3/4 Strat build with my son

[jarro_2783]

As an 8th birthday present I got my son the 3/4 strat kit for us to build together. He wants to do a cherry red, and we'll put a clear coat on the top and try to make it shine.

The grain isn't amazing, but I think my son is pretty happy with it, so I guess we'll just have to find out how it turns out the end.

First impressions of the kit are that it is all quite a bit better quality than the JM-1L that I did last year, in particular the tuners and saddle are better quality, and the tone pot is actually an audio taper. So for $149 I'm pretty happy with this kit.

The body had a few rough spots that my son had a great time sanding out. He had a go at crowning the frets with the PB fret crowning tool after I levelled them. It took him less than an hour, and I think he did a pretty good job. That took me several hours with random files last time!

[jarro_2783]

We've put some stain on. My son says he's happy with it, but I'm sure cherry red should be darker. Does anyone know how dark cherry red should turn out compared to this? We've only used just over half the bottle, so we have a lot left.

[Trevor Davies]

Hi jarro,

What dye are you using?

[jarro_2783]

I'm using colortone cherry red.

[kman42]

I'm using colortone cherry red.

I used the same product for my recent ES1-F build, some pictures here: https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=12001

I used 3 coats of cherry red and it was still quite pale for what I was after, so I did a light coat of black over the top (50% diluted). I've since learned that the Colourtone dyes are pre-diluted, and even though I ended up with a good result I won't use them again - I'll use U-Beaut dyes next time.

[jarro_2783]

Thanks, yours looks quite different after the clear coat. This is probably as red as it will get I'd say, hopefully it looks better after the clear coat.

[kman42]

Yes the clear coat will deepen the colour a bit

[jarro_2783]

We are done. My son is thrilled, he was very keen to be able to play it.

He came up with the head shape and we burnt a logo that we made up into it that uses the initials of our names in a guitar design.







I just have a question about the saddles and claw. The saddles seem very high to get the action right, it works fine but I was just wondering if I did something wrong there.



Also should the claw be screwed in as far as it takes to get the bridge flat? How tight should the six bridge screws be? Are they supposed to be a bit loose to give the wammy bar some room to work?

[Simon Barden]

Nice work! Headstock shape is reminiscent of the Epiphone ‘batwing’ shape from the 1960s.

Yes, the bridge plate should sit parallel to the body, so the claw needs to be screwed in until it does. You start an iterative process where yiu screw in the claw, which pulls the tuning sharp, so you retune - which adjusts the string tension so the bridge pjate drops a bit. So you then screw out the claw a bit - which drops the tuning. Repeat until all is stable.

Wind the 4 inner bridge screws out by a few turns to start with. The bridge plate height is set by the two outer screws. For a downwatds only trem action, the plate shoukd just be off the body. The higher the plate sits, the more of an upwards bend you can achieve. Adjust the two outer screws, then waggle the trem a few times and the bridge should settle at its selected height. Adjust so that both sides of the trem plate are the same height off the body. Then screw the four inner screws so that their heads sit maybe 1mm off the trem plate. That way all the screws still provide a surface for the trem to pivot on, but only the two outer ones affect the trem height. It makes the trem more stable than if the screws are all set roughly the same height but the trem height is actually being set by say the two middle screws, whick alliws the trem to rock from side to side a bit.

If the saddle height is as your photo, then that’s fine. Ideally the height adjustment screws should be a bit below the surface so they don’t dig into your hands. The lower the saddles, the more those screws will protrude.

If you still want the saddles lower, then you’ll have to change the neck angle. You can do this with a very thin shim at the neck end of the neck pocket, so it angles the neck more towards the bridge, but first check that there’s nothing already in the neck pocket affecting the angle. It’s easy to get sawdust and splinters from screwing the neck on sitting in there and affecting the way the neck sits. Any shim will need to be very shallow in height, so a piece of 0.5-0.6mm thick wood veneer is normally a good start. About 5mm wide and I normally make them long enough to fit between the mounting screws. The shim can be anything that’s quite hard, so plastic (e.g. old credit card) or metal will also do. Sand the height to adjust.

[bassdude]

We are done. My son is thrilled, he was very keen to be able to play it.

He came up with the head shape and we burnt a logo that we made up into it that uses the initials of our names in a guitar design.

And so he should be thrilled. Nice job!

Peter