Haematoxylin Statocaster (ST-1)

[DarkMark]

[QUOTE=fender3x;227929]Looking good. There must be a story behind the decal. I get the "stat-ocaster". But there is more of a story there I am guessing? Benhur? patnwest? ;-)

Benhur is the guy’s name and Pathwest is the name of the employer. You had me rushing out to check the decal spelling 😆

[fender3x]

Wow! Personalized right down to the fine print ;-) BTW, I am dyslexic, so misspellings (as in this case) are usually mine ;-)

[DarkMark]

Wow! Personalized right down to the fine print ;-) BTW, I am dyslexic, so misspellings (as in this case) are usually mine ;-)

I can empathise with that. When my daughter got her dyslexia diagnosis, I read her 14 page diagnostic report and it was clear to me that you could replace her name on the first page with mine.

Light 1200 wet sand after 10 coats and managed to sand the surface where the wood swelled in one spot after staining which I was able to fix by sanding some dry stain into poly. Surface is rather flat so will switch to 1500 wet sanding from here.

[fender3x]

Dyslexics Untie!

True story... My mother once called me when I was in college, from her tone I could tell that she had something funny to tell me... She said she had "just joined a new organization called DAM, Mothers Against Dyslexia." The funny part is that I didn't get it.

[dave.king1]

Dyslexia lures ko

BTW PathWest looks like a cool place to work

[DarkMark]

44 coats later…just about there. Just adding a final few layers to polish off. Having never put together a solid body guitar before, should I be shielding the scratch plate and cavities? Does anyone have experience with this model?

[Trevor Davies]

44 coats later…just about there. Just adding a final few layers to polish off. Having never put together a solid body guitar before, should I be shielding the scratch plate and cavities? Does anyone have experience with this model?

re shielding.
Some Most folks will shield the cavities. I think the scratch plate is already shielded around the control area.
But, FWIW, I do not shield them. My reasoning is that you don't shield the electronics on hollow bodies guitars.

[fender3x]

I do shield the cavities and the scratch plate. I think it makes some difference, particularly in environments where there is a lot of RF. Since my RAT clone pedal pickups a local radio station, I think that includes my garage ;-) More important with single coils than humbuckers, but I shield both.

I think the reason that most people don't shield hollow bodies is that it's really hard to do. The fully hollow bodies are also notoriously noisy. My '68 Fender Coronado with single coils is a case in point.

That said, I do shield my semi-hollow bodies...sort of. In one case I used braided sleeving over the wires. That was for a ridiculously complicated Dano-type* wiring harness. On a more conventional Gibson-type wiring harness where I only needed one hot lead to go to each pot, I used shielded wire. I can't shield the cavity so I at least try to shield the wire.

I have never A-B'd shielded and unshielded guitars so I don't know how much difference it makes. But I do it on the logic that, while you may not completely prevent your some part of your guitar acting like an antenna for RF in the environment, the more you can shield the less antenna you'll have. So why not?

*I think some of the original Danelectros that were made with masonite tops and bottoms--technically a form of hollow body--actually put the controls inside a cardboard box that was shielded with foil. They are the only factory made hollow body I know of that actually had some sort of shielding, although some may have used shielded wire.

[dave.king1]

I only have solid bodies and they are all shielded.

I use slug & snail barrier tape from the BGSFOS, it's copper with an adhesive backing, it's not as wide as the luthier stuff which I find it makes it easier to work with, I also put a dab of solder at each join to make sure the barrier is continuous and of course the wire back to the common earth.

Did I mention it's heaps cheaper than the luthier stuff and it comes in a roll that you won't finish in one lifetime

[DarkMark]

Thanks folks. I will solder the tape together when I do the body cavity. I understand (not really understanding but can follow simple instructions) that the shielding on the pick guard needs to make contact with the shielding in the body cavity and I solder a wire from the body cavity to the metal bracket in the back cavity which holds the springs. Does this lay man’s description sound correct?