My lockdown project complete: guitar content

TLDR: I painted my guitar, which took ages. It was fun. I’m very pleased with the result despite a couple of imperfections. Lots of pictures.

I’ve had my black 1990 Mexi Strat since ~1996. It was what I learnt on, and was the only guitar I had for years. But those Mexican pots and switches don’t last and needed replacing, plus the pickups were lifeless. Since had other guitars I barely played it. The neck feels great to me, though. At any rate, it’s not worth loads and it was my first ever guitar so selling was never on the cards. Plus, everyone should own a (working) Strat, right?

Inspired by the ‘What to buy for £500’ thread, my solution to this conundrum was, in fact, to buy this Tele. It’s funny how the mind works, isn’t it? I love that Tele, but I didn’t know what to do with the Strat.

A bit of history:

“Fender began producing instruments in its Ensenada, Mexico, factory in 1990. Instruments made between 1990 and 2000 carry “MN” prefix serial numbers, with the “M” designating Mexico and the “N” designating the 1990s. “

So although the factory opened in 1987, the first Strats out of Mexico were in 1990 which means this must have been one of the earliest Strats on the production line, which is kinda cool. I’ve heard that these early guitars are super variable and had loads of odd bits and pieces thrown on until the assembly line became more streamlined after a year or so. I like to think I got a good one (electronics aside)!

Ultimately, I decided I should fix ‘er up. So my lockdown project was born: A nitro finish for my old Strat.

For colour choice, there was only really one option. I always thought a black Strat was a bit boring, and when I was a kid one of our neighbours heard I liked guitars so he dug out his Fender Strat to show me. I remember him opening the case and being blown away by the awesome Candy Apple Red colour. THAT’S the colour a guitar *should* be. I wondered about something edgy like this or this[/url] or something contemporary-retro-vintage-surfy-pastel[/url] style but kept coming back to CAR.

Getting undressed

I gave everything a good scrub as well – the bridge in particular was quite grimy but came up well.

I’d read various reports that poly lacquer will peel / crack off with a bit of heat, so that’s what I tried:

I can confirm that the poly lacquer on my guitar was really pretty thick, and definitely DID NOT come off easily. Urgh. This took ages, and was very frustrating. The body unfortunately took a few nicks from the scraper tool, too. The body wood is incredibly soft which I think means it’s poplar (3 pc).

After spending hours stripping this thing, I quickly realised that this was a) a lot of work and b) quite expensive in raw materials. So those old electronics weren’t going to cut it. I bought a Custom ’69 pre-wired pickguard. A Tex Mex would have been cheaper, but I decided I was in for a penny, in for a pound.

Eventually I got all the black stuff off and I set about fixing the various dings with filler. This was quite easy and satisfying. Then I sanded it all smooth to 300 grit. There were a couple of very light scratches that I didn’t sand completely smooth, assuming they’d get filled in by the paint. That was mistake #1! I used some grain filler which was probably unnecessary – I thought it was the same as sanding sealer. It’s not.

Painting – the fun bit
I bought paint from here ( https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk ) which was easy peasy. I agonised over whether to user the silver or gold as a base for the CAR, in the end I’m happy I went for gold. I used one can each of Primer > Gold > translucent red > lacquer.

Primer:

(Mistake #2: I should have used some sanding sealer. I didn’t, so the primer was readily absorbed into the wood. Not really a big problem for me since, because I was doing CAR, I needed an extra layer (of gold) compared with a solid colour. But if I was doing a single solid colour, my primer might not have been thick enough.

Mistake #3 was doing this outside. I quickly learnt that bugs are EVERYWHERE even if you can’t see them. Mistake #4 was thinking I could just pick the bug out carefully before the paint dries. You can’t. Leave it to dry, then sand the poor bugger off.

Gold layer:

Then the fun really starts: putting on the red. I did this S-L-O-W-L-Y with really thin coats over the course of a week or so. I’m sure you could do it much quicker. It’s fascinating to see the colour build on top of the gold.

Final red coat:

Mini Disaster:

This happened a few times. I now know this is ‘blooming’ or ‘blush’ from spraying in high humidity. Once I realised this, I waited for sunnier days. An extra problem was my garage can seemingly be quite humid even when it’s dry outside. Opening the garage for a few minutes before spraying seemed to help. The good thing is that the subsequent coat of nitro ‘melts’ whatever’s underneath so this problem is easily fixed.

Final coat of lacquer applied. Lots of ‘Orange Peel visible.

Sanding
I wet-sanded, starting at 800 grit > 1200 >1500 >200 >2500 >3000. I used a sanding block initially but wish I hadn’t. That thing developed high spots really quickly despite washing and I managed to go through the lacquer and remove some of the red in a couple of (thankfully not very noticeable) places. That was mistake #5 I guess. After that I just used my hands and didn’t have any more mishaps. I suppose I could have done another can of lacquer and that may have helped prevent this, although I’m hoping the thin lacquer will promote some relic. If you look really close, you can already see some cracking of the lacquer E.g. around screw holes. I’m not sure if I’ve done that somehow (perhaps with water ingress during sanding) but it adds a very minor amount of vintage vibe which is fine with me.

After 3000 grit I was optimistic that the finish would be shiny without polishing, but it was pretty dull with lots of visible micro scratches. I think I could have fixed these comprehensively with a swirl-removing polishing paste but instead I just spent ages with an old T-shirt at a bottle of turtle wax I found in the garage and it came up lovely!

The finished item, complete with new pick guard and jack plug, adjusted trus rod, saddles/intonation. It’s like a whole new thing! And I love the colour!

It’s quite hard to capture the colour in these pictures. In low light it looks a very dark red, almost wine colour. When the light hits it, it appears much brighter. Perhaps this picture shows that.

Brothers

Things I have learnt:
Buying a pre-painted body would have probably worked out cheaper! Never mind the hours I spent reading, learning and then doing was incredible. But it’s all a good experience.
Nitro is very different from ‘normal’ paint. More than anything, impeccable preparation would definitely have saved time. The main thing is that I’d assumed that small defects would get filled in by the paint but this simply doesn’t happen.
I never really thought about humidity before. Turns out low humidity days are few and far between in a UK spring!

Nice job, and nice colour too

Lovely!

Nice job, looks awesome!

I finished my fender music master repaint about 22 years after starting!

Started sanding, couldn’t get the sanding sealer off, gave up and played it as it was for ages. And ages!

I eventually when through all that and it looks great! The first chip was pretty irritating.

So, I’d suggest putting yours away very carefully : )

I’ve posted elsewhere that Candy Apple Red and Lake Placid Blue are THE colours for a Strat. Nice work there.

How do the pickups compare with the originals? I’ve got a Mexican strat which I’d like to sound a bit more typically strat.

I’ve home finished a couple of my guitars. My efforts are shit compared with yours, that’s very pretty.

Thanks for the comments.

Candy Apple Red and Lake Placid Blue are THE colours for a Strat.

Correct!

How do the pickups compare with the originals? I’ve got a Mexican strat which I’d like to sound a bit more typically strat.

Yeah, that was my aim. It definitely sounds more classically Straty. I don’t rate the pickups that were in it – they were muddy and I never got that chimey strat sound. Any improvement that I can hear is, I think, due to the fact that the old pickups were poor, rather than because the new ones are phenomenal. I last played the Mexican pups a few months ago so I haven’t done a back to back comparison. I also haven’t played enough guitars personally to recognise the difference between Original / Fat 50s / Custom 69 etc. I’m glad I upgraded for sure but I suspect I’d have been happy with the (substantially cheaper) Mexican-made Tex Mexs.

That looks dope 👌

I don’t rate the pickups that were in it – they were muddy and I never got that chimey strat sound

Exactly, rolling off the volume a little helps but the Mexican pickups are still too hot IMO which makes them a bit muddy. I’ve got a Seymor Duncan stack in the middle on another guitar which is better but still a bit overwound to my ears. I’ll try a 57/62 original set one day.

Like it 🙂

Thats brilliant, I got sucked into this the other day

Superb project, looks great. Given me some ideas

Awesome – a project with real passion. Love the use of the Magura bike stand.

Looks good… For a strat… 😛

Great colour. But why didn’t you use the old knob they’d look mint.

Ha yeah, was gonna use the old knobs but the new ones are kind of creamy too and have unexpected GOLD writing on them 🙂

I was told to age some new Strat knobs and PU covers by letting them soak in strong tea for a while. Most of the ‘aged’ stuff you can buy looks too green to me. My Relic Strat looks guite different, creamier rather than yellow. The tea gave a different tint.

I’m not sure how I feel about (fake) relic stuff in general. Real relic looks great on some guitars but it’s so much more awesome if it happens naturally through use. Which is basically never!

That black (now red) strat has been in constant use for 20+ years by me and the only meaningful wear is fret wear which doesn’t look good (you can’t see it) but is a bit annoying! Maybe I just don’t play enough.

I like the early relics. The new ones seem to be trying too hard and there seems to be more of a production line approach ratger than the previous one at a time builds.
I have one of the early custom shop Relic 50s Strats bought from Jeff at Humbucker in Hitchen in mid 1996. The guitar itself is stunning, forget the finish, it is light responsive and sounds right to my ears. The relic process is a lot less than most I see now. A few chips and wear on the paint and a bit of wear on the fingerboard (and a stunningly comfortable feel to the Fingerboard edges . The overall finish is very see through now it looks like a guitar that has been used for 20 years on a regular basis but the finish looks 60 years old. It just looks right.
Now the relic stuff looks well over the top to me.
Over the years all I’ve done to it is from day one fitted a faded gold anodised 8 screw pick guard in place of the white single layer one fitted (very early Strats had a metal pick guard) and now and then I’ve fitted a Seymour Duncan JB Jnr st the bridge as that is the weakest sound for my playing style. And then a couple of years later I swap back to the original. And then repeat..

Edit: mine has this level of ‘wear”. A little more on the forearm contour.

Sorry for the thread resurrection there, Superficial, but I’m just in the middle of doing exactly the same finish (with the same spray cans) as yours. Mine’s a new body, but I’m going for CAR too. Got as far as sanding sealer and a tin of primer. I’m going to go for another tin of primer and then gold and red and clear…

How long did you leave the final clear coat to dry before sanding? Couple of weeks?

Re: relics – my pal at Fender was saying that the Custom Shop is so used to making beaten up guitars that getting them to make a pristine one can be hard work as they’re not used to having to be too careful with the handling of the bodies when they’re destined for relicing. Whereas a ding on a NOS guitar means it’s toast. Or off for a respray…

Sorry, I didn’t see that bump and it’s probably too late now to be useful.

But yeah, I did a thin coat of each paint every 4-6 hours or so until the can ran out – perhaps 6-8 coats of each primer/gold/red/lacquer. And then left it for 3 weeks before sanding. I could have been more careful with sanding – I accidentally took off some red in places.

The other problem I had was with humidity which is turns out is critical for nitro paints.

It’s really different to other spray paints I’ve used – not easy!

Apologies for the mega bump, but I have an update and wanted to keep everything in one place. The frets were quite worn and notes were fretting out in some positions so it’s been for a (stainless steel!) refret. Here are some more pictures, with its new frets. Yay. Haven’t got it back from the luthier yet, – hopefully can pick it up tomorrow. I’ve thrown quite a bit of money at this Mexi Strat over the last year, so fingers crossed it plays well now!

http://www.ozzyowl.co.uk/the-workshop/re-fret-on-fender-stratocaster-2/
(Website is really slow to load for me, you’ll probably have to wait for the images to appear)

Website’s slow but worth the wait – it looks great

Missed this thread first time around. Looks good, and yes, painting is hard! There’s a reason that professional painters are so expensive. There’s so many ways to cock it up.

I might do the same if I can find a cheapish P bass for sale locally.

painting is hard! There’s a reason that professional painters are so expensive. There’s so many ways to cock it up.

Yeah. I’ve done standard (poly) rattle can finishes on various things and never found it to be too tricky. But nitro behaves completely differently and I wasn’t at all prepared for the various issues I described up there ^^. The best way I could describe it is that it’s more like a stain compared with poly which is like a layer of plastic over the top. Which means it’s really unforgiving to imperfections in the wood or the paint.

It feels really nice to the touch now, too. It feels like wood rather than plastic-with-wood-inside. It does, however, mean that I’ve become a paint snob and keep looking at very expensive guitars…