Olympic White Strat is what it should look like...

[nDR01d]

OK, so on Monday (29th June) I received my luscious package of a STA-1M. I also got 2 sets of strings, one packaged as PitBulls and the other as loose stainless steels. Bonus. I have done a rough build today and gone through everything in the box. There is a bit of a gap at the bottom of the neck where it meets the body. Other than that, everything seems to be great. I am going to put a bit of white coloured TimberMate all over it, as I have read that Ash can soak a bit of the colour prior to painting. The sanding paper I'm going to use is 400, 600, then maybe 1200. It will depend on how impatient I get.

[wokkaboy]

Hi nDR, welcome to the forum. Don't worry too much about a small gap in the neck pocket will be covered by the pickguard.
You get 2 sets of strings the unpackaged ones are for setting up the guitar.
Timbermate goes well on ash bodies.
Will the Olympic white be semi translucent ?
No need to sand over 400 grit or the grain won't have enough tooth to take the stain. Start on about 180 grit and work through the grits after you put the timbermate on.
Or if this is solid paint disregard the grit comments

[nDR01d]

Thanks for the welcome. I appreciate that.
Yeah, I wanted it to be a solid colour white. So - just to check with you - you think I should go with 400 grit as per my plan? The guitar body as it is, is reasonably smooth. What about doing a 'quick once over' sand with the 400 grit, then TimberMate, sand again (600?) then apply the spray primer (after which I can sand some more... )? Apparently (according to Dingo Bass in the papers I got) - sand, sand, sand, and sand some more is they key.

[wokkaboy]

Hi nDR,
I edited my comments and said disregard if painting a solid colour. Your plan sounds fine work through the higher grits up to 1200 grit once the colour is on and even higher grits if needed

[gavinturner]

Here is my solid colour process:
Personally I would sand 120, 240, 400. Then fill with Timbermate and continue to sand 600, 800.
After a couple of primer coats you can give it a quick wet sand with 1200. After a couple of colour coats you can do the same. Personally I dont sand the colour coats too much, as there's always a chance of sand-through. I prefer to add more lacquer and sand that instead. Once the colour is full (you dont need many coats) on with the lacquer. After the all-but-two coats you can flatten the lacquer with 600 grit to remove any high and low spots - dont sand through! Then 2 more coats of lacquer. Let it fully cure (ie. until the lacquer smell is gone completely) and then wet sand with 1500 and 2000. Then apply compounds for a full shine.

cheers,
Gav.

[nDR01d]

Thanks Gav. That's kinda sorta the same thing I was thinking in the long run of things. I had a quick look at your blue and gold Strat and how you arrived there. Very impressive.

[nDR01d]

So here are some progress shots of both the front and back. I know I started out wanting a solid white, but then, the aged look sort of grew on me. I guess we'll see how it all turns out. While I'm doing this I'm also wiring up the pickups. I will post some shots of that too.

[stan]

looking good, is it more of an antique white?

[nDR01d]

So far. Although you could also say it's semi-antiqued with the way it looks atm. The wood grain showing through in places is growing on me. The timbermate and duplicolor primer are "white". I have a custom Colour Spec can from supercheap auto that is "Winter White" which is as close to "Olympic White" as I could get.

[nDR01d]

Here isthe pickguard I've gone with. It's a Brian May set up (in/out phase etc). Plus I also have the Entwistle Neodymium pickups. Lord, I hope I wired that up correctly. It took me 2 days. I'm not that great at soldering. I probably should have started off with something more straightforward. But hey, I've always been more of a fan of being thrown in the deep end first.