Printable View
Hey all. Thought I would start my build thread for my first time build. Went with the STA-1 kit as a birthday present. So here goes.
Attachment 380
A box arrived ... what's inside???
Attachment 381
That's what is inside
Attachment 382
Nice Ash body
Attachment 383
Weird grain on the right
Attachment 384
With it's top off - not suitable for minors
Attachment 385
The headstock with quick mock up
Attachment 386
mock build from this end
Attachment 387
and the other end - badly focused
I opened some threads and spoke to the fine people here about some ideas on modification.
I thought the forearm shaping was too short and steep. I would extend it as per this pic
Attachment 388
Attachment 389
and the thickness of the edge could be reduced as well to about here.
Attachment 390
And while I am at it, this backside shaping could do with some extension as well
So lets get to it.
Attachment 391
Clamp her down.
Attachment 392
Attack with the rasp
Attachment 393
Check the edge to see if I have taken enough off
Attachment 394
Drop the scratch plate into place to check
Attachment 395
Go at it with the orbital sander to remove most of the rasp detritus.
Awesome! Great pics.
Off to a great start. First build & hopping into the woodwork straight off the bat.
I do enjoy watching customised kits develop. Keep at it . . .
Niiiiiice. What's the rest of the plan?
extended elbow cut looks great Scoop, plus it would have lost a bit of weight too after you enlarge the tummy cut.
Looks like you scored some nice ash grain !
Thanks guys. I have done more since I took those photos, so more to come. I am still in the sanding phase.
The plan is a natural finish on the body. For the neck I bought the "Acacia" finish, but I would like to get it to more of an "vintage amber" colour. Not sure if I will need to add something to the Acacia yellow (some drops of the new Brown or maybe the outback sunset?) or it just means more layers. I don't have any scrap maple to test on unfortunately.
something like this -
http://www.themusiczoo.com/images/4-...Z9544775_c.jpg
good stuff Scoop,
think if you put enough coats of acacia (I've not seen or tested this stain yet) you should get a deep enough yellow. You may find that the stain may go a bit darker after a few days curing time as the oils cure.
See how you go after a few coats. Nice looking image !
nice job with the shaping Scoop!
So lets flip that body over and expand that cutaway
Attachment 427
Before
Attachment 426
After
Attachment 425
And another after
And after hand sanding at 180 and 220 all the sharper lines have gone away
Attachment 430
Attachment 429
Attachment 428
on the backside all is looking good
Attachment 433
from the front
Attachment 432
from the back
Attachment 431
closer up
Attachment 434
there are these little marks here right between the rings. Pretty tiny, so I am not so worried. I have sanded past any rasp marks, so I think maybe I have been a bit heavy with the sand paper and those really soft bits between the rings have just "chipped" out. We'll see how we go with the finer sandpaper.
Lets get on to the headstock
Attachment 437
design drawn - nothing too original, but I have plans. Oh yes people ... I have plans. Mwahahaha
Attachment 436
checking it out - yep. Lets grab that jigsaw.
Attachment 435
Oh no. oh no. Vibration was horrible. Kept jumping out of the cheap-ass Workmate knockoff. I may have to invest in a coping saw for Build Two when that comes around.
Attachment 439
Actually this looks bad, but with the plans that I have (yes, those plans) I don't think this will be an issue
Attachment 438
But dear baby Jesus it looks so horrible at this stage.
so first things first lets grab the orbital and sort some shit out
Attachment 446
cleaned up nicely
Attachment 447
yep - saved. Now is the time to EMPLOY THE PLAN!!!!!
Attachment 448
grab the file and ...
Attachment 445
round that sucka - I have never seen that before so I am claiming it as mine
Attachment 450
still a couple of small flat spots that need to be sorted. Not a big deal.
Attachment 451
and the backside got the same treatment obviously
Attachment 452
just a little kink in the curve in front of the 5th hole.
So this is where I am up to now. Whats ahead immediately is much neck sanding and body sanding before I get to the staining stage.
Hey ScoopD, this is one of the most comprehensive build diaries I've seen, keep it up with the excellent pictures.
And I really like the rounded headstock... you should patent that!
Yes I think you can claim the rounded headstock as a first, never seen this before and looks fantastic!
I think Scoop must be related to Wierdy? I sense a kindred spirit of immense detail here! So looking forward to seeing this project develop!
Possibly Gav - we are both Scott behind out nicknames :) I have a long way to go to get up to his level, but aim for the stars and you might end up on the moon ... or something like that.
well done Scoop, this is a comprehensive diary, that rounded headstock is a wicked idea, I'll be trying that next time !!
If you are one quarter as good at electronics/wiring as Weirdy you are laughing !
Been a bit waylaid in my build by work, children, wife ... basically life getting in the way. Damn you life! ;)
Anyway, since my last posts I have sanded, sanded, sanded and sanded. After that I did some sanding and then for a change I tried some sanding. Being my debut build I have been following along the "How to build" thread - http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=1895 and had purchased the sanding kit from Pitbull which has taken me down to 400 grit. I must say that the head stock feels so smooth I may be making some room in the bed for it! LOL
Taped up my fret board and finally got to the staining stage.
Full neck shots - neck done in dingotone Acacia which has turned out to be a nice orangy yellow, not a yellow yellow. We'll see when it dries if it changes colour.
Attachment 697
Attachment 696
Here are some close ups of the headstock. I should probably start using a real camera rather than my iPad to take these photos.
Attachment 698
Attachment 699
you can still see the shine from the wet stain near the machine head holes.
Attachment 700
looking excellent Scoop, keep up the good work !
Using the Dingotone Natural finish on the body
Attachment 703
Attachment 702
bit of a close up around the modified elbow shaping
Attachment 701
I really like the soft lines on that headstock.
Nice going man
Looking great Scoop! Interested to see how thenatural finish develops. I'm thinking that grain is gonna pop!
cheers,
Gav.
Scoop you did a great job on the headstock.
So there have been delays and procrastinations aplenty. There has been the passing of a dog. There has been holidays away and there has been difficulty getting Decal paper. There has been tooling up for the next couple of stages. All of that means that not much happened for a while.
So, first off - an intensifying coat for the body And I am happy that there is enough intensity with the one coat. I want to keep the Blonde of the Ash as much as possible.
This is the one that scared me. I watched so many different videos on this. Once I got the fret rocker and went over the fret board I found so many frets were not level. Never very much in it and who knows if this would have made a significant difference, but if I am doing this, then I am going all the way.
The board all taped and marked where the frets are high - you can see the marker is everywhere.
Attachment 2690
After sanding. Videos have told me to sand till there is at least a thin line through the marker pen
Attachment 2691
This is the first fret. You can see how much was taken off on the far side to get the near side to just be done.
Attachment 2692
Covered the frets with marker pen again and got my new fret crowning file out. This time you go till a thin line of marker is left.
Attachment 2693
Taped up again to cover where the tape was damaged. Ran some fine grit wet and dry (in dry state) along the length of the board. Removed as much of the tool marks as possible and polished them up a bit. Then got out the dremel with a polishing bit and some polish compound to make them sparkle.
Attachment 2694
And the end result? Clean up with a rag and metho. Tape removed. Fretboard cleaned up to remove tape goop and then a quick lemon oil and rub down.
So I did the headstock decals as well. Two on the front and my name for this guitar on the back.
Unfortunately the Stratoscooper name piece folded over on itself at the end. I didn't notice till it was basically dry so I had to rip it off. I'll see if I can get another printed tomorrow
I would do a second intensifying coat. I found out the hard way that you may miss spots and not pick it up until a few weeks later as the colour darkens (which it will). a second pass will pick up any spots you have missed. Fortunately on my bass the missed spots tended to be where they would be obscured by hardware.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoopD
Great work on the neck - it's looking awesome. I also love the body colour. That intensifying coat has the ash looking beautiful! Great job on the frets as well. She is going to look and play like a dream at the end of all your careful ministrations. The STA kit is a beauty to play! Any plans for a new nut? That seems to be the only piece of awesomeness remaining :).
cheers,
Gav.
Thanks guys. The shots of the intensifying coat are from a couple of weeks ago. It is nice and even. I've moved on to final coats now. I've got a bone nut ready to drop in. I just needed to get the levelling done.
I had a number of issues with the top coat on the body. I have used the Dingotone Colourless finish and when I put the first coat of top coat on it dried to a tacky finish in about a day, but stayed tacky for weeks. After about four week I thought I must have put too much on so I rubbed it over with some copy paper first, but that did not get rid of it. I then tried some 800 wet and dry which clogged up quickly, but worked to get the tackyness away. The stuff coming off was actually balling up.
So I did another coat and tried to go as thin as I possibly could. Same thing happened again - dry to tacky in a day or two then stayed tacky. I left it for six weeks and gave up. 1200 wet and dry the second time. I then bought some beeswax furniture polish. Done!
Neck on.
Scratch plate on.
Bridge on.
Solder earth and plug.
Machine Heads on
Strings and string guides on.
Action and intonation set.
Here it is - The StratoScooper 001 - Blondie
Attachment 3672Attachment 3673Attachment 3674Attachment 3675Attachment 3676
Front and rear of the headstock. I managed to scratch off some of the "brand" name when I was buffing with steel wool.
Attachment 3677Attachment 3678Attachment 3679
I like the rounded headstock. How does it sound?
Just like a strat. Clean and clear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eljaroli