Bareknuckle Super-Strat

Well, it's a couple of weeks since the man-cave fire incident. I dried my tears, collected together a few tools, and have managed to clean out a spot in the shed to create a new workspace, I bought a replacement electric drill and I'm now in a position to actually start building again.

A week after the accident, I found a box on my doorstep - an Ash super strat kit sent to me by Andy in the Pitbull Guitars forum as a pick-me-up after all the fire hassles. It was an amazing act, completely unexpected, and really choked me up. They really are an amazing bunch of guys and gals over there in the forum. The kit is actually a special order (not an off-the-shelf kit by any means), with no front cavity and only pickup and bridge routes.

A Pitbull Guitars Special-Order, Ash Super-Strat

Since it arrived I've been itching to get going on the kit, and today I managed to get a simple mock build together. I loosely positioned the bridge, ran the outside strings to test for neck straightness, and used my new electric drill to bolt the neck into place.

Neck looks straight in the pocket.

It all took less than 10 minutes with the new drill. Do you know I've never tightened neck bolts with the drill until today? Such a time saving, and no stripped screws! Anyway she's looking pretty sweet.

Neck bolted into place and looking good.

Given that the top of the guitar is so clean, I'm planning on leaving her a bare-knuckle build with no rings around the pickups and just bare wood as far as the eye can see. A real no-nonsense shredder.

The Ash grain on this 2 piece body is pretty good and should look great with some grain filling and stain. For a finish I was thinking ebony or walnut Timbermate in the grain, and a trans-black dye job over the top. I was also thinking it might be cool to add some "natural wood colour" hot-rod flames. As with my previous builds sporting hot-rod flames, the idea would be to mask off the flame sections with artists frisket. Then the stain would be applied, hoping that the masked off wood remains clean and untouched. Another option might be to mask off everything *except* the flames and seal those up good with Tru-Oil before trying to stain the rest of the body. Hmm, as this is completely new territory, I might have to actually spend some time testing these techniques!

First draft - hotrod flames.

Anyway, as you can, see I dummied up some flames to try to get a feel for how it would look on the body. I think the black/natural contrast could really work with this design and I'm really excited to give it a try. I must say, I do like how the flames look on the body. Time to start some testing while I get the body sanded and the grain filled. Stay tuned for test results!

Ash Stratocaster: Finally Got the Blues

Well, finishing and assembly is finally completed on the Ash Stratocaster build. The Colortone blue and Acrylic finish has come up a treat, especially with the ebony Timbermate to pop that gorgeous ash grain. To be honest I couldn't be happier with how she has come out.

A few people out there have questioned the choice of a Vintage Amber neck, and if I had my time again I'd probably go a natural neck with the blue body colour. But all in all, I still think the amber and blue combination works well.

Despite issues with pin holes in the Acrylic clear coats, the finish finally came up beautifully. The pin holes were caused by the ash grain not being completely filled and completely sealed before the lacquer went on. While I solved the problem in the end with repeated application, it's a lesson to be learnt for next time.

I still need to do a complete setup before I can call her 100% complete. This includes a fret level, adjustment of bridge saddle height, and the filing of a brand new bone nut. She already plays very nicely indeed - straight out of the box as it were. The Tru-Oiled neck is so smooth! With a fret job and new nut I'll be able to dial the action in and she'll be a real joy under the fingers. Stay tuned for more updates!

Ash Stratocaster: Assembly

Today I got the polishing finished on the body of the Ash Stratocaster. One round with Meguiars ScratchX 2.0 was enough to complete the shine and allow me to move on to assembly. I decided that I really liked the look of the white pearloid scratchplate with the gold hardware, and was keen to forge ahead with getting all electronics moved over from the original scratchplate. With this done (and the back of the scratchplate shielded with copper foil at the same time), it was on with the neck, the tuners, the bridge and the tremolo springs, in short order.

The bridge saddles needed to be raised quite a lot to get above the 22nd fret and allow me to intonate the two E strings. The neck heel is quite high off the guitar body, and I'm hoping it won't lead to overly extended saddles when all is said and done. Anyway, I got the E strings intonated with only a slight tweak to the saddle's factory positions, and followed this up with the installation of the back cover plate.

The gold hardwre and white pearloid really set the blue off nicely.

The gold screws and neck plate give the back some style as well.

In the end, to get the new scratchplate to fit between the bridge and the neck was a bit more effort than I had envisioned. Strat scratchplates are all the same size right? Wrong. Unbeknownst to me, the new scratch plate was a little larger than the original plain white one that I used to do my mock build. In the end I needed the help of my trusty dremel to take some material away from around the neck heel before the bastard would fit. In the end it all worked out however!

Tomorrow I'll be gunning down the home straight with this build. I have just to shield the control cavity with copper foil, ground the shielding, and solder the output wires to the jack. Three whole solder joints! You gotta love a Stratocaster kit huh? By tomorrow afternoon this baby should be singing.

Once she's making noise, I can take my time with doing a good fret levelling and creating a nice low bone nut. All this, with a generous helping of Dr Ducks to condition the rosewood fretboard, should result in a nice low action and a slick feel. Fingers crossed!!

Ash Stratocaster: Wet-Sanding & Polishing

After a few hours on the IR lamp, and with no discernible smell of chemicals coming off the surface, I guessed that the acrylic lacquer on the Ash Stratocaster was ready for polishing. I started with 1500 grit wet/dry paper, and wet-sanded until all the low (shiny) spots were removed from the surface. There were one or two pinholes in the finish, unfortunately caused by the ash grain and my own inexperience lacquering bare wood, so this is something to look out for next time.

With the surface nice and matt from the 1500 grit, it was time for the 2000 grit. After a good wet-sanding with 2000 (which took much, much less time than the 1500), the matt look was beginning to be replaced with a dull shine. Time for some Meguiars Ultimate Compound! The photos below show the surface after one application of the Meguiars Ultimate.

Meguiars Ultimate Compound to bring the shine after the 2000-grit.

Nice huh? The transformation under the ministrations of the Ultimate Compound are always amazing to behold. The shine seems to just materialise out of thin air. The next step (tomorrow) is to give the surface a second application of this compound and then move on to the Meguiars ScratchX 2.0 to really complete the shine.

My gold hardware also arrived from Pitbull Guitars today, as well as a white perloid pickguard. The gold hardware really looks excellent with the blue body and the white guard, and I can't wait to get them put together. The hardware also includes gold mounting screws and all the bits and bobs, so in the end there will be plenty of bling to see on this bad boy!

Gold hardware is looking the business! White pearloid looks great too.

The neck also looks great, although a blue headstock would have been better.

All in all, this build is shaping up to be a really nice looking axe. Up until this point, I've not really been much of a Stratocaster fan to be perfectly honest. But you know what, this guitar might just be the one that converts me. I guess it will depend on how nice she is to play. Based on the initial neck profile, I'm thinking she's goinna be sweet with a little attention paid to the setup and the action.

Ash Stratocaster: Ready for Polish

After a day of rain and no way to spray outdoors, the weather was bright and sunny today and I was able to get the can of White Knight clear acrylic out for a final coat on the Ash Stratocaster. The surface was beautiful and level after my previous ministrations, and the final coat went on like a dream. Both the front and back look really beautiful now - it's amazing how much it has helped enhance the underlying grain!

Final Clear Coat for Polishing. The Ash Grain is Looking Amazing.

Nothing for it now but to let this final coat cure for a few days under the IR lamp until the smell disappears. Patience is a virtue at times like these - or at least having a second build to be getting on with! I've learnt from previous experience that there's no point polishing until the curing is done. Disappointment is sure to follow! I am very excited to see this build put together though...

Ash Stratocaster: Clearing, Levelling, Rinse and Repeat..

More levelling and clear coating today on the Ash Stratocaster. Firstly, I took the acrylic clear back with 800 grit wet-sanding until both my shoulder was aching and I was stricken in terror lest I sand through to the dye. The top was *almost* level - just a few grain lines poking through - but I decided more clear wouldn't hurt.

Surface levelled with 600 grit. It's not perfect yet, but it's getting there!

After a good clean it was on with two more coats of acrylic gloss. Man, now she really shines - and the shinier she gets, the more the blue is enhanced and the grain pops. And it's just amazing how different this blue Colortone looks inside the cave versus out in the sun! Anyway, here's the new shine:

Two more coats and a bake under the IR lamp. The shine is getting there!

Looking pretty good! After these two coats nearly all of the grain has been filled. You can still see a few small grain lines that remain in the clear:

It's shiny but some grain lines remain. Back to the 800 grit!

One more round of 800 grit wet-sanding and a final coat of acrylic should remove these lines and allow one more coat of clear to complete the job. After that she'll be ready for curing and polishing. It's gonna to take a week or so to cure fully under my heat lamp (I'll basically wait until all the smell is gone from the surface). But the curing starts on Friday! More levelling to do before then. Better rest my sanding arm!

Ash Stratocaster: More Acrylic from the Can

Today I spent time getting more acrylic lacquer onto the Ash Stratocaster. Yesterday I managed 5 coats - representing most of a full can of White Knight Clear Acrylic Gloss. Today I applied 2 more coats, flattened the surface somewhat with 800 grit paper, and then applied two more coats. Between coats, both yesterday and today, I have had the body in front of my IR lacquer curer (outdoor heater from Bunnings) and that has helped speed up the process brilliantly.

The lacquer is slowly building up a gloss finish.

More uneven grain on the front means more rough places to take care of.

The back is much more level then the front, and looking good!

The result is a guitar body that is starting to level up, but is still a little rough in places where the ash grain is still showing through. In these places in particular, there area few "pinholes" that I will need to take care of with some carefully placed lacquer. That's a job for tomorrow before I flatten the surface again with 800 grit. Hopefully with a couple more coats she'll be ready for a final wet-sand with 1500 and then 2000 grits, followed by a polish with Meguiars compounds.

While the body has been curing I have also been able to slowly build up coats of Tru-Oil on the neck. Currently there are now 7 thin coats over the Vintage Amber dye, and she's starting to look nice and shiny.

7 Coats of Tru-Oil on the Neck and She's Looking Good

Not only does she look nice, she is really starting to feel nice too. I have been applying 0000 steel wool between coats, and between the 6th and 7th coat I gave the whole surface a light wet-sand with 1500 grit. A few more of those and she'll be ready for the decal.

Today I bit the bullet and ordered a set of Stratocaster Gold Hardware from the good folks at Pitbull Guitars. I'm hoping that the gold will put the finishing touch on this axe. I've never seen a blue axe that didn't look amazing with gold. Here's hoping!

Ash Stratocaster: Black Burst? Um, No.

Got more dye on to the Ash Stratocaster today. What I had intended as a black burst ended up like this. Can you see the burst? No I can't see it either.

She's much darker in real-life, but looks great through the camera!

I'm not sure what happened to the black. The wood seemed to saturate very quickly and try as I might I couldn't blend the black into the blue without obliterating it completely. I think the black just darkened the entire body in the end, although the end grain has retained quite a lot of it. The only place on the body!

Anyway, with no burst forthcoming I decided to press on and get the clear coats started. In this photo there are 3 coats of acrylic clear on the body. The ash grain is still poking through the clear coats at the moment, indicating that my Timbermate grain filling process didn't fill them entirely. No matter. To be honest, even though it means that the guitar wont be as glossy as it might be, I like seeing the ash grain pattern in the surface of the finish.

Acrylic Gloss from a Can

The acrylic clear I am using for this project is the canned variety from White Knight. In the past I have used auto acrylic and my own spray equipment, but I thought I'd give this a go. It's more expensive than the bulk auto acrylic+thinner, but it is sooo much more convenient to use. I'm seeing if I can get just as good a finish with this, including the wet-sanding and polishing. The ash grain may well defeat me in this, but we'll see. Tomorrow I'll get more acrylic clear coats on and we'll see if that pesky grain is going to fill up or not!

Ash Stratocaster: Grainfill & Dye

More progress today on the Ash Stratocaster build! I finally got the body sanded to 400 grit and then went through 3 passes of raising the grain with water and sanding back down until I was happy with the smoothness.

Smooth as a baby's Wossname.

With the body smooth as a baby's unmentionables, it then was time to fill the grain. Instead of dying black and sanding back, I opted to fill the grain with dark filler in much the same way as I did with the Ash Les Paul build. For that build I used walnut Timbermate to fill the ash grain as it matched the brown hues in the burst nicely. For this build I decided to use ebony Timbermate as the black would work much better with a blue dye. I actually did a few tests with 4 different Timbermate colours against a blue background and the ebony was certainly streaks ahead of the others. Anyway, I got the Timbermate smooshed down into the grain, and a few hours later sanded it off again with 400 grit.

A slurry of timbermate pushed down into the grain and left to dry.

Timbermate sanded back with 400 grit to leave the grain filled.

Once I was happy with the amount of black left in the body (there was still a little more than I was hoping for, but it's in the grain - what can I do) it was time to start the staining. After agonising for a month over what dye to use (you've probably read the posts!), I finally decided on the Colortone blue. It's not as "brilliant" a blue as I would have liked, but with the darkness of this piece of ash, and combining that with the darkness of the ebony Timbermate, she was never going to be a "brilliant" blue anyway.

And so the dye went on for a first coat, and I gotta say, I was very pleased with the results! The blue dye combined with the ebony Timbermate resulted in a kind of "slate" blue. Very nice! It's not what I had envisioned for this build in the beginning, but I'll take it all the same! Here's a picture of the blue in the sunshine. The dye here has dried quite a bit, so the final colour will be a bit darker (a more "wet" look).

Blue dye and black grain in the sun. It's dry here so final colours will darken.

The photos give some impression of the contrast between body and grain. This will increase again when the lacquer goes on. Suffice to say I'm very happy with the way the grain pops. I think she'll look pretty good with a bit of lacquer and a brilliant shine!

And... here she is with the original white scratchplate on. Looks pretty good, but I'm now imagining a black burst around the edge and an aged cream pearloid scratchplate.

Final colour will be darker blue, but I'm also considering a black burst

What do you guys think would look best?

Ash Stratocaster: Shaping the Headstock

Today I got stuck into the headstock for the Ash Stratocaster build. For a template I used my standard 50s Stratocaster shape that can be sourced from here: http://pdfcast.org/pdf/fender-headstocks (this pdf file contains headstock templates at a 1:1 scale). In my considered opinion Fender never managed to improve on their original headstock design.

The Fender 50s Stratocaster headstock template.

With the template printed out at 1:1 scale, I could get to work cutting the bugger out. This involved tracing around the template in pencil and then roughing the shape out with the jigsaw.

Once I had the rough shape cut out, it was a simple matter of taking the curves down to the line using a combination of sanding wheel (for the convex curves) and a flap wheel mounted in my drill press (for the concave curves). It's a very straightforward process with the correct tools. I changed the inside diameter of the tight concave curve a little so that it fit my smallest flap wheel and negated any fiddly work with the half-round file.

A good template, a jig saw and some sanding tools does the trick

After about 20 minutes the job was done. I now have a spanking new headstock ready for sanding. I'll start with 120 grit (to smooth the curves even further) and work my way down to 800 grit for a silky smooth action. That's gonna take a few hours so I better get started!

Ash Stratocaster: More Dye Tests

I decided to do one more blue dye test today using my pine scrap body. This time it's back to big bad blue Colortone to get an idea for comparison. I tried two colours: 100% blue and a 50/50 blue/green mix - a combination that served me well on the Solid Body PRS build. Here are the results:

Colortone dye on pine - Blue and 50/50 Blue/Green.

The top left is 100% blue Colortone. I applied two coats of blue, and used a clean wet rag after the second coat to rub back out some of the colour and in doing do highlight the grain. The top right is 50/50 blue and green. The bottom left is 50/50 blue green bursting to 100% blue on the outside edge. As usual, the "turquoise" shades don't photograph well. I actually think this blue, and even the blue/green burst, doesn't look half bad. The only question mark is the ash body, which to my eye is a tad darker than this piece of pine.

Ash is a little darker than the my test piece of pine.

To be honest, I'm not sure how the colours will transfer to the ash, but I'm optimistic that the colour shades we see on the pine could be pretty close to those on the ash. Thoughts on this colour combination?

Ash Stratocaster: None More Blue!

With Acrylic Ink confirmed as a worthy successor for blue Colortone dye, I decided to continue my experiements with blue Stamp Pad Ink. Stamp Pad Ink has been used successfully on a number of blue guitars out there in the forums, and the results have all looked amazing. I headed out today to my local Officeworks and returned to the man-cave with an $8 bottle of blue. The results? Well, nothing short of spectacular. Take a look for yourself..

Stamp Pad Ink: None More Blue!

Yep, you're eyes aren't playing tricks. Here I have applied the ink (and some Colortone black) to a test piece of pine. Man, this blue ink is *so* blue, and a brilliant blue at that! One might say it's none more blue (sic). It just leaps off the wood while soaking nicely into the grain at the same time. It looks nothing short of amazing. I reckon that if I grain fill with ebony Timbermate and colour with this stuff, I'll have one stunning Stratocaster on my hands. What do you guys out there on the interweb think?

Postscript 27/2/2015
Ok, so I've just been informed by Dingobass, the resident luthier over at Pitbull Guitars, that unfortunately the pigment in this kind of ink is not colourfast! That means that it will gradually fade over time and end up looking grey and shitty. Bummer! Well, at least I found out sooner rather than later. Looks like it's back to the experiments. Thanks DB!

Ash Stratocaster: Acrylic Ink for Colour?

Getting blue wood stain to look nice is a veritable pain in the arse. Here in the man-cave I've got a bottle of the concentrated Colortone blue, and even *it* looks like crap when applied to actual wood. Readers may remember my experiment with blue Colortone on the Surf Monster Telecaster a few months back. The problem seems to be that when the natural colour of the wood and the blue dye mix, the results are dark and drab, and some wood grain just refuses to take the colour. The conclusion I've reached is that unless you are adding the dye directly to spray on lacquer, just forget going blue - you just aren't going to get the pleasing result that you are after.

The trouble is - I like blue guitars; especially those with a nice black burst. For the Ash Stratocaster build, I would dearly love to get a nice, deep blue finish. Thankfully, I may have found the answer in the form of Acrylic Ink. Stan Burt on the Build Your Own Guitar Forum recently experimented with purple acrylic ink for his Les Paul build, and the results were quite startling. While the pigment didn't soak in as much as with traditional wood dyes, the resulting finish was vibrant and looked amazing. So here, maybe was the answer to the blue finish conundrum.

With this in mind, I headed to my local art supplier and sourced some acrylic ink - in Cerulian (light) Blue, Turquoise (dark) Blue and Black in the hopes of creating a nice blue/black burst for the Stratocaster.

Three shades of Liquitex Acrylic Ink to attempt a blue burst.

For my first attempt at a burst, I mixed the ink 50/50 with water (so that it didn't dry too quickly) and set to work with some cotton cloths attempting to create a burst on a piece of scrap pine. The results were pretty good. Despite the pigment somewhat hiding the wood grain, the colours were vibrant and the inks mixed well.

First pass of ink (diluted 50%) and attempted burst.

Once the first pass was dry, I made a second pass using the same 50/50 mix. The result is much better, with the colours filling out, and merging nicely to form the burst. The grain is certainly being occluded a little by the pigment, but for the Ash Stratocaster I plan to fill the grain with a dark Tibermate (probably ebony) so that it should stand out nicely under the blue.

Second ink pass (still diluted). Colour is deeper and much more even.

To be honest, I'm very pleased with the results I've managed to achieve. The burst could do with more black but it's getting there. Maybe one more pass will be enough. I'm also interested in trying a burst without adding water to the ink. If I work quickly on pre-moistened wood ,there should be enough liquid to allow the colours to blend together. I'll keep you posted how my experiments are proceeding!

Ash Stratocaster: Unboxing.

With the Ash Thinline Cabronita hanging waiting for the primer to dry, I thought I'd start a new build to keep me sane. It's a Pitbull Guitars STA-1, and is only the second Stratocaster I've ever built. The first went to my niece Siena as a birthday present and my wall has hung Stratless ever since. This kit was purchased at the Pitbull birthday sale back in September, and I'm really glad that I can finally get started on it.

Right out of the box the kit looked great. The neck is straight, with a nicely figured rosewood fretboard. The 3-piece ash body also has some great figure in it. I was intending a solid colour for this baby - I've always coveted a surf strat - but now this figure is giving me pause. No need to decide now - it's a decision that I can ruminate on for a few dozen days of sanding.

Do I really want to paint over all that grainy goodness?

The mock build went together very quickly. The assembly of the strat kit is very straightforward, with only the position of the bridge to be established. To be honest, the tremelo cavity really doesn't leave much room for error here either. There's only a couple of mm play vertically and horizontally within the cavity, and with the pickguard also taken into account, it's pretty easy to see where the bridge should go. Anyway, just to be safe I consulted the Stewmac Fret Position Calculator to validate the vertical position of the mounting screws, and used the two E strings down the length of the neck to determine the optimal horizontal position. In no time I had the neck mounted, the bridge screwed in and the tremelo spring claw installed. Easy as bro!

The good old strat really is about as simple a kit as you will find. It's the perfect kit for all beginner builders to start on and I recommend it everyone out there!

Mock build completed. The Strat is a great first build.

The back is as nice as the front, despite a bit of duck leakage.

There was only one small issue - looks like I used a little too much Dr Ducks to lubricate my neck screws on installation. You can see in the photo of the back of the guitar that the oil has soaked into the body a little. Some of this will come out during sanding, but it might play havoc during staining. Hmm, it might just make the solid finish a no-brainer. Anyway, on with the headstock shaping and the sanding!