My hardtail strat build

This is my latest Non-PB build. Just finished it yesterday after starting approximately 74 days ago.
It was a strat body routed for a vibrato that I block filled with Tasmanian Oak and drilled as a hardtail. In the right (or wrong?) light the block is slightly visible but not too obvious. I'm happy with it overall.

This build had a couple of detours along the way, but each challenge was a good learning opportunity. The finish job on this one was my first time spraying with a gun (kudos to those members that offered me advice when I was shopping for spray gear a while back). The finish isn't perfect but it's more than okay and a big improvement over my previous rattle can finishes.

Here's the specs/details:
Mahogany body finished with Holden "Poison Ivy" and clear coated (both Dulon Ac/Lac)
Realtone hardtail bridge with s/steel block saddles
Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups
Fender 5-way switch - standard wiring
Alpha pots with Gibson-style knurled speed knobs
Switchcraft input jack
Maple/Maple neck (stained with custom blended analine dyes)
12" radius (re-radiused from 14")
Re-fretted with medium jumbo fretwire
Jin-Ho tuners
Bone nut

Attachment 31553 Attachment 31554 Attachment 31555

Oh... and it plays and sounds GREAT! One of my best playing builds to date.

Love it! Looks sensational mate

Thanks BD!

That looks awesome

It does look really good mate, well done.


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Love that colour. That's the colour I've got for my pitbull TL kit. Just waiting for some warmer weather to spray.

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Originally Posted by Woltz

Love that colour. That's the colour I've got for my pitbull TL kit. Just waiting for some warmer weather to spray.

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Yep, Holden 746S. The first time I saw a Commodore in that colour, I said "That would look great on a guitar!"

And yeah, waiting for warmer weather in Canberra... could be a while ;)
I was lucky, we had a spate of 25-27 degree days at the end of May, so I shot it then.

Also, thanks for the other comments guys!

Well done, sir!
I must say, I especially love the neck color.

I am in the process of building a hard tail strat myself.
I have planned on mixing analine dyes as well.
Do you recall the recipe for that color?

I was thinking mostly yellow, I bit of red to bring in some orange flavor and perhaps a touch brown to settle down the vibrancy a bit.
I have no idea in the ratios just yet.
A ballpark could save me a lot of time finding the right color.
Your neck, friend, looks like the right color.

Congrats on the build.

Nicely done! Love how there is just a tinge of natural wood coming through.

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Originally Posted by FunkedOut

Well done, sir!
I must say, I especially love the neck color.

I am in the process of building a hard tail strat myself.
I have planned on mixing analine dyes as well.
Do you recall the recipe for that color?

I was thinking mostly yellow, I bit of red to bring in some orange flavor and perhaps a touch brown to settle down the vibrancy a bit.
I have no idea in the ratios just yet.
A ballpark could save me a lot of time finding the right color.
Your neck, friend, looks like the right color.

Congrats on the build.

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I do have the recipe written down in the shop. I'll retrieve later and post it back here. And thank you for the compliments!

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Nicely done! Love how there is just a tinge of natural wood coming through.

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Thanks Brendan. As is the case with dyes sometimes, there was a bit of unevenness, but I didn't mind on this neck. I reckoned it just gave it more of a unique character.

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Originally Posted by McCreed

This is my latest Non-PB build. Just finished it yesterday after starting approximately 74 days ago.

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Excellent result. I know how hard it is to conceal a blocked up tremolo rout.

Envy how you have accomplished the string holes.

FWIW I got a similar neck colour using good 'ol FW Golden Teak.

I used it on my version of the 'hardtail' strat.

Attachment 31575

cheers, Mark.

That's nice Mark!
Yes, neck colour is very close. The FW probably would have been easier than repeatedly mixing and testing my dyes, but it seems I rarely do things the easy way! :rolleyes:

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Do you recall the recipe for that color?

I was thinking mostly yellow, I bit of red to bring in some orange flavor and perhaps a touch brown to settle down the vibrancy a bit.
I have no idea in the ratios just yet.

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Ok, I checked my notes and they're not as straightforward as I thought.
I used a combination of Basic Yellow as a base (powder and alcohol) and mixed in a bit of Angelus "Brandy" (premixed liquid). I have no idea what goes into making the Brandy colour, and to top it off, at some point I did a couple coats of just heavily diluted Brandy.

So, sorry, not much help.

However I can tell you a couple of observations I made during the process.
One, it doesn't take a lot yellow powder to alcohol to get an effective yellow dye solution. Two, if adding red, it takes just a ridiculously small amount to turn it VERY ORANGE.
Actually, I would just try yellow with a smidge of brown first. That might be all you need. FWIW, the Brandy I have is quite brown on its own on a test piece of pine.

Unfortunately I think there'll be some experimentation required no matter what you do.
Maybe a Golden Teak stain as Casey mentioned earlier would save a bit of mucking around.

Good luck. Post some pics when you get going!

Thanks for taking the time to look that up and post it.
I have been posting pics of my progress:
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ead.php?t=9642

I’m just about getting to the part about the colors.
I’ll share what I come up with.

Back to your axe, enjoy the fruit of your labor!