abraxas
Well-known member
Some of the older members may remember that I had been bitten by the "Buy a Squier 51 and Mod it to Death" bug, a while back.
My blonde Squier '51 was modded to the following standards:
The result was a highly playable and good sounding guitar, esp. for the money spent. But then another idea came on... :whatever:
I've seen the work Shepard Fairey had done for Fender (for example, here: http://www.buffalobrosguitars.com/i...1158-fenderstratshepardfaireyrelic/index.html) and also other people's guitars with the same idea. I wanted something like that, in a "somewhat" reliced style.
For my "art", I selected some decoupage tissue papers from an ebay store. The main theme is old posters, I didn't care much for the historical continuity, just wanted something retro looking.
I decided to cover the entire guitar body and remove the pickguard altogether. I'm not sure this is the best choice; perhaps a smaller-cut pickguard would be appropriate and even desirable for protection of the body. But this can easily be added in the future.
The process of cutting the tissue paper and putting it on the body (using white woodworkers glue) was very tedious and slow. I had my daughter helping me from time to time and it took us several sessions to complete the task.
I must point out I did nothing to the body by way of removing the paint, etc. Just a good cleaning to be sure the tissue paper would adhere easily.
After that, came the equally slow process of spraying several coats of clear acrylic varnish. I usually sprayed 3 light coats, separated by 30 minutes time each, and, the next day or whenever I had the time, sand the surface with 600-1000 grit sandpaper, and repeat.
After about twenty or so of these sessions, I concluded that the body was as good as it was ever going to be. My only concern with clearcoating, after all, was to protect the tissue paper and create a uniform surface.
After several weeks that the body stayed waiting for me to find the time, I finally started assembling the whole thing. In the meantime, the headstock was painted black.
I had decided from the beginning to change the wiring of the guitar. So I opened another hole to the control plate, in order to use a Gibson 3-point switch. A Goeldo push/pull was used for the volume control and a "mini" pot for the tone control. I also used a Switchcraft jack.
The main problem here, was that the control cavity is rather small for this kind of wiring. Good for me I had the mini-pot on hand, because otherwise it wasn't going to fit at all. Even with this, things are tight.
Some months (!!) after I first started the project, the guitar was in a ready to play condition! Just as an experiment, I put on flatwound 11-50 strings, and tuned it one whole step down. I'm going to use this guitar for some low tuned or alternate tuning work in the future!
My blonde Squier '51 was modded to the following standards:
- Pickups changed to GFS Dream 180 bridge and Tele Fatbody neck
- Bridge changed to the GFS one
- Frets leveled, crown and polished, then neck tinted and spayed in nitro
- Tusq nut
- GFS Kluson Style keys
The result was a highly playable and good sounding guitar, esp. for the money spent. But then another idea came on... :whatever:
I've seen the work Shepard Fairey had done for Fender (for example, here: http://www.buffalobrosguitars.com/i...1158-fenderstratshepardfaireyrelic/index.html) and also other people's guitars with the same idea. I wanted something like that, in a "somewhat" reliced style.
For my "art", I selected some decoupage tissue papers from an ebay store. The main theme is old posters, I didn't care much for the historical continuity, just wanted something retro looking.
I decided to cover the entire guitar body and remove the pickguard altogether. I'm not sure this is the best choice; perhaps a smaller-cut pickguard would be appropriate and even desirable for protection of the body. But this can easily be added in the future.
The process of cutting the tissue paper and putting it on the body (using white woodworkers glue) was very tedious and slow. I had my daughter helping me from time to time and it took us several sessions to complete the task.
I must point out I did nothing to the body by way of removing the paint, etc. Just a good cleaning to be sure the tissue paper would adhere easily.
After that, came the equally slow process of spraying several coats of clear acrylic varnish. I usually sprayed 3 light coats, separated by 30 minutes time each, and, the next day or whenever I had the time, sand the surface with 600-1000 grit sandpaper, and repeat.
After about twenty or so of these sessions, I concluded that the body was as good as it was ever going to be. My only concern with clearcoating, after all, was to protect the tissue paper and create a uniform surface.
After several weeks that the body stayed waiting for me to find the time, I finally started assembling the whole thing. In the meantime, the headstock was painted black.
I had decided from the beginning to change the wiring of the guitar. So I opened another hole to the control plate, in order to use a Gibson 3-point switch. A Goeldo push/pull was used for the volume control and a "mini" pot for the tone control. I also used a Switchcraft jack.
The main problem here, was that the control cavity is rather small for this kind of wiring. Good for me I had the mini-pot on hand, because otherwise it wasn't going to fit at all. Even with this, things are tight.
Some months (!!) after I first started the project, the guitar was in a ready to play condition! Just as an experiment, I put on flatwound 11-50 strings, and tuned it one whole step down. I'm going to use this guitar for some low tuned or alternate tuning work in the future!
