Printable View
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
No worries, I'll put that Meguiars Cut and Polish on my shopping list then.
Feel free to check out my progress with the HotRod Strat when you get some free time, I just gave the body a light sand and I'm going to give it a third coat of the Metallic Blue paint shortly.
If you big green shed is set like mine(They all are set up to a similar plan) below where you find the normal square cut pieces of sand paper, you will find some plastic wrapped rolls of paper about 10-15cms wide. there is a 1200 W&D available in the roll which is about 1mtr long. Should only cost you about $3.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zandit75
Cheers mate, I think I remember where i found the sandpaper in my local Big Green Shed, so I'll give that area a check when I go there next Tuesday.
Hey guys, the BGSFOS only stocks up to 1200 grit and you will need to buy 1500 & 2000 from an Auto shop such as Autobarn or Supacheap.
Wouldn't recommend going too hard at it using 600 or 800 as those babies will strip it bare in no time at all. Suggest starting with 1200 first and see how that goes and if it looks like a bit more cut is required then drop down a notch to the next heavier grit paper.
Surprising how much cut there is in 1500 too and don't forget to keep rinsing the paper in a bucket of clean water every few passes to stop things clogging up which can also lead to hard shiny spots then introducing unwanted scratches in the surface.
Just remember, slow and steady wins the race.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
Cheers, I'll make sure I remember that, I think I know where there's a Repco shop I could try to see if they stock any 1500 and 2000 grit wet and dry paper, they might not but it's always worth a try anyway.
Update:
Finally did a big order of some stuff from Realtone Music, amongst the bits and pieces I ordered are a set of Gold Sperzel Trim Lock Tuners, they are a set of 6 Staggered-height Tuners with a 12:1 Gear Ratio, the Staggered-Height means that no string-trees are needed to get the brake-angle of the D and G, and B and E strings correct, this eliminates one possible cause of tuning problems due to friction, I also ordered a complete set of new Gold Pickguard screws, and Gold Single-Coil mounting screws too, I have elected to keep using the original gold Neck Plate, but I'm using a set of four Black Neck mounting screws cause I think they look cool on the back of the Gold Strat.
Hopefully all the bits I've ordered will turn up in the post by either the end of this week or maybe sometime next week, then the following fortnight is when the new Bladerunner Bridge will be ordered.
Exciting times ahead, cause the build process is going to be reaching it's conclusion and the Gold Strat will hopefully be playable again, will keep you all updated so stay tuned.
Interested to hear about and see some pics of the staggered height tuners, im not a fan of string trees.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
No worries, when the new Sperzel Tuners arrive in the post, and they've been installed on the neck, I'll definitely post some pics, I'm not really a fan of String trees either, so if there's a way to eliminate them then that's something I'm definitely going to be interested in, I decided to give the Sperzel Tuners a go this time round cause I had been reading lots of good things about them on the internet, apparently they are the best tuners you can buy, they're used by lots of professional musicians so they must live up to their reputation of being good, I'm always willing to use the best stuff I can buy for my money, I had a chrome Supervee Bladerunner Bridge on my Mexican Strat and it was definitely a good upgrade from the stock bridge, it did make the guitar sound better to my ears, I'll document the installation of both the new Sperzel Tuners and Bladerunner Bridge with pics of the installation-process too so you can see what's involved.
Update:
Went to the Big Green Shed to buy a few things and realized that my budget was a bit tight, anyway, I was looking for the cans of White Knight Super Gold so I could buy another one and found out that they were sold out, and someone had bought the last two boxes that were in the warehouse, so, I had to come to a compromise and ended up buying a tin of Gold Paint that was of the same formula as the Super Gold, the downside is that it has to be applied with a paintbrush rather than sprayed on, but the upside is that I have enough paint to do 20 odd coats, I managed to get some 1200 Grit wet and dry sandpaper, a couple of paint brushes, and a bottle of Mineral Turpentine for cleaning-up, I might see if I can do a coat of Gold Paint on the Gold Strat body tomorrow after I've given it a light sand to smooth out any un-evenness.
Doc no idea how the finish will look with a brush, would have been worth waiting for the spray can, you must have a few green sheds in Darwin you can check for stock ?
Also the mineral turps has some nasty chemicals in it, best get gum turpentine is much safer to use
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
They reckon it's going to be a week or so before they get some more cans of the Super Gold in and I'm on a bit of a deadline with the Gold Strat build cause I was hoping to get it finished in time for a gig in November that I'm going to be playing with a mate of mine, as far as I know the Big Green Shed on Bagot Road is the only one in Darwin, I'll give the Gold Paint I bought a go and if there's some issues with it I'll stop using it and sand the coat off when it's dry, I just got an email from Realtone Music saying that the stuff I ordered has been despatched and I should receive it in the post within a couple of business days, so hopefully the stuff will be delivered by the end of this week or so.
Doc how much did the tin of gold paint cost ? I would advise against opening it, the finish will have brush strokes all over it. I would wait for more spray cans or call some auto stores to see if they stock it. You can get a refund on the tin if it's unopened and you keep the receipt.
I checked and Bagot Road is the only green shed in Darwin.
What date is the gig in November ? You have all of October to finish it
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
It was just over $40.00, one of the sales assistants opened it to show me what the paint looked like, okay then, I won't do anything, I'll wait till they have some more cans of Super Gold stock in, I still have the receipt so I'll hang onto it, I'll go back next fortnight to check if the paint I'm after is in stock and I'll get a refund.
It'll give the body some more time to dry although the paint does seem to be dry, a couple of more weeks isn't going to hurt if it means that the finish on the guitar body is going to end up looking better.
no worries Doc, you should call them and ask them to call you when the spray cans come in stock. You will get a much nicer finish with the spray cans and if you do one coat with a tin/brush and it looks bad you have blown $40.
I edited my above post you have 31 days in October, what date is the gig in November ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by wokkaboy
I actually did leave my name and phone number with them after I asked them to call me when they have more of the Super Gold in stock, my mate who's playing the gig with me reckons the gig is going to be on either the 12th or the 14th of November, to be honest he wasn't all that clear on the exact date though.
I guess it's not really going to matter too much when I get the finishing work done, as you've said, I've got another 31 days or so till the gig, I'll put this all down to me getting a little impatient again, which is a bit unlike me cause most people I know tell me I have a lot of patience, anyway, I think working on my Band Of Gypsys Fuzz Face pedal should take my mind off it a bit, maybe that's what I need, to spend some time on other projects.
yeah ok, well it's probably 12th November is a Saturday, so that's 6 weeks this Saturday. I'd confirm the date with your mate.
it's not worth trying to rush the build or take any short cuts so hopefully that will be enough time.
you won't ever be happy with the build if it's not the standard you expected from the start.
I think the upside is that at least I've got all those bits ordered from Realtone Music, especially the most essential parts like the Sperzel Tuners.
I must learn to be more patient with things, let that be a lesson to me.
Update:
I just got the latest Postal Tracking Info update for my Realtone Music order which is as follows:
In transit
Status
In transit
Time & date
04:52pm Wed 28 Sep
Location
Marcoola QLD
I used to surf there a lot......Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
did you get Sperzel Tuners?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
Haven't got the Sperzels yet, but I could potentially be getting them today in the post, I went downstairs to check my mailbox and there was a parcel card in it, but, from looking at the latest tracking update details, I'm only getting part of all the stuff I ordered, I may get another parcel card later-on today, or maybe tomorrow, I'll keep you posted on it mate.
I'll post a pic of the parcel contents when I get it back home and open it up.
Respect Doc ......thats a decent outlay on tuners
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
For sure, the set of 6 Sperzel Tuners cost me Au$180.00 all up, so hopefully they will be really good quality, what's really cool about Sperzel Tuners is that they can be fairly easily converted from Right-Hand to Left-Hand, so if you're buying a set of Sperzels to put on a reverse headstock you can simply convert the tuners over so they will fit.
Update:
Woohoo!! A big box of some new guitar parts just arrived in the post, here's a pic of all the stuff that was inside the box:
Attachment 14206
These were what I was mostly waiting for, they are the new set of Gold Sperzel Locking-Tuners I ordered for the Gold Strat:
Attachment 14207
They have a gear-ratio of 12:1, that means you need to rotate the knob 360 degrees 12 times for the tuner-shaft to rotate 360 degrees once, it may sound like the gear-ratio is too coarse, but it's not really, considering that vintage Kluson Strat/Tele tuners also had a 12:1 gear ratio.
On one end of the Tuner-Shaft is a small hole which you thread the string through, on the other end is a thumbscrew, this raises or lowers a thin steel pin which is inside the Tuner-Shaft, tightening the Thumbscrew raises the steel pin up into the end of the Tuner-Shaft which has the small hole for the string, this will effectively lock the string to the Tuner-Shaft so that you don't need to have very many string-wraps around the Tuner-Shaft, this will help to keep the string in tune better.
There's one other difference with these Sperzel Tuners compared with Standard Tuners, they don't need any mounting-screws, instead, there's a short steel spigot poking out from the underside of the tuner where it sits flush with the back of the Headstock, the small spigot fits inside a small hole drilled into the back of the Headstock a short distance from the 10mm Tuner Mounting-Hole, the small spigot is to stop the Tuner from moving out of alignment due to string-tension, this would also cause the string to go flat.
The Sperzel Tuners are attached to the Headstock via threaded bushings same like a set of Standard Tuners.
Also, the heights of each of the Sperzel Tuners are staggered, so that you have two Tuners that are set the highest (E and A), followed by two that are set a bit lower (D and G), and two set to the lowest height (B and E), this is so that you can eliminate any friction-inducing string-trees from the B and E strings which would cause tuning-stability issues.
Here's some more pics of the Sperzel Tuners:
First, here's a closeup pic (sorry about the focusing, been trying to figure out how to fix it):
Attachment 14214
Next, here's a few pics of the Sperzels installed on the Headstock of my Gold Strat:
Front View:
Attachment 14215
Back View:
Attachment 14216
And Side View:
Attachment 14217
Notice how the Sperzel Tuners for the E and B strings seem shorter than the others?, that's to give a proper break-angle over the nut without having to use a String-Tree that would cause tuning-instability due to friction, I may not have to install any string trees at all, which is good cause my main aim was to eliminate them completely.
xmas time at Docs place! Nice haul!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dedman
Totally mate, Xmas did indeed came early for me, which means I'll be able to make some progress on my two guitar builds, the Gold Strat got the Sperzels, a set of six new Gold pickup screws, and some new Gold Scratchplate screws, the HotRod Strat got a new White Pearloid Scratchplate with pickup holes for a Humbucker, Single-Coil, Single-Coil pickup configuration, a set of Black Strat Knobs, a White Trem Spring cover, some new Chrome Scratchplate screws, A Chrome Jackplate with screws, and a Chrome Neckplate with screws, hopefully I'll get the HotRod Strat finished before the end of the year.
Nice aquisition Doc and love the Sperzels
Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk
Update:
I guess it's time for an update, anyway, last week I decided to put the Gold Strat together so that it was in a playable condition, I did that because I was going out to my friend's place for a jam and I wanted to give myself a break from the LP Studio and the White Ibanez RG350DXZ, so I got the Gold Strat up and running, but found that I couldn't accurately intonate the low E-String properly, no matter how much I adjusted the String-Saddle towards the neck, the Software Tuner-App (called AP Tuner 3) I was using, kept saying that the 12th Fret note was flat compared to the 12th Fret Harmonic, I'll explain what the cause of the intonation issue was shortly.
After a bit of thought, I decided to try installing a fresh new set of strings, thinking that the new strings I had just put on were duds, so I go through all the setup adjustments, get everything right, check the intonation, and the result was the same, I ended up trying two more sets of strings before de4ciding to swap-out the bridge for a brand-new Chrome DR Parts Strat Bridge I bought from Sounds Of Music in Casuarina, along with two more sets of 42-09 gauge strings, I install another set of brand-new strings, get it all adjusted and tuned-up, checked the intonation on all the strings, the low E-String was still reading flat no matter how much I adjusted it, it was only after I stopped and had a good think while taking a break when it finally twigged, I had noticed that the 12th Fretted note sounded funny compared to the 12th Fret harmonic, more to the point, the low E-String sounded a bit sitar-ish, so I used a magnifying glass to have a close look at the nut-slot for the E-String, it looked fine, then I had a look at the pickups and noticed that the pole-pieces seemed a bit too close to the strings, I tried lowering the pickups but couldn't because they were already bottoming-out in the pickup-routes due to the noise-cancelling coils (the three pickups are the Entwistle ASN57 Noiseless Strat Pickups), as it turned out, the three pickup-routes in the body just weren't deep enough to accommodate the pickups, I thought about deepening the routes but there wasn't enough wood left, so I had to do some serious debating in my head and finally decided to convert the three Entwistle ASN57 pickups to standard ones by removing the hum-cancelling coil (it was relatively easy enough to do), once I did the conversion on all three of the pickups I re-installed them, after tuning the Gold Strat back up to pitch and setting it up, I found that not only had I fixed the low E-String sitaring, I also fixed the intonation issue and the low E-String intonated properly, it no longer kept reading flat, I was also able to get the intonation for the other strings spot-on too.
So, what was going on?, here's my theory, with the pole-pieces of the pickups too close to the strings, it was causing magnetic-drag on the low E-String, making it vibrate at a lower pitch than it should have vibrated at when plucked, this was causing the 12th fretted note to read flat regardless of where the string-saddle was set, which is surprising cause the Alnico V pole-pieces used in the ASN57 pickups aren't that strong, I would have expected that with Neodymium Pole-Pieces, anyway, the issue ended up being fixed and I was able to get the guitar in a playable condition in the end, the only compromise I had to make was to put up with getting some background noise.
Moral of the story, if you're having trouble intonating the strings on your guitar, and you are 100% sure that you have everything else right, and there's no issue with the nut, particularly if it is a Strat-Style guitar, check to see if you have the pole-pieces of the pickups adjusted too close to the strings, for Single-Coil pickups Fender give the following specs for the clearance-gap between the low and high E-Strings for all three pickups with the strings fretted at the last fret (apologies for the imperial measurements, I blame that on my Fitter and Machinist apprenticeship where we had to learn to work in imperial units):
Low E-String: 8/64 Inch.
High E-String: 6/64 Inch.
Adjusting the clearances to those specs should ensure that the strings play cleanly and intonate properly.
Update 2:
A few days ago I had to sand-back some of the Gold Paint finish on the body of the Gold Strat, due to the paint still being soft after well over a week (maybe even a fortnight) of drying, after the sanding I gave the Gold Strat Body a couple of new coats of Gold Paint and have left it to dry for a week or so, hopefully the paint will dry properly, one thing's for sure, the Gold Paint I'm using seems to like drying in it's own time.
Note: One thing to avoid when using White Knight Super Gold paint is to avoid touching the surface with your fingers when it dries, the softest touch tends make the paint tarnish, and you end up having to spray a fresh coat on it to get that shiny lusture back, what a frustrating pain...oh well, I guess I'll get there in the end.
Maybe you might need to wear gloves when handling it, same as what they do for the Melbourne Cup Trophy too haha.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
Hahahaha....it could be worse though, if I was using some 24 Carat Gold Leaf to cover it and it got all torn-up, just imagine how costly that would end up being.
Sure you haven't spent that much already???? (only kidding)
It is a Gold Member after all so you need to treat it as if it was 24 carat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
I would treat it as if it was 24 Carat Gold, but my Gold membership barely covers it (pun fully intended)....hahahaha...., I'll have to work really hard to earn that Platinum membership, that means living on two-minute noodles for a few more months just so I can get all those frequent-flyer points needed to get that Platinum membership....lol.
As a side note, this forum has given me plenty of opportunities for exercising my sense of humor, which is something I'm always working on, where would my sanity be without it?....lol.
When it comes to building guitars, my two cats are my worst critics, Holly's the worst of the two, since she's very pedantic and hard to please, Gengle isn't as pedantic, but he's argumentative, he always thinks he could do better....whatever that means....hahahaha, I tend to take his advice with a pinch of salt...lol.
I was thinking of following in your footsteps of becoming a supervillian, but this is starting to sound like a tough gig!!Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
I'll stick to being a musician!!! :p
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zandit75
Believe me, being a Super-villain is tougher than it sounds, the saying "Crime doesn't pay" is so very apt it's not funny, all the money I make goes into hiring new henchmen, and there's hardly even any left to make any kind of profit-margin, the good-guys get all the girls, prestige, gadgets, etc, that's what I get for hitting the books and getting straight A+ Distinctions in all my subjects in school and college,might see if I can get together the budget to build that retirement hideout on a remote deserted Island that I've always said I'd build, might even create my own Nation, and set up a fair system of Government so that no one has more money than anyone else, of course I'd need some kind of system to prevent any high-level corruption, still working out all the finer details with the Constitution that my own nation would adopt, you know how it is, I'd probably give it a couple hours of deep thought, then decide to just do some seaside fishing while lounging under an umbrella on a secluded beach, sipping the world's finest Pinacoladas, and Daiquiris, while watching Hawaiian dancers and eating coconuts, that old chestnut, oh, I might even do some chestnut-roasting on the beach over a fire, after cooking a hangi....traditional-style, of course, then I can just chill-out and remenice about old times when life was so much simpler.
And then, out would come a huge plateful of cooked, and battered, oysters, mussels, scallops,succulent fish with salted-chips, the works, and there would be some good feasting.
Some nice hardware there Doc
When you get your island retreat sorted, I'd love a dinner invite
Sorry guys, I'm junking this Gold Strat project guitar, I just went to spray a coat of Gold paint on the body after waiting over a week for the last coat to dry, then the guitar body fell down to the floor from where it was hanging and now the body has a dent in it, so I'm giving up on it, sorry, I tried but I don't think I can justify spending any more time and,or, money on doing anything music-related, I've had too much trouble with my guitars never staying in tune no matter what I do to try and fix them, I spent well over a year getting my Marshall amp fixed, I've been trying to pursue some kind of career in music since I was 21 years old and I'm 47 now, haven't gotten anywhere despite my best efforts, spent too much time trying to tune my guitars and keep them in tune rather than learning to play them or songs, I feel like my inspiration has been drained-dry out of me, so I can't justify spending any more time, and, or effort on it anymore, when I was at uni last year doing a music course, my classmates were learning songs faster than I was, so I don't have what it takes to succeed in the music industry.......sorry for my little rant, but that's my current situation, even my LP Studio guitar has turned out to be an expensive lemon, and I spent $2000.00 on it.
I've spent lots of money buying replacement parts for my guitars, only to find that the parts didn't fix them, I've lost count of how many sets of tuners I've bought (some real expensive ones from well known manufacturers), they all turned out to be junk, so I can't justify spending any more money on replacement parts either.
Darwin's climate/weather is really not conducive to building/finishing guitars anyway.
Apologies for my ranting, haven't been having some good days lately.
I am totally bummed out for you Doc☹️😭 This has been an Epic build thread, maybe a break is due for you to recharge and regroup eh? We'll all be here to cheer you on to the end.
As for the ding, just a bit of preemptive relic work going on maybe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
I just sent an email to Adam, asking him about the possibility of ordering a new body, I'm thinking that the paint-drying issues could be caused by the Dingotone finish I had applied prior to spray-painting the body, yeah, I know it sounds a bit far fetched, but what is interesting is that I haven't experienced anything like the same issues with spray-painting the HotRod Strat body, it has had no dingotone applied to it, I gave it a sanding-down, then sprayed it with primer, and then spray-painted it with Metallic Blue paint, and the paint dried properly, I don't think the weather has had anything to do with it since the weather had been the same when I spray-painted the Gold Strat body, and the HotRod strat body, perhaps there's a weird compatibility issue?
Keep it up Doc!
If it was easy you wouldn't be as proud of it at the end.
Have a break, regroup and get that thing finished!
You can do it!!!