Jim's Christmas Cab

[jimh]

So....  Some of you (Max and DR6) know that my fantastic girlfriend Abi, and my mum and dad all chipped in at Christmas time and bought me a La Cabronita body as my pressie this year.  And here she is.....

Body:

Unfinished Alder body routed for a single bridge pickup
12 coats of Daphne Blue pre-cat Nitro from rattle cans, sanded back after the first 6 coats, and then re-sprayed, buffed and polished, by my own heavy hands. I'm nowhere near Tonar standards yet, but really happy with how it came out.

Neck:
This used to be on my 8-Ball strat (I replaced it with a Wenge / Pau Ferro piece of loveliness)
Bridseye / Birdseye maple
6105 frets (not stainless..... Booooooooo)

'Ardware:
1 x TV Jones Classic
500k Vol / 250k Tone
Standard Fender hardtail strat bridge
Planet Waves tuners
and..... Of Course.... A killer plate which Max designed from a photo of me from facebook, and the legend that is our very own Dangerous Doug made up onto a chrome plate.

When I was doing the final finish I noticed a small blemish in the paint on the front and stupidly thought I could sand it out, but went too far, and ended up sanding through to the primer. I thought I'd be really pissed off as I'd ruined it, but it was right where you watch strap would be (if you wear yer watch on the right wrist) and  actually quite liked how it gave it a slight relic look, and so I took it further and "relic'ed" it a bit more in the classic places.

It sounds absolutely awesome with the TV Jones through my Cornford Hurricane.  Cleans are very crisp and bright but not in a harsh way at all.  Crank the amp a little more and you get serious Billy Gibbons type crunchy middley slightly boxey tones, and I mean boxey in a REALLY good way. Add a decent fuzz pedal and it soars.  My Dunlop Octavia (the white wedge shaped 'Hendrix' fuzz + octave) sounds the dog's dangly bits!

I'm a very happy chappy!

Big thanks to Doug and Max for their input!

Primer then 1st coat

Final coat. Paint curing after 2 weeks

Here you can see the sand through to primer above the pickup and bridge routes, and where I decided to go a little further on the top edge.  I sanded extra in a few other strategic locations too.

Hardware test fit

Neck fit - note that the test fits were all taken before final buffing.

Badass neck plate by Doug

Welcome to the family

 

[m4rk0]

Brilliant Jim!!
that is a nice goat!! I love the cream pearloid on the blue!!

 

[JaySwear]

GREATEST. NECK. PLATE. EVER.

 

[jimh]

GREATEST. NECK. PLATE. EVER.

Good innit?

Max made it.  Loosely based on this pic

 

[nexrex]

Beautiful guitar. I really like what you have done with it. Great job on the neckplate too.

 

[Nando Vallart]

I like this one! And think the neck plate is really fun!

 

[back2thefutre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_X8ZZwcs4k
I like it a lot!

 

[bbl4ck]

Jim,  Ya got a sweeeet Cab Tele goin' on there.  She is a beauty  :glasses9:
That neckplate is among the top 5 of Doug's neckware that I have seen.  :icon_thumright:
Very cooool.  love it all...
:kewlpics: :rock-on:

 

[Alfang]

I agree with everyone, it looks Great! and the neckplate is so awesome, good design Max

 

[Steve_Karl]

Very Cool. Love the color.

 

[erogenousjones17]

Love love love it.  :icon_thumright:

 

[jimh]

Thanks for all the kind comments chaps  :blob7:

:icon_biggrin:

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Bitchin' . Me wants a real La Cab too.  :icon_thumright:

 

[m4rk0]

at first I thought it was a vajajay from the seventies, but then I realized it was Jim's face..

 

[erogenousjones17]

Bitchin' . Me wants a real La Cab too.  :icon_thumright:

There's a gold one in the showcase that's got me all tingly...

 

[Tonar8352]

Very nice job finishing it on your own, it turned out great!!!!!!  There is a little work involved in getting a finish like that don't ya think?  Do you have insight on what you learned along the way for aspiring rattle can finishers.

Those single pickup Cabronita’s are killer sounding guitars. DIY Guitar of The Month?  Could Be.

 

[jimh]

Very nice job finishing it on your own, it turned out great!!!!!!  There is a little work involved in getting a finish like that don't ya think?  Do you have insight on what you learned along the way for aspiring rattle can finishers.

Those single pickup Cabronita’s are killer sounding guitars. DIY Guitar of The Month?  Could Be.

Thanks Tonar, very kind of you to say so. I'm really happy with how it worked out.  If I hadn't been a dumbass and sanded through (or if I had one more can of paint to fill in the sand through), then it would have been perfect.

I bought the body from the showcase as unfinished Alder.  

I'd decided some time ago that I wanted Daphne Blue and did a little research as to where I could source paint and whether I wanted Poly or Nitro etc.  
I don't have nor can I afford proper spray equipment or a decent booth to do it properly in.  
I kinda knew I wanted Nitro all along, but figured I'd best look at all the options, but didn't really want the hassle of shipping and importing Nitro cans from the US suppliers like ReRanch.  In the end I found a supplier here in the UK who could do Nitro in rattle cans ( http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk ).  "EasyPeasy" says I, "This'll be a doddle".

Having read around these very forums and some others, like the ReRanch pages, I came to the conclusion that I'd need to sand down the body a little more (it came sanded to 400grit  I think, might be wrong).  I took it down to 800.
My research showed that I shouldn't need to grain fill, so I didnt.

I purchased.......
1 x can of white nitro primer
2 x cans of Daphne Blue
Some dust masks to protect my lungs
Some wet'n'dry sand papers through the grits up to 2000 (I even bought 4000 and 6000 3M polishing film, although I ended up not using them)
Oh.... and one of these..... http://www.tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/Finishing-Supplies/187-Aerosol-Spray-Master/Detailed-product-flyer.html ......Absolutely great gadget to control the spray nozzle.

So after I'd sanded down to 800, I got a can of compressed air (re-allocated some resources from our electronics workshop at work  :icon_tongue: ) to blast off any left over dust, and tack rag to really make sure it was clean.
I then sprayed 4 very thin coats of primer (I wanted to keep the entire finish as thin as possible).  The Nitro was pre-catalysed and so the supplier (I called to check) said that I could wait as little as 30 mins between coats.  So this is how I played it.
4 coats of primer and left for a week to 'go off'.

Week later.
Very light sand back to 1000 grit to key the primer ready for paint (probably didn't need it, but hey, it is what it is). Tack rag, blast with air and IPA solvent wipes to remove any last dust or oils etc ready for paint.
6 coats (or maybe 7, I forget) light coats to build the colour.  30mins - 1 hour between coats, depending on what TV shows I was watching at the time.
Leave it for a week to 'go off'

Week later
Light sand back to 2000 grit to key up for next coats. Tack rag, blast with air, IPA solvent wipes (again 're-allocated' from work) to remove dust etc.
6 more light coats, 30mins to 1hour apart.
Put it somewhere to fully cure and 'go off'.  Forget about it for 2 weeks.

2 weeks later
She's looking good, paint is reasonably smooth and nice and hard, although I could see a little bit of sinking into the grain which I guess is inevitable. There was also a small blemish on the front, dunno what or where from, but it was there, even though I was careful not to touch it while I was painting or letting it cure.

I sanded back to 2000 grit to try and remove the effect of some of the grain sinking, and since I'd built up a reasonable depth of paint, this was largely successful.  Unfortunately, as I was concentrating on the blemish on the front, I went through to primer.
I could have stopped, ordered another can of paint, and re-sprayed, but to be honest I a) didn't want the wait as I'm massively impatient and the waiting thus far was killing me, and b) quite liked the relic'ness of it.

The sand through was just about right spot where you'd get natural wear over the years from your wrist or a watch or clothing or whatever, so I decided to leave it, and in fact decided to go a bit mad and 'wear out' some other areas, like around the jack socket, top edges (where the forearm and tummy contours 'would' be on a strat), around the neck pocket etc.
I didnt go heavy and dent it and full on scratch it up like some relic'ers do, but I think it was just enough to look 'loved'.

I then bought a lambs wool buffing attachment for my battery drill and set to, along with some Meguiars cutting compound from the local "Hellfrauds" auto store.  I may have gone a bit overboard with the compound as it was flying everywhere off of the drill buffer.  Glad I was wearing some old jeans.

After a couple of sessions front, back and sides with the compound and buffer the paint had a lovely gloss and was almost swirl free. I just could not get all the swirl out even with a micro fibre cloth and real fine compound, but bearing in mind I'd just sanded the hell out of the edges to give it a relic look, I wasn't too fussed.

There was also a little bit of sinking that I just couldn't sand out with out going back to primer or worse.  
But generally the finish came out really nice, and you can only see the sinking if you look really closely.


If I was doing it again?? (which I hope to someday).........

Well, if I was doing Alder again, even though my research suggested I wouldn't need to grain fill, I probably would, just to get it that little bit smoother. Either that or go harder to sand back to finer grit levels when at bare wood stage.

Other than that, I'm mega happy.  I'd definitely choose pre-cat nitro rattle cans again for a solid colour.  I'm not ready to attempt a burst, or any of those other Tonar style finishes yet.

Tonar still wins hands down!

Hope that helps to explain my process.  :icon_thumright:

ccasion14:

 

[anorakDan]

Lovely La Cab, Jim. Absolutely lovely.

I've had a bit of a guitar crush on La Cabronitas since they've been showing up here, but can someone answer one question: What's the deal with the flattened spot for the input? It kinda looks like a mistake uncorrected.

 

[llmtelecaster]

I'm loving these cabs more and more. The single pup is just slick. Great work, Jim!

 

[AutoBat]

Lovely La Cab, Jim. Absolutely lovely.

I've had a bit of a guitar crush on La Cabronitas since they've been showing up here, but can someone answer one question: What's the deal with the flattened spot for the input? It kinda looks like a mistake uncorrected.

it's the 'vintage correct' method that was found on the early tele's