Ultralight Strat Build

[Random Stranger]

Hey guys! New member here!

(Complete Day-1 image gallery with commentary here: Guitar Build Day 1
https://imgur.com/gallery/Pstb0QD )

I decided to do an ultralight build after finding a 3 Lbs. 1 Oz. strat body from another manufacturer, that shall be un-named out of respect for Warmoth. I ordered a showroom Warmoth maple/maple neck in the Vintage/Modern construction with the Standard Thin neck profile, 1.650 nut width, 10-16 radius, and SS6150 frets.

This is the guitar that I'm going to learn how to play on, so I had no preferences. The options selected represent a "dead middle", or conservative approach.

A Kludson aluminum tremolo block was procured for a "whopping" $30. First impressions: extremely tight tremolo arm fit with zero arm-wobble. I actually was concerned that I was cross-threading the arm, but after reverse-threading the arm until the threads "jump" and resets multiple times, I concluded that the female screw of the trem block was undersized. With faith, I screwed in the trem arm and it ended up extremely tight at maximal depth (but not man-handling it). I also added a Fender trem block spring afterwards to keep the arm 100% slack free long term. One thing to note: use the trem plate-to-block screws supplied by Kludson. The stock Gotoh ones felt like they were going to cross-thread.

Also, I have a granite countertop, and dropped both the stock steel block (8.0 Oz), and the aluminum block (3.4 Oz), on the countertop for tone comparison. The steel trem block has a much lower resonant frequency. Aluminum sounded like it had none of the lows, but slightly higher treble. Fine with me, as I've selected very dark pickups for this build. (SSL-6 Calibrated Set, very similar to P90's).

The Maple neck went through a fret-end rounding process with a P220 grit foam sanding block. You just run it up and down the fret ends at an angle that will round the tops of the stock fret-end bevel. It was then burnished from P400-P2500 with wet/dry sandpaper from the "W" superstore.

Before:

After:

Burnishing:

The Body was wetted to pop the grain... but I didn't have any P320 or similar. Instead I used a Maroon 3M scotchbrite pad (equivalent to "1" grade steel wool) to level out the popped grain. The body was then hand-rubbed sunburst-ed on top with TransTint Dyes. I used coffee filters to apply the Dyes.

Only picture I have of the body before dyeing (Btw- the weight in this picture is the neck + body + Callaham SS neck plate and SS neck screws. No other hardware)

 

[Random Stranger]

I wanted to document how I did the hand-rubbed sunburst here. You would think someone has done it before and posted a clear and concise how-to, but I couldn't find one. Apparently sunbursts are nearly always sprayed on for guitars.

I basically followed what this guy did. I laid down Honey Amber TransTint first at the reccomended dilution. I then burst the sides in a circular motion with Mahogany Brown, at the reccomended dilution. The burst was blended in a circular motion with more Honey Amber at the transition zone. This was done multiple times. Once the lighter burst portion was near satisfactory, I used 100% undiluted Dark Walnut TransTint to make the edges nearly black. This was then blended in with a dry coffee filter.

Believe it or not, this was the first time I've ever put dye on a guitar body. I got super lucky and I'm still over the moon about it. I thought for sure that it wouldn't turn out right and I'd have to paint over it with a solid nitro finish.

Video of the process that I mimicked here: [youtube]https://youtu.be/OjlIAq17aVc[/youtube]

Also, for anyone who wants to know more about the fret-rounding process, I learned the trick from here:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/ZoWp4Ax9zAA[/youtube]

 

[mayfly]

geeze - the burst turned out great!  At first glance I thought it was a Warmoth finished body...

 

[Random Stranger]

geeze - the burst turned out great!  At first glance I thought it was a Warmoth finished body...

Thanks! And I know right! Literally beginners luck. I learned very quickly putting dye on the body that applying dye in a circular motion is one of the keys. It stops the dye from having a hard line in the transition between colors, and makes blending much easier.

At first I was frustrated because the Mahogany Brown at the reccomended dilution ratio wasn't as dark as I was expecting. I decided to just put on more coats than intended and do a really good job of blending it, and trying to keep the middle very yellow. Ended up working well.

Then the same thing happened with the Walnut Brown. At the reccomended dilution ratio, I'm sure I'd never get the edges dark enough. In a "screw it" moment I decided to dab the TransTint directly on a coffee filter and just do the outline. Color was perfect. The undiluted transtint likes to smear in an odd way (very fast drying- kinda smears dry) with a dry coffee filter that made blending it perfect. A very very happy accident.

 

[War_in_D]

geeze - the burst turned out great!  At first glance I thought it was a Warmoth finished body...

Same here.. looked like a factory finished body.  Really nice job!

 

[rauchman]

Outstanding work.  Really nice job!

 

[Random Stranger]

Build Day 2:

Didn't get too much done today, I just burst the back of the body and went to the store to pickup some Birchwood Casey's TruOil. They also had Birchwood Casey's Gun Stock Wax, so I'll be using that on the guitar neck.

I have 2 sets of MicroMesh pads on order. One for the frets, and the other for burnishing the neck. The "grit" equivalents start out at ~P700 and go as high as ~P12,000. On micromesh's website, they claim that due to the construction of the pads, you get a higher shine at the same grit equivalent...

Grit equivalent table:
https://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/conversion.htm

Deciding that I'm going to re-burnish the neck starting out with the ~P700 or ~P1350 grit equivalent pad (and I'm planning on going up to the ~P12,000 just for fun) I did an experiment with torture testing the neck/burnish process. Call me crazy, but I believe in hard break-in processes for everything mechanical. Trial by fire.

The absolute worst-case scenario for water to enter through the burnish on the guitar neck would be steam/water vapor. So I boiled some water in a teapot, and used the stream of steam to steam the back of the neck/headstock/heel (steamed the heel to increase the dimensions to insure a tight neck/neck pocket fit (I also raise the grain on the guitar bodies neck pocket, for the same reason)). Not too long though, just a few passes... and the fretboard was not purposefully steamed.

Results were a bit surprising. Not surprisingly, the grain did raise. Surprisingly, its still relatively shiny! I'd say it cut the luster in half, somewhere around the P1000 - P1500 grits while burnishing. If she will ever warp, it'll be now or the next day or two. Dunno if lots of truss rod tension makes this more or less likely, but the truss rod is setup so that she is dead flat right now. If she survives, it'll be a huge peace of mind from now on. If she twists, hopefully it's not too much, and ill level the frets under tension to try and compensate. Eventually she will get a coating of the Gunstock Wax, but that'll be last.

Now what you've been waiting for!

Before:

After:

 

[stratamania]

Welcome to the forum. You have some good results going with the body etc.

The burnishing process would normally be done on necks that do not require a finish rather than raw maple which you have. If you are using Tru-Oil the grits used for burnishing would be much finer than are needed to prepare the wood for a finish. The finest I would go on wood for tru-oil would be 400 and possibly 600, and then start with the tru-oil. Once you have built up enough layers of tru-oil for your preference and it has been given time to be really dry then if you want to achieve a gloss then you could make your way to finer grits on the finish and buff with the Birchwood Casey wax. At the moment by burnishing raw maple with finer grits than a finish needs to key to you will give yourself a lot of work with one process that is not needed for the other.

 

[Random Stranger]

Thanks for the reply Stratamania!

Thanks for the info! I wasn't clear before, and that's my bad. The Tru-Oil is mostly for the guitar body.

Ernie Ball does a similar process on their "raw maple" guitars. It's been documented several times by people visiting the factory. They sand the necks up to P1000?, then coat the neck with Tru-Oil, ~15 seconds later rub off the Tru-Oil, then immediately rub on Birchwood Casey's "Gunstock Wax", and polish.

I doubt that their application of Tru-Oil does anything honestly.  Tru-Oil needs oxygen to cure, and the immediate application of gunstock wax right after would prevent it from curing in my opinion. Then again,  it's an extra 30 seconds of work... so I might as well.

If it's good enough for them, I'm willing to take the risk (obviously-I just steamed the neck lol!) Neck didn't warp, she's straight as an arrow today .

 

[Random Stranger]

Build Day 3:

Had a few goodies come in today!

Installed Highwood Saddles on my tremolo unit. These Saddles are made out of vintage-correct steel and hardening, for those chasing tone. What I'm more interested in though is the deep and wide polished string slot, which will help with staying in tune (I'm going to float the bridge). They also hide the tops of the adjustment hex screws on the saddles, so they don't tear up your hands!

I tried to get the side-profile of the saddles, and the weight of the complete trem unit in one picture. The complete trem unit, along with arm, weights less than the stock stainless steel block alone! I'm happy

After comparing my dye-job to some sunburst strats online, I decided I wanted a bigger dark outline. I took the chance, and I think it turned out great! Girlfriend said "I mean, it looked good before but WOW, it's looks GREAT now!".  :hello2:

The MicroMesh pads came in, and I sanded the entire neck (except the heelstock) up to their 12,000 grit. I'd say that diminishing returns happens around 6,400 grit. Neck literally feels like hard glass now. The "low" angle exaggerates the shine, so I took a more normal-angled picture to showoff the "realistic" shine aswell.

I loaded some components into my pickguard, including 250k Audio Taper Dunlop "Super-Pots", Strat pickup springs (instead of rubber tubing), and a Duncan SSL-6 calibrated set

Dry-fitted everything together to give us an idea of what it'll look like completed

 

[stratamania]

Thanks for the reply Stratamania!

Thanks for the info! I wasn't clear before, and that's my bad. The Tru-Oil is mostly for the guitar body.

Ernie Ball does a similar process on their "raw maple" guitars. It's been documented several times by people visiting the factory. They sand the necks up to P1000?, then coat the neck with Tru-Oil, ~15 seconds later rub off the Tru-Oil, then immediately rub on Birchwood Casey's "Gunstock Wax", and polish.

I doubt that their application of Tru-Oil does anything honestly.  Tru-Oil needs oxygen to cure, and the immediate application of gunstock wax right after would prevent it from curing in my opinion. Then again,  it's an extra 30 seconds of work... so I might as well.

If it's good enough for them, I'm willing to take the risk (obviously-I just steamed the neck lol!) Neck didn't warp, she's straight as an arrow today .

At the end of the day if you are willing to do a no finish neck and experiment you are free of course to experiment and do whatever you want even if it is more work than needed.

I have owned Musicman guitars and tru-oiled a number of Warmoth necks so I do have some experience of this and was just pointing out so you could bear in mind that what you are doing is a different process than Musicman who do not burnish the necks and their headstocks are finished.

Also once a Musicman neck has been played for some time due to play, dirt etc it will get smoother. At that point a cleaning maintenance can be done and depending on the user that may end up with a different result.

 

[Random Stranger]

Build Day 4:

Not too much to report today

Even though the fret rounding process (Day 1) slightly rolls the fretboard edges (by removing material), I decided to go ahead and roll (burnish) them with the side of a screwdriver. Worked out really well! I used light even pressure, and used a relatively small screw-driver so I could get closer to the frets. The trick here is to start out at a 45 degree angle to the edge, then roll almost parallel with the fretboard, then go back and end up almost parallel with the shoulder of the neck, for each portion.

You can also see how I accidently ended up polishing the fret ends while burnishing the neck up to 12,000 grit. Happy accident

After much deliberation on if I wanted to do it or not, I gave the neck a single layer of Tru-Oil. I was very weary about the process. I didn't know if the fretboard would end up darker than the rest of the neck thats been burnished. Ended up just fine! Surprisingly Tru-Oil was sucked up through the burnish no problem. I put a quick thin layer on the top, using a coffee filter to smear it around evenly, then wiped off as much as possible with a microfiber. Then flipped it around and did the same with the back and sides. The neck was jointed to the body during this process, to keep the neck heel raw wood.

Oh... and raising the gain on the neck heel and neck joint on the body definitely worked. It was a very tight fit. Tight enough that I had to screw her down hard to get her to fully seat.

Rolled fretboard:

Headstock shine, and neck color after a single ultra-thin layer of Tru-Oil. Definately tinted her darker.