Rattle Can Refin, My First

[Commodore 64]

About two years ago, I nabbed a Samick Jazzmaster on Craig's List for 80 bucks. I always liked the P-90s, but I never really dug the purple burst over badly mismatched poplar 3-piece body. Here's a pic of the guitar when I got it. Nice big chip out of it.

Now, I had taken a bunch of progress pics, but I seem to have deleted them off of my camera. But here's what I did.

1. Sanded the body to rough up the existing poly clearcoat. I used a Porter Cable orbital/vibrating sander and 120 grit. 120 grit was too coarse. Next time I'll go 220 or even 400. I just wanted to prep the body for primer. Wiped the body down with mineral spirits (more on that next). Oh and I filled that chip with bondo.

2. Went to Advanced Autoparts.Got 2 cans of Wimbledon White Duplicolor, 1 Can of Duplicolor Primer and 1 can of Duplicolor Clear and some 500, 800 1000,1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper. About 40 bucks out the door. I layed on the entire can of primer, probably 8 light coats over 4 hours. Then I sanded it back a bit because I had a big run. At this point I was out of primer, so I sprayed on some gray rustoleum primer, probably 4 coats. Then I decided to wipe it down with mineral spirits in order to prep it for the color coat. Bad idea. I made a huge nasty goopy mess. So I stripped the body back to the original poly with more mineral spirits.

3. I went to Lowe's. Got some Naptha and some BINS Shellac based primer. Sprayed on all of the primer. Again about 8 coats, maybe less, the BINS primer sprays out really thick. Much thicker than the Duplicolor primer. The Duplicolor spray nozzles are very nice in my not so experienced opinion. I got a big splat of propellant with no paint on the guitar body. I had to sand it back a little bit.

4. I let it dry for 24 hours this time, then cleaned it with Naptha. Then I layed on the color coats. A lot of light coats. I used 2 cans of Wimbledon WHite, probably could have gotten away with one. Let it dry for 24 hours. Cleaned it with Naptha. I noticed some very light waviness where I had had slight runs with the primer (from the propellant blast). I read that sometimes if you throw a load of clear on, and get it flat, those don't show up too much. Crossed my fingers.

5. Read on the interweb that Duplicolor Clear takes forever to cure. I was impatient. I used it anyways. After a full can, I figured I better put on more. I was out getting ice cream at Discount Drug Mart, and I saw a can of Rustoleum Clear (Extra Coverage Formula). Bought it, they saved me the run around. Took it home, used up the can on several light coats. On the last few coats I finally started getting the hang of spraying enough clear so that the stuff "flows" on the body. It really accented those wavy bits I had from the BINS blast though.

I did all of this painting during a 90 degree 80+ humidity heat wave. Nasty hot. I screwed a scrap of wood to the guitar body, in the neck pocket and stuck it in my vise. I layed on coats on the front, then back, then the sides. THe sides were sprayed while I held the body in my left hand. Interestingly enough, the sides were very smooth and shiny, and the front and back had a lot of eggshell consistency, like I had sprayed from too far away. I'll remember that next time.

Here's a shot of where it all went down:

 

[Commodore 64]

I took the guitar body to work, and put it in our server room, which is climate controlled, and much cooler and lower humidity than my garage. I set the guitar on a back pack. The finish was so soft, it left marks from the fabric. You could leave a nice divot if you pressed your fingernail into the finish. So I had to hang it from a rack. And I waited 45 days for the clear coat to cure. I will use Minwax next time (supposed to dry faster) and use less color coat. Two cans was excessive and likely led to the increased drying time.

While I waited for the drying, I made a new nut, and leveled the frets. I also wax-potted the P90s. 50% Bees Wax and 50% paraffin. Put it all in a cake pan on a low temperature hotplate (one the kids use to do melted crayon drawings). Took about 30 mins to melt all this wax.

I also wanted to waxpot a pair of old Harmony pickups that were so microphonic you could sing into them. So I lengthened the leads, and dropped everybody into the hot wax. Let them sit in there for about 10 minutes.

Wax potting makes a big mess on the PUPs and pup covers. I have a heat gun, so I turned it up to 700 degrees and gave the PUPs a quick blast, then wipe with a paper towel. After a few iterations, the PUPs cleaned up like new..except now they were waxpotted.

So I finally got to the sanding part of the body. I started with 500, and progressed to 800, 1000, 1500, then to 2000. I should have spent more time with the 500, but to my surprise, the wavy bits from the BINS blast do not show! I used a dead battery from my Snark Tuner to do some of the sanding, because I read about finger furrows. But this was a pain in the ***. I just ended up sanding it by hand. I finished it off with some 3M swirl remover. It feels pretty darn smooth, reflects a little light, and although not perfect, it's good enough for me. If you look closely at the pivot pegs, you'll notice they are different. I lost one of them in the garage...so I went to a local shop, and in his parts bin had some odd bolts that are used somewhere on drum kits, but the threads fit. So I hacksawed it off and filed it a bit to give it a taper. I deck all my trems, so I'm not too worried about it returning to pitch.

I set the action somewhere between a nickel and a dime (closer to a dime!)at the 12th fret. No fretting out and not much rattle at all with a set of Ernie Ball 9's on there. Big thanks to Ron Kirn for the fret leveling tutorial. I'm pretty happy with the result, and I won't fear the rattle can again. I think I can get very good results with more practice.

Here's a parting shot of my 2 favorites, this Jazzmaster and my '94 Mim Squier Series Tele.

 

[Commodore 64]

Next up, I'm thinking of trying to build a guitar. I glued up some poplar to make a body template. However, I turned on my bandsaw and it threw a dry-rotted rubber tire out at me, so I have an order in to Grizzly for a new set of 14" urethane tires. I have no idea what I'm doing but thankfully I have the internet and great forums like this to find help (and body templates)! Unfortunately, my planer is only a 12.5" and Tele bodies are 12.75" wide. Not sure how I'm gonna thickness my template, (or other bodies I make).

On an other note, it will be some time before I need to wax pot any PUPs. I was thinking something like the "pick it forward thread", except using the wax pot. You know send it around so people could wax pot their pups and send it along to the next person. I mean there's only so much I can do with 2lbs of Beeswax and Paraffin.

 

[progrmr]

wow! That's taking DIY to another level - very cool! Nice job!

 

[marnold]

That turned out really nice, C64. Well done!

 

[cebreez]

LOOKS AWESOME!!!! You can save yourself some time and effort on the finishing if you pick up a couple of scrapers from Grizzly. A little practice with them and the only paper under 1000 you''ll need is for the corners. Love your shop! Looks like mine except that I'd kill for that jointer!

P.S. Keep an eye out on http://www.belongingsbroker.com, He finds old guitars and parts them out. May find you a few extra bridge saddles. Cheers!!

 

[R_of_G]

Great work C64.
Turned out beautifully.

 

[Commodore 64]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm really pleased with the Wimbledon White. It's just enough "off-white" to me. Good stuff. I think it's very forgiving of showing flaws too. Although, I will say, if I buffed that body up with some carnuba wax, I reckon it would take a really nice shine.

 

[Eric]

Wow -- you're doing way more with guitar building/maintenance than I ever even thought about doing. Nice work!

 

[cebreez]

Darnit Eric!! I never liked those guitars but you made it look like $1000 classic. How does it play? Any thoughts about selling it?

 

[Eric]

Darnit Eric!! I never liked those guitars but you made it look like $1000 classic. How does it play? Any thoughts about selling it?

Er...I didn't do this. I just had the most recent entry on this thread. The man behind the pictures is Commodore 64.

 

[cebreez]

Duh!! Sorry Eric!! Wasn't paying attention to what I was posting. Same post but to Commodore 64! I'll get it right sooner or later.

 

[Commodore 64]

It just might play better than any guitar I've ever owned. It does support the lowest action of any that I've owned or worked on. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, and it's also the first guitar I've ever put 9's on. I've been practicing regularly for about 2 years (to give you an idea of the level of my expertise...it's low) and I've always used 10s or 11s (mostly 10s). So I might be skewed a little, but it plays really nice and easy. With the action as low as it is, you can't go apeshit banging on the E and A strings or you get a bit of rattle or muddiness.

I really do need to figure out how to get some clips up.

 

[cebreez]

Hey I'm with ya.... I've got 36 years into Acoustic and Bass but only 2 or 3 years on electric. You know that saying "ya cant teach an old dog new tricks"? Well you can but its HARD!

 

[Eric]

It just might play better than any guitar I've ever owned. It does support the lowest action of any that I've owned or worked on. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, and it's also the first guitar I've ever put 9's on. I've been practicing regularly for about 2 years (to give you an idea of the level of my expertise...it's low) and I've always used 10s or 11s (mostly 10s). So I might be skewed a little, but it plays really nice and easy. With the action as low as it is, you can't go apeshit banging on the E and A strings or you get a bit of rattle or muddiness.

I'm also on my first set of sub-10s right now, in that I have 8s on my LP-ish axe. At first I thought they were really fun, then they started to feel kind of flubby and lame, but then last week I played with a full band again at full volume and I didn't mind them so much. I think lighter strings might have their place as a good 'performance' gauge, in that you can do everything you've learned to do more easily, and at band volumes most people probably wouldn't notice the tone difference.

I think deeaa touched on that idea a couple of months ago. I'm still not sure how I feel about light strings long-term, but they've been interesting to use so far.

 

[cebreez]

I know what you mean. Im into 9's on mine and I notice a definite loss in tone but I make up for it with the ability to bend them easily. My pedals restore the tone I lose And I can play a little longer.

 

[stingx]

That refinish came out really well. Kudos to you on this. Love the color you chose.

 

[Ch0jin]

Nice work C64! I did not like that burst look at all, but I love the "vintage" white look! Really, really nice. It's projects like that that make me miss having a workshop......

 

[Duffy]

That is a serioslooking guitar there sixty four. How so the P nintiies sound? Your sons should learn how to play them sraight into any awesome soundin P ninety favoring amp. Did you quickly bring these guitars to the playing field? Were they produced quckly? They look real good.

I would have for personal reasons went tro a different color than white for the jazz guitar. I would also have put on a black pearl pickguard or something like that, to accentuate the pickups. All this is just personal preference though, and I'm very interested in how you like the sound of this P ninety guitar.

I have bveen playing two of my P ninety guitars lately and like the raw tone of my SX LP special copy, all mahogany set neck with the pickups mounted very close to the strigs and low action. This an an antique burst and an awesome guitar. I definitely don't want to sell it and it is right here in front of me waitng its turn to be plugged into my new Big Muff Pi USA pedal and played thru the clean chanel of my Hot Rod Deluxe. Currently I'm playing my Nashville telly into it and have my solid mahogany set neck tele with Seyour Duncan full sized humbuckers waiting everpressuringly to be played thru that Big Muff Pi. They are all crowding around trying ot get into that Big Muffy Pi, eagerly waiting a piece. It is kind of embarrassing really, watching them stand there with their tounges hanging out. But they all have come away smiling, satisfied. I never knew that a a little Big Muffy Pi would go so far.

I will be really interested in hearing how that P ninety guitar sounds thru the amp, newly potted; it should be capable of roaring like a jittery lion.

My new Big Muff Pi USA fuzz pedal is really bringing out the P ninety sounds as well as the single coild sounds. And I'm about to hit it with some good solid humbuckers here shortl and see how it finds them. I'm expecting it to rip and roar and will be surprisied if I'm at all disappointed.

 

[deeaa]

Dang, I never thought much of the Jazzmaster shape but now I find myself craving for one. That's so much sexier than a strat, and the PU selector switch is already where it's supposed to be on electrics plus I love the white. (If you haven't noticed pretty much all my axes are white/cream). And a maple fretboard! I'd really be interested on that axe if it were on sale somewhere near, really cool looking and great features!

 

[Commodore 64]

Deeaa: I just printed out a full scale pattern for a Jagmaster body and neck on our plotter here at work. Hosted here: http://www.lucky-cricket.com/files/jagster-plan.pdf . Should be getting new tires for my band saw any day now. I might cheat, and just make a body, since I have a spare mahogany Samick neck sitting at home at the moment. I feel like I can tackle building a guitar body right now. But making a neck, I think is a bit out of my league until I get a bit more practice in the wood shop. I bought all that wood working stuff when we moved into our house. I was going to make cabinet for our kitchen. Well I made one cabinet, and we decided to buy unfinished cabs, heh. Anyways, I have a lot of tools and not a lot of experience wood working. Hoping to double the length of my garage in the spring to give me more room.

Duffy: I don't have any sons (2 daughters), and they aren't old enough to jam out (yet!). I'm not enamored with the pickguard myself, but, it's a strange uncommon shape, so my only option was to get a custom one made, or keep the original. The p90s rock. With one caveat: there's more hum at higher volume or gain than my Tele. Also, I've only really played these at bedroom levels through my Peavey Bandit. I use pedals for dirt, and these get pretty dirty. I'd like to jam out with them at rehearsal volume to see how they sound clean and with some gain. Again, all these descriptions are lame, I really need to sit down and record a few minutes to demo it. I think the demo would be interesting because the 3 pedals on my board (other than a tuner) are a Allum Blues Stack modded BD-2, A stock BD-2, and a BYOC British Blues overdrive. So similar pedals, but different, heh.

 

[Duffy]

I like to keep the noise off the p90, turn down the guitar treble and even volume if possible - then crank ihe amp. Adjusting the Big Muff Pi down as quiet as possible adds well deserved muffiness to the sound and produces some very cool screaming tones.

 

[kiteman]

The transformation is stunning. Very good paint job sir.

Now I really want to refinish my Harper guitar. And white too. :socool

 

[Pickngrin]

C64, that is just some killer work. Very impressive what you did with that guitar. I too never had interest in Jazzmasters until now...

 

[Jipes]

Amazing piece of work Commodore Hats off :thumbsup I really like the nice olympic White that you did it really looks gorgous on this guitar