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First Kit Build - Strat
Greetings all,
Yesterday I received my GST-1 kit in the mail, it's technically my second kit build - I built a LP kit some 10 years ago for a school project that is quite unplayable and I had a lot of help to assemble, so I don't really count that. Some background for the build, I play in a band where occasionally I'm playing bowed guitar with a cello bow, it gets sticky rosin all over the strings and guitar so whichever guitar I use for this I can't then use for regular playing, I've been using my American Standard Strat the last while but it's much too nice a guitar to only be able to play occasionally for bowing. So I've decided to build a cheap(ish) kit guitar specifically to be used as a bowing guitar.
https://i.imgur.com/xEOeeaXl.jpg
The goal is to build a vintage style olympic white strat with a mint pickguard, something like the below (I'm still contemplating whether or not to try some light relicing, which I'm sure might make many people's skin crawl to hear as I know it's a divisive subject!). I got the chrome hardware kit with the guitar but I plan to upgrade a number of these parts, namely the bridge, tuning pegs, pickguard (obviously) and, when the time comes to wire it all together, likely the pickups too.
https://i.imgur.com/mUucLQ3l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/yQk8e7al.jpg
Look forward to hearing any thoughts people have on the build!
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Cool! I like the colour combo you're going with; nice choice. And relic away, I say!
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Just play it lots and it'll relic right up. Love the colour choice, almost Malmsteen
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Your guitar man, if you want it relic’d then go for it.
Cool project
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Hi and welcome. I'm all for a light relic.
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Welcome Nick. Enjoy the build.
My take on relic-ing is that it will happen naturally if you do a light finish and play it alot. This will also look much more realistic. Guitars need to earn their scars.
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You'll need to use suitable finishes for some relicing. You'd generally head towards nitrocellulose, which isn't the most user-friendly finish to use. The main benefit of reliced guitars I feel is the attention given to the neck, with rolled edges making them very comfortable to play.
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Wow !
Nice model ! ;)
I'll personnaly do a vintage white with tortoise pickguard JM-1, personnaly i'll use some nitro-cellulose varnish/paint but didn't put other varnish on it, so it'll naturally relic ! ;)
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