DrNomis_44's Gold Standard STA-1M Build.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I just did another session of Sanding, Sanding, Sanding, and more Sanding on the Gold Strat body and now I reckon it's ready to be spray-painted after I dowel the holes in the Trem-Spring route, I can pretty much see bare wood all over the Gold Strat body and I reckon I've gotten rid of the majority of the Dingotone finish.

[stan]

great job Doc

If the Marshall is as heavy as my Fender twin, then you'll need to add a motor and steering to make it truly portable

[DrNomis_44]

great job Doc

If the Marshall is as heavy as my Fender twin, then you'll need to add a motor and steering to make it truly portable

Hahahaha....I was thinking that myself, if I could figure out a way to power the Marshall remotely I could then sit on it and play my guitar to propel it along with the power of Rock and Roll.....lol.

[stan]

haha turn it up and let the speaker cone push it along...

[DrNomis_44]

haha turn it up and let the speaker cone push it along...

Hahahaha....yep, that's it mate.


I'm just about to start spray-painting the Gold Strat body, I've made a wooden handle with a hook on the end of it that gets screwed to the body where the neck normally goes, definitely makes life a lot easier when Spray Painting, I'm going to spray the body using the White Knight White Undercoat paint, will post a pic after it's done.

[wazkelly]

How is the scale length on the 22 fret neck? Does the end of the Fret Board hang over the leading edge of the scratch plate or is it solid to the end of the heel?

Looked into a 22 fret neck for my Tele and they were some of the issues that I was likely to encounter and just stuck with the standard neck to be on the safe side. Some of the ones I looked at had the FB protruding that little bit further south to accommodate the extra fret and thus not affect scale length but from memory they were the dearer ones from USA rather than cheapies out of China.

[DrNomis_44]

How is the scale length on the 22 fret neck? Does the end of the Fret Board hang over the leading edge of the scratch plate or is it solid to the end of the heel?

Looked into a 22 fret neck for my Tele and they were some of the issues that I was likely to encounter and just stuck with the standard neck to be on the safe side. Some of the ones I looked at had the FB protruding that little bit further south to accommodate the extra fret and thus not affect scale length but from memory they were the dearer ones from USA rather than cheapies out of China.

I checked the scale-length and it's a Fender 25.50 Inch, and as far as I could tell there weren't going to be any issues with setting the intonation right, yes, the 22nd Fret sits just above the heel of the guitar, on an overhang over the leading-edge, it's really just the same as a 21-Fret neck except for the extra 22nd-fret, so if you were to swap-out the stock neck on your Tele for a 22-fret neck, provided it fits the neck pocket, you should have no major issues.

On the Scratchplate for my Gold Strat, there seems to be more than enough clearance between the neck-pickup hole and the overhang on the 22-fret neck I'm using, and as far as I can tell, the overhang does not affect the scale-length in any way whatsoever, I'm not sure what country my Mighty Mite 22-fret Maple Neck was made in, the seller I bought it from was located in America, I think from memory the neck cost me about US$180.00 all up.

One thing you do need to be mindful of is the clearance between the neck overhang and the surface of the body of the guitar, it needs to be big enough so that it'll accommodate the thickness of the Scratchplate, otherwise the neck will tilt up at a slight angle in the neck pocket.


I just finished spraying the body with the White Undercoat and will post a couple of pics shortly.


Here's what the neck overhang looks like viewed from the side of the neck:

[DrNomis_44]

Okay, here's a couple of pics of the Gold Strat body I took just after I finished spraying it with White Knight White Undercoat paint, I checked to see if there were any major issues but it looks fine apart from some paint runs, it was already touch-dry when I checked it a minute ago:







I reckon all it'll probably need is a light sanding to even out the surface and then a second coat of Undercoat and then I'll be ready to spray the body with the Gold paint.

[DrNomis_44]

I'm going to let the body dry over night and see what it's like in the morning, it may need a few more coats before it's ready for the Gold paint, I'll give it a good sand if the paint has dried in the morning.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I managed to get the pickups, etc, re-installed in the Scratchplate, then I decided to put the Scratchplate on the Gold Strat body now that the White Undercoat had been drying for a few hours, I also put the Gold Jackplate and the original Gold Bridge (minus the screws) on the Scratchplate too, then I couldn't resist the urge to take a pic of the Gold Strat "as it was" for you guys, so here's what the Gold Strat could look like if I was to paint it White instead of Gold, does it look cool or what?:




Maybe I could buy another STA-1M kit at a later date and paint it white, and put gold hardware on it?