Stinger anyone?

After sanding down the headstock (front and back), i decided to clean up the back by giving it a stinger.

I went about doing this by masking the stinger with 1/4 inch painters tape and using 1/2 inch else where.

Two coats of black krylon later and its starting to look pretty sharp, no pun intended.

And the great unveiling, looks pretty good i was happy with how it turned out, now its time for a few coats of clear and it will be good to go.

Darker

Here was my staining set up.


I ended up using wood stain as i could not find leather dye locally and didn't want to order from stew-mac.

After taking the time to mask off each individual fret, as seen here.

I then applied the ebony stain with a Q-tip and let it stand for 15 minutes. After i wiped off the excess and let it dry overnight and stained it once again.

After it was dry the masking tape was removed and this is the finished color of the board. Its not as dark as i'd like it (looks darker in person) but it did clean it up well, it looks healthier and the wood looks better overall.

Now thats my kinda woman!

Drillin'

So heres what the headstock looks like after i've drilled it out to fit the Grover tuners. Im going to have to sand down the back to clean it up and make it nice and flush so the tuners sit properly. Looks pretty good and its getting there. The largest bit i used was 3/8" and i worked up to it drilling from both sides to prevent any stress fractures from the drilling process. Its recomended to drill half the depth from the top of the headstock, flip and drill all the way threw.

Till next time folks,

just keep strumming,

-Anthony

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Neck Prep

After using a razor and 60 grit to get the caked on spray-paint off the face of the headstock, it is verified that this was once a jackson

. I haven't decided whether i am going to strip the headstock completly and buy a new jackson decal or salvage the old logo, but all signs point to strip, especially if im going to repaint it to match the body.

The back of the headstock isn't bad, im going to have to drill larger holes to fit the Grover tuners appropriately. I am also going to lightly sand and reseal the back of the headstock just to clean it up a bit.

I've taped off the fretboard for the ebony stain, theres two methods i could use to do this. Either by using a wood stain which is very messy or by using leather dye, which i can not find. I've tried De Serres, Michales, Canadian Tire, Rona all without luck, but im trying to find a local leather place, either for shoes, coats or furniture that might carry it.

So now its all preped and ready to go. Next time you see the neck hopefully it will be darker.

just keep strumming,

-Anthony

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Gettin' Naked ;)

After 5 hours of sanding (beer break included) this is what you get.

As you can see the cavities were left untouched and the neck pocket still needed work.

The relative darker brown spots on the guitar is the veneer and the lighter spots are Cedro, which is spainish ceder. Im going to continue to sand it with 100 grit to get rid of most of the veneer as i might just stain the back and paint the front so i'd like for the ceder to come through. Unlike higher end guitars such as a typical Gibson Les Paul standard for example, which uses an actual piece of flame maple as a top, on the body which is glued/pressed & sealed under lacquer, this jackson has a veneer which is just a thin piece of wood that is typically used for small ornamental project, fine furniture and paneling. The difference is in the tone of the finished product. A real maple top resonates more then a veneer and it adds a lot of weight and sustain to the guitar.

Below you can see the wood fillers and epoxy both sanded flush to the body. When its finished you wont be able to tell that this guitar was ever routed as a Single/Single/Humbucker super-strat.

just keep strumming,

-Anthony

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Filler

This is her, neck off and all electronics removed. As you can see there in spray paint in the neck joint, this is a big no no, ill have to work on getting that out of there. The reason you shouldn't have paint in your joint (insert laugh here for all you stoners) is because you need a wood on close to wood bond where the neck and body meet in order to get the most tonality out of the wood. The spray-paint (a lesser dense material) muffles the tone between both woods which can result in a less resonant guitar. All in all this doesn't matter because theres going to be an EMG being reinstalled and active pickups IMO do not take on tonality as much as a passive would.

So the next step is to find scrap wood and cut the fillers. I used scrap wood (this isn't recomemended) but because im not to picky on this project about wood type i don't really mind. This body is cedar with a flame veneer, so ideally i should have used cedar filler but i used a mystery wood and it should hold up fine.

After fitting the fillers which consists of sanding and filling i then filled the pup routs with epoxy as my filler of choice. This is a very messy job and this stuff gets everywhere. Here is a pic of the gobbly-goop every where.

Looks like a mess because thats exactly what it is haha, theres a good 1/4 inch rise from the body to the fillers so it should take a bit to get them sanded flush.

and so the sanding begins...

just keep strumming,

-Anthony

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Jack Project

I acquired a Jackson Js20 in a trade about a year ago, its been sitting in my closet as i've been procrastinating the sanding process which i knew was going to be a very time consuming process. This was because the previous owner spray painted over the existing finish with black cheap stuff and in thick coats. When cheap spray paint is used its a pain in the ass to get off, especially when its not sprayed properly. If you spray heavy the paint tends to clump together and not adhere to the finish as well. So what happens when you sand with a typical thick grit is the paint clumps in the sand paper and you have to constantly use fresh paper... waist of money = waist of time... which is what we want to avoid of course.

Here is what she looked like when i first got her (i nail polished on some green to spruce it up while it was playable and assembled)

I know what your thinking, and yes this axe has seen better days. The two single pick ups are deads and the bridge pup is an EMG 81 (yummyyyyyy and super-shredtastickkkk).

My plans for this are as follows:

1)Fill in the single pick up routes

2) Redrill the headstock for Grovers

3) Sand, seal, repaint and buff to orgasmic completion.

4) Stain the fretboard ebony

5) Complete a 9v/18v switch mod

Should keep me busy for the summer

Stay tuned.

just keep strumming,

-Anthony

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Poppin' My Blogging Cherry

Whats up Interwebs?

How are the kids?

Good good.

Akward i know...

Well this is my first blog post so don't expect much. I've got a few friends that have blogs and they've peer pressured me into starting one.

Let me introduce my self i'm Anthony!

My hobbies include playing and building/customizing guitars, fish keeping and cycling.

I love music with a burning passion. I listen to everything from The Beatles to Mindless Self Indulgence. I own a record player and a few dozen records. As well, I have been playing guitar for just over 5 years now and have 15 guitars in my arsenal. I also heavily customize guitars, i have two projects im currently working on that i will be sharing on here, hopefully followed by many more.

I have owned fish since the mere age of 5 and bred African Cichlids threw out high-school in my 5 aquariums, these ranging from 5-90 gallons. I was very successful and became well known threw the online breeding community and soon after I was on the board of the Mississauga Fish Club (MFC). As the youngest member on the MFC, i helped get the club become recognized by CAOAC (Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs) which was quite eventful.

And lastly my cycling hobby, I have a badASS Gary Fisher Triton single speed road bike that i ride around Mississauga like a champ. I will be posting some of my route maps and adventures as well, but ill mainly keep this thang about music and guitars.

I hope to entertain and educate. Hell you might even learn something. Enjoy.

just keep strumming,

-Anthony

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