My vintage strat project

HarpJim · June 18th, 2008, 05:27 PM

Hi everyone! Here you'll find a thread showing my first DIY guitar projet. Since I don't have all those cool machines to work on wood that some of you guys have, I had to buy each parts of the guitar. With limited means, I had in mind to build myself a "vintage 62" like white strat. I wanted to do something looking old, but not beaten, like most of the relics go nowadays.

So, after gathering all my parts, but the neck, I tried to find some way to age the hardware first. I knew that muriatic acid was commonly used for that mather, but I was concened about the toxicity of the thing. I ended up on a science site for kids showing an experiment where you had to mix a glass of water, 2 table spoons of vinegar and 2 table spoons of javex as a solution. It worked pretty well on a saddle (mather of minutes). Been impressed by the quick result, I looked on the internet to see what kind of reaction caused this incredible mix. The answer : chloridric acid! Highly toxic for health. I forgot that solution. Them I went to my local electronic store to buy etchant solution. Found some, but it came in too much quantity for my needs. Got back home and browse the Internet again. I found another trick on a metal crafting site telling to try a mix of vinegar and hydrogen peroxid, each sprayed after the other. I tried, it worked pretty well! Rust came even faster when I added sea salt on top of the metal parts.

You can see the result. I'm quite happy with it since it's my first try.

I'll add some more of my futur results as they come ;-)

SMPTE · June 18th, 2008, 07:04 PM

Fender had quilted Strats?!

Coooooollll.....

robt57 · June 18th, 2008, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMPTE

Fender had quilted Strats?!

The bigger picker upper Strat ??

guitarzan13 · June 20th, 2008, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robt57

The bigger picker upper Strat ??

LOL

Old Cane · June 20th, 2008, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMPTE

Fender had quilted Strats?!

Coooooollll.....

I think that's the one-off oly white quilted paisley that James Burton had made as a gift to Hendrix, who willed it to Clapton, who auctioned it off at the Hard Rock and Beck bought it. It's so rare there are no known pictures of it. Shhhhhh.

HJ, you sure picked a good one to clone!

HarpJim · June 24th, 2008, 05:22 PM

Ok, here are some updates of my projet.

First, I finished working on the bridge. See the result.

Before

After

Nice ehh!?

Then I recived the Mighty Might neck last week. Got good and bad surprises. On the good side, I feel this neck to be smooth and strait. It's V shaped and I love it. On the other side, there's two things to remember me that I only paid 115 bucks for this neck. First, I'll have to trim the bone nut. You can easily see the angle on the picture below.

HarpJim · June 24th, 2008, 05:23 PM

Second, the neck dots are not perfectly centered!! I guess there's nothing to do with it. It doesn't shows that much, but I know it, then I see it. Look at the pictures, I mesured the distance on both sides at the 5th fret. It's like that for the rest of the neck.

BTW, I had some more screws to rust. I tried to drill them all before treating them, so oly the heads will rust, leaving the rest intact. I'll have to unscrew them to see the result, but from now it's so far so good.

Updates will follow.

nicktele5150 · June 24th, 2008, 05:26 PM

are you relicing the neck? nice job on the hardware by the way!

HarpJim · June 24th, 2008, 05:30 PM

Thank you nicktele5150!

I'll try to relic it a bit ... or should I say "to age" it, because I don't want the guitar to look beaten, just old and badly stored in a wet basement.

nicktele5150 · June 24th, 2008, 05:45 PM

yea ive not been a real big fan of the finish on the back worn off but when it yellow it looks nice and a couple of burns and dings on the headstock. i wish i had of seen this post a couple of months ago me and my freind tried to make a eric calpton blackie replica lol

HarpJim · June 24th, 2008, 06:03 PM

There will surely be some nice cigarette burn on the headstock!

Do you have pics of your clapton project?

nicktele5150 · June 24th, 2008, 06:13 PM

naw i forgot to take pics of it. it wasnt the greatist relic job either cause we didnt know what we were doing

HarpJim · July 2nd, 2008, 03:02 PM

Ok guys! I've been quite busy last two weeks, but now I'm back for good!

I tried to age the plastic stuff. As you can see, things were pretty shiny.

So I buffed everything with sand paper. I started with 800 grit, then 1000 and 2000.

I got that result.

I forgot to take pictures for the pickguard, but the result was the same.

HarpJim · July 2nd, 2008, 03:20 PM

When everything was dull looking, I tried to yellow parts a bit. I had no guitawrench lacquer available since I'm in Canada, so I had to find another way to do my stuff. I had bought some wood dye for the neck and managed to apply a fine coat of it by hand on every parts. It was quite difficult because I used a water base dye that dried quite quickly. It was Minwax Water-Based Wood Stain. I was not 100% happy with the result, but for a first time it seem quite good. Worried about it getting off the plastic with time and sweath, I sprayed Varathane Diamond Wood Finish a couple of times on the parts. The finish was not quite uniform, I guess the sprayer did bad mist (or maybe I'm not just good at using it). To polish it, I would have used 3M Fitness It but again, it's not quite common up here, I did not find anything in 3 canadian tires. So I came back with Meguiar's Scratch X and a buffing wheel attachement for my electric drill. The stuff worked but again, I was hoping for better results.

Here is a picture of what it looks like.

HarpJim · July 2nd, 2008, 03:38 PM

For the body, it did exectly the same thing, but did not sprayed Varathane. I had hard time applying the stain evently.

The big problem came when I tried it install the bridge. As you've seen, it's a vintage 62 model. The body is a Mexican 2008. The holes did not fit!!!!!!!
The bridge had 2 3/16 screw spread and the body 2 1/16 screw spread. Damn! So I went to the wood shop, bought me some 1/8" maple dowels, cut 6 shorts of them, redrilled the holes and got that result

It looks a bit sloppy, I had to do some dremel job (first time I ever used a dremel). Anyway, it will be under the bridge, nobody will see it.

HarpJim · July 2nd, 2008, 03:43 PM

I tried to save some bucks by choosing some mexican parts. It did work, but it cost me alot more time to do the same job. We are all learning by mistakes.

Have a look at the result. It's not bad from here.

I'll try to test the pickup wiring tonight (did all by myself) and hope it will work!

More infos to come, stay tuned!

gtrwrks · July 7th, 2008, 08:48 PM

Nice effort! I love vintage white Strats.

ToadLC · July 7th, 2008, 09:12 PM

This is cool. You obviously had a vision & you're making it.

aunchaki · July 8th, 2008, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarpJim

It looks a bit sloppy, I had to do some dremel job (first time I ever used a dremel). Anyway, it will be under the bridge, nobody will see it.

A bit sloppy! You, sir, are my new hero! This is a fantastic job of filling and redrilling those screw holes. I have a Squier Strat body (10.5mm string/screw spacing) that I've turned into a '62-style Strat. The six trem screw holes on mine are slightly crooked (1-2mm canted). One day I hope to do exactly what you did (and hopefully as nicely as you did it!) to straighten the trem out.

Very nice antiquing/relicking job! Keep those pics coming!

Doug Ferguson · July 8th, 2008, 10:18 AM

Jim, that's a great job of filling and drilling. I'm working on a Chinese made Squire (one that comes with the strat pack deal -- not even an Affinity, but a fairly decent guitar). Like you, I'm putting in a bigger block vintage trem & bridge, but unlike you couldn't get the holes filled well or get the line up right. I'm going to drill it out and glue some dowels in. Wish I'd waited longer to watch your project unfold. It's gonna be a beaut! Keep those pics coming.

ronin32 · July 9th, 2008, 05:53 PM

That looks good.

HarpJim · July 10th, 2008, 08:23 AM

Thank you everyone for your kind comments! It's motivating, really! Since it's my first project, I feel like being in a big cloudy/experimental zone. Your words are bringing some light on my shadows!

New pics will come soon. I kept the neck for the end, big work ahead. I'll try to give it a vintage tinting, but don't know if I'll stain the neck first or go directly with some amber shallac. I've read both techniques on the forum, but I can't decide.

What would you do?

June 18th, 2008, 05:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	My vintage strat project Hi everyone! Here you'll find a thread showing my first DIY guitar projet. Since I don't have all those cool machines to work on wood that some of you guys have, I had to buy each parts of the guitar. With limited means, I had in mind to build myself a "vintage 62" like white strat. I wanted to do something looking old, but not beaten, like most of the relics go nowadays. So, after gathering all my parts, but the neck, I tried to find some way to age the hardware first. I knew that muriatic acid was commonly used for that mather, but I was concened about the toxicity of the thing. I ended up on a science site for kids showing an experiment where you had to mix a glass of water, 2 table spoons of vinegar and 2 table spoons of javex as a solution. It worked pretty well on a saddle (mather of minutes). Been impressed by the quick result, I looked on the internet to see what kind of reaction caused this incredible mix. The answer : chloridric acid! Highly toxic for health. I forgot that solution. Them I went to my local electronic store to buy etchant solution. Found some, but it came in too much quantity for my needs. Got back home and browse the Internet again. I found another trick on a metal crafting site telling to try a mix of vinegar and hydrogen peroxid, each sprayed after the other. I tried, it worked pretty well! Rust came even faster when I added sea salt on top of the metal parts. You can see the result. I'm quite happy with it since it's my first try. I'll add some more of my futur results as they come ;-) Last edited by HarpJim; June 18th, 2008 at 07:17 PM.

June 18th, 2008, 07:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
SMPTE Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Minneeeesoooottta Posts: 1,140	Fender had quilted Strats?! Coooooollll..... __________________ HW1 Texas Tele, EJ Strat, MIJ JM, Epi Casino (AlnicoV), Gibson '61 RI SG, Steinberger, Squier PBass (heavily modded)

July 7th, 2008, 08:48 PM	#17 (permalink)
gtrwrks Tele-Holic Join Date: May 2003 Location: oklahoma city, ok Age: 44 Posts: 736	Nice effort! I love vintage white Strats. __________________ www.myspace.com/toddlynchmusic

July 7th, 2008, 09:12 PM	#18 (permalink)
ToadLC Tele-Meister Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Sacramento Posts: 109	This is cool. You obviously had a vision & you're making it. __________________ Happiness is not a destination: it is a manner of traveling.

July 8th, 2008, 10:18 AM	#20 (permalink)
Doug Ferguson Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Indianapolis, IN Age: 55 Posts: 1,546	Jim, that's a great job of filling and drilling. I'm working on a Chinese made Squire (one that comes with the strat pack deal -- not even an Affinity, but a fairly decent guitar). Like you, I'm putting in a bigger block vintage trem & bridge, but unlike you couldn't get the holes filled well or get the line up right. I'm going to drill it out and glue some dowels in. Wish I'd waited longer to watch your project unfold. It's gonna be a beaut! Keep those pics coming. __________________ If you get hung up on just guitar players, you've missed something.... Don't ever get to a point where you just gotta be a guitar player. You hear something, go try to get that note and sound as much like that as you can.-Buddy Guy

June 24th, 2008, 05:22 PM	#6 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	Ok, here are some updates of my projet. First, I finished working on the bridge. See the result. Before After Nice ehh!? Then I recived the Mighty Might neck last week. Got good and bad surprises. On the good side, I feel this neck to be smooth and strait. It's V shaped and I love it. On the other side, there's two things to remember me that I only paid 115 bucks for this neck. First, I'll have to trim the bone nut. You can easily see the angle on the picture below.

June 24th, 2008, 05:23 PM	#7 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	Second, the neck dots are not perfectly centered!! I guess there's nothing to do with it. It doesn't shows that much, but I know it, then I see it. Look at the pictures, I mesured the distance on both sides at the 5th fret. It's like that for the rest of the neck. BTW, I had some more screws to rust. I tried to drill them all before treating them, so oly the heads will rust, leaving the rest intact. I'll have to unscrew them to see the result, but from now it's so far so good. Updates will follow.

June 24th, 2008, 05:26 PM	#8 (permalink)
nicktele5150 Tele-Meister Join Date: May 2008 Location: georgia Age: 15 Posts: 120	are you relicing the neck? nice job on the hardware by the way!

June 24th, 2008, 05:30 PM	#9 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	Thank you nicktele5150! I'll try to relic it a bit ... or should I say "to age" it, because I don't want the guitar to look beaten, just old and badly stored in a wet basement.

June 24th, 2008, 05:45 PM	#10 (permalink)
nicktele5150 Tele-Meister Join Date: May 2008 Location: georgia Age: 15 Posts: 120	yea ive not been a real big fan of the finish on the back worn off but when it yellow it looks nice and a couple of burns and dings on the headstock. i wish i had of seen this post a couple of months ago me and my freind tried to make a eric calpton blackie replica lol

June 24th, 2008, 06:03 PM	#11 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	There will surely be some nice cigarette burn on the headstock! Do you have pics of your clapton project?

June 24th, 2008, 06:13 PM	#12 (permalink)
nicktele5150 Tele-Meister Join Date: May 2008 Location: georgia Age: 15 Posts: 120	naw i forgot to take pics of it. it wasnt the greatist relic job either cause we didnt know what we were doing

July 2nd, 2008, 03:02 PM	#13 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	Ok guys! I've been quite busy last two weeks, but now I'm back for good! I tried to age the plastic stuff. As you can see, things were pretty shiny. So I buffed everything with sand paper. I started with 800 grit, then 1000 and 2000. I got that result. I forgot to take pictures for the pickguard, but the result was the same.

July 2nd, 2008, 03:20 PM	#14 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	When everything was dull looking, I tried to yellow parts a bit. I had no guitawrench lacquer available since I'm in Canada, so I had to find another way to do my stuff. I had bought some wood dye for the neck and managed to apply a fine coat of it by hand on every parts. It was quite difficult because I used a water base dye that dried quite quickly. It was Minwax Water-Based Wood Stain. I was not 100% happy with the result, but for a first time it seem quite good. Worried about it getting off the plastic with time and sweath, I sprayed Varathane Diamond Wood Finish a couple of times on the parts. The finish was not quite uniform, I guess the sprayer did bad mist (or maybe I'm not just good at using it). To polish it, I would have used 3M Fitness It but again, it's not quite common up here, I did not find anything in 3 canadian tires. So I came back with Meguiar's Scratch X and a buffing wheel attachement for my electric drill. The stuff worked but again, I was hoping for better results. Here is a picture of what it looks like.

July 2nd, 2008, 03:38 PM	#15 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	For the body, it did exectly the same thing, but did not sprayed Varathane. I had hard time applying the stain evently. The big problem came when I tried it install the bridge. As you've seen, it's a vintage 62 model. The body is a Mexican 2008. The holes did not fit!!!!!!! The bridge had 2 3/16 screw spread and the body 2 1/16 screw spread. Damn! So I went to the wood shop, bought me some 1/8" maple dowels, cut 6 shorts of them, redrilled the holes and got that result It looks a bit sloppy, I had to do some dremel job (first time I ever used a dremel). Anyway, it will be under the bridge, nobody will see it.

July 2nd, 2008, 03:43 PM	#16 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	I tried to save some bucks by choosing some mexican parts. It did work, but it cost me alot more time to do the same job. We are all learning by mistakes. Have a look at the result. It's not bad from here. I'll try to test the pickup wiring tonight (did all by myself) and hope it will work! More infos to come, stay tuned!

July 9th, 2008, 05:53 PM	#21 (permalink)
ronin32 NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: So.Cal. Posts: 3	That looks good.

July 10th, 2008, 08:23 AM	#22 (permalink)
HarpJim TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 52	Thank you everyone for your kind comments! It's motivating, really! Since it's my first project, I feel like being in a big cloudy/experimental zone. Your words are bringing some light on my shadows! New pics will come soon. I kept the neck for the end, big work ahead. I'll try to give it a vintage tinting, but don't know if I'll stain the neck first or go directly with some amber shallac. I've read both techniques on the forum, but I can't decide. What would you do?