My first build - STA-1 custom

[omad1]

Hi to all who browse ,
Thought I would have a go at my first build after stalking the page for a year or two
Not aiming for perfection being my first go at a build but thought i could share my experience and thoughts on the process , I am already 4-5 weeks into my build so i will spread this out over a few posts

So first step I ordered a STA-1 guitar but decided I wanted to go down the super strat route thus got a custom order with only 2 humbucker routes and also routing for a Floyd Rose trem , the guys quoted me about 6 weeks for delivery and it turned up in 5 = me stoked

[wokkaboy]

Hi Omad welcome to the forum and a cool kit to start on !
Interesting super strat build look forward to seeing the progress !!

Good luck with the build and ask any questions you have in your build diary

[Fretworn]

Welcome Omad (or is it Damo?).

[omad1]

next step headstock design eventually settled on a combo of 2 of the designs I came up with, still fairly traditional in terms of strat design with a enough variation to make it feel like i had come up with something I hadn't seen before

[omad1]

so the next thing i did was routing a channel and drilling a hole for a 3 way toggle on the lower horn, my plan was to be able to use this guitar for playing Rage Against The Machine songs at an annual 90's music tribute night I've been involved in the last few years. My dilemma here was how to drill out the hole for the switch with out going right the way thru the body, after a bit of internet searching found out about forstner drill bits and it made light work of the job leaving a very clean hole, then borrowed a router from work to dig out the wiring channel and she was ready to move onto sanding and finishing the body

[omad1]

thanks mate yeah it is Damo , username was gone so reverted to my alternate when that is the case

[omad1]

Next step was sanding and raising the grain as its an Ash body so I followed the tried and true method I found online of sand with 240 grit, wipe with wet cloth and repeat until the grain stops lifting, this took about 4 process repeats spread over 4 days until I was happy

Next I applied grain filler, I went for an ebony colour as i planned to dark stain the guitar with a walnut stain and wanted the grain to really show through ,I let it dry for 24hours then began sanding with 320 grit, I put it on a bit thick so it took a bit of sanding but once I'd finished I was pretty happy, it looked and felt pretty well filled and I decided to risk it and move onto the next step of staining the wood

[omad1]

So I used Brown Walnut Colourwood interior stain from bunnings , I have actually already used this before on a re-housed amp head and I liked the colour as it had a bit of a red tinge to it and I already had a tin of it so thought lets give it a go and it came up looking really good i think

[wokkaboy]

nice work so far Damo, so with the switch in the lower horn what controls will you have in the usual area just 1 volume and 1 tone ?

EDIT just saw the stain looks great !

[omad1]

One thing I found out after I stained it was that if I wanted it 100% smooth I should have had a second go at grain filling or applied a sanding sealer but I ended up really liking the look and feel of the little bit of texture the ash grain gave it and as I was not going to be doing a gloss finish instead opting for a satin finish I moved onto the lacquer stage
As i haven't any experience with spray guns I opted for the spray can variety, I bought a can of the Behlen jet spray clear nitro satin from guitaraust.com.au
Its pretty cool this time of year in Canberra so I had to wait for a warmish day to start spraying but started off with 3 x light coats on the first day with a couple of hours drying in between each coat, i have a small music studio in my garage which provided a nice place to keep it safe from the elements and dust for drying. the next coats I did only one a day as I was limited by time and temperature and so by the end of this process I have applied 6 coats all up to the body and 5 to the neck (which i forgot to mention I had also stained but as it was maple I had to stain it twice to get the darkness to match better the ash body).
So I am now about a week away from assembly as I await the nitro some more time to cure thus I will chime back in with an update next week and hopefully an assembled guitar!