I'll start with some random pr0n I just found...
And then a long, roundabout story behind the origin of the title on this thread...
I have been GASing for a sunburst Strat so badly lately... I already own way too many guitars, and I even have two others in transit to me, so I really shouldn't be pursuing this... But I think I might be able to get this strat lust settled on the cheap, since I happened to have a USA Strat neck that came to me unfretted and unfinished, which I tinted using with a cheap, local, easy spray stain- from Michael's (the craft store)
to go from this
to this
Then I used Deft clear lacquer to gloss it all up, which many of us know, is a good hard lacquer that will check and crack with temperature changes...
I wouldn't call DEFT a hard lacquer, but it does check nicely
I'm thinking I can use this neck on a Xavier Strat knock off from guitarfetish.com (about $169), and hopefully cure my Strat lust.... I wonder, though, if I will be able to get the thick, glossy, plastic coating to look like an old guitar...
Does anyone know any tricks to get poly to check and crack like nitro?
Polyurethane doesn't check. The big dog relicers who do age poly use a sharp razor to carve artificial check lines into polyurethane I tried it with a MIM Jazz Bass and got one or two giant cracks, rather than a hundred tiny ones... Same thing I'd seen on a CIJ Jazzmaster...
Maybe I can sand the poly down with 1000 grit until it's pretty thin, then layer up a can or two of Deft, and go from there? Seems simple enough... Think that will work alright?
You wouldn't have to sand it all really. you can just buff it with steel wool.
I'll post pics if I go through with it...