there is room for improvement, and that's cool, it'll be interesting to see what the guitar looks like once it's finished, I can take my time with this build cause I have two other guitars I can play in the meantime, one, the white Ibby, has a Floyd on it.

yeah cool Doc, don't worry my first effort at spray paint was woeful. It's all practice buddy and you will improve. Even if you haven't got a spray can in your hand practice a steady movement over a hanging guitar to get used to it. Make sure you hold the nozzle 90 degrees to the surface, Try and maintain the same distance from the object. Days that aren't windy will give you the best results.
Also have a look at some spray paint video's on Youtube sure there are plenty to watch before you do the primer coat.
Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

yeah cool Doc, don't worry my first effort at spray paint was woeful. It's all practice buddy and you will improve. Even if you haven't got a spray can in your hand practice a steady movement over a hanging guitar to get used to it. Make sure you hold the nozzle 90 degrees to the surface, Try and maintain the same distance from the object. Days that aren't windy will give you the best results.
Also have a look at some spray paint video's on Youtube sure there are plenty to watch before you do the primer coat.
Good luck.

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Cheers mate, much appreciated.

Might see if I can manage spraying one more coat of Grey Primer on the HotRod Strat body today, there's not much left in the can though, but if it gets used up it gets used up, will see if I can post a couple of pics, stay tuned.

Update:


I just went to spray the Hotrod Strat body with some more Grey Primer and found that the can has been all used up even though there is some air pressure in it, so, I'm going to go ahead and give the body a coat of the Metallic Blue paint, will take a couple of pics of the body once it has been sprayed.


Here's what the HotRod Strat body looks like after it's been sprayed with it's first coat of paint:


Attachment 13972

Attachment 13973


I know it looks a bit patchy, but I think that's because it's the first coat of paint, hopefully it'll look better after a few more coats, on the upside we can see what the Metallic Blue colour looks like, I'm pretty happy with it so far so I'm going to roll with it.

Doc, before you spray the blue coat, what is the current state of the body, it's not raw timber still is it ? Worth going to the Green shed for more primer

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Doc, before you spray the blue coat, what is the current state of the body, it's not raw timber still is it ? Worth going to the Green shed for more primer

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It had one coat of Grey primer on it before I sprayed it with the Metallic Blue paint, the primer was completely covering the body before I started spray painting it, and I left the primer to dry overnight, the primer was dry to the touch before I started spray painting.


I'm going to be a bit short of money till Tuesday the following week, I'll be able to buy more of the Grey primer then if you reckon it needs it.

The good news is that I can't see any evidence of the paint reacting with the primer anywhere on the body.

Hey Doc, I like the colour, looks like you didn't grain fill the body before the primer ?
I'd say you will still see the grain after a few coats like your gold strat.

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hey Doc, I like the colour, looks like you didn't grain fill the body before the primer ?
I'd say you will still see the grain after a few coats like your gold strat.

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What if I try spraying a second coat on the body and see how it looks after that?, if there's no change I can always sand it back and then do the grain filling, still have some Maple Timbermate left, on the spray can it says to wait 30 minutes before spraying another coat, I've had another look at the body and I'm really liking the colour too, it's very similar to Lake Placid Blue, maybe a shade darker though, not 100% sure.


I think I know why the paint looks a bit patchy, from the looks of it, the patchyness appears to be due to the silver particles in the paint showing through due to me spraying a bit too lightly in places, on the can it says to hold it from 15 to 25 cm away from the surface that's being painted, I also gave the can a good shake for three minutes before I started spraying.

Update:


I decided to try spraying a second coat of Metallic Blue on the Hot Rod Strat body and it is definitely looking a lot better now, so, the patchyness seems to have been due to me spraying too lightly resulting in an uneven coat of paint in a few places, I'll let the body dry for another hour before I take some pics so you can see the result I'm getting, the paint seems a bit sensitive to how heavy or light you spray, or maybe that's just my imagination, I'm thinking that maybe a third coat might be enough, we'll see.


And here's what it's looking like after I sprayed the second coat of paint on it, it's not looking as patchy as it was before:


Attachment 13975

Attachment 13976


One thing I've noticed is that the Metallic Blue paint I'm using seems to be drying pretty quickly.

Update:


Just finished spraying another coat of Metallic Blue on the HotRod Strat body and I have to say that it is looking even better than before, the colour looks a lot more even now, I'll post a couple more pics shortly, stay tuned.


So that's the third coat of paint now.

Hey Doc no need to rush the coats. After 3rd coat the colour should look more even. Should be fine though they look like light coats you are applying

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hey Doc no need to rush the coats. After 3rd coat the colour should look more even. Should be fine though they look like light coats you are applying

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I think that third coat looks like it's enough I'll stop applying more coats, I'm really liking the results I'm getting now, so I won't do anything more with it, I just took a couple more pics of the body with the third coat of paint on it, here's the result I got:


Attachment 13980

Attachment 13981


That Metallic Blue colour really has become more vibrant, hasn't it?, I think it contrasts pretty well with the dark colour of the Rosewood fretboard on the neck.


So that's all the work I'm going to do on it for today, I'm going to leave it to dry thoroughly till next Tuesday, and I'll take it from there.

looks much better Doc. good call to give it time to fully cure. I would still recommend a wet said and more blue coats if you want to get it nice and flat and a consistent colour.

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

looks much better Doc. good call to give it time to fully cure. I would still recommend a wet said and more blue coats if you want to get it nice and flat and a consistent colour.

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No worries mate, and you're right, that's what I'll plan on doing next cause I want the surface to be nice and flat to get a similar result as I'm after with the Gold Strat, I think it's nice to have made some more progress on this build, been so long since I first received the body in the post from Adam.


I think it's going to look really good with a White Pearloid Scratchplate, what do you reckon Wokka?


Now here's something else I could probably do before I get to the stage where I'm ready to do the clear-coating, I have a can of Matt Black spray paint, what if I were to mask off around the bridge-route with some 3M tape so that no paint gets on the body finish, and spray the inside of the bridge route Matt Black?, or should I just leave it Metallic Blue like the rest of the body?

Hey Doc, you seem to be keen on taking on more work than is necessary.

Your axe but I wouldn't bother fussing about in areas that won't necessarily be on show.

Much better spending that time, effort & money on what people will see.

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Hey Doc, you seem to be keen on taking on more work than is necessary.

Your axe but I wouldn't bother fussing about in areas that won't necessarily be on show.

Much better spending that time, effort & money on what people will see.

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I suppose, but my main motivation for thinking about spray painting the Bridge route matt black was so that the Metallic Blue paint under the Bridge wouldn't show once the Bridge had been installed, my White Ibanez guitar has some black foam glued in place under it's bridge.

Hey Doc. I reckon a black bridge route Will look cool. Go for it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hey Doc. I reckon a black bridge route Will look cool. Go for it!

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Cheers, but I'll wait till I'm ready to start doing the clear-coating, and will spray the Bridge-Route Matt Black beforehand.

coming along well, Doc

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stan

coming along well, Doc

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Cheers mate, I'm very happy with the results I'm getting so far, it's looking alot like how I pictured it in my mind, I tried attaching the neck to the body temporarily so I could see what it would look like, then I placed the Gold Strat scratchplate on the body and it did look great, might take a pic of it later on so you can see what it looked like.

Update:


Here's a pic of the HotRod Strat with it's neck attached with it's new Chrome Neckplate and Mounting-Screws, it's new White Pearlid Scratchplate is only being held loosely in place by the neck, it also has it's new Black Strat Knobs and pickup switch tip placed in their relative positions, and the new Chrome Jackplate is placed in it's position too, this is to give you a better idea what the guitar is going to look like once it's finished:

Attachment 14223

waaay cool Doc!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dedman

waaay cool Doc!

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Cheers mate, I also have a set of three white strat knobs and pickup switch tip, but I elected to go with the black ones to match the black hardware I'll be using later on, although I could switch to the white ones too, I reckon it looks more 80's with the black knobs though.

Update:

Just got back home from helping a mate out with some stuff, we stopped by a local Darwin Luthier's place, and while I was there I picked up the Chrome Schaller Lockmeister Floyd Trem, that was going to be installed on my PRS SE Custom 24 guitar, I'm going to be installing it on my Custom HotRod Strat instead since I can always buy another one at a later date, anyway, I'm going to be doing some more work on the HotRod Strat over the next couple of fortnights to take my mind off the Gold Strat, the HotRod Strat body probably needs only a few more coats of paint before it's ready for clear-coating, so it looks like I might end up finishing this project first.

One thing I need to do is cut away some of the plastic from the Scratchplate so that it clears the bridge route, this will enable me to install the Schaller Lockmeister bridge, another thing I need to do is buy a set of new chrome tuners for the Hot Rod Strat, I might end up going with a set of Chrome Grover Non-Locking Mini Rotomatics, depending on whether I can buy a set from my local music stores.

After that, I'll need to buy some pickups and a set of new pots, I may end up going with some mini CTS pots, I think I've got a couple of good 5-Way pickup switches I can use, who knows, this guitar could be up and running in a playable-state early next year.

Hi Doc, good to see you are feeling a bit better and making some progress with one of your projects.

Just wondering if you need to spend any more money on hardware as it would seem that you probably have plenty hanging around from most of the brand name axes you have and possibly the quality may not be so bad and allow some to be recycled? Hear you pain with tuning issues and hope you can find a decent set of tuners amongst what you already have, and just like yourself, many of us have only limited budgets to pursue our musical interests. Maybe using the tremolo is contributing to things going out of tune as they are notorious for that. Would feel bad to see you throw more money at it for very little gain.

I sense you are a bit like me and always strive for perfection, which is a good thing. In fact those who know me well would probably label me a bit OCD but over time I have come to realise that perfection is sometimes near but can also be just out of reach thus forcing you to reassess goals, achievements, and outcomes where compromises to those high standards may be required. Sometimes near enough is way past good enough for many others in that pursuit of continuous improvement where just a small amount of fine tuning something might be all that is required.

Hope you see this as words of encouragement and to help you give yourself some strokes for the big things that you have already achieved and accomplished.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Hi Doc, good to see you are feeling a bit better and making some progress with one of your projects.

Just wondering if you need to spend any more money on hardware as it would seem that you probably have plenty hanging around from most of the brand name axes you have and possibly the quality may not be so bad and allow some to be recycled? Hear you pain with tuning issues and hope you can find a decent set of tuners amongst what you already have, and just like yourself, many of us have only limited budgets to pursue our musical interests. Maybe using the tremolo is contributing to things going out of tune as they are notorious for that. Would feel bad to see you throw more money at it for very little gain.

I sense you are a bit like me and always strive for perfection, which is a good thing. In fact those who know me well would probably label me a bit OCD but over time I have come to realise that perfection is sometimes near but can also be just out of reach thus forcing you to reassess goals, achievements, and outcomes where compromises to those high standards may be required. Sometimes near enough is way past good enough for many others in that pursuit of continuous improvement where just a small amount of fine tuning something might be all that is required.

Hope you see this as words of encouragement and to help you give yourself some strokes for the big things that you have already achieved and accomplished.

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Hi Wazkelly, I will admit that I can get a bit OCD with perfection too mate, i blame that on me being a Virgo (well known for their pursuit of what they believe is perfection), especially when getting a guitar in tune, if a guitar is even the slightest bit out of tune it tends to irritate me, anyway, I probably do have hardware on some of my other guitars I could use, but as some of the hardware is definitely getting a bit worn out and I actually have a limited amount of good hardware in stock, sometimes I don't have many other options other than ordering stuff online, I'm going to try and reign-in my spending a bit over the Christmas season cause I want to do some house-cleaning during the Christmas holidays so I can get rid of some stuff I no longer want/need, I'll need to do it anyway prior to doing the move to Cairns, cheers for the words of encouragement mate.

All good buddy.

Hearing an axe slightly out of tune for you is probably like the sound of someone dragging fingernails down a chalk board as both are quite annoying and irritating. I know if I am out and about and there is live music any pitch issues, whether vocally or instrumental are hard to ignore and many mere mortals, or rather those non-musical beings amongst us just don't seem to hear what is really going on. Clearly blissfully ignorant whilst downing more of their preferred beverage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

All good buddy.

Hearing an axe slightly out of tune for you is probably like the sound of someone dragging fingernails down a chalk board as both are quite annoying and irritating. I know if I am out and about and there is live music any pitch issues, whether vocally or instrumental are hard to ignore and many mere mortals, or rather those non-musical beings amongst us just don't seem to hear what is really going on. Clearly blissfully ignorant whilst downing more of their preferred beverage.

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For me, I reckon it's because my ears have become sensitized to anything that sounds a bit out of tune, or maybe, my ears have learnt how to recognize when an instrument is out of tune, my theory anyway, I think that once your ears learn how to recognize out of tune-ness, it's very hard for them to un-learn it, for some people, it tends to drive them up the wall so to speak, other people seem to be able to tolerate some out of tune-ness.

Anyway, I'll keep posting updates on this project, I might give the Hot Rod Strat a few more coats of paint tomorrow and then let it dry for a couple of weeks, then I might do some clear-coating.

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

Hi Wazkelly, I will admit that I can get a bit OCD with perfection too mate, i blame that on me being a Virgo (well known for their pursuit of what they believe is perfection),

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Are you still a Virgo? Just recently, NASA re-instated an old 13th zodiac sign, and now, apparently 85% of people are now under a different star sign!
I am one of the lucky ones who stayed with their original star sign!
http://fox59.com/2016/09/23/nasa-rev...-have-changed/

The idea that NASA has anything to do with astrology/star signs is actually pretty funny.

https://www.newscientist.com/article...ded-a-new-one/

Haha, yeah I saw that article as well. I just wanted to see if there was a reaction first!
According to the new date, the rest of my family has changed star signs. They got a good laugh out of it!

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Originally Posted by Zandit75

Are you still a Virgo? Just recently, NASA re-instated an old 13th zodiac sign, and now, apparently 85% of people are now under a different star sign!
I am one of the lucky ones who stayed with their original star sign!
http://fox59.com/2016/09/23/nasa-rev...-have-changed/

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Hahahaha....my birthday falls on the 31st of August, so according to the revised Astrological chart, my Starsign is Leo, just what I need to make me that much more confused, and we all know just how easily confused I can be....haha.

Update:

Just managed to make a bit more progress on my HotRod Strat build project, in order for me to be able to install the bridge, I had to cut-away some of the plastic from between the hole in the scratchplate where the bridge humbucker goes, and where the body routing for the bridge is, I carefully marked it out and used a coping-saw to cut-away the plastic, then used a file to smooth-out any rough edges, next I marked where I needed to drill two new holes for the scratchplate mounting screws, drilled them out to size, placed the scratchplate on the body, using two screws to hold it in place, then I drilled two appropriately-sized holes in the body to the correct depth, that pretty much finishes that bit of work, the only thing I need to do now is finish-off spray-painting and clear-coating the body, and then the guitar will be ready for assembly, I'm going to see if I can buy a set of new Chrome tuners for the guitar tomorrow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

Hahahaha....my birthday falls on the 31st of August, so according to the revised Astrological chart, my Starsign is Leo, just what I need to make me that much more confused, and we all know just how easily confused I can be....haha.

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http://youtu.be/75g0fjX0r4s

Glad you're making progress with at least one guitar!

Due to Procession ( the way the earth wobbles around its elliptical orbit) over time and the fact that most of us here are in the Southern hemisphere none of the zodiac signs are relevant as the star signs are in completely different places than they were in the time of the ancient Greeks. As an aside I used to watch an Aunt rush to read her stars in the paper every day, I worked at said paper and watched the copy boy cut random selections from a bunch of print outs and stick them down on a page, these days a computer probably replaced the copy boy, but accuracy would remain constant. :confused:

It's actually 'Precession', not 'Procession'. But on the rest you are 100% correct.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

http://youtu.be/75g0fjX0r4s

Glad you're making progress with at least one guitar!

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Hahahaha....good one, who isn't a big fan of Deep Purple?, classic 70's hard rock, I've lost count of the number of times "Smoke On The Water" has been played by various cover bands, I think it's right up there with Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven".


Good to see that the ancient art of thread-jacking is alive and well.....hahahaha.