3/4 ST-1JR First Build

[HereIsJT]

So my kids had been trying to play with one of my guitars every time I picked one up so I figured I would build something a little closer to their proportions. Order a custom ST-1JR back in Jan then we know the rest. It finally arrived early June and had been hanging around climatising ever since.

I figured it should all be humidity adjusted by now so time to kick in. The kids haven’t agreed on a colour yet, I’m trying to persuade them so go with something close to the EVH rocket red, since that was part of the inspiration for some of the custom changes.

So the kit is the 3/4 size strat, I ordered it without the term route, it’s getting drilled out and ferrules for a string-through funk machine “hitmaker” style. Order a maple fretboard to pop against an iridescence colour scheme.

Headstock and end of the fretboard got some roughing in treatment today, ready for the lightning bolts that need to be incorporated into the finish.

[Simon Barden]

Sounds great! Can't wait to see some pics once things start moving.

[HereIsJT]

So progress yesterday got us here....

A quick side-by-side to the big brother Squire (only mod on that is dropping in a Fender full block trem, thankfully had a full thickness Squire that let me do that)


Had an ideas session with Master 6 y.o. to understand the "lightning bolts" theme


Landed on a design we all liked


Learned that we have some full-size Strat parts in the kit, namely the neck bolt plate and output jack (emailed Adam and co to sort that)


Measured up scale length for bridge placement (came in around 4mm longer than spec), we drilled in the bridge screws and dropped about 1mm into each of the string-through holes. I need a trip to visit my drill press at my brothers house to get them drilled through the body

[HereIsJT]

Then we checked our templates for both ends of the neck


And got ready for the point of no return


A bit of sawing and sanding later and headstock shape was roughed in


Then we took to the other end with a rasp and sandpaper to round off the end of the fretboard to the same shape as the Squire

[HereIsJT]

I'm taking a build it and they will come approach with this Colin. They started taking an interest around 6 months ago, so they were 3 and 5 at the time. I figure if I've got something closer to their size in the rack that they can pick up I will get them engaged and then look at lessons with them.

Hopefully having them involved in building the instrument will help build that interest too

[HereIsJT]

Still in holding pattern waiting for some 3/4 parts that didn't ship with the kit. Planning on drilling the string-throughs this weekend.

[HereIsJT]

Finally got a moment to get back into the build, so got some good progression.

Activity for the weekend:
1. Drill string-throughs
2. Drill out string-throughs on back side for ferrules
3. Drill in neck ferrules (kindly supplied by Adam instead of backplate) and get neck drilled for mounting
4. Drill in output jack (Lester style on this 3/4 strat body)
5. Level neck
6. Level, crown and polish frets
7. Oil fingerboard (with F-One oil) to give it some protection through the remainder of the build

Tips that I learned for next time...
a) the body doesn't quite fit under the drill press to use that to drill the string-throughs. I ended up using the drill press to drill a drilling guide nice and square, then used the supplied bridge to mark the top-side and drilled starter points to pick up the drill but and then went down about half-way. I followed that by drilling the 2 e strings right through the body, then checking the bridge lined up on the backside which it did! I then played the same game with starter holes, then clamped a straight edge to guid my drill-bit to make sure they're nice and straight... rinse and repeat on the back edge for the wider ferrule counter-sinks

b) basswood is SUPER soft... lots of compression in the neck ferrules. I used the drill press to bore out the existing screw holes, using the depth stop for consistency, but they must have compressed another 3mm into the back of the body at tension! All good, tight neck achieved

c) I probably should have given the frets a bit of a tap and checked that they were seated properly before levelling - not a show stopper, but #10 and #11 sat really low (or the others really high) so I had to take a fair bit of material off some to get them level.

Next steps:

- Round out the top body corners on the neck pocket where they're straight cut to get more in line with Leo's style
- Fill some spots then sanding, sanding, sanding and sanding
- Stop in at Super Cheap for paint. I really wanted to do an iridescent red (EVH 5150 style) but the kids want something more in the blue spectrum, so we will pick a ColorSpec colour and get ourselves some acrylic primer, colour and clear coat for the body and face of the headstock then I'll so a satin rub-on poly for the rest of the neck
- Prime, sand, prime, colour, sand, glitter-spray features, clear coat, sand and polish
- drop in the loaded pickguard, wire up and output, string her up, tune it and hand it over to the new owners.

So far it's fun and rewarding

[HereIsJT]

And this is what the oil has done to bring out the pattern in the fingerboard

[Sonic Mountain]

Looking good. I tend to use those neck screw ferrules as well. It allows for quite a bite of customisation of that join.

[HereIsJT]

Yeah Sonic, it happened by accident. I ordered a custom in the ST-1JR because I wanted to do a hardtail, but they sent a full-size parts kit, so I only had a full-sized neck plate and Adam didn't have any spare 3/4's so he sent the Ferrules instead. Really happy with how it's come together... Just need to get to it with a bit of sandpaper and round over the edges.