DIY Stratocaster Build - hand tools only
- Thread starter irishstu
- Start date
irishstu
really experienced
sk8centilli
n00d
I've got two hands, ten digits and a similar set of tools, but I'm lacking the ambition and most of all, the talent.
Great job!
Great job!
irishstu
really experienced
DIY Stratocaster Build - hand tools only pt 4
All right, so as anyone who's built a guitar knows, getting to the "putting it together" bit is only really the halfway mark. Finishing the guitar is a whole other adventure.
I may have gone about this the wrong way, but here's how I did it anyway.
First thing I did was to make a stand for the guitar. This consisted of a broken woodworking plane, which i drilled 4 holes into so I could attach it to the neck pocket of the guitar body. Then fashioned a handle for it with a big hole drilled up the middle. I then mounted a thick piece of wood on the table with a big thick spindle sticking out of it. The idea was to be able to put the handle on it and be able to rotate the guitar, and, if necessary, lift the guitar body off the spindle totally.
Really sorry how this photo came out, but the flash must've bounced off the guitar body (this was taken with a film camera, so no way to know till the film was developed). Anyway, I just wanted to post it to show you the mounting system more than anything.
I then applied some water-soluble stain. I'm not sure of the exact name, but I know i was aiming for a sort of rosewood colour, so it's name was probably something to do with that. Here it is after one coat.
This was applied with a damp cloth. I applied about 3 coats of this in total, with each layer making the guitar a little darker.
At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that I made this guitar several years ago, and at the time had very little information to go on. The finishing of the guitar was done following the advice of a carpenter (who knew nothing about guitars), so it's entirely possible I went about this totally the wrong way. I will add that I ended up with a beautiful-sounding guitar, but at the same time it took an eternity to get a finish that I was happy with and I know for a fact that I would do this part very differently next time.
So anyway, back to business...
Before you spray your guitar, you should really apply some sort of sealant, otherwise the lacquer will get sucked into the wood like you wouldn't believe. This will make life much more difficult for you and can end up affecting the tone.
So after applying some stain, that's what I did. Just one layer of sealing varnish, followed by a bit of light sanding. Some of you might be wondering why I didn't apply the sealant BEFORE the stain, but that's cos I figured the sealing varnish wouldn't absorb the stain
Next, it was a case of applying layer after layer of spray-on nitro lacquer. This took a LOT longer than I thought it would, as previously I'd been used to spray painting metal boxes and the likes with (poly) car spray paint. I lost count of the number of layers I added, and this was probably due to my not applying the sealing varnish correctly. The wood grain just kept sucking that lacquer in.
Every few layers, you should do some very light wet sanding to try to keep the surface as perfect as possible. If you manage to remove some of the stain by accident, just re-apply it. It's actually not as serious a problem as you might think (or at least it wasn't in my case).
Here's a picture of the guitar with several layers of lacquer applied. Unfortunately, I couldn't hold back and put a lot of parts on the guitar before I took this photo.
You can really see how the grain has sucked the lacquer in. At first I was going to leave the guitar like this, as I'd already applied dozens of coats of lacquer, but I later had a change of heart and decided to go for a smooth finish (more sanding, more lacquering). While I was at it, I routed the guitar for a tremolo, using the same drill and chisel method as before.
Here's the body after that stage:
Yeah, man. It just seemed too much of a shame to paint over that.
Sweet. Thanks.
Thanks a lot, John. That's a very informative post.
Well, since you asked...
First off, I taped off the neck from the nut down. This just left the head exposed. I applied a coat or two of nitro lacquer and let it dry well.
Then for the decals, well, the only thing I had available to me at the time was Letraset, so that's what I used. Lining up those letters was a PIG, but I think it turned out OK. My surname is Morrow, hence the logo.
Interestingly (and not surprisingly once you understand nitro), with each layer of lacquer that I applied over the decal, the letters got thinner and thinner. In fact I was worried that the smaller letters were going to disappear altogether, so I had to stop.
Once the head of the guitar was finished, I removed the tape/newspaper, etc, flipped the neck over, so it was face down, and applied lacquer to the back. I'm sure this is a very unorthodox way of doing it, but it worked well with the rosewood fingerboard. Had I taped off just the fingerboard, I would have ended up with raised edges where the lacquer stopped. With the method I used, it all blended together nicely.
Here's a close up of the finished decal.
All right, so as anyone who's built a guitar knows, getting to the "putting it together" bit is only really the halfway mark. Finishing the guitar is a whole other adventure.
I may have gone about this the wrong way, but here's how I did it anyway.
First thing I did was to make a stand for the guitar. This consisted of a broken woodworking plane, which i drilled 4 holes into so I could attach it to the neck pocket of the guitar body. Then fashioned a handle for it with a big hole drilled up the middle. I then mounted a thick piece of wood on the table with a big thick spindle sticking out of it. The idea was to be able to put the handle on it and be able to rotate the guitar, and, if necessary, lift the guitar body off the spindle totally.
Really sorry how this photo came out, but the flash must've bounced off the guitar body (this was taken with a film camera, so no way to know till the film was developed). Anyway, I just wanted to post it to show you the mounting system more than anything.
I then applied some water-soluble stain. I'm not sure of the exact name, but I know i was aiming for a sort of rosewood colour, so it's name was probably something to do with that. Here it is after one coat.
This was applied with a damp cloth. I applied about 3 coats of this in total, with each layer making the guitar a little darker.
At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that I made this guitar several years ago, and at the time had very little information to go on. The finishing of the guitar was done following the advice of a carpenter (who knew nothing about guitars), so it's entirely possible I went about this totally the wrong way. I will add that I ended up with a beautiful-sounding guitar, but at the same time it took an eternity to get a finish that I was happy with and I know for a fact that I would do this part very differently next time.
So anyway, back to business...
Before you spray your guitar, you should really apply some sort of sealant, otherwise the lacquer will get sucked into the wood like you wouldn't believe. This will make life much more difficult for you and can end up affecting the tone.
So after applying some stain, that's what I did. Just one layer of sealing varnish, followed by a bit of light sanding. Some of you might be wondering why I didn't apply the sealant BEFORE the stain, but that's cos I figured the sealing varnish wouldn't absorb the stain
Next, it was a case of applying layer after layer of spray-on nitro lacquer. This took a LOT longer than I thought it would, as previously I'd been used to spray painting metal boxes and the likes with (poly) car spray paint. I lost count of the number of layers I added, and this was probably due to my not applying the sealing varnish correctly. The wood grain just kept sucking that lacquer in.
Every few layers, you should do some very light wet sanding to try to keep the surface as perfect as possible. If you manage to remove some of the stain by accident, just re-apply it. It's actually not as serious a problem as you might think (or at least it wasn't in my case).
Here's a picture of the guitar with several layers of lacquer applied. Unfortunately, I couldn't hold back and put a lot of parts on the guitar before I took this photo.
You can really see how the grain has sucked the lacquer in. At first I was going to leave the guitar like this, as I'd already applied dozens of coats of lacquer, but I later had a change of heart and decided to go for a smooth finish (more sanding, more lacquering). While I was at it, I routed the guitar for a tremolo, using the same drill and chisel method as before.
Here's the body after that stage:
That's it...looks fantastic! I can't seem to get away from wood grain...it's just too pretty, and swamp ash is about my favorite grain pattern
Yeah, man. It just seemed too much of a shame to paint over that.
Sweet. Thanks.
Thanks a lot, John. That's a very informative post.
Well, since you asked...
First off, I taped off the neck from the nut down. This just left the head exposed. I applied a coat or two of nitro lacquer and let it dry well.
Then for the decals, well, the only thing I had available to me at the time was Letraset, so that's what I used. Lining up those letters was a PIG, but I think it turned out OK. My surname is Morrow, hence the logo.
Interestingly (and not surprisingly once you understand nitro), with each layer of lacquer that I applied over the decal, the letters got thinner and thinner. In fact I was worried that the smaller letters were going to disappear altogether, so I had to stop.
Once the head of the guitar was finished, I removed the tape/newspaper, etc, flipped the neck over, so it was face down, and applied lacquer to the back. I'm sure this is a very unorthodox way of doing it, but it worked well with the rosewood fingerboard. Had I taped off just the fingerboard, I would have ended up with raised edges where the lacquer stopped. With the method I used, it all blended together nicely.
Here's a close up of the finished decal.
John Watt
Banned
irishstu! yeah... I'm still looking and getting into it more. I decided to get necks made when I redefined my bodies too... not wanting to spend months making necks until I got a good one. It was interesting when I started getting loud with effects through a Marshall in the early 70's. You could really feel the differences in the string vibrations on the neck with your fingers... almost like dead spots when they were exaggerated through effects. Getting necks made as precisely as possible with the best grained wood is a hunt for being totally in tune for me.
The reason I pushed the Fender tremolo is traditional, first of all, being the original invention, and being what Jimi used that I bought. It's too easy to look at what electric guitar bridges have become and think you need some of all of that to be right on in modern terms. But those floating bridges turned out to be fine for overdubs for the effects, mostly sounding like motorcycles or dive bombers, but preventing you from staying in tune. Most guitarists who posed with them for magazines blocked them off and had only depressed tunings. And all those rollers and variously adjusting bridges just made changing strings a repair job more than anything else.
Having a tremolo unit where the string tension goes through the body behind the bridge, and then comes back parallel towards the neck as Fender Stratocasters do, is still the best way to enable the widest variety of string vibration throughout the body, putting out more for your pickups, and having the smallest, flattest bridge allows many hand and palm placements, and movements, for muting and alternating open strings, very important for feedback use.
If you ever hear a Strat with the original, automotive style primers and nitro-cellulose, baked finish, and then heard the same guitar taken down to bare wood, you'd hear and begin to appreciate what resonances there are and how minute differences can mean stronger acoutic response. It's a little disappointing to hear of your water based stain use. Tree sap is where turpentine comes from, and oil based products are the real absorbent when it comes to wood... but you're soaked three times in it now and you'll have to use a similar product for a clear-coat... unless you don't want one. You'd have to get into varnishes like violinists now to try and keep as much natural resonance as you can.
Hmmm... now I'm thinking about my guitar...
as always, John Watt
The reason I pushed the Fender tremolo is traditional, first of all, being the original invention, and being what Jimi used that I bought. It's too easy to look at what electric guitar bridges have become and think you need some of all of that to be right on in modern terms. But those floating bridges turned out to be fine for overdubs for the effects, mostly sounding like motorcycles or dive bombers, but preventing you from staying in tune. Most guitarists who posed with them for magazines blocked them off and had only depressed tunings. And all those rollers and variously adjusting bridges just made changing strings a repair job more than anything else.
Having a tremolo unit where the string tension goes through the body behind the bridge, and then comes back parallel towards the neck as Fender Stratocasters do, is still the best way to enable the widest variety of string vibration throughout the body, putting out more for your pickups, and having the smallest, flattest bridge allows many hand and palm placements, and movements, for muting and alternating open strings, very important for feedback use.
If you ever hear a Strat with the original, automotive style primers and nitro-cellulose, baked finish, and then heard the same guitar taken down to bare wood, you'd hear and begin to appreciate what resonances there are and how minute differences can mean stronger acoutic response. It's a little disappointing to hear of your water based stain use. Tree sap is where turpentine comes from, and oil based products are the real absorbent when it comes to wood... but you're soaked three times in it now and you'll have to use a similar product for a clear-coat... unless you don't want one. You'd have to get into varnishes like violinists now to try and keep as much natural resonance as you can.
Hmmm... now I'm thinking about my guitar...
as always, John Watt
irishstu
really experienced
Of course I don't mind, Mark. Go right ahead.
Cool! I'll probably feature this build next week....
irishstu
really experienced
cool
Thanks again, fellas. John I'm curious if you could explain the whole water-based stain and turpentine thing.
newbuilder
snoochie boochies
That's awsome man...I wish i could see the last picutres, I am getting the red x of death.
irishstu
really experienced
Yeah, I was having problems seeing them too, so I re-uploaded them. Can you try again?
newbuilder
snoochie boochies
That's it...looks fantastic! I can't seem to get away from wood grain...it's just too pretty, and swamp ash is about my favorite grain pattern
bump! Pt1 is on the front page: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/content.php
John Watt
Banned
irishstu! Thanks for asking me to get on about clearcoats and finishes even though you're getting it done. I was a professional sign-painter with a shop for over eight years, self-employed, so I've got a real chemical understanding going about paint, high quality paint. I'll just call it paint, 1SHOT products being everyone's favorite, Krylon for sprays.
Please think of what I'm typing next in terms of defragmenting your computer, getting rid of unneccesary stuff so the wanted responses are readily available and your machine is working as efficient as possible. In paint terms, less is more, unless you've got some farmer who wants the paint as thick as possible so the lettering lasts as long as possible. That's a visual thing, not the dampening effect you want for guitar.
Turpentine and laquer are tree products, part of the sap and cellulose of wood grains, so you can imagine how appropriately they absorb and adhere. As you know, water and oil repel, which is what your wood is doing to water based products. That's why sign guys and carpenters who are painting a project use water base, it dries sitting on the surface, not needing more coats.
Laquer, especially spraying it, takes getting good to be successful. Now remember, you're not thinking in terms of manufacturing, what it takes to keep the ass-embly line moving, so you can be pure and true with your wood. Laquer dissolves itself very quickly, and usually the first lesson learned is that you might have built up a couple of layers of laquer, thinking it's getting there, and the next coat, or the final coat, you think is happening all of a sudden becomes all the laquer being wet and running and dripping, meaning starting again. But other than wasting product, it's not that bad, because you can use laquer or laquer thinner to wipe it off again just like water, even if the cool feeling it gives your hands is the toxicity soaking into your nerves and blood vessels. Less of anything on the wood is better for acoustics and resonance, so if you can wipe on and sand lightly a primer coat, and spray lightly, you'll use less than a can. Some modern synthetics are easier than the real stuff, even if the chemicals, more like lighter fluid for quick dries, are worse to breathe.
As you maybe have seen, water products are more flexible, tree and oil products being more dense and rigid. That helps vibrations too.
And as far as the debate about oil and water paints, oil is where it's really at, but I'm not totally down on water-based. It's nice to start peeling paint off right away with your fingers, sometimes ripping off long sections, making it easy to find the surface. A sign trick for cheap changeable signs is to paint the board with water-based, so when you want to change your computer cut vinyl letters, they peel off easy. I did that for farmers selling produce on the side of the road, using the side of a barn or some old sign their great, great-grandfather originally made.
If you've got some water and oil spray paint laying around, experiment. Spray some water base, overlay it with oil enamel, lay some strips of something or a stencil over it to provide separated sections, and spray laquer on top. Overspray that with more oil or water and finish off with a laquer or enamel reducer, enough to melt it all, you'll be surprised at what kind of rippling, bubbling action you get, and what it looks like when it settles down, usually like some kind of polished stone. I once made a sign for a dog kennel, repainting an old sheet of aluminum sign, and did that, the artwork of the house and kennel looking like a dark blue some kind of space stone. I used a knife to etch through to the aluminum, cutting across the top of the house and all through the link fence, and my friend, a '64 S.G. with P.A.F. Humbucker full time player, thought it looked like moonlight shining on his property. He loved it. He also got me to refinish his '64, a job I still get off on thinking about. Not going for all original, he wanted flourescent red horns like little devil horns, being the rabble-rouser he is.
yeah... I like observing and seeing what's going on here, but I gotta be me and add www.johnwatt.ca,
just so I can claim some credibility here.
It took not being able to carve this densely grained wood with edges and extrusions like a violin to make me sand the sides,
and use paint as faux pas purfling, painting the sides too. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but it looks good and is original.
But... after all of that... the worst part comes... what to call it... and how do you get decals made for your headstock?
as always, John Watt
Please think of what I'm typing next in terms of defragmenting your computer, getting rid of unneccesary stuff so the wanted responses are readily available and your machine is working as efficient as possible. In paint terms, less is more, unless you've got some farmer who wants the paint as thick as possible so the lettering lasts as long as possible. That's a visual thing, not the dampening effect you want for guitar.
Turpentine and laquer are tree products, part of the sap and cellulose of wood grains, so you can imagine how appropriately they absorb and adhere. As you know, water and oil repel, which is what your wood is doing to water based products. That's why sign guys and carpenters who are painting a project use water base, it dries sitting on the surface, not needing more coats.
Laquer, especially spraying it, takes getting good to be successful. Now remember, you're not thinking in terms of manufacturing, what it takes to keep the ass-embly line moving, so you can be pure and true with your wood. Laquer dissolves itself very quickly, and usually the first lesson learned is that you might have built up a couple of layers of laquer, thinking it's getting there, and the next coat, or the final coat, you think is happening all of a sudden becomes all the laquer being wet and running and dripping, meaning starting again. But other than wasting product, it's not that bad, because you can use laquer or laquer thinner to wipe it off again just like water, even if the cool feeling it gives your hands is the toxicity soaking into your nerves and blood vessels. Less of anything on the wood is better for acoustics and resonance, so if you can wipe on and sand lightly a primer coat, and spray lightly, you'll use less than a can. Some modern synthetics are easier than the real stuff, even if the chemicals, more like lighter fluid for quick dries, are worse to breathe.
As you maybe have seen, water products are more flexible, tree and oil products being more dense and rigid. That helps vibrations too.
And as far as the debate about oil and water paints, oil is where it's really at, but I'm not totally down on water-based. It's nice to start peeling paint off right away with your fingers, sometimes ripping off long sections, making it easy to find the surface. A sign trick for cheap changeable signs is to paint the board with water-based, so when you want to change your computer cut vinyl letters, they peel off easy. I did that for farmers selling produce on the side of the road, using the side of a barn or some old sign their great, great-grandfather originally made.
If you've got some water and oil spray paint laying around, experiment. Spray some water base, overlay it with oil enamel, lay some strips of something or a stencil over it to provide separated sections, and spray laquer on top. Overspray that with more oil or water and finish off with a laquer or enamel reducer, enough to melt it all, you'll be surprised at what kind of rippling, bubbling action you get, and what it looks like when it settles down, usually like some kind of polished stone. I once made a sign for a dog kennel, repainting an old sheet of aluminum sign, and did that, the artwork of the house and kennel looking like a dark blue some kind of space stone. I used a knife to etch through to the aluminum, cutting across the top of the house and all through the link fence, and my friend, a '64 S.G. with P.A.F. Humbucker full time player, thought it looked like moonlight shining on his property. He loved it. He also got me to refinish his '64, a job I still get off on thinking about. Not going for all original, he wanted flourescent red horns like little devil horns, being the rabble-rouser he is.
yeah... I like observing and seeing what's going on here, but I gotta be me and add www.johnwatt.ca,
just so I can claim some credibility here.
It took not being able to carve this densely grained wood with edges and extrusions like a violin to make me sand the sides,
and use paint as faux pas purfling, painting the sides too. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but it looks good and is original.
But... after all of that... the worst part comes... what to call it... and how do you get decals made for your headstock?
as always, John Watt
pjackson92
PRSnorkler
Yeah, man. It just seemed too much of a shame to paint over that.
Sweet. Thanks.
Thanks a lot, John. That's a very informative post.
Well, since you asked...
First off, I taped off the neck from the nut down. This just left the head exposed. I applied a coat or two of nitro lacquer and let it dry well.
Then for the decals, well, the only thing I had available to me at the time was Letraset, so that's what I used. Lining up those letters was a PIG, but I think it turned out OK. My surname is Morrow, hence the logo.
Interestingly (and not surprisingly once you understand nitro), with each layer of lacquer that I applied over the decal, the letters got thinner and thinner. In fact I was worried that the smaller letters were going to disappear altogether, so I had to stop.
Once the head of the guitar was finished, I removed the tape/newspaper, etc, flipped the neck over, so it was face down, and applied lacquer to the back. I'm sure this is a very unorthodox way of doing it, but it worked well with the rosewood fingerboard. Had I taped off just the fingerboard, I would have ended up with raised edges where the lacquer stopped. With the method I used, it all blended together nicely.
Here's a close up of the finished decal.
I might have to steel your idea
John Watt
Banned
What's happening here? When I first posted online, and that was in Harmony Central, my 498 reply, over 18,000 view DIY posting about my new guitar, that got locked because of others profanity to others, I only got put down for using Letraset for my headstock. I even was accused of photo-altering another guitar to put my name and info on it because it's just black lettering. I had Letraset left over from the early eighties, forced to use it after a sign shop decal attempt rip-off, now just a big disappointment, and I wanted to pay.
irishstu! That's looking nice, especially nice with the gold, lighter color for the handcrafted part. Nice use of capitals.
Letraset usually dissolves in laquer, some doesn't, and some similar products are like that too.
Congratulations for Mark Wein featuring your build on top of the home page.
I hope my last build is the guitar I keep playing for the rest of my life,
so I won't have a chance for the same thrill.
as always, John Watt
irishstu! That's looking nice, especially nice with the gold, lighter color for the handcrafted part. Nice use of capitals.
Letraset usually dissolves in laquer, some doesn't, and some similar products are like that too.
Congratulations for Mark Wein featuring your build on top of the home page.
I hope my last build is the guitar I keep playing for the rest of my life,
so I won't have a chance for the same thrill.
as always, John Watt
Last edited:
irishstu
really experienced
Thanks again.
Well I guess all that's left now is to put the whole thing together.
Oh wait, just one more thing - I decided to make my own battery and tremolo spring covers. At first I used the same white plastic that I used for the scratchplate, but later I found some stainless steel getting chucked out of a shop renovation and used that instead. The plastic was too think anyway.
I won't go into too much detail about how I cut the stainless steel, except to say that I had to get extra-strong blades for my hacksaw, and still broke several regardless, and that I destroyed more than a couple of drill bits (and countersink bits). Stainless steel is serious business!
Anyway, here are some pics of the guitar assembled (note that it has a satin finish). Sorry about the dust:
Well I guess all that's left now is to put the whole thing together.
Oh wait, just one more thing - I decided to make my own battery and tremolo spring covers. At first I used the same white plastic that I used for the scratchplate, but later I found some stainless steel getting chucked out of a shop renovation and used that instead. The plastic was too think anyway.
I won't go into too much detail about how I cut the stainless steel, except to say that I had to get extra-strong blades for my hacksaw, and still broke several regardless, and that I destroyed more than a couple of drill bits (and countersink bits). Stainless steel is serious business!
Anyway, here are some pics of the guitar assembled (note that it has a satin finish). Sorry about the dust:
