Partscaster experience?

[LaceSensor]

looks great! which pickups are you looking at putting in?

Im going to try a set of Alexander Pribora Red & White pickups
https://www.priborapickups.com/

The reviews are overwhelmingly positive, especially for the money (about the price of one "boutique" pickup for the set of three...)

I reckon I will be sorely tempted to do a Jazzmaster if I can pull this guitar off, but that will be a project for another year

[LaceSensor]

In an update to proceedings I have decided (partially as its my birthday and my parents wanted to buy me something) to order some luthier tools from Crimson Guitars in the UK. They seem to make some nice stuff. So ill have a neck straight edge, 16'' levelling beam, crowining file and fret finishing file plus polishing rubbers coming in soon.

Secondarily to this, I decided over the last few days to sacrifice my 1997 Korean Squier tele to the luthiery gods.
That being, I have removed all the poly finish, refinished in nitrocellulose, and then gone on to relic it, such that I can practice what it will take to relic the strat.
Turns out I did a reasonably good job, particularly of cracking the lacquer to give the checking effect.

Its sea foam green, and I also took the chance to replace some cheesy hardware (bridge, control plate, electronics) with nicer vintage nickel type parts.
Im probably gonna document some of the photos of this once its complete.

The next phase will be to do the clearcoat on the strat body, but Im loathed to actually take it apart again...gonna have to bite the bullet at some point.

Matt sent me some very lengthy and detailed instructions on fret work, which were gratefully received and I will practice on the Squier neck, along with my tools when they arrive

Cheers

[jimilee]

You're done for now, you have the bug!!!


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[jimilee]

You're done for now, you have the bug!!!


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[gordo]

I REALLY like the look of that gold pickguard on a sunburst.  Never been attracted to that before.  Let us know how you do the distressing on the guitar.  I have a nitro guitar that was meh and was already half beaten to crap and I put one of those "vinyl wraps" on it.  Which looked totally cool and they said would not affect the finish at all.  About a year later I took it off and the guitar finish was totally destroyed.  In a semi-good way I guess, it looked like it had aged about 50 years.

[LaceSensor]

Couple of updates:

I made a loaded scratchplate! Ive soldered lots of stuff before but Ive never actually experimented with buying pickups and rewiring whole guitars.
This was fun to put together. I had to wait nearly a month for the pickups from mother Russia (A. Pribora hand wounds)



In the meantime I have been spraying gloss nitro, which I have then aged and weathered. I had some issues with this that I didnt experience on my telecaster (refin in Sea foam green nitro) and ended up with more coats then I felt I would need in order to get it to check. Still, it looks similar to other examples of DIY nitro relic finish, and Im happy-ish with it.





I get the impression solid colours are easier to achieve a relic finish in because you have some sort of primer etc on there which wasnt present on this style of sunburst (I know it can be on other styles), because the nitro primer is softer and has more flex than the clear and would heat/cool in ways that allow cracking. Thats what the nitro supplier told me anyway.

Cos of the thicker than Id have liked result, I havent been so successful with adding wear; having to scrape like you see dudes with poly finishes rather than easily and gently flaking finish off. Therefore rather than the heavy relic I was aiming for its actually more of a light relic. You live you learn.

I actually have the guitar fully assembled and Im finding that I will need to do significantly more work to get it how I want it.
I already know I have to adjust the nut, but I am getting a wierd buzz on open high E which I beleive is a nut issue. Im also struggling with the setup, getting buzz on the neck which I cant tolerate so its back to setup basics 101 again. It defintiely plays nicer than it did when I first assembled it all to check stuff - the fret levelling has worked nicely  (probably a couple spots I could refine) and I am not longer seeing the same choking I was due to high frets.

I did some work with rolling the edge of the board, but I could maybe do more. Also, despite using expensive tools from crimson guitars and polishing with micromesh up to 12000 grit I dont see shiny mirror frets that youtube tells me I should be able to achieve. I beleive the fret ends, despite me using the expensive tiny file, could do with a bit more finesse also.

This leads me to the conclusion that I still prefer my production USA fender strat ,which saddens me greatly. I was hoping this would be a killer guitar. Im not sure it is.
The second conclusion is I wont rush to do this type of thing again. Ive got maybe £800 in this and I could have put that towards something better perhaps.

Laslty, this is all through somewhat a negative lens today. I just woke up feeling really bummed out with the world. Anyone else feel the same? Maybe I need to write in anotehr thread for that.

Ill be back with some pics of the somewhat finished article.

Cheers
Ian / Lace / Gigahearts_FX

[jimilee]

That's awesome looking so far!


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[LaceSensor]

I didnt get suckered into the whole £10 tone caps. Mines a 33nF, and tone 2 works on both the bridge and middle.

Also note that I did a treble bleed on the volume pot with a standard box cap (1nF) with a 150k 1/8w resistor across it.

Playing breifly today, I think it sounds really authentic vintage strat vibe. My other strat is a hardtail with dimarzio rail type pickups so not exactly vintage accurate

[jimilee]

I really need to do a level and crown on one of the ones I built over last summer, but I'm seeing what you are doing instead.

[LaceSensor]

Here are some pics of the work in progress.



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I intend to do a bit more work on the relicing.
I havet done anthing to the neck to enhance the job Allparts did with their aged finish; maybe a few dings in the right place on the headstock.
Should also put some effort into ageing the plastic parts too...

The main work now however is probably to cut a new nut. Cant shake the buzz on the high open E string... Im convinced its the nut
Will also work some on the setup. Probably end up doing more on the fret end dressing, fingerboard rolling and will need to oil the rosewood at some point as its quite dry.

Thanks for all the interest and encouragement.

[simon]

looks good. I like the checking on the body.  I'm impressed at how well the gloss worked over the satin finish.  I don't have much experience doing partscasters but I know that it took me a while to get it dialed in to where I love it.


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[gordo]

Not a fan of the "dragged down a gravel road" style of relicing so I really like what you've done.  Much more subtle.  You likely know this already but make sure that the nut slot is pitched towards the bridge.  That way it peaks right at the front of the nut and doesn't give the string a chance to hit any more material than necessary.  Generally the thinner the string the more the buzzing can occur.

[LaceSensor]

Not a fan of the "dragged down a gravel road" style of relicing so I really like what you've done.  Much more subtle.  You likely know this already but make sure that the nut slot is pitched towards the bridge.  That way it peaks right at the front of the nut and doesn't give the string a chance to hit any more material than necessary.  Generally the thinner the string the more the buzzing can occur.

Hi

Indefinitely cut the slots so they angle down the break angle to the tuners ie the highest point is towards the bridge. Must have not done a good enough job.

Im gonna replace it I think for the best

I would have liked to relic it a tad more and for a bit more consistency in the checking but I think with the type of aceelerated aging you get what you get in so far as it's a version of a natural process.


My biggest issue now really is the playability; Action set too high to reduce buzz

Probably end up levelling the frets AGAIN I an effort to address
They are level though or so I thought