Mahogany strat progress

[Seamas]

I've been slowly working on the finish for my first build.
Mahogany Strat. Promised to give updates.

This is the body out of the box --early March.

 

[Seamas]

I believe this is just putting on the sanding sealer.

 

[Seamas]

I didn't take any photos during the pore filling stage--nor the stages of building the color (I basically ended up doing it fairly quickly).

It was slightly more red than I aimed for, but was pleased enough with how it looks.

This is the color with a coat of sanding sealer and perhaps first coats of lacquer.

 

[Seamas]

Couple more coats of lacquer.

 

[Seamas]

The neck out of the box. The mahogany is a bit darker than the body. FB is ebony.

 

[Seamas]

Here is where the neck and body are at now.
I have lost count of the number of coats on the body. I would do 3-4 light coats and then sand with 320.
I think I have done about six cycles of that.
I should have probably done one more application of the pore filler. I did three, but I think a fourth would have been better for me as the first two probably didn't fill much at all due to not letting it set up long enough.

For lacquer I have used two different brand products. Stew Mac and Guitar Reranch. I find the reranch to be a little "heavier" and it stays open a bit longer than the stewmac lacquer (I am using rattlecans). It also leaves a bit of a texture.


The neck arrived weeks later than the body, but I did a much better job on the pore filler.
So far I have about 10 coats of lacquer.
I didn't exactly match the body color., The neck is actually a little more closer to the color I wanted originally, but am overall very satisfied.

 

[Seamas]

Here is the "logo" of sorts.

Seamas has been a nickname of mine for some time and has been my "forum" name for 20 years or so.
A fellow graphic designer, an "ambigram" and typography specialist created this for me.
He made a different one about 6 years back after my mother died. I actually only know him from a Web forum, and I was very touched by the gesture.
Unfortunately I had misplaced the file --and had just thought of using it on the guitar, so I contacted him to see if he had a file he could send me. (also let him know this was not for commercial use).

He immediately said he would prefer to make a new one, which is REALLY nice of him.
I was aiming to carve/cut this into the headstock and paint the relief in gold (or possibly applied gold leaf).

I tried my hand at carving into a scrap piece of mahogany, and even though I had my various woodcutting knives and carving knives sharp, was not getting the clean cuts I had hoped for. Lots of wee little chip out , etc

So I am gonna go with a decal with gold paint instead.

So you will see that the ambigram reads the exact same way upside down--which is the cool part.
In hindsight when he asked me about style of lettering, I should have requested something with more of a celtic unical feel more than blackletter, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

[BigSteve22]

So you will see that the ambigram reads the exact same way upside down--which is the cool part.

Very cool indeed. I didn't notice until you pointed it out. I think it will look very nice in black outlined gold!  :icon_thumright:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I like the look of that body!

 

[Seamas]

It's been coming along.
Wired it (my first wiring job)

Neck: SD SSL-2
Middle: SD SSL-2 (rwrp)
Bridge: SD Cool Rails for Strat
Treble bleed,  7 way switch mod, 1 tone for bridge pickup, 1 for the bridge & middle.

 

[Seamas]

More photos

 

[TenThumbs]

That's really nice looking, I like it a whole lot - I also happen to have a bit of a thing for red strats with tortoise pickguards...

It's going to look killer when it's done, you must be chuffed to bits.

 

[swarfrat]

looking good! whats the circuit board on the bottom of the cool rails?

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Looking great! I love the color and I really like that logo, very cool!

Be wary with the exposed metal braid shield in close proximity to your switch terminals, pot lugs and other components as they are a recipe for shorts. I run it through 1/8” heatshrink to insulate it when it’s in control cavities like that.

 

[Cagey]

Heat shrink works. I like to use that as well as ty-raps (nylon wire ties) to not only enforce routing so things aren't in harm's way to begin with, but to prevent vibration/displacement.

 

[Seamas]

Looking great! I love the color and I really like that logo, very cool!

Be wary with the exposed metal braid shield in close proximity to your switch terminals, pot lugs and other components as they are a recipe for shorts. I run it through 1/8” heatshrink to insulate it when it’s in control cavities like that.

Thanks for that.
I might have to go and replace. My first wiring job, It went fairly smooth--and managed to do it faster than I expected, but it is things like that that were totally in my blind spot (and here I thought I was going above and beyond by using the shielded wire--oh well!).

All is well, I have had the final coats on the neck/headstock curing, and will do the final sanding and polishing later in the week so I can change the wire in the meantime.

 

[Seamas]

looking good! whats the circuit board on the bottom of the cool rails?

I don't really know.
The one aspect of this was I was a little shocked at how tiny/thin the five wires from that pickup were.

 

[Seamas]

I forgot to post when this was completed--then went away for a week.

I had a issue with the bridge pickup (was supposed to be a SD cool rails), I am sending it back for repair/replacement. In it's place is a DiMarzio FS1, which sounds really bad. The neck and middle are SD SSL2
They are good, but fairly restrained and polite.
The good news is it plays like a dream and the acoustic tone is absolutely beautiful--so I'll probably have some work ahead finding the ideal pickups.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Quite Classy!