Black Strat project (My first build!)

Hi there!

George from Greece here.
My custom order of a STA-1M just arrived and i am so happy to start my first build! :D
The project is a black strat like Gilmours so the kit came with an alder body and black pickguard and mapple neck and fretboard.
I will post some photos later of a mock build.
I have decided to do the finish with rattle cans by myself and i've already found the products i'm going to use.

But as a newbie, i have tons of questions about finishing mostly.

Does alder needs grain filler?
Is sealing important or it can be skipped?
And much more questions to come...

Anyway, so glad to start my first build!!

good on you George, they are a great kit and I find that they sound pretty decent even with the stock pickups. Plenty of helpful people on the forum willing to offer advice, enjoy the build and take your time.

Thanks a lot D.K!
For starters i will keep the stock pickups. And i also think it will be ok.! The only thing i'm gonna do different from gilmours is to install black tuners instead of chrome. I think its going to look prettier with them!!

Hi George and welcome.

Here's my NOS CS DG Strat, so we've obviously got something in common!

Attachment 19135

Alder doesn't need grain filler as it's a closed-pore wood. If you've got any major knocks or dents in the body, then I'd fill those with a water-based wood filler, but otherwise no filling is required.

Sealing the body? Probably best if we knew what you planned to finish the body and neck with. If you plan on using a primer, then you won't need to seal it. You could just spray some clear lacquer on first before doing the black coats. At each stage you want to get the body finish as smooth as possible. Sanding sealer is mainly thinned lacquer (so that it penetrates the wood well) but often also has a filler material, which means you use less coats before it stops sinking in. On a clear finish guitar, this filler can mask some of the fine grain detail, so more coats of clear lacquer is best, but with a solid paint finish, that doesn't matter.

You won't need to seal the neck, just spray that with a couple of coats of amber-tinted lacquer followed by several clear coats. There's quite an orange tint to the neck, so you'll definitely need some amber tinted lacquer on it first.

I don't know what pickguard you've got, but it should be a single ply pickguard and it's pretty thick - about 3mm. It's certainly the thickest pickguard I've seen fitted to a Strat.

Obviously there's the mini-toggle switch that simply wires up the neck pickup so that its connected to the output of the 5-way selector switch, meaning that the neck pickup is always in circuit. When on, this makes no difference in neck only or neck + middle positions, but means that middle only becomes neck + middle, middle + bridge becomes neck + middle + bridge and bridge only becomes neck plus bridge.

It's this last setting that is very good and I use a lot. It's a very clean sound, not at all phasey like the other twin pickup positions, and doesn't have the bark bite of the bridge pickup on its own. The switch isn't held on by screws, so it must be stuck to the back of the pickguard.

The neck is quite shallow, and has quite a pronounced V-shape to it. I find it very comfortable indeed. So you might want to think about sanding the neck a bit to move away from the standard C profile.

Good luck with the build!

Hi Simon!
Thanks a lot for all your help!
She is beautiful mate!! Very very nice !!
So the products i'm going to use ate these:
Attachment 19136

And if i understood weel from your instructions, i don't have to grain fill and possibly even seal the body.
What products did you use on yours?

I've was using nitrocellulose spray cans to start with, then bought a compressor and mini-spray gun and am now spraying nitrocellulose from tins (it's a lot cheaper).

It's good you are using products from the same manufacturer. They look to be acrylic based finishes, which is fine. You just need to allow sufficient time for them to dry before sanding them down and polishing them. Acrylic dries from the top downwards, so the outer surface may seem hard, but it's often still soft underneath. Then when you come to sand, you can break through the hard layer and it all goes wrong. So you'll need patience and just be prepared to let things dry, At least you generally have the benefit of a warm climate without the high humidity that a lot of the Australians here get, which can slow drying times down a lot.

If you can't find an amber tinted spray in that range, then you can dye/stain the neck a light orange/yellow, then clear spray over that. Or you can simply leave the maple neck its original colour if you aren't going for a 100% copy. But the maple can look quite pale with nothing on it.

For sure i will go for the amber tinted laquer for the neck. It's just so beautiful.
I've just finished with the mock build and i realised i have some problems with my kit which i have to solve before i go on..

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And now the problems..
First and as it seems more easily fixed the jackplate isn't fitting correctly to the body.

Attachment 19141

And second and a little trickier is the neck pocket.. The neck can't be placed firmly and the pocket is a bit bigger than its should totaly..

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I think i should try to even things out a liitle bit before anyhting else to ensure the neck is properly fitting the pocket.

Other from these the body and neck are sanded nicely from the factory. No problem with glue or bumps or scraches or anything generaly.
The neck is checked and it is straight no bows at all and the frets are perfectly leveled. So nothing to be done there.

I just have to solve the two problems with the neck pocket and the jack plate.

Does the jack plate not fit in the socket? Sometimes it helps if you loosen the nut and twist the actual jack connections round on the plate as in some positions the tip connection can touch the body and keep it from fitting correctly. It's worth testing this with a jack plug installed as well, just so you get it so that it doesn't touch.

If you take the jack socket part off completely, does the plate sit in the cavity correctly or does it still sit proud? At worst, you may have to use a file and enlarge the cavity slightly, probably easier to do this at the thinner end (away from the jack input).

If you are going to lacquer the neck, then you will make the neck slightly thicker anyway, so it all depends on exactly how much of a gap there is. As there is a gap, (then although it's not normally done), you can always spray the sides of the neck pocket to add some thickness and reduce the gap. If it's sizeable, then people have got a bit of very thin maple veneer and stuck that on the edge of the pocket.

Hi George welcome mate from Greece jeppers

i don't know about that Simon, hes using an ash body and grain fill is very important as if hes using nitro of acrylic its going to shrink back and look a real mess even using the wood stop on it doesnt work that well, it will still shrink back, i am not up to speed on the Rustoleum i have the feeling it maybe enamel but don't quote me on that as its not really used here in Australia.

Theses days nitro is not used much as acrylic is similar imo better than nitro as it drys pretty hard easy to get a excellent shine but most manufacturers have gone the way of 2k which is about as good as it gets for a hard refinish, but its dangerous if you don't use it correctly( i just spent the last week getting cancers remove from my hands and arms which was caused by using isocyanate's with no protection) so i would try get away from them.

If your going to paint it black it will show every fault in the finish so go to a hobby shop and grab a bottle a ca glue and us it as the grain sealer works great sealing the grain, if your going the nitro or acrylic way use a primer filler 5 or 6 coats will be enough to get a super smooth base to start, the black i would only use 3 or 4 coats but would use 8 to 10 coats of clear you will need a good week before you do any polishing even leave it a couple of weeks is better the longer its left the harder the finish.

You could use enamel but its messy takes to long to re-coat and crap to polish, either way you will need to be on your a game with black. The neck you just need to sand it smooth and spray clear on it as Simon said

here is some of my strat builds may help you out have done a couple of black ones all sorts may help you out

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...ead.php?t=6790

have a look around here for a template
https://sites.google.com/site/guitar...les/fender-ish

I dont come on the forums much i just check out some new builds and keep up on updates on a few guys i keep up on there progress so i dont reply very often but Simon knows his stuff when setting them up

as for your neck get a bit of masking tape and stick it on side on the neck then put some filler (bondo car filler) on the tape and squeeze the neck in to the joint leave it to dry it will leave a nice fit that's what i do

George said it was an alder, not ash body (though the STA-1M should come with an ash body). It's difficult to tell from the photos as to me it could be either. But ash would certainly need grain filling, whilst alder wouldn't.

yeh i got a sta-1m its ash gave me nightmares when i grained filled it Simon doubt i use another ash body it was a real pain don't think pitbull do a alder do they ? ah well who cares lol the maple neck does look pretty nice on them thats why i got the ash

It is an alder body. It's a custom order with basis the STA-1M.
Simon i fixed the jack plate just like you said. I just set the screws right and its ok.
phrozin thanks a lot for the advice! And for the links you shared!

Now as for the neck pocket i will fix it with a liitle veneer piece glued to the side.
Not that much of a problem at all. I just want the neck to sit as good as possible at the pocket because i think the better the fitting the better sustain and tone you will get.

I've already made some sanding today both neck and body to soften some factory imperfections.
And if i find the correct template i will do the cutting of the headstock today also.

I love strats and I love your build George. Can wait to see it unfold.:cool:

Hi Andy!
Strats are beautiful but when i saw Gimours, man she is perfect..!
I cut the headstock today and its prety good. Tomorrow i will finish sanding it and i will post some photos of my progress.
I couldnt imagine that building a guitar was so fun!!
Now i am searching the market for some upgrades i want to do.
First of all i want to install a bone nut.
I want to buy the spring for the tremolo arm which was not included in the kit.
And i want to find some better tuners and i think i'm going to use black ones.
I'm also thinking to change the bridge but i might leave it for later as it looks prety much ok.

G'day & welcome George,

The neck pocket on my STA1 was slightly loose so I used some of the PB copper shielding tape to line the sides, now a firm fit

You'll certainly want some white pickup covers and control knobs. I believe the Pitbull kit pickups have the narrower pole-piece spacings that most of the Asian made guitars have, so don't get ones designed for US made pickups.

Simon for starters i will leave the black covers as is. When i will do the final assembly and can listen to the pickups i will decide. If the pickups sound ok i will only change the covers. If i dont like the sound i will get new ones. As for the knobs i've already bought new ones! I'm also thinking if i'm gonna shorten the tremolo arm.. I don't know if it is comfortable for pkaying.

Mine came with a short tremolo arm and it's pretty hard to use as you need to provide around double the force on it with your hand. A two-spring trem setup might be easier (I'm using three).

Ok. So this is a mod i will do after testing the existing arm.
Simon how did you painted the fretboard with the amber tint laquer nad the clear? Did you tape the frets or you just cleaned them after the paint job?

On the all-maple necks I've done I've just scraped the frets after spraying them. I've seen people suggesting making a scraper from a nail with a large round head, and using a round needle file to make a fret-shaped notch in it. I'd recommend masking off the fretboard before scraping or sanding the finish off, as it's very easy to scratch the finish. To make any scraping easier, don't leave it too long after spraying before scraping. You need to leave enough time for the finish to dry before masking, but ideally don't leave it more than a day otherwise the lacquer gets harder to remove.

But other people here have masked off the frets before spraying. Companies like Fender will certainly scrape afterwards, as it takes a lot longer to mask the frets than to scrape them.

Simon and everybody thanks a lot for the help and the advices!
I am only one day in the forum and the information i got are much more than i could ever imagine!!:D

Thank you all!

I am going to the local shop to get some more snading papper (couldn't imagine i needed so much.. !), masking tapes and when i'll come back i will finish the headstock and fix the pocket issue. I'll post some pics then.
Hopefully tomorrow i can start with the body finish and spray the primer.

Ok. So I cut the headstock and sand it perfect. I fixed the neck pocket issue with a little piece of maple. And i've sanded the hole guitar down to 400 grid.
I think tomorrow i will start with the primer!! :cool:

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Now the neck fits exactly the neck hole from every side and the neck can be supported from the body with no screws.!

You're certainly very enthusiastic over your build! Nice headstock shape. And glad you've now got a nice tight neck joint.

Welcome George. Enjoy the build.

Welcome George, very nice work so far.

Headstock looks good!

Hello again!
So no primer for me today. It's a bad day for painting today in greece (too much wind) and since i've got an open garage i left it for today and decided to do some more sanding as the pro's said (sand sand and then sand some more). Which actually helped a lot!
So before start sanding again today, i used a damped cloth first in the body to help me see any missed spots. And i saw one spot that i though i've done right but it turns out i missed it.

Attachment 19174

This is from the back of the body and it's a joint with a glue stain. I've sanded it yesterday and seemed ok. But today with the damped cloth i reallised there was a lilltle bump you could feel by hand. So more sandingthere with 320 grid. Now the bump is gone and it's smooth.

But it seems like there is some glue left there. Can't feel it by touching but it's there. And it seems like it's a bit deep inside.

Will this glue give me any issues when start finishing or after the primer i'll be ok??

The glue spots are only an issue when staining or doing clear finishes. For a painted finish, they aren't going to affect anything.

Ok! Nice to hear that! Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and i can start with the primer.
How many coats should i do? I was thinking about 2 or 3 coats with 30 mins appart. And then let the primer dry for at least a day.
The instructoins say 24 hours hard dry. I'm thinking to leave it to dry for 2 days and then sand it to prepare it for the color coat.
Any instructions about these??

Hi George, welcome to the forum.

That glue spot should not be an issue as it will be under many layers of primer, solid black, and then many more clear coats. Glue spots are a drama when staining the guitar as the affected part will not absorb stain.

With the fretboard I have finished a couple maple ones and on the first one I used no masking and bought some metal fret polishing guides on eBay which are ok but you can still easily end up scratching the surface when polishing the frets with steel wool. Better alternative is to cut out a section from a plastic ice cream container that is wide enough to cover fret board either side of the 1st fret and cut a slot in the middle to allow the fret to protrude on it's own. This will provide better protection when it comes time to polish the lacquer off the frets.

Good luck with the build and will be keen to see how it all comes together.

Cheers, Waz

I'd go with Phrozin's guidelines for solid colours as he's been a professional car paint sprayer and really knows his stuff (also see how good his finished guitars look). Here's where he gives advice for spraying with rattle cans.
http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...l=1#post129444

Nice tip for fret polishing there waz! Thnaks for sharing!
I'm ready to start with the body finishing and i'm trying to figure out a general pln for the whole process (primer,color,clear).
And so far i've come to this:
Spray 2 - 3 coats of primer 30 min appart.
Let it dry for 2 days.
Sand it flat.
Clean it.
Spray 2 - 3 coats of color.
Let it dry for....... ??? Thats a point where everyone has another story... Instructions say 24 hours hard dry.. So 3 days just to be on the safe side is ok????
Then does the color coat need sanding before clear coating?? Some sand it some others don't...
And then i have to apply 2 - 3 clear coats with 30 min apart.
And let it dry for....??? Again istructions say 24 hours hard dry.. So 3 days again will be ok??
And last but not least, after i've finished with the clear, do i have to do polishing or i can leave it as it is??
Is polishing worth it or i may screw up??

Thats a lot of questions i know but i have to make a plan for finishing and have all these answers before starting so i won't have any unpleasant surprices..!

Seems like you got me Simon! I'll go through them and if i have any more questions i'll come back!
Thanks a lot!!

Hi mates!
So today is a windy day again in Greece so no painting is gonna happen today.
I've masked the cavities of the body and i'm trying to find out how to hang the guitar for the painting process.
I've seen the hanging method with the thick wire but i doesn't look so good to me.
I'm trying to think how to make a DIY hanger tha can hang the guitar horizontaly (parallel to the ground) and maybe a way to rotate the body while painting.

Attachment 19209

Something like this..
Does anyone have a tip to share??
How did you do the paint job??

Hi George, if the guitar has a hole for jack plate I generally put a dowel in there impale it that way, then do the neck on the bent wire system. If no jack socket I do what you have pictured with a fake neck. I have a small vice mounted on a short plank that I can clamp to a table, fence post or anything other handy place and hold the dowel or fake neck.

I normally just hang on wire through one of the neck holes, on a strat this area is covered with a plate in the end anyway. When I did my blue strat you couldn't even notice any marks before the plate went on.

I bought a wooden 'lazy susan' turntable (not sure what you'd call them in Greece) like this one from Ikea http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/t...-art-90074483/ , then put a bit of cloth on it. You can only paint one side of the guitar at a time, but you can do the sides as well. and they always benefit from a bit of extra paint and it's easier to sand-through on the curved edges, and the top edge gets the most wear from your arm once you start playing it.

In reality, if you simply put a bit of cloth on the bench that's smaller than the body, then the body will happily rotate on the cloth if you pull on the body.

Certainly painting it flat produces less runs, but you can hang the body up and do it both sides if you're careful. Just don't hang it up too high or you won't be able to spray the top edges around the neck pocket properly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by George Koleventis

Nice tip for fret polishing there waz! Thnaks for sharing!
I'm ready to start with the body finishing and i'm trying to figure out a general pln for the whole process (primer,color,clear).
And so far i've come to this:
Spray 2 - 3 coats of primer 30 min appart.
Let it dry for 2 days.
Sand it flat.
Clean it.
Spray 2 - 3 coats of color.
Let it dry for....... ??? Thats a point where everyone has another story... Instructions say 24 hours hard dry.. So 3 days just to be on the safe side is ok????
Then does the color coat need sanding before clear coating?? Some sand it some others don't...
And then i have to apply 2 - 3 clear coats with 30 min apart.
And let it dry for....??? Again istructions say 24 hours hard dry.. So 3 days again will be ok??
And last but not least, after i've finished with the clear, do i have to do polishing or i can leave it as it is??
Is polishing worth it or i may screw up??

Thats a lot of questions i know but i have to make a plan for finishing and have all these answers before starting so i won't have any unpleasant surprices..!

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Humm interesting choice, really don't think that's going to work that good, you will probably sand through each process if you go that way. sounds like your going to be using enamel, if so you will need 24 hours between coats and is a messy process to work with. if your going to be using acrylic it needs a lot longer to cure and a lot more coats. If you go by your post you will probably end up with a pretty ordinary looking body and have a few dramas along the way, what you posted is all wrong there's just not enough coats to allow for sanding and final sanding and polishing acrylic can look amazing but its needs a fair bit of work and on wood there are a few things that you just haft to do whether or not you want to

you can go here a few i have put in a folder to look at may help with your decision on paint choice

http://s587.photobucket.com/user/phr...he%20lot/story