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MoonStrato - First build ever

Luukori

Newbie
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So, this is my first ever building attempt. I've always had quite crappy and cheap guitars, so i decided to make a little effort and build one that I'm happy with :)

Body is just a Strat replacement body made from poplar. I'm planning to make the finish with my buddy later.

Neck is a Mooncaster with modern construction, standard thin, maple and bloodwood, 6150 jumbo ss, 22 frets, Sperzel tuning holes, gold pearloid trapezoid inlays and vintage tint gloss finish.
 

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That will be cool with the butter knife headstock. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
 
Never considered putting a Mooncaster neck on a Strat. That's gonna work out well, I think. Gonna do a red body, or what?
 
At first, I was thinking about red, but then I thought it would be cool to make "red-orange-yellow" stripes diagonally. Maybe I'll go with that :) Pickguard will be this one made from leather, I think it would go great with the red-orange-yellow finish ;) http://www.rightonstraps.com/en/pickguard-s-Woody.html

Pickups will be Bare Knuckle Pickups Cobra -set, which sounds very nice from what I've heard from YouTube etc.

Oh yeah, I'll post bigger pics when I have all the stuff and started working on this project properly :D
 
I've always thought those leather pickguards were interesting, but I wonder what sort of life expectancy you get? Seems like they'd be dimensionally unstable, and subject to moisture and other contaminants.
 
I thought that too, but I decided to try it anyways :) If it wears down quickly, then I'll switch to regular pickguard. But let's hope that the leather one will last  :icon_thumright:
 
When you make your pickguard, try sealing it after it's done with something lacquer-ish as a water-proofing and stiffener. Be sure to experiment on scraps first. I've used many things with leather and there are some good products to help with that. I even stiffened a holster with Mop-N-Glow floor wax and it actually got too stiff using a 10:1 solution (mostly water). I've toyed with the idea of making a leather pickguard myself and will eventually do it. I'm interested in what you do with it.
 
Welcome to the forum! Sounds like a cool build, I'll look forward to seeing that headstock/body combo. I suspect it will be killer!

Excellent avatar by the way! Damn cactuars....
 
Thanks for the tips Rgand! At first I'm going to use a regular pickguard and then order the leather one later. I don't know if Righton Straps (the company where I'm ordering) have used lacquer or some kind coating to the pickguard, but we'll see :) They look pretty darn good to me and hopefully it blends well to the red-orange-yellow body finish I'm thinking of.

Here's a better pic of the pickguard itself. (It will be without that "Raul 212" on top)
 

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I planned a Mooncaster neck on a strat body too but I have different woods in mind. For now though I'll reassemble the guitar with the Warmoth strat neck I got it with after cleaning it all up and redoing the dodgy wiring and neck mount hole.
 
As soon as I get money, I will order the remaining parts and then I will post more pictures. This has been quite long project and summertime has drained my wallet dry  :laughing7: Latest purchase was the Cobra -set from Bare Knuckle Pickups, and I think that I'm gonna get the remaining parts next month

EDIT:
Oh yeah, my buddy painted the body. Turned out really nice  :glasses9: We used mainly yellow stain and some brown stain for little burst effect. It hasn't yet been coated, but I will post pics when it's done.
 

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Cool, it looks somewhat like ash now in that pic. I bought an ash body locally and will be going for dark brown outer :)
 
And the pickguard came, pretty sweet  :glasses9: I just need to buy a cheap pickguard for template to drill holes to the leathered one. All other parts are ordered, except tuning machines because the money  :laughing7: Hopefully this project will finish somewhere in september-october
 

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