Biggest mistake since Hitler decided to invade Poland. . .

Ive not seen this amount of runs since the last time I was in Greece and drank the tap water.

Its all gone wrong. Not only have the gods of the paint world blessed me with three invisible coats so far, they are now laughing their chuddies off at the fourth coat, it is consistently non existent in some places and horrible pools of chod in others.

If the fourth coat was a person it would be Harold Shipman, if the fourth coat was an animal it would be that sting ray that killed Steve Irwin, if the fourth coat was a number it would be 666, if the fourth coat was a tele program it would be Crazy in love with that fat hound off of Atomic Kitten, you get the point = PURE EVIL.

Here are some photos to highlight my point.






Also Ive got these little bubbles in the award winning fourth coat and they have burst and because its paint it has gone hard and left these nasty tiny little craters on the body. (Ive circled them, they are not actually that big) (if they were that big I would have put the whole thing in a giant envelope with this address on it:
TOP OF AN ACTIVE VOLCANO
SOME COUNTRY
THE EDGE OF A TECTONIC PLATE
with instruction for the postman to drop it in.)

More invisible coats. . .

Third Coat



Fourth Coat

Run for the hills. . .

First problem, I got a nasty looking run on the cut away. Probably from the coat being sprayed too wet, its canny hard to see how much paint is going on when you're spraying. (I might try and get a light in the booth for the rest of the coats to make it easier to see how much paint is going on the body) Im going to have to wait for it to dry for a few days and wet sand it out then re-spray. That part is a nightmare to spray because you cant get a good angle because its curved.

White blonde goes on. . .

Spraying the white blonde coats first, so I can see what it looks like before I decide what colour I will do it in the end.

First coat



Second coat



. . . after two coats I cant see any difference in the colour, Im wondering if the can is faulty. Its not spraying the paint uniformly it seems to give spurts of colour, so I get areas with pools of white and the rest if the body looks the same colour as it was before just shiny. I'll try a few more coats and then email the guy I got it from.

Ready to go. . .

Body prep. . .

Going to attach the handle to the workmate to spray it.



The body had already been wood filled and had sanding sealer applied so all I needed to do was scuff the body before spraying the first coat, I used 1200 grit which was probably too fine grit but sort of did the job.



I masked the pickup and control plate cavities just so any over spray wouldn't go in, no real need to do this as any paint in there would matter that much but I saw it on another build so I did it anyway.



Finally I rubbed down the body after sanding with white spirit and a lint free cloth to remove any excess sanding dust so it didn't ruin the first coat.

Handle this. . .

Ive attached a piece of wood to the neck pocket with two screws to use as a handle when I spray the body so I can easily turn it round without having to touch the body. A little bit worried the screws will have created a thread in the pre-drilled holes that will not accept the neck screws. Fingers crossed that wont happen.

Lets get ready to spray. . .

Building the frame



Frame finished



Done - let the spraying begin

Original colour plan but with a dark fret board.



The new plan, I will have to look into relicing the scratch plate to get that worn look or possibly invest in the 'vintage' mint green scratch plate, pretty inexpensive.



What do you think? Which one? All opinions welcome!!

Possible change of plan. . .

Got this nagging in the back of my mind about the colour of the guitar. At this moment in time Im not 100% sure I'm convinced to do it butterscotch blonde? Its the dark rosewood fretboard that I think will look GASH against a butterscotch body.

What I could do is do it white blonde, that is a common colour with a dark fret board and I have that colour lacquer already. Im trying to think how to do it without having to spend more money as Ive already bought a black scratch guard extra especially for a butterscotch body. I have the white pick guard that came with the kit so I have options.

Watch this space. . .

Spraying me body. . .

Half way through building me spray hut. Nearly ready to start spraying the body.

Plan is. . .

Ive got two cans of nitrocellulose lacquer, one white blonde and one tinted lacquer.

Rub down the body with 1200 grit sandpaper to scuff up the surface, then spray the white blonde, enough coats to obscure the grain by about 50% probably 5-6 coats leaving to dry inbetween coats for a day or so. Then spray the tinted lacquer over the white blonde to give it the butterscotch colour, again leaving to dry overnight, enough coats to give it a decent butterscotch colour, probably 6-8 coats and Bobs your uncle - a Butterscotch blonde finish.

Then I should really get some clear coat lacquer and spray a good 10-12 coats of that on top of everything and leave to dry for a good few months (seriously nitrocellulose takes yonks to completely dry) This will give me a strong hard clear finish, that will give the colour layers a bit of depth, then I can wet sand down the final coat and polish with T-Cut to a glorious factory finish shine.

If me maths is up to scratch then that means:

one week for white blonde coat +
one week for tinted coat +
two weeks for clear coat +
three months drying +
one week wet sanding + T-cut = A long time before I get the put the thing together

Andy, double check me working out!!!!!!!!

Deviating. . .

. . . to turn away from a prescribed course of action - www.dictionary.com





On reflection it does seem a bit daft building this thing:
a) its time spent away from working on the guitar
b) the drive cant be used while its there
c) its going to have to be dismantled once its served its purpose

Saying that though, Im quite enjoying being a carpenter this week and I can always re-use the wood for some other side project, maybe I could build an amp!!!!!!

Wind problem. . .

Think Ive got an answer to the problem of spraying the body outside and the bad finish Im getting because of the wind, its a bit extreme like but Im going to build an out door spraying booth!!! Have that!!!!!
Got the idea off of that Jordan and Peter tele show, she bought a portable fake tan spraying booth that she could carry round with her.

The Mrs is trying to convince me just to empty the shed and do it in there but thats not going to happen a) theres not enough room b) too much dust about that could get into one of the coats
c) where is all the stuff going to go each time I want to do a coat d) it would mean me having to empty the shed.

Ive made a plan for the frame of me spraying booth (below) and got a hold of some cheap wood, all I need to do now it put it together. Got some of them dust sheets, they look like massive see-through bin bags, and Im going to staple them to the frame. That should keep the wind out!!!!

I had to consult me brother in law Andy to help me with a bit of simple maths that I have managed to forget since last doing GCSE maths. Remember hypotenuse, adjacents and opposites, trigonometry and all that.

hypotenuse squared = adjacent squared + opposite squared

So

X= Square root of (150 x 150) + (20 x 20)

X= Square root of 22500 + 400

X= Square root of 22900

X= 151.3 cm

Get in!!!!!!!!

Coat of many colours. . .

First Coat

Second Coat

Third Coat


. . . I've sprayed three coats of tinted lacquer on the neck so far and its looking a bit better. Still finding it hard to get a uniform coat because of the wind problem. I'm going to look into constructing some sort of indoor tent using bin bags or newspaper so I can spray the body inside or totally empty the shed and try doing it in there. Problem in the shed is there a canny bit of dust in there and even if a few particles get in a coat then it means a bit of extra work sanding it out at the end.

I got a few dust specks in the finish already which I'll try and wet sand it out before I T-Cut it.

Im a bit worried Im going to run out of the tinted lacquer. This is the one that is going to colour the body butterscotch, the other can is white blonde so its the tinted lacquer that I'll probably need more of.

The plan now is to leave the neck for the time being and crack on with the body and if I have any left after I finish the body then I'll possible spray another coat on the neck.

Getting necky. . .

I sanded the rough sides of the headstock using #240 and then #320 grit sandpaper and got a nice smooth finish, it probably took about an hour in total to get to a point where I was happy with it.

Then I masked the fret board as I dont want to lacquer it, its a rosewood fretboard and your not supposed to lacquer rosewood.



Then I applied the first coat of tinted lacquer, Ive never sprayed anything before so I had a quick spy online and found a few tips. The only place I have enough space to spray it is outside so I set up me workmate and sprayed the front of the headstock first then laid it fretboard side down and sprayed the back of the headstock and the neck.



This is after one coat of tinted lacquer, Im want to put a few more coats on it, I should have took a photo of the neck before spraying then I could have compared the two.

A few things:
Outside there is wind and wind blows the lacquer awrrll ower!!!
There doesn't seem to be much difference in colour between one coat on no coat!!!
My first coat isnt very even, Ive got some thinly coated bits and some heavier!!!

Im not too happy with the first coat, Im hoping the second coat will go on better than the first, got to wait for it to stop raining before I crack on with it. Going do maybe two more coats on the neck - Ill see what it looks like when its done.

On your knees and spray. . .

My nitrocellulose cans have arrived, I orderd it from here, I got a can of white blonde and a can of tinted gloss. The guy, Steve, has been a great help, I emailed him a few questions before I knew he sold spray paint and he replied with some great advice, he's got a load of experience so Im gonna follow what he said, infact I think I already posted earlier with a link to his page where he built a tele from kit.

Ive never spray painted owt before so Im a bit nervous of doing it. Im gonna do the neck first with the tinted gloss (to give it a vintage look), I still need to fine sand the headstock that I cut and then possibly sand the neck to create a 'key' for the lacquer to stick to.

Still dont know where Im gonna do it like, the only place I can is outside then bring it indoors.

The great thing with nitrocellulose is that if you mess up you can easily strip off the finish and start again - lets hope I dont have to.

Long lost jack. . .

The missing bits from the kit have eventually arrived, I managed to contacted them on the phone after it rang for what seemed like a week. I told them the bits that were missing: jack socket, jack socket cover and the wiring instructions. .

. . they sent the jack socket, the wiring diagram/instructions and another control plate complete with the three way switch, the pots and the volume and tone controls (which Im keeping by the way since theyv'e messed me about so much, if your'e reading this and want it back 'the musicking.co.uk' you can ring me or email me and I'll be happy to reply with the same promptness you replied to me).

I have to say the instructions they sent must have been written by a two year old colourblind labrador! Firstly they make no sense whatsoever, secondly they refer to colour wires on the diagram which is printed out in black and white (helpful), thirdly they refer to coloured wires on the actual pickups and control plate that are the wrong colour and fourthly they DONT MAKE ANY SENSE.

I admit I'm not the most experience in electronics, I have soldered a bit when I made a distortion pedal when I was about 15, and I kind of understand basic curcuitry, but unless your a)Mr Fender himself or b) the forementioned labrador who wrote the damn thing, you're screwed.

More importantly there is not mention of grounding the electronics as far as I can tell, which I only heard about from scouring a telecaster forum. Apparently its quite important to ground it so you dont get electriceuted and die, one guy on the forum got his lip burned off when he sang into a mic when his guitar wasn't properly grounded.

Headstock. . .

I cut the headstock last weekend as it came with a standard paddle head. I borrowed an electric jigsaw from a lass at work and I also bought a cheap coping saw. Me dad give me a hand as Ive never used a jigsaw before or a coping saw for that matter, I ended up using both.

I found a template for a telecaster headstock online, printed it off and traced around it.

I had a few practices on some old pine shelves (soft wood) and it didnt give me a lot of confidence as they weren't great attempts, but I got fed up with practicing so I bit the bullet and had a bash at it. The neck is made of maple (hard wood) so it was a lot different than cutting pine.



I used the jigsaw for most of it and the coping saw for the tighter curves, then sanded it down with some course sand paper then some finer paper.

I'm pretty chuffed with the result like, I thought I was gonna mess it all up but it ended up looking alright.