ShortScale.org

Begat from the other two threads I made today, thought it would be nice to document this little Jazzmaster project I've embarked on

Plan is:
1) Add gloss finish to the body so it's more inline with my other guitars aesthetically
2) It had Dimarzio Super Distortions in it, which I love as pickups but will go nice in another guitar. Replace those pickups with something more vintage hot, I'd like this guitar to sound the best clean/breaking up.
3) Upgrade some of the other parts, I never had any problems with this guitar but it never felt as solid as I wanted, nicer machine heads, nicer nut, nicer string trees and bridge
4) Tortoise shell BPB 3-ply pickguard from Pickguardian, chrome covered humbuckers to mix it up a bit
5) Do something with the decal that makes it seem a bit more solid

Ah photos

any updates on this, rhys? curious how the GFS pickups turned out.


some of these projects are getting me back to wanting to do another build... tempting.

Waiting for Tony from Pickguardian to send me back a pg to put the pickups in

I've been meaning to try to do a bit of gear demoing, this is a good chance maybe. I have a strat with Fishman Fluence's in which just sound like decently hot Texas pickups, so I've got a decently standard sounding guitar to A/B against.

I just sent him an email to check status, will let you know when it's come together.

nice, looking forward to it!

DAMN! Pickguardian do great work look at this beautiful guard!

I have some problems just slinging this all together:

1) It took a huge scratch at the bottom that needed to be sanded out, there are other gashes on it I want to go over. I'm searching for HNB's thread on building it to see what it's painted with I might just refinish it.
2) The pre-soldered wiring harness I bought from GFS is a little too short in places to put it directly in. I need to de-solder a part of it and lengthen it.
3) I forgot to specify when I got the pickguard cut not to put a killswitch hole in the guard, so I might have to get a bit creative and put something there, or find a plug of some description to plug it up.

So tomorrow or tonight I'm gonna head out to the Home Depot near me and get the supplies I need to finish, gonna be a little costly to do cos I don't have a soldering iron here in the USA yet...

looks classy!

i wonder if you could add some kind of series enabling switch instead of the kill since they added the spot for it? otherwise... sticker? =]

Yeah could do, also thought about maybe getting one of those Eric Clapton grease bucket things and putting it there but an extra knob might be a pain in the sack.

Refin is happening!!!! I have never painted anything with rattle cans and I’m starting out with blue metallic, so pray for me!

E-fucking-normous photos, spraying in Montana Cans Tennessee Metallic. Going to at first leave the headstock black, but also thinking of respraying it to match.

So really liking the orbital sander I bought, going 60, 120, 240 grit. Don't have a ton of outdoor lighting and next door have just had a sprog who goes to sleep round this time so I decided to be a good neighbour and pack it in for the evening.

So far I have got down to 120 grit on the front, once I get down to 240 grit all over the body and it's looking just a bit more stripped than this then I'll switch over to 320grit wet sand and make sure it's perfect. I didn't take a shot of my test plank but I really like this colour, it's gonna look fucking sexy if I can get it to coat reliably.

I tracked down HNB's original build thread here and believe that it's sprayed with poly and satin clear coat. This pleases me greatly because now I'm not too worried about getting down to bare wood all over.

So big day tomorrow:
0) Go to a hardware store and get stuff to build a spray stand for painting - look for any finer grit that 320, also get some white primer as I've got closer to the wood than expected
1) Sand the front down to 240 grit completion
2) Do the entire back through 60, 120, 240 grits
3) Makeshift clamp so I can sand down the sides - maybe I can construct a spray stand that's sturdy enough to hold it in place while I sand? Got the morning to figure out how that's gonna look
4) 320 wet sand
5) Clean down with Gamsol and generally de-dust everything and prepare for painting
6) Paint, I'm thinking probably a few coats of primer, sand over with 320, a few coats of colour and then a few coats of clear gloss

I've been told, on the internet of course so you know it's goood solid reliable info, that this metallic paint is best sprayed with the body flat then left to dry - I'm going to continue doing my research throughout the night, but worst comes to worst I have a good supply of the paint I want to use and a good sander so I'm confident I can get a decent finish.

Ok body is now sanded and filled. My technique leaves a bit to be desired but I’ve found that 320 grit and time cures all. Oh and filler..

Currently filled just some small open rough bits around the horns and contour where my sander work was less than stellar, nothing too deep because it was mainly with a 240 grit disk on.

Gonna wait till morning to paint because I gotta go out but some progress shots attached

I really like the colour you’ve chosen. Good luck with the refin. I’ve only ever had success with Montana colour when I’ve used undercoat/primer and given the undercoat plenty of curing time. The other times it went almost rubbery and never really fully cured.

Cool, good to know I'm on the right track then! I got some flat white primer from Rustoleum, 2x painter's touch stuff, which I assume is going to play nice with top coat and some Rustoleum clear coat gloss to finish it off with.

Plan is:

1) two coats of primer a few minutes apart and then leave it for 2 days,
2) inspect and sand if I need to, respray any bits I'm not happy with and leave again (if necessary)
3) top coat, 2-3 coats 25-30 minutes apart then leave cure for 2-3 days
4) Clear coat 2 coats a few minutes apart and then leave for 2 days
5) Random orbital sander with a buffer pad for however long I deem necessary to make it look professional

This morning I went over it was a damp 240 grit looking for orbital sander marks and smoothing over the liberal filler I slathered on there on Friday. Currently making coffee and starting my day but I intend to shoot the primer coat today throughout the day.

Oooo ooo, also had a fucking brainwave extraordinaire last night about how to set the guitar up to spray it.

My painters table legs go up to like chest height on me, so I can use the cinder blocks I have to weigh down the plank I'll attach to the body to hold it in position and then I can hang it off the edge of the painter table, do one side then flip so I can do my top coat with the body flat and not upright, which apparently yields better results for this paint.

Sounds like a solid plan! Yeah apparently if you shoot metallic flat it helps the flakes set at the optimal reflective angle.

Progress report: sanding will be necessary but we have a fair decent primer coat on. Sides are drippy, will rotate and spray the sides individually for the top coat.

My sanding is not robotic by any means, primer coat has shown me I probs should’ve spent a bit more time on the contour.

Overall not happy with my sanding job and after some soul searching I've decided that it's not gonna cut it. The primer coat has shown me that it's just not smooth enough.

Heading out to the store tomorrow to get some foam pads for my orbital sander and some proper grain filler from sherwin williams and going over some of the curved parts of the job again.

Happy with the primer coat, but gonna be another two days or so before I get a metallic coat on there...

Just remember that with a metallic finish it’s never going to be super flat unless the flake is tiny or you bury it in clear coat. Especially if you spray it flat to make the flake stand up. What you’re noticing with the primer might not be a big thing, especially once it’s painted and buffed.

Saying that keying the surface with a bit of sanding before applying the colour is a good thing. I just wouldn’t overdo it at this stage. Also watch out for the primer gumming up during sanding and getting shredded as it might not be at its optimum cure for sanding. I learned that one the hard way

In the last photo it looks like you’re really dealing with imperfections in the original guitar shaping rather than the paint. Are you thinking of going back and redoing the edges and round over on the actual wood?

If you caused the flat spots on the edges sanding with the orbital sander, I'd do the edges by hand this time - using something flat to sand something round, especially if it removes a lot of material quickly, is difficult to do unless you have a lot of experience.

The primer at least gives you a guide coat - you'll be able to see the high and low spots as you sand.

From doing bodywork on cars I'm afraid I'm going to contradict what Thomas said, the imperfections will show more and more as you paint a top coat.

I defer to you as you have way more experience than me. I always felt that the white undercoat showed up every tiny imperfection, tho I tended to always paint dark colours that can hide a multitude of sins

TL;DR: Boring sanding post, no pictures. Guitar smoother now, Rhys happier.

This project definitely marks a big step up in my knowledge of things guitar related and probably wood related.

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon getting the body to look decent with sponge sanding blocks and I feel much happier about the overall results. Got some sanding sealer to help close any grain I've opened, but also I've been careful to use high grit sanding blocks and be sparing with the body in case I wish to this again in the future.

Spent my morning watching people sand guitars and other wooden stuff on YouTube which was good shit really helped with technique and approach, also got some quick-clamps so I can hold the body in place without having to MacGyver the cinder blocks I usually have plants in. I've got some progress shots but I figure I'll do them all tomorrow and more when I get down to work.

I got a sponge pad for my orbital sander and some 120/150/180/240/320/400/600/1200 grit paper from Amazon but even the 600 grit was even too brutal to do anything wrt getting a smooth edge, I used it a little and started to actually get a feel for it but found working with 60/120/240 grit sanding sponge blocks by hand to be as effective but give me more control over where I was sanding and flow a little better. I think the foam backing pad overall is cool though and I'm going to keep them around, can see it being useful for something.

Overall more excited about the finished product now, definitely feel like I have all the kit I need to finish this job right and that it's heading in the right direction. Glad I put the extra effort in, I'd have definitely have been miffed just refinishing it as it was, that primer coat was illuminating.