Anyone familiar with Carson Electric Guitars?

[WeirdBits]

Yep, coil split. The switch grounds out one coil to the back of the pot via the orange wire.

[Zandit75]

Yep, coil split. The switch grounds out one coil to the back of the pot via the orange wire.

Thanks mate!

[Zandit75]

So I've been out of action for several weeks thanks to illness, but it's time to get back into my builds.
I've stripped back the Carson of all it's electrics and hardware and cleaned out the interior of what looked like dust and talcum powder. There's a bit of corrosion on some of the pots and wires, so I'm thinking there has been some water damage to the guitar at one point.
I'm going to remove the neck today and start sanding back the finish ready for filling and priming.
A question regarding filling of holes and scrapes with filler. I have this product that I've had for a previous project, but never used.

Would this be a workable product, or would Timbermate be a better product? Looks to me like they are very similar products.

Also, what's the best way to fill in small screw holes? Just fill them in with filler, or use toothpicks with some form of glue? The strap buttons are stuffed, and I want to add new ones and I want to use fresh holes for peace of mind.


I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the neck. There are a heap of holes in the back of the headstock from the tuner machines, and I'm not sure if the new ones I got from Waz are going to cover them up until they arrive.

There are also a couple of dings in the back of the neck, and I was wondering if there are any tips for cleaning them up?

[dingobass]

That wood filler should be fine.
With the holes I would drill them out and plug with a small dowel.
Bamboo kebab skewers work well for this job, a few drops of thin CA glue and job done.

The dents may come out with the damp rag and soldering iron steam trick, but you will need to sand the finish off first.
If the said dings are not too deep, they may simply sand out without any dramas

[FredA]

Looks like it's a plywood body based on the layers in the trem cavity.
Reminds me of my red plywood strat renovation project! Check out the link in my signature if you're interested. Mine was in similar condition when I got it.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Zandit75]

Yeah, I saw yours Fred, and you did a great job with it.
I'm going to stick with the solid colour for this one, I have a couple of ideas in place, and I'm leaning towards a charcoal grey with orange and black pinstriping as highlights. We'll see how it comes up after I fill and sand back.

[Zandit75]

And it starts.
Grabbed some foam sanding blocks from Supercheap and started rubbing back the body.
So far, I've only used the 60 grit to rough things up then I added some filler into the holes and dents.
One thing I noticed when I removed the neck, two of the neck crews are different lengths. Is this normal?







I've since scrapped back the thicker sections of filler, and I'll allow it to dry over night before sanding it back smooth and seeing how it is looking.

[Zandit75]

OK, I couldn't help myself, so I went back and started sanding the filler back.

NOTE TO SELF - If you're going to scrape this stuff back, do a much better job then you did earlier today!!!

This product dries very quickly,and as hard as a rock!!
My fingers are killing me from using a small razor blade to level out the filler before hitting it with the sanding block.
By itself, the 60grit foam block was useless until the filler was almost level to the body work.

I mustn't have prepared a couple of areas very well, as the filler just fell out of a couple of the bigger chips.
Once I was happy with the rest of the body, I mixed a small amount of filler and hit those bad areas again.

I cleaned up the fretboard with a razor blade getting rid of the gunk built up between the frets while the filler started drying then went over it again to scrape the excess off. It was only about 30mins, but it had basically fully cured.
I've sanded it level and I'm really happy with how smooth everything feels even at only 60grit sanding.
There's still a couple of spots to level out, but I'll do that tomorrow.

[dingobass]

Looks like you have it well under control

[wazkelly]

Hi Zandit, somehow I missed this thread and have only just read it now.

Looks like you are well on your way after some very good advice from DB, Fred and others. The tuners that are on their way will end up sitting like these that replaced similar crappy generic low end tuners on my youngest Son's Korean built Magnum Strat. As you can see I haven't bothered filling the holes and that job was done probably 16 or 17 years ago. As they are on the back, no big deal and very low chance they will be seen or spotted by anybody, and if so, who cares.

1st shot is your headstock followed by the Magnum's....

Hmmm, that last shot revealed a broken locator screw that I had forgotten about but all good as the locking screw on the front is tight enough to hold everything in place.

Only parts left to order if you haven't already done so should be a new 5 way Strat style switch plus a new Nut. Wouldn't recommend a locking nut as they are really only required with a locking tremolo such as a Floyd Rose and otherwise could be a pain when tuning up or changing strings. Everything else you need is in the box of goodies posted yesterday.

If the PUP conversion from 2 wire to 4 wire looks too hard or proves disastrous this is the PUP that went into the Strat and wired with a dimarzio mini dpdt switch that is on-on-on, just like the couple of cheapies that are on their way to you. Current PBG price is $36.95 and they sound great..... http://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/p...eramic-bridge/