First guitar build - Strat

Hi,

I've started to learn to play the acoustic guitar with my almost 9 year son. Both having lessons from different teachers. He found a book at the library about building your own electric guitar, and hasn't been able to put it down for the last few weeks. So I did a quick google search and found Pit Bull and well here I am. A project for both of us to work on and if it all comes together we'll do a 3/4 Strat for him for his birthday.

Kit arrived during the week and all appears to be there. I've built re/built a number of things from motorbikes, remote-controlled planes to furniture. So this is a new challenge to throw into the mix.

The colour scheme for the guitar will be strawberry red for the body, chrome hardware, white pick guard and keeping the neck natural in colour. So with that in mind, my plan of attack is as follows:

1. Dry build the kit - ie put all the hardware in place, neck bridge etc before painting so I have all the holes drilled prior to painting
2. Disassemble the guitar and sand
3. Paint the body and varnish the neck
4. Once dry, re-assemble and do setup

Being new to guitar builds, happy to take any hints, tips, advice from the more experienced members.

Well I'll post again soon when I have some progress to show.

Cheers

Greg

If you wet sand over drill holes it may swell the wood. I am building a 3/4 for my daughter and it's also my first build.

sounds like a fair plan. give your finishes plenty of time to cure and it should go well

Greg - for a first build, especially if you're not familiar with sprays, stains and wipe on finishes come out great and are easy to apply. DingoTone is a local (to WA) product made by our own DingoBass and he's put a lot of care into ensuring that it doesn't have any chemical nasties in it - especially for when there are father / son / daughter builds. Certainly worth a look and they come up a treat.

Thanks Guy's.

I'll be using 2-pac for the body - don't plan on wet sanding the wood. I've sprayed a number of things with this before - large RC planes, motorbike fuel tanks etc, so pretty comfortable with the spraying part. I've got some clear dingoTone coming for the neck, which ironically is the bit that I'm more concerned about.

Dry assembled everything today, came up pretty well. had to make a shim to get the neck incidence right - a piece of 1mm ply has worked a treat. Had one casualty during the disassembly though, one of the machine head screws snapped off ... I'd drilled pilot holes for all of them as well.

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The only thing that I don't know what is/where they go are the keepers shown below. I'm guessing they might be for the pick-up wires? Hope someone can point me in the right direction with these.

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Now that everything is disassembled again, the job for next weekend is sanding, some more sanding and then some more sanding to be on the safe side ...

I've managed to "fix" the broken machine head screw from the dry assembly. I did a bit of googling to see how people have removed them and came across the StewMac method of removing, cutting then adding a plug. Figured $90 bucks was a bit more then I wanted to pay for hopefully a 1 off error. More googling, came across a thread about using a piece of brass tube the same diameter or just smaller than the screw. Sharpen the end and gently turn it counter clockwise over the screw and viola it extracts the screw.

Sounds perfect, I've got plenty of small brass tube from my RC plane modelling. Unfortunately my closest match is a little bit larger. So plan B, use it like the StewMac tool to remove the screw, drill out hole to 1/4 inch to accept a tassie oak dowel - tassie oak was all I had and initially looked to be a good colour match.

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There's the brass tube with the offending screw inside and the drilled out hole with the tassie oak plug. Luckily the machine head mostly covers up the dodgy repair.

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Once the glue dries, I will drill a new pilot hole and off we go again.

Sorry guys, just discovered that the photos I uploaded yesterday didn't work. Hopefully I've got that sorted now.

Hi Greg,
the parts you are unsure of are string retaining trees, they go on D, G, B, E strings. Shorter bush goes on B & E strings and longer bush on D & G strings. Mount them about half way between nut and tuning pegs
See photo attached

Fantastic! Thanks for that.

Bent silver thing would be solder - chuck it out and get some good stuff from Altronics / Jaycar / or something like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brendan

Bent silver thing would be solder - chuck it out and get some good stuff from Altronics / Jaycar / or something like that.

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I don't why this made me laugh so much!

Over the last few weeks I've been working on the body preparing for the top coat. First time round, thought I had sanded it well enough, but when I sprayed on the undercoat the grain shone through like nothing else. Before I sanded it back, decided to spray on some high build filler to try to fill the grain.

Dry sanded the whole thing back to mostly bare wood. idea was that between the undercoat and the filler I would end up with a nice smooth surface.

Photo's below are post sanding back the first round undercoat and filler.
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Thought I had it all sussed, surface was as smooth as a baby's bum. Sprayed on undercoat and surface looked good.

Let it sit for a week, then went to spray on top coat today. Grain is once again showing through. Gave the undercoat a heavier sand than normal before top coat, but not through the undercoat to try and level some of the grain. Put on the top coat and predictably, the grain is showing through. Not happy with the finish, the grain is upsetting what would otherwise be a good finish. Thinking that once the two pac has cured this week, I will sand it partially back next weekend and re-coat to try to get rid of the grain.

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Meanwhile I've been working on the neck in between the body drama. I'm using clear dingo tone for the neck - so far I've done the clear stain and the first coat of the top coat. Gotta admit it looks and feels pretty good. I'm impressed with the silky feel that the neck has got already, so another couple of top coats and it should be really good.

Photo below is of the neck fine sanded and masked prior to stain coat.

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Hey StratoDoyle, last year I built myself a Strat with similar colour scheme but with a stain instead of a spray, and to be perfectly honest, it came out better than I originally thought! Bit late now, but give some Dingotone colours a shot, you will be surprised at how easy it is to do!

you could try timbermate thinned out with water as a grainfiller, lots do it here, and sand that back for a super smooth finish, then under coat and colour.
I've noticed that Gibson lets the grain show through on some of their matte finish guitars...

Thanks Stan, I'll definitely try the Timbermate next time. Now that the 2pac has finished levelling and hardened overnight, it looks ok, just "grainy". Still deciding if I'll sand and re-spray ...
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I personally like the grain look. Makes it feel like there's some wood hiding under there.

I actually like it Strato, I dont think it detracts at all, but you have to live with it, all the best with that decision: 2 pac will be fun to sand...

Stan, the 2k wasn't that bad to sand. Once you cut through the gloss it is pretty much the same as any other paint. Bit of sanding to end up with a 3 tone finish - red, undercoat and the occasional spot of bare timber and the grain had disappeared. I used some CA glue (essentially super glue) to seal the grain on the patches that I'd rubbed through. A trick I picked up elsewhere. Smooth the CA out with your finger.
The CA absorbs into the grain a little and stops it swelling, fluffing up etc. Another light sand to smooth out the CA spots, quick undercoat and it was ready to patin again.
2 top coats yesterday and I'm happy with the finish now. Just need to let it fully cure during the week and for the 3rd coat of DingoStain to cure on the neck and should be in business for assembly next weekend.

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great tip there Strato, and it's looking great too!

Well started the final assembly last night. Putting the Copper shielding in the cavities.

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I may have got a little carried away with myself and shielded the back cavity as well. Hmm read that back and it sounds a little dubious ...

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In any case, as you can see from the photos above, the er, well it is shielded now in any case. I hope.

Spent some time this afternoon putting the strings on and setting it up. Had to loosen the nut just a little to get a slight concave shape to the neck. Setting it up according to the way they recommend in "How to Build Electric Guitars". Straight forward enough. Adjusted the bridge heights to get the right clearance and shape. Then got the intonation sorted after a lot of fiddling. Then there she is.

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After I plugged in to my little 10W VOX Amp, and had a little strum my son thought i was a "rocking star". At least my son thinks so anyway.

Gotta say, pretty happy with the result. Not that I can play an electric guitar, but it all sounds pretty good to me. At this stage, no buzzing of any kind. My cavities appear to be shielded ...

Thats come up a treat.
No dramas with shielding the rear cavity..... That always sounds slightly wrong......
The upshot is at least you know you have a really good grounding on the bridge.

Good job this has come together nicely, how satisfying is it when you plug in your first build and it works!

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Ahh . . . the old kitchen table operation . . . this time a huge success.
Hard to credit it's a firsty. I do like that intense colour and the finish looks so smoooooth.