What to finish a strat with?

kevin6string said:
use a nice walnut or cherry wood stain... and finish with polyurithane... 4000 grit steel wool between each coat... ( make sure you blow it off so there is NO steel dust remnants... last step ( believe it or not buff with a dollar bill ) it' like a nuclearactively fine sandpaper that evens out the finish ...IT WORKS... had to do this to a 67 tele with a Fender brand bigsby... that unfortunatly had the original finish ruined by denatured alcohol when the dog ran through and bumped my table spilling it on my nicely aged yellowed white tele :( but that being said it turned out awesome tho it's value was shot in at least half ... iwas cleaning some inside metal parts carefully "so i thought"
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Thanks for the suggestion but thats a bit below my expectations...;)
 
Ha, now Muttley, about sucking eggs? I see you've just recently had someone teach your grandmother!
 
To hell with the fantastic grain. Dust it with lake placid blue nitro lacquer and clear coat it. Put a nice aged pickguard and yellowed plastic on it. Kluson deluxe keys, vintage style strat trem, cold rolled steel block, a really nice set of staggered magnet pick ups....may I suggest a fender Texas special on the bridge lowered almost flush with the pickguard, a fender 57/62 in the middle position set low as well, and a fender 1969 grey bottom on the neck...set low of course.
That is my favorite color, and set up, on my favorite guitar...a strat.
I admit there are some really good pickups like lindy fralins, bartons, duncans, Rio grandes, and lollars...I think I've tried them all.
But, to me, nothing beats a Texas on the bridge, a 57/62 in the middle, and a grey bottom on the neck. Fender does pickups right imo.
On a finish nothing beats lake placid blue when it's done right so that the metallic reflects properly and it's buffed to perfection.
Through on the slightly aged vintage hardware and you have one kick ass strat.
 
jimistone said:
To hell with the fantastic grain. Dust it with lake placid blue nitro lacquer and clear coat it. Put a nice aged pickguard and yellowed plastic on it. Kluson deluxe keys, vintage style strat trem, cold rolled steel block, a really nice set of staggered magnet pick ups....may I suggest a fender Texas special on the bridge lowered almost flush with the pickguard, a fender 57/62 in the middle position set low as well, and a fender 1969 grey bottom on the neck...set low of course.
That is my favorite color, and set up, on my favorite guitar...a strat.
I admit there are some really good pickups like lindy fralins, bartons, duncans, Rio grandes, and lollars...I think I've tried them all.
But, to me, nothing beats a Texas on the bridge, a 57/62 in the middle, and a grey bottom on the neck. Fender does pickups right imo.
On a finish nothing beats lake placid blue when it's done right so that the metallic reflects properly and it's buffed to perfection.
Through on the slightly aged vintage hardware and you have one kick ass strat.
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I can knock out another start body in few hours if I want a lake placid blue one...;)

Also I'm gonna be making the pickups for this so if you know where any exact specs for those are I'll give em a go. Pickups are pretty much a non destructive mod so I'll play about with it in time thats partly the point of this build. So I can swap out neck and pickups, pot's and caps etc...
 
The Texas specials were designed to give that stevie ray sound...most people find them too thick sounding and don't like them. They are not great when set at the normal height...but set low they really come alive and are a killer bridge pickup on a strat. Most people don't even use the bridge because of the ice pick in the ear sound. The Texas special set low on the bridge dosen't have the ice pick in the ear sound.
I wouldn't begin to know where to get specs though.

The 57/62 is a clone of the late 50's early 60's strat pickup. It was created for fender by Bill Lawerance. The even used the original magnet material and has a special winding wire made that had all the properties of the originals. It's the best strat pickup I've ever tried. Put one in the middle position and you will find yourself staying in the middle position most of the time.
the 69 grey bottom pickup is a clone of the late 60's strat pups. They have a fatter more round bass response and the shimmer on the unwind strings that is sweet. I love them for playing clean jazz guitar and over driven blues guitar. The in between sounds are killer with this combination (positions 2 and 4 with a 5 way switch ) also, the middle pup isn't reverse wound for hum canceling...a reverse wound middle pickup is a big tone killer in my opinion .
I wouldn't begin to know where to get specs on the pups. But I'm sure someone out there on the net has them.
 
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Sorry for hijacking the thread. So, let me get back on topic. I think using a dark color and then wiping it off to make the grain pop followed by a dye looks really good. Maybe black grain with blue dye. Brown and amber color scheme has been done to death as has sun bursting. Red grain with a yellow dye might be pretty cool.
 
Not hijacking at all. I shall be moving on to having fun trying out different pickup recipes once it is together so no harm in jumping on that. I will also be switching between a maple neck as well just for comparison.

Currently I'm leaning towards a darker stain but the blue has also been done to death to my mind. I'm gonna have to put it on the back burner for a bit though as I'm snowed under right now...
 
muttley600 said:
Not hijacking at all. I shall be moving on to having fun trying out different pickup recipes once it is together so no harm in jumping on that. I will also be switching between a maple neck as well just for comparison.

Currently I'm leaning towards a darker stain but the blue has also been done to death to my mind. I'm gonna have to put it on the back burner for a bit though as I'm snowed under right now...
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EVERYTHING has been done to death.
 
First off, I don't think you are soliciting ideas so much. You'll probably end up doing it however you feel. I'd guess this is more a "look at what I'm building" thread, rather than idea mining.:D

But on the off chance you are actually soliciting advice, here's one.

Black pore filler with translucent white ala "Mary Kay". Or a natural color pore filler tinted with red aniline dye. Once you shoot the white, the red bleeds through.........quite stunning actually.
:thumbs up:
 
That is a fantastic grain looking for a transparent/translucent finish... Mutt, that blue arch top looks like a dream come true so you can tell what my vote would be for. ;)

But, what about just a transparent honey blonde finish? Kind of like that swatch earlier in the thread but lighter. Pop the grain then keep it really neutral and natural, like a blonde zebra.
 
Although my initial post about the purple finish was in jest, it seems that dark purple translucent is not common on strats...At least it hasn't been done to death.
 
RFR said:
First off, I don't think you are soliciting ideas so much. You'll probably end up doing it however you feel. I'd guess this is more a "look at what I'm building" thread, rather than idea mining.:D

But on the off chance you are actually soliciting advice, here's one.
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No, I have done a few build threads here. If I was to post a pic of what I'm building it would be three archtops and a mandolin. This is a sister build for me. I dont own a strat and need one as a test bed for pickups I make.

As stated in the original post I'm hunting out ideas on colour and style. My methods are long established..

Black pore filler with translucent white ala "Mary Kay". Or a natural color pore filler tinted with red aniline dye. Once you shoot the white, the red bleeds through.........quite stunning actually.
:thumbs up:
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Examples?
 
BroKen_H said:
Although my initial post about the purple finish was in jest, it seems that dark purple translucent is not common on strats...At least it hasn't been done to death.
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You jest? I was thinking your suggestion was one of the best...;)

As I mentioned though, this is gonna have to wait a bit. I have a load of stuff on the bench with tight deadlines this month.
 
muttley600 said:
No, I have done a few build threads here. If I was to post a pic of what I'm building it would be three archtops and a mandolin. This is a sister build for me. I dont own a strat and need one as a test bed for pickups I make.

As stated in the original post I'm hunting out ideas on colour and style. My methods are long established..



Examples?
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Cool.
I haven't seen your build threads.

I don't have any examples on digitial. I may have some on 35 mm but won't go to the trouble of digging them up.

You'd have to do some experiments on the red bleed through. It wont work so well with transtint type dyes. But with aniline and real nitrocellulose it is cool.
 
I would go for a green and blue burst. Both really dark colours. Headstock the same as the the outer burst colour
 
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