Well it's nearly a year and half since I finished this build and it has racked up a lot of playing time since then. When it's not having sleepovers on loan it gets a regular playing most days. There is a lot I like about it. Once dialled in properly, its magic to play. That said there are a few things that annoy me and so begins the modifications.....
So this is where it's at. The Rustoleum finish has held up very well, this guitar isn't babied, so it does have some wear and tear. I think at the end of the day I wont be using Rustoleum again though. Even though its cured and hard, there is a feeling 'rubberyness' to it that I'm not sure is good from a guitar building point of view. I am sceptical of how much paint changes the sound, but I also can't help feeling that this product 'dampens' the wood a bit. I'm better at acrylic any way, if I could get poly in the same range of colours as you can get automotive I'd use it exclusively I think.
So a couple of things straight up. The switch placement and volume knob are really bad for me. As soon as I start really thrashing it the switch gets bumbed and the vol knob gets turned down. I ended up taking the knob off and taping the switch last time I was jamming and that's pretty much what finally made me decide to fix this guitar. The other issue, that was mentioned by Fretworn in this diary is the pickup spacing, particularly how far the HB is from the bridge. Once you see it you can't unsee it and it does look weird. I also already have a HSS workhorse with excellent pickups in it, so that makes this guitar a little redundant. At this stage the plan is to put in 2 P90's as I don't have a guitar with those at the moment and it seems fitting for the offset shape.
I'm a bit undecided on pick guard colour. The red perloid is a bit wierd, but I do like it, I'm also considering white perloid or tortoise shell... or perhaps even making a clear one and doing something fun on the reverse... will see what happens.
The neck has copped a flogging. Not being the kind of guitar to rest easily without a stand it's taken a few tumbles. My very first fret job is pretty rough as well (although surprisingly servicable) So I'll spend a bit of time cleaning it all up as best I can.
The bridge also needs some work. Again, it does the job, but the saddles tend to bind up on each other. I am saving for some other projects and can't quite convince myself to replace it entirely, so I swapped out the saddles with some from the Squire I did the neck and Babicz upgrade on recently. It's immediately better to adjust, so hopefully its all good.
Next item is the heel where the neck attaches. I cannot stand that huge block there. You can see already that I've worn through the paint - that's where my palm is when I'm at the high frets and it sucks. Seems to be the same on genuine 'F' guitars as well... would drive me crazy on an expensive one.
Having modded that area on a couple of other basswood bodies I'm sure the ash will cope fine, so out with the angle grinder and files.
Still some work to do, planning an nice bevel around that corner. Was a little weird attacking the paint.. I'm considering just leaving it raw.. mega relic lol. It could be touched up, will see how I feel. Good show of how much paint ended up on it - mostly due to the water sanding boo boo and subsequent repainting. Probably too much on there - which won't be helping with the weight issues, something else I hope will be improved with these mods
Back to the other side and some working out, moving the control plate and working out the new pick guard design. I ended up putting the entire body in my scanner. As this comes out 1:1 ratio on the computer it lets me do a really accurate trace. I had to do it twice and merge the photos in illustrator, but I think its going to work well. This is the first iteration, I actually have an idea to make it a little wackier (stand by)
(you can also see that the top layer of the perloid is lifting here which is annoying...)
Then some more scary tool time. I am definitely getting better with the router. A little messy, but big improvements and learning all the time how to get better results.
I'm considering removing a bit more material under the pick guard to help with the weight.. again.. will see how I go.
Next thing is to get some pickups organised. I'm also going to move the switch to the Vol spot on the control panel and just have a 3 way/vol/tone setup.
Anyway, stand by for more ill considered shenanigans. I also have mods for a couple of the others planned.. so I'll update those threads as I come to them.
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