Strat clone build

[Tom Francis]

Hey folks, Tom here - friend of Dick and Rick and long time moron.

My lovely wife gave me a Strat clone "built it yourself" kit for Christmas. Very nice kit I might add - ash body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, got the upgrade pickups and Grover tuners - all in all a very complete and nice looking kit. All Fender licensed which surprised me.

My questions are pretty simple or at least I think they are. I would like to finish the body of the guitar so that the wood grain stands out - it has a very nice looking grain to the wood and I think painting it would be a shame. So I want to stain it.

I've been reading around the web about the finishing process and seem to have some conflicting advice on the process. Here's what I think I have to do, but I'm not sure - any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

First is to partially set the guitar up - drill all the holes, etc. - semi assemble it if you will. That part I get - you don't want to mess with the finish installing all the hardware. Here is the question part.

If I read the various forums correctly, the finish process is to stain the body first, then use a good grain filler (couple of coats as I understand it) to fill in and smooth the grain, then a few coats of sanding sealer to prep for the finish coat and then the final clear coat (or coats - I've been given to understand that it will require at least ten or so coats of clear coat). Would that seem like the process? I've seen recommendations to fill in the grain first, etc.

Secondly, the final finish coat. There seems to be a huge debate about polyester, polyurethane and nitro cellulose finishes. Claims about any and all finishes are like typical internet food fights. Not to start one here, but which would be the best, or perhaps I should say, easiest finish to use?

Well, that's a good start anyway - I'm sure I'll have some questions later on in the process. ;D

Thanks for any help.

[rickc]

Hey Tom!

When I built my Tele I went searching also and found a great website called reranch.com lots of experienced people and the owner of the site has a pretty comprehensive instruction section on just what you're talking about. The forum is here www.reranch.com/reranch/

I did my Tele in transparent blue stain which I purchased from Reranch I grain filled with Epoxy first, that's the worst part of the job. Then I sprayed about 3 cans of Reranch Nitro probably 12+ coats. I like nitrocellulous because in my opinion the shine you get is far superior than anything else out there, however, the stuff is nasty and you will need good ventllation as well as a good respirator. The other thing about Nitro is you have to let it sit for at least a month before sanding and buffing, because it shrinks.

Check out the reranch forum, bunch of great guys and very helpful.

Definitely drill all of your holes first!

Rick

[tim]

"and long time moron."

No comment.

?8^ )

anyhow. Yes ReRanch is really quality stuff and extremely user friendly. If anyone is going to do any really quality work finishing it's best to do so on a low humidity environment. and cleaning the oils (fingerprints etc) out of the wood. Isn't alcohol a preferred chemical?

[Blues Dues]

Having never finished a guitar, my opinion ...let alone any advice doesn't count and should be taken with a grain of salt. That said ....

We have some guitars built by a builder in another state. They are not "kits" ... he builds them from scratch but he does not use any sealers or fillers. He stains the bodies and then puts some type of finish on them, sands them and buffs them.

The lack of a sealer or filler is obvious in the finished guitar. When looking at reflected light ... especially sunlight ... the ripples in the finish are obvious.

The argument against fillers and sealers is that they affect the "resonance" of the guitar body's wood. It is my opinion that it would take some very sophisticated acoustical measuring equipment to detect the difference in an electric guitar. I doubt the human ear could tell in a blind test. The *type* of wood may affect it's resonance but it's hard for me to believe that filler or sealer has much of an affect, if any.

From watching Sylvan and Rick build guitars it is obvious that the quality of the final finish is a result of hours of prep work and then many more hours of final sanding and buffing of the finish after it is applied. Rick did the final finish sanding work on a couple of recent acoustics, one that my son John built at Sylvan's shop and another acoustic (the "Taz") that Rick built and gave to me for my birthday.
If I recall correctly the final sanding of the finish before buffing was done with 12,000 grit paper. I've never even seen 12,000 grit paper. But, the result after it is buffed out is obvious. Looks like a mirror.

[tim]

"The argument against fillers and sealers is that they affect the "resonance" of the guitar body's wood. It is my opinion that it would take some very sophisticated acoustical measuring equipment to detect the difference in an electric guitar. I doubt the human ear could tell in a blind test. The *type* of wood may affect it's resonance but it's hard for me to believe that filler or sealer has much of an affect, if any."

Rich, On an electric I'd say your probably right that it wouldn't be enough to matter. And even if it did, it would be nothing that a good healthy 5000+ watts couldn't cure...