Stripping/finishing guitars

  • Thread starter Thread starter daav
  • Start date Start date
dave..... said:
yeah i am quick to blame the strippers ....... i have done probably a hundred jobs w/ stripper and 2 had some stains bleeding through ............. however since i stoped using stripper i have not had any bleeding through ...... those 2 could have been me screwing up somewhere ????
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Anyone who has done any significant amount of finishing has run up against all the normal problems. I know I have. The truth of it is that the manufacturers of the products we all use are a wealth of help and advice. All at the end of the phone. If you've only had blushing on two out of hundreds you have a very good record. If you have "stains bleeding" through then I suspect it has nothing to do with the preparation after stripping. But hey I also know describing finishing problems is a thankless task. It may not mean to you what it means to me:confused:
 
pic's

how do i get my pic to show up everytime i post ?? ... it worked once ??
 
Light said:
First of all, their called grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Use them, their your friend.
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ummm that would be they're called grammar etc. .....

:D


oh, I see milnoque beat me to it ..... I 'm leaving it anyways!
 
daav said:
OK back to the strat redux.

Any opinions on the likely quality (especailyl tone-wise) of one of these?
http://cgi.ebay.com/STRAT-BODY-1960...8QQihZ009QQcategoryZ41406QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I think the $$ would be worth not spending the time refinishing the existing body.

Daav
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For that kind of money, just go with a body from USA Custom or Warmoth. It might cost you a bit more, but you will KNOW that you are getting the best made bodies out there.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
Use them, they're your friend.
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;)

Don't mind me, I'm just being a jackass.



I tried refinishing my bass, and while it came out decent, it still cost me more than to just buy a new body already finished. I completely screwed up the first time around, so at least 8 cans of paint were wasted, then all types of sandpaper had to be bought, polishing and rubbing compounds, and most of all, time.

The good news is that I learned a lot from doing this. Read up on it if you really want to give it a shot, it can be very rewarding. Just make sure you pay attention, and don't rush anything. And be careful! Those fumes are quite toxic.
 
It may be worth your time to remove the hardware from the guitar and accurately measure the weight. If you're getting a replacement body that is an exact replica, matching the weight gives you the best chance at having the same tone and sustain you had when you started. A heavier body will have better sustain, but it may come at the expense of warmth.

This is a VERY crude way to judge, but species and mass are about the only things you can know about the wood when ordering a body. You don't get an opportunity to hear it ring when tapped. Many suppliers can be surprisingly helpful over the phone. Give them a chance and don't be afraid to ask for what you want.

Once you have your upgraded guitar up and running you will have a leftover body laying around and we will be back to your original question.
 
Milnoque said:
It may be worth your time to remove the hardware from the guitar and accurately measure the weight. If you're getting a replacement body that is an exact replica, matching the weight gives you the best chance at having the same tone and sustain you had when you started. A heavier body will have better sustain, but it may come at the expense of warmth.

This is a VERY crude way to judge, but species and mass are about the only things you can know about the wood when ordering a body. You don't get an opportunity to hear it ring when tapped.
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I'm afraid that just isn't the case mate. Matching mass AND stiffness is the only "nearly" way of getting a certain "type" of response. That would also only apply if you are looking at exactly the same species of timber with similar growth properties such as early and late wood spread, Grain orientation etc. Wood is essentially anisotropic, in other words all of its properties are dependant on the direction in which it is measured and is different in all directions. Even timber cut from the same flitch can have remarkably different tone properties. Judging the tone of a piece of timber requires years of experience, making hundreds of guitars, a good deal of intuitive feel and a large slice of luck.

As to hearing the wood "ring" when it is tapped to judge the tone. This is an old misconception made by many when thinking about why us makers would do it. What we are really judging is the stiffness of the timber. You can gain very little accurate insite from the tap tone regarding the tone of a finished instrument. What you can do is judge the mass and stiffness of a particular piece of timber. Many makers when selecting timber will also flex the timber along its length and gain as much incite from that also.

The best advice I can give is go for a respected parts maker such as Light has mentioned and accept the tone you get. You will get closer by picking the same timber but don't be surprised if the tone is still a good deal brighter or darker. You can do more to match the tone of an existing instrument as far as electrics are concerned by using the same hardware in any case.
 
I agree with you on all counts Muttley. I should have explained my point better.

Unfortunatly, when buying a mail order body, weight and species are the only properties for which you can recieve any information. I'm only saying if that's all you've got, use it.
 
Many many years ago I refinished a clapped-out Fender Mustang. It was red, close to a fire engine red. I think the Mustang was a late '60s or early '70s model.

I don't know what they put in that paint, but it was hard as a rock and damned near impossible to get off. I was sanding rather than stripping (I didn't have an appropriate place to use stripper). I worked my ass off, and to my dismay I found, underneath the multiple finish coats, a coat of white primer that had been applied to the bare body, with no pore filler having been used and as far I could tell, no sealer coat either.

I never could get all the primer out of the end grain at the bottom of the body.

The good news was that there was an attractive piece of wood under there. The bad news was that it destroyed what would likely have been a healthy value today, if I'd just had the sense to stick in in the case and hang on to it.
 
Zaphod B said:
The good news was that there was an attractive piece of wood under there. The bad news was that it destroyed what would likely have been a healthy value today, if I'd just had the sense to stick in in the case and hang on to it.
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I feel your pain. I have an early 60's Melody Maker that was that Gibson transparent cherry red with one single coil pickup. I moved the tailpiece back and replaced the bridge with a tune-o-matic, put dual humbuckers on it, put Schaller tuners on it, and refinished it with a brown stained polyurethane. I did the "routing" with a dull wood chisel. It doesn't look too bad unless you take the pickguard off.

If I'd left it alone, it would be worth quite a bit, but now... not so much. I shoulda left it alone.
 
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