The Frankencaster

[Eponymous]

Everything fits now I have done this routing job in the control cavity



The body has been sanded back to get rid of any divots and pencil marks. Did it to 400 grit to get the foundation smooth and now for the grain filler.



I have no idea why all of my picture are upside down. Have tried to edit them in my photo library but no matter what I do they appear upside down.

Anyways, that is going to be the jig I use to spray paint in a couple of days. Will put an open step ladder sideways on with a drop cloth attached to the back and going to the floor to the ground. Any overspray will collect on the drop cloth

I will try and take a non upside down photo of that.....

[FrankenWashie]

Anyways, that is going to be the jig I use to spray paint in a couple of days.

But, but.....the grain, the grain 😱😭 won’t somebody think of the grain!

[nitroburner1000]

But, but.....the grain, the grain 😱😭 won’t somebody think of the grain!

Clear paint maybe??????

[Eponymous]

Clear paint maybe??????

I feel like I am letting everyone down a little. The grain is truly beautiful and I do like it but my plan was to try and get a paint job like the silver sky nebula...which shifts colour from blue, through red to purple. Since I have bought the paint, I don’t want to waste it.

I do have a contact that can get me a quilted maple drop top and I’m tempted to try and get a custom shop hollowbody body and neck only and glue the drop top on, then try to do a dragon breath stain (I am just a big PRS nerd) and see if I can get that quilted 3D look...that is a project for later, though.

For now, spray paint ahoy!

[Eponymous]

Maybe this way?

[nitroburner1000]

love the grain, will look great when it is cleared, im just painting my Tele. sigh
BTW love the fancy bridge, i got one similar when i purchased my guitar a couple of years ago. Will look flash as.

[McCreed]

The only issue there is, there might need to be a bit more depth under the switch block might need a bit more depth but the control plate itself, with pots fits in sweet as a nut.

Ah, yes, I forgot about the depth. The stock routing depth is too shallow for a proper CRL-type blade switch. The box-type import ones are shorter and fit fine, but a lot of people prefer the old school ones.

That bridge & control plate look great btw!

[Eponymous]

Ah, yes, I forgot about the depth. The stock routing depth is too shallow for a proper CRL-type blade switch. The box-type import ones are shorter and fit fine, but a lot of people prefer the old school ones.

The switch gear I got was an obsidian wire, solderless 4 position switch unit, which will give me each pickup individually, plus both pickups in parallel (humbucker style, which is the regular 3rd position for a tele) plus a 4th position which puts the pickups in a series configuration, which has the output feed of the neck pickup, being shunted into the input of the bridge pickup, which should give a richer, fuller sound.

Couples with the Lindy Fralin blues special pickups (with 5% over wind) should give the beast a real kick along.

Quite interested to see how all of that works.

[Eponymous]

This morning, I sanded the body again, after the grain filler had around 18 hours drying. I went 240 grit with random orbital sander, then 400 grit by hand. Nice and smooth.

Masked off the cavities and pocket and used some old lip balm to put into string through holes and screw holes. To keep I
Unwanted sanding sealer out. I wiped the surface a couple of times with wax and grease remover, to get excess off and to get finger marks off too.




I then set up the spray booth.



First coat done. Will rub down with 240 grit and reapply sanding sealer. Give that a couple of hours to dry and will sand again to 400 grit.

This evening should be first base coat/primer spray.

After this, I might keep my spray booth as a cubby house, so I can hide from housework.

[Eponymous]

Patience and preparation prevents piss poor performance.

Wait....that’s 6!

Well, 2 coats of sanding sealer this morning and rubbed it all back to 400 grit....not a solid sanding, just a scuff sand to give the primer something to grab onto. I waited 2 hours for the final coat to dry, although the instructions said, it can be sanded after 30 minutes.

I have been shaking the can on and off several times today, so it should be fairly well shaken and mixed.

I stood the can in a bath of warm water to keep it less viscous to spray.

This is the first coat.





On the second coat, there was a bit of a run, so I tried to wipe it off and both coats came off. The instructions said it was ok to re coat after 15 minutes, but it is not hot today and kind of humid, so I might give the third coat 30 minutes. The second coat managed to fix the run issue but I need to be more careful with the spray job.