Olympic White Strat is what it should look like...

OK, so on Monday (29th June) I received my luscious package of a STA-1M. I also got 2 sets of strings, one packaged as PitBulls and the other as loose stainless steels. Bonus.:D I have done a rough build today and gone through everything in the box. There is a bit of a gap at the bottom of the neck where it meets the body. Other than that, everything seems to be great. I am going to put a bit of white coloured TimberMate all over it, as I have read that Ash can soak a bit of the colour prior to painting. The sanding paper I'm going to use is 400, 600, then maybe 1200. It will depend on how impatient I get. :p

Hi nDR, welcome to the forum. Don't worry too much about a small gap in the neck pocket will be covered by the pickguard.
You get 2 sets of strings the unpackaged ones are for setting up the guitar.
Timbermate goes well on ash bodies.
Will the Olympic white be semi translucent ?
No need to sand over 400 grit or the grain won't have enough tooth to take the stain. Start on about 180 grit and work through the grits after you put the timbermate on.
Or if this is solid paint disregard the grit comments

Thanks for the welcome. I appreciate that.
Yeah, I wanted it to be a solid colour white. So - just to check with you - you think I should go with 400 grit as per my plan? The guitar body as it is, is reasonably smooth. What about doing a 'quick once over' sand with the 400 grit, then TimberMate, sand again (600?) then apply the spray primer (after which I can sand some more... :p)? Apparently (according to Dingo Bass in the papers I got) - sand, sand, sand, and sand some more is they key.

Hi nDR,
I edited my comments and said disregard if painting a solid colour. Your plan sounds fine work through the higher grits up to 1200 grit once the colour is on and even higher grits if needed

Here is my solid colour process:
Personally I would sand 120, 240, 400. Then fill with Timbermate and continue to sand 600, 800.
After a couple of primer coats you can give it a quick wet sand with 1200. After a couple of colour coats you can do the same. Personally I dont sand the colour coats too much, as there's always a chance of sand-through. I prefer to add more lacquer and sand that instead. Once the colour is full (you dont need many coats) on with the lacquer. After the all-but-two coats you can flatten the lacquer with 600 grit to remove any high and low spots - dont sand through! Then 2 more coats of lacquer. Let it fully cure (ie. until the lacquer smell is gone completely) and then wet sand with 1500 and 2000. Then apply compounds for a full shine.

cheers,
Gav.

Thanks Gav. That's kinda sorta the same thing I was thinking in the long run of things. I had a quick look at your blue and gold Strat and how you arrived there. Very impressive.

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So here are some progress shots of both the front and back. I know I started out wanting a solid white, but then, the aged look sort of grew on me. I guess we'll see how it all turns out. While I'm doing this I'm also wiring up the pickups. I will post some shots of that too.

looking good, is it more of an antique white?

So far. Although you could also say it's semi-antiqued with the way it looks atm. The wood grain showing through in places is growing on me. The timbermate and duplicolor primer are "white". I have a custom Colour Spec can from supercheap auto that is "Winter White" which is as close to "Olympic White" as I could get.

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Here isthe pickguard I've gone with. It's a Brian May set up (in/out phase etc). Plus I also have the Entwistle Neodymium pickups. Lord, I hope I wired that up correctly. It took me 2 days. I'm not that great at soldering. I probably should have started off with something more straightforward. But hey, I've always been more of a fan of being thrown in the deep end first.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nDR01d

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I've always been more of a fan of being thrown in the deep end first.

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Great philosophy man, it'll work out fine I guarantee.

Hey nDR01d,
Did you do the switch mods yourself?

No way! I bought a kit from Guitar Fetish. http://www.guitarfetish.com/BHM-Styl...its_c_226.html Even so, there were instructions in the build that had me scratching my head. The worst bit is waiting for the paint to dry on the body so I still don't even know if it all works yet! I guess if you know your way around a 40 Watt soldering iron it shouldn't be that hard; and the bits in the kit seem to be pretty good quality.

Shouldn't be too bad to troubleshoot anyway. :)

Yeah, have confidence! You did a fine job, and if a gremlin messes with you there is plenty of help waiting here to sort it all out!

nice neat job on the electronics

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The last coat of paint went on today. 5 coats and the can is empty! Next, acrylic lacquer x 3 cans. Well, that's my estimate. I can still see some timber lines and some nasty paint drips near the neck pockets. I don't mind the timber lines and there's nothing some wet sanding of lacquer can't fix to get rid of the paint stuff ups... But all in all, for my first paint job, I'm super happy. :cool:

Paint job is looking great. A little wet sanding of the drips could get rid of them pre-lacquer? Either way she's gonna look really cool with some laquer!

cheers,
Gav.

Attachment 4239 OK, here's my head stock design. I'd like to give a major thanks to my good friend Tom at THDesigns for sitting down with me and coming up with this. This pic was a pdf so the conversion mucked up the text a bit, but I think you can definitely tell it's a swans head. I've called myself "Red Swan Guitars" - 'Red Swan' being an anagram of 'Andrews Guitars' as Andrew is my name. :cool:

nice headstock design Andrew, so will it have a cover to make the swan shape or will that be defined with paint ?
I wondered who Red Swan Guitars were liked 4D Guitars lately.
Also just caught up with the wiring/pup mods looks way cool. I haven't seen the out of phase switching on all 3 pups done on the forum

Yep, thats me :) As for the top, it's going to be blacked out. I'd like to go with a laser etch style but a brand with hot metal is probably the method at this stage - because I know how to do that and I don't have that much $$ for laser etching!

nice personal touches Andrew, love the Red Swan idea

Attachment 4256Attachment 4257 Here's the end of my late nights researching the best way to burn a maple headstock with some degree of accuracy. What I ended up doing was transferring the design onto baking paper (next best thing to tracing paper) with a Sharpie and then transferred that onto a sheet of flattened corrugated iron. I then used tin snips to cut around it, filed away sharp pointy bits and I was done. All I then did was use the lowest setting on a creme brulee burner (mmm...creme brulee) to blacken the headstock. Here's something I did learn whilst practicing on pine before moving to the maple - pine burns much faster. Next up, rubbing Dingo's stuff all over it.

looks good Andrew, so the iron protected the rest of the headstock while you burned the swan shape ? clever idea!

That's exactly right Wokka. Here is a pic of it.Attachment 4258

nice one Andrew, you may be able to use the template on future builds

Attachment 4366Attachment 4365 Here are the last two photos of my guitar until September. I've sprayed on two cans of acrylic lacquer and now I just wait till it cures. In the mean time I'm deciding between saving for a left handed Strat, a JK-1, or the Rick 330 that's on sale. Decisions, decisions.

looking nice and white Andrew, how come the wait till September, you away or funds ?

No, I just thought acrylic lacquers took that long to cure. What's the general consensus on curing times?

3-4 weeks dude. I've been told to go by smell. As soon as all traces of smell have gone, you're good.

OK, thanks to much help from the usual suspects on this forum I have made it to almost near finished. See photos attached. TBH, my first guitar was not supposed to be reliced. But, I kinda sanded through to wood. Twice. So I ran with it and ta da! I put a few coats of linseed oil over the wood to protect it. I think she looks pretty. It's what I would imagine a guitar love child would look like between Hendrix's White Strat and Brian Mays Red Special. Also, she's not finished yet. I still have to figure out what wrong with the electronics, then intonate etc. Maybe she'll be eligible for GOTM in November?... ;) Attachment 5643Attachment 5644

come up good NDroid, sometimes plans change and what the heck it's a relic.
Sure enter it in November GOTM.
You modified the pups hey so could be a stray wire touching a lug or check the output jack you have the hot wire and earth to the right lugs on the jack.
Also check the connections on the switch. It only takes one stray wire to earth another pickup

Nice relic job nDR01d! I don't normally like the 'fake' relic look but this has come up a treat. Looks like it's been smashed and gigged about for years!