Thinline Cabronita: Wired and Making Noise!

Well, she's finally finished - the Ash Surf-abilly Thinline Cabronita. I'm very, very happy with the final results - much better than I ever imagined that they would be. The seafoam green flames over the Bali green base work really nicely, and give a nod to the rockabilly set. All that chrome hardware from GFS also works nicely too, as does the retro Cabronita pickguard.

The seafoam and Bali greens are very difficult to photograph. Depending on the light, the photo you end up with is either a washed out olive green, or a light blue like the photos below. You'll just have to take my word for it - this baby looks seafoam in the flesh. That is to say, really bloody awesome!

As usual, the acrylic clear coats came up beautifully. The White King spray cans of gloss acrylic really are the easiest way to get a beautiful gloss finish on your axe - I cannot recommend them highly enough.

While the Thinline retains the classic lines of the Telecaster, the semi-hollow body removes most of the weight, resulting in a guitar that is very easy to handle. The body resonates really nicely too and you can almost play it like a hollow body (almost). Certainly there's a deal more noise coming from the guitar than a straight solid body Ash Telecaster.

All in all, I'd have to say that the Thinline Cabronita is very nearly the perfect guitar. Doing away with the control plate, it's got super-cool looks, it feels nice and light in the hands while remaining balanced on the strap, and it sounds really great unplugged. And with a couple of GFS Mean 90s on board, the package is even better!

These pickups sound really nice in clean mode - delivering just enough single coil twang for surf and rockabilly riffs. When you crank up the distortion, the pickups meet the challenge head on and really live up to their "mean" moniker. These babies rocks as hard as the best of them! So too, the xTrem tremolo from GFS is a really nice addition. It has a nice fluid feel, and combined with the roller bridge and roller string trees, doesn't seem to create any tuning stability problems. All in all a great little package that I'm having a hard time putting down!

Cabronita Thinline: Clear Coats & Assembly

After a few sessions baking under the IR lamp, the chemical smell has finally gone from the White King Acrylic clear coats and my Surf-abilly Thinline Cabronita is finally ready for its final cut and polish! As usual I started the process with a good wet-sand with 1500 grit, wet and dry paper. It took a while, but finally all the orange peel was removed and the surface was nice and matte with no shiny low spots. With this complete, I moved up to 2000 grit. After all the effort required to level all the orange peel with 1500, the 2000 took no time at all and the surface really started to take on a shine.

With the wet-sanding completed down to 2000 grit, it was time to cut and polish with Meguiars Ultimate Compound. This is when the shine really starts to deepen! After two passes with the compound - rubbing it in with small circular motions and then wiping it off - the surface looked amazing. There's no visible height transition between the flames and the background colour (the surface is completely flat) and the shine is awesome.

First pass with Meguiars Ultimate Compound.

With the polishing complete it was time for the long awaited assembly. The pre-drilled screw holes made it a snap to re-attach the neck and get the bridge and tremolo locked down without marring the finish at all.The pickups required a bit of finagling to get them lined up and screw holes drilled, but it was finally managed.

Hardware went back on like a dream.

Neck is still straight, with the strings running nicely from the tremolo,
over the bridge to the nut.

All that is left for me to do now to get the body finished is to cut a new pick guard out of plain white 3-ply material (the kit came with black) and to finish the wiring using shielded wire. Even with the bridge flat on the deck the strings are a good 5mm away from the 22nd fret, so the neck will need a shim before I do a fret level and complete the other setup tasks. First though - get this bad boy making noise! Can't wait to hear these GFS Mean 90s in action.

Cabronita Thinline: Hot Rod Flames

OK, it's decided - subtle hot rod flames it is for the Thinline Cabronita. Here's how I go about adding simple flames to a paint job. Caveat: please remember that I am an amateur who knows very little about the art of spray painting, airbrushes or anything of the like. This is a very simple approach that I have found that I can handle with my limited skills and the tools at my disposal!

Enough of the caveat, let's get to it! The first step it to take my design and transfer it on to a sheet of artists frisket. I have found that it's a good idea to trace it as thin as possible to avoid any errors during cutting.

Tracing my original flames design onto a piece of artists frisket

The next step is to cut out the design using a combination of scissors and a craft blade. This is the toughest part of the process and it can be very hard at times to create a nice smooth line. There are many places on this effort where my blade work was not up to snuff, but we can only do out best!

Cutting around the outline to leave the flames only.

Once the design is cut out, the backing is removed and the design is stuck down to the surface. There's not much danger of the frisket removing the original paint as it's usually very low tack (sometimes too low tack!).

The front design is peeled away from the backing and stuck down.

The back design is exactly the same as the front.

Once the frisket is stuck down on all 4 sides, any remaining areas are masked off with painters tape and butcher's paper. Be careful not to stick the tape to the original paint (it usually isn't low tack!) and also make sure you don't miss a spot! Taking the masking off only to reveal a spot of paint you didn't intend is a real prick let me tell you!

Additional areas are masked with butchers paper and painters tape.

With the additional masking complete, the new colour can be put down. This colour will become the new background colour - leaving the existing colour for the flames. I find that 2 coats should be more than enough to get even colour coverage but not create a large height difference between flame and background.

For my new background colour, I'm using MTN94 Bali Green. It's the next grade in the turquoise (seafoam green?) colour chart. I think it looks pretty good and will provide a subtle contrast to the MTN94 Luminous Green used for the flames.

The flame colour (left) is the original MTN94 Luminous Green.
The body colour (right) will be MTN94 Bali Green.

And so, after two coats of Bali Green the masking was ready to come off. I'm pretty happy with the results! The actual colour isn't quite as blue as it appears here. I managed to get all the frisket off without tearing the new paint. Gently does it!!

The front and under-edge with the frisket removed.

The back and top-edge with the frisket removed.

The body is now hanging in my bathroom under the IR lamp, getting ready for Acrylic clear coats. I can't wait to see this baby all assembled. Once the paint is cured I might do a sneak peak assembly to see how she is looking!

Postscript 08/04/2015:
Got the hardware on to the body for a quick peek - I just couldn't help myself!

A sneak peak with the chrome hardware. Looking great!