Montana

Hi Guys, would like to introduce everyone to Montana.

This is to be my next build, which is to be an 8th birthday present for my grand daughter.

Her birthday is a few months away so I will try to do a better build that the one on my thin line tele, which I really wanted to finish and try it out.

I will post updates as the work progresses.


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good work Rick, what colours you got planned for your 8yo grand daughter ? maybe DB could have a conch girl sale coming up ?
Make sure you sand the body and neck heaps, it will pay off if you are planning to apply a wudtone finish

looks like you have a standard strat headstock shape pencilled in

I have got HEAPS of Conch Girl.... got it in especially for Gavmeister :)

Hey Rick,
Wow that's two parallel girls birthday builds, and both strats!
Interested to see what colour you go with.

Cheers,
Gavin.

ok, well, I am going with Conch Girl, not sure if Montana likes pink but hey, it's a girl colour.
Had a little trouble the pink leaked, made a bit of a mess in side the packet but think there is still plenty left.
Yes I think that is a good copy of a strat head stock. The neck has a bit of a mark on it, sort of a black crack, but still think I'll go with a clear finish, might add a bit of character.
No work on it for a few days now, need to go to get some copping saw blades, but maybe start sanding the body.
Next time I'll turn the pix around the right way.

Yesterday was a bit of a lazy one, all that was done was a trip to Bunnings for some coping saw blades.
Today a different matter, after morning up at the shops, a coffee, and a chat with some friends I came home ready for some progress.

Shaped the head stock, fitted the neck and put all the hardware on, if I had a gig tonight it could be used (except for a little soldering and that).

BUT

Now the work begins.

I have included a photo of that mark on the neck, I don't think I am going to worry about it, just stain and top coat. But if any one has any suggestions I will think about them, so please tell me what you think.
Thanks.

Ok so I didn't turn the photo around, next time.
The bridge isn't mounted, cause when I put it in the right place I couldn't get the pick guard on so I need to move it back a mm or so (just waiting for the glue to dry before sanding them back. I have sanded the neck but will give it a few more rubs, especially on the head stock ends..
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Ricmo, I wouldn't worry about the black mark in the neck, that will give it more character. What are you glueing ? There shouldn't be any glueing required on a ST kit. I wouldn't worry about bridge placement until you do the final assembly when you screw the neck in, string it up etc

Oh! Just glued some dowels in to where I I filled in the bridge holes. I am glade you agree with me about that black mark.
It'll make it sort of unique I think.

I like to set it up so there will be no drilling after the finish is applied and polished (but cant polish too good, might need to get some thing to help there).

[
Well, today I fitted the bridge, made sure it was close enough than striped off the hardware and neck.
Finished sanding the neck, and stained the back of it. I decided to use some stuff that I have had kicking around home, added some stuff to thin it a little, and got a big shock when I applied it. I think it looks good, the grain,and faults, in the neck came up to look like a "vintage" one.
However this is not ideal for a 8yo girl, but it will look newer when i gloss it up some.
The pic shows the vintage look but looks better in real life.

Then I sanded the body ready for the staining pink, which I hope will come out ok and still be able to see the wood. I don't want a solid colour.
Properly do that on Monday.

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that neck colour looks great

Yes it does look great Ricmo, depending on how you feel about the colour you can give it a rub with either 000 steel wool or a green kitchen scouring pad which will change the colour slightly for a more aged look (perhaps it is already there hard to tell in the pic) you can then give a couple more coats to give a nice depth in colour.... sanding between each one with the steel wool... or you could leave it... lol... so many options

Yesterday was a lazy day, went into Brissie had lunch with my son and found out a little of what Montana is doing these days.
First, she won't be 8 this birthday, she will be 9, ok on bother there. Second she wont like pink, so lucky I haven't started on the finish yet.
and there will be a short wait for some Amaranthine (and I am having trouble ordering it), but we will.

Today I worked on the neck, gave it two coats of TO. Now I wont use the term VINTAGE, but it looks very classy with a lot of character.
There were scratches on some of the spaces between the frets almost as if someone got heavy sand-paper and gave it a few rubs.
This was sanded smooth and gave that a oiling too. The rosewood was not as thirsty as the last kit, and the neck is looking, as I said, classy.

The TO that I have is at least 10 years old, and I needed to put a few drops of turps to have it flow nice and smooth. It appears to be doing the job ok
which is the main thing.

Something that I haven't pointed out, you may notice that the neck holes are not very well lined up, and there is a reason for this, the holes in the body
are nowhere in the correct place and I haven't fixed them up (and I'm not) but they are ok as everything lines up good now anyway.


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Not much happening today, Gave it another coat of TO. (neck)

Thought I might give you a look at the business side of the neck.

Have decided to go with the pink finish, at this stage, but may change my mind if I don't start soon.
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To-day I thought I'd start with the pink, I started with the head-stock face and was sort of disappointed, couldn't really tell it was pink.
Oh well, not to worry so started on the body. The sides came out a nice pink but the back and face is really clear.
Will put a bit more colour in the mix for the next few coats and see what that looks like.

I think it will turn out ok though.

It looks as if the phone can find more pink on it that I can, uummm.

Anyway thats it for another day.
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looking great there

Ok, the pink has to go, just not pink enough. A little bit of thinking required, I sort off like it (but i'm not in the market for a pink guitar) defiantly not a young girl. Will see what happens, as soon as I have something solid I'll post some pics. May be a few days.

I haven't used Concho Girl despite the malicious rumours to the contrary. I'm wondering if it may be a bit like the Olympic Girl (white) which when applied looks like you might as well have used water it is so clear. However, after two or three days you realise it is actually looking whiter!

come on Gav you can come out and admit it, you are the biggest Concho girl fan in the forum !
DB sends it to you in litre bottles doesn't he ?

Ha Ha,Ha, Wokkaboy just maybe.

You are possibly right Gavin, but too late. I have sanded it back, and I am going to sin (sorry Adam), have got a spray tin of enamel. (white knight Fuchsia)
Haven't a clue if this will work, but hey I doubt if this guitar will ever be used (except when I go visit), so isn't that important, as long as it looks the part.
However, I will have it looking and playing great. Birthday not until February so plenty of time.
Even if I have to eat humble pie, sand it back to bare wood and come crawling back to Adam for more wudtone. LOL.

Rick, how many coats of conch girl did you apply ? It may have got darker with more coats. Maybe you could have mixed a small portion of carmine gypsy would have made the pink darker. Oh well back to square one with fuchsia spray can

Gav hasn't used concho - DB has always done it for him - and added tassles, glitter and sparkle - though how he did it with Wudtone I'm not sure... :?

Quote:

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/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Brendan on October 7, 2013, 19:41
Gav hasn't used concho - DB has always done it for him - and added tassles, glitter and sparkle - though how he did it with Wudtone I'm not sure... :?

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He used Stewmac 30 super glue!!!!! $&@#!

BWAHAHAHAAAAAAAAH!
.....Oh dear...

Rick, it isn’t Adam you have to worry about, it is me.

Go and join Gav, Wokka and AJ in the naughty corner!

Seriously, you need to apply at least three or four coats of the base colour before it starts to get any depth...

DB how big is the naughty Corner? It's getting a bit packed out and we've sadly run out of beer!

Ok, so it's to the naughty corner is it, well you other guys can have the beer, but who's on coffee roster this week?

Just for the record, I stuffed up the head stock, I started on that as it's easy to sand back, which I have, now it has orange peel. I hope this will polish out, so I can put some clear gloss stuff on it.

Is the gloss I got from Adam (with the pink) suitable to rag on to the paint. Any help there would be appreciated, cause if I do that I just may need to get more sand paper.

Here is a photo.

AAAAaaaHHHHHhh no option to add pix, hold on I'll try something.

Ok that worked.
Also a photo of front and back of the body
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Well... That is certainly looking very pink now!

Well Ricmo - that is pink

Just an undercoat for the next colour if you are not happy....

I always envisioned it as a paler colour. More strawberry milkshake than drag-queens lipstick.

Well, no pix today, should have taken one when I finished sanding, not to worry it sort of looked like I hadn't started (almost) .

Tried to fix it the lazy way, but I wasn't happy with it so out came the sand paper. I sure was surprised to find that a hollow was in the middle of the head stock, strange it wasn't there when I sanded it the first times. Anyway after much sanding it was bare wood, then out came the spray can and very thin coats applied. So now it looks like it did before I messed with it.

Maybe might be able to put a pix or two up in a day or so..

8O

Well, Fretworn, it sure is pink, I sort of liked the pail pink of the conch girl. But I was told it wasn't pink, and this is what I was told was pink, even if it's not called pink. Looks as if I do as I'm told. (cause I just don't figure this out)javascript:void(0);

ANYWAY, Just touched it a little today, I think it will be ok by the time I finish working on it.

Almost time to look at the 'lectrics, as I let this cure for a while. I just want to change them a little, personally, I don't like not having a tone control on the bridge pick up, possibly because of my deafness , I like to take some highs off. I am thinking of having a master tone, this will leave me one spare control, uuummmm, I'm sure I will be able to hook something up to it.

Only time will tell. It will be interesting to see if I can do some thing constructive.

Cheers
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Today, not much happened, I checked out the wiring, yes very easy to modify. I will have one master tone for the three pups, or a master for the front and middle, and one for the bridge, that makes a little more sense, either way it will be different.

Fixed a run that I found in the boddy. and put a sticker on the head stock. Unfortunately my clear sticker paper isn't too clear, guess it will do though.

8-)
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wow - Pinkcaster!

Ha, Ok Stan good thought, with the trouble that I have been having with this finish I've called it a lot of things.
I was to put the word "Mofcaster" along with the Montana, but there was no room.
Now I have been wondering just how many ?????casters we can come uo with.

So far Stan you are the winner.

May be Adam and DB can come up with a little prize, maybe some Conch Girl (hahaha).
(I got 3/4 bottle of the white thats not used, maybe that is it) lol

WOW that's some full blown pink going on 8-)

Today I just took the masking tape of the head stock and touched up the body a little. I think that the head stock is close enough to being done, at least for a while.

Just about to leave for Tandys' when the air conditioner guy came round, then a buyer for my kayak, so that put paid to getting the bits for my wiring mod. Oh well may be tomorrow.

Ok! off to Tandys' today got some diodes and changed the wiring.

Pic #1shows the standard wiring, Green wire the tone wire for the middle pup, the hole on the right is where the bridge pup would be if it had a tone control.

Pic #2 shows that I bridged the three tone out puts together, giving me a master, which is connected to the middle pot, with the blue wire.

Pic #3 shows the diodes wired to the other pot with the green wire, which was the tone wire (which I left where it was for this purpose).

SO the tone out put is (hopefully) doing two jobs, master tone and a master (passive) distortion control. (hopefully)

I have wired the diodes different to the usual way, so will be interesting to see if it works, if not I guess I'll conform and wire it the standard way.

Hope I got the right pix.
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Well, finally got back to do a little, not 100% happy with the finish but it's not too bad.
Will let it sit for a few days then assemble the neck, scratch plate. I am interested to see how that wiring mod will turn out so am anxious to try it out.
Umm if it wont work will need to change it to the unmodified mod (?).
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I have wired the diodes different to the usual way, so will be interesting to see if it works, if not I guess I'll conform and wire it the standard way.
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Hi Ricmo,
By diodes, do you mean capacitors? Not sure why there would be any diodes in there. And if you do mean the caps they are not polarity sensitive (doesn't matter which way they go). If you want to post a schematic I am happy to check it out for you. Even if you just draw a picture of how you connected it.
Cheers

Agree with Lawry....unless you are building a bomb and not a guitar?