DrNomis_44's Gold Standard STA-1M Build.

[wokkaboy]

sounds good Doc, throw that instant coffee away it's rubbish. Ground coffee the only way to go.
Glad you got plenty of projects to work on. Did you end up getting the White Knight primer ? Hope you swapped the other primer, if it's a trigger style applicator I tried one and it was useless, no control over the spray.
I was thinking with your Hot Rod strat I'd look in an auto shop (try Supercheap Auto) for a metallic blue paint will have a much bigger range of blue colours. I'd take back the greyish blue you purchased at the green shed as if there aren't many colours in that brand you will be locked in to that colour

[DrNomis_44]

sounds good Doc, throw that instant coffee away it's rubbish. Ground coffee the only way to go.
Glad you got plenty of projects to work on. Did you end up getting the White Knight primer ? Hope you swapped the other primer, if it's a trigger style applicator I tried one and it was useless, no control over the spray.
I was thinking with your Hot Rod strat I'd look in an auto shop (try Supercheap Auto) for a metallic blue paint will have a much bigger range of blue colours. I'd take back the greyish blue you purchased at the green shed as if there aren't many colours in that brand you will be locked in to that colour

Haven't got the White Knight primer yet, I'm going to do a compatibility test of the primer I've got and the gold paint on a scrap piece of wood today, the primer I've got is an Aerosol type like the gold paint, yeah, I might try checking out an auto shop, like Repco, to see if they stock a better Metallic Blue colour, as per your suggestion, I'm going to keep the can of Metallic Blue paint I have cause I can use it to spray-paint a pedal build, you're right, I should try and get a Metallic Blue that's closer to Lake Placid Blue as used on Fender Strats, the Metallic Blue I have is a bit too grey looking.


Might see if I can pop round to the Big Green Shed for the White Knight primer this Saturday, or the following Monday, it's 2:44pm at the moment and Darwin Busses usually run notoriously late, sometimes up to half an hour late, in the meantime I'll do the compatibility test.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

First the good news:


Woohoo...one of the new necks I ordered has finally turned up in the post.


And the not so good news:


There's a bit of an issue with the neck, I'll post a pic of the neck for you, see if you can spot what the issue is:




I might be able to fix it with some cutting, filing, and, or, sanding.

[Zandit75]

Is that last bit of the fret board on an angle?

[DrNomis_44]

Is that last bit of the fret board on an angle?

Yep, but more to the point, the heel of the neck is straight whereas the neck pocket has a curve where the neck heel is supposed to fit, I think someone at the factory was either a bit tired, not concentrating, and, or, a bit hungover.


Here's another pic with the old and the new neck so you can see how the heel of the new neck should have been shaped, the old neck is the darker coloured one:

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


Woohoo!!!!!


Look what just got delivered to my front door today, yes, it's the new Mighty Mite 22-Fret Maple Strat Neck I bought on eBay specially for the rebuild/refinish of my Gold Standard Strat:




The new Mighty Mite neck is a bit loose in the neck pocket, but I'm going to use it as the main neck anyway, firstly because the nut looks like it was cut really well and I won't have to do any tweaking to get the 1st-fret action right, secondly it is set up with a 9.5 Inch radius, thirdly, it's already got a satin finish on it, so I only need to re-finish the body.


The other Maple PBG neck is going to be kept as a spare one, I might clear coat it with some White Knight Clear Gloss Acrylic later on this year after re-shaping the heel and headstock.

[wokkaboy]

neck looks good Doc

[DrNomis_44]

neck looks good Doc

Cheers, it also feels good too mate, I reckon it's a neck that Fender have Licensed as an official replacement for their line of Stratocaster Guitars, going by the quality of the neck, it even says "Licensed by Fender" on the back of the neck near the heel end of the Truss Rod, all the Frets look good too and are seated well, even the fret-ends have been finished well so there's no sharp bits , I'm pretty happy with the quality of the neck.


I went online and checked the Bunnings Website for the Wood Primer you recommended I use, and it looks like they don't have any in stock at all.

[DrNomis_44]

sounds good Doc, throw that instant coffee away it's rubbish. Ground coffee the only way to go.
Glad you got plenty of projects to work on. Did you end up getting the White Knight primer ? Hope you swapped the other primer, if it's a trigger style applicator I tried one and it was useless, no control over the spray.
I was thinking with your Hot Rod strat I'd look in an auto shop (try Supercheap Auto) for a metallic blue paint will have a much bigger range of blue colours. I'd take back the greyish blue you purchased at the green shed as if there aren't many colours in that brand you will be locked in to that colour

I went back to the Big Green Shed on Friday, while I was there I asked one of the shop assistants if they could help me find a can of White Knight primer, they had a look and couldn't find any, but they did find a can of White Knight White Undercoat paint which they said would do the same job as primer, so I decided to buy a can and give it a try, it should work with the Gold paint with no issues cause it's the same brand, I also bought a can of the same clear coat you used on your Gold Tele Wokka, I'll post a pic of the can of White Undercoat paint later on, I think I'm just about ready to start spray painting the Strat Body, I only need to drill-out and Dowel the screw holes in the Trem Spring rout on the back of the body, one hole is a bit misaligned, I'll also give the body another sanding-down, starting with some 180 grit paper, and I'll also use my foam sanding pads on the body curves too, I might give the body a coat of Maple Timbermate before I start spray painting it, in the morning I'm going to see if I can buy some screw-hooks from the shops just up the road, so I can make up a wooden handle that'll be screwed to the body to make spray painting easier, the hook will be for hanging the body up to dry.


Okay, so here's a pic of the White Knight White Undercoat paint I bought on Friday, as long as it doesn't react with the remaining traces of Dingotone, I'll be happy:





It does say on the can that it is suitable for use on most surfaces including Timber (ie, Wood).

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I was having a bit of a hard-time getting to sleep, so I thought I would go ahead and drill the mounting-screw holes in the Maple Mighty Mite neck I decided on using on my Gold Strat, I think I managed to nail the alignment of the neck before drilling the holes cause I checked the alignment using a 600mm steel ruler, everything looks cool, I'll see if I can post a pic of the Gold Strat as it is, so stay tuned.


Here we go, here's what it looks like with the new 22 Fret Maple Mighty Mite neck attached to the body:




The light-green piece of tape on the body was put there so I could check the alignment of the neck, I placed the 600mm steel ruler against each side of the neck and used a blue felt-tip marker to mark on the tape where the edge of the ruler lined up with the bridge-route, it looks pretty centred to me.


Note: That's my Marshall amp behind the Strat, with it's new set of casters installed to make transporting it much easier.